Princesa’s New Haircut –She Deserves A Refund

Let me preface this by saying, the Armadillo look is in. One of the girls went out on a mission to relieve Princesa of all her matted hair. Sadly, at least for Princesa and the dog fashion industry, it transitioned into an experiment. Here is how is all ended.

Our apologies, but a dog was actually harmed in this activity; emotionally.

Pimp My Ride…Iquitos Style

Thanks to Tanner and Kristen’s church (the couple that was down here prior to us), POPPYS house has a motofurgon. We use this thing for everything; taking the girls to town, pathfinders, etc… We put a lot of kilometers on it. Well, it just had a complete make over; with a logo painted on the both sides, new seats in the back for people to sit on, plastic covering so passengers and driver don’t get wet, and a few other minor things. It is now completely functional. Here are some photos with our new driver, Angel… well, he wishes anyways, maybe in a few years.

Guitar Lessons

Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, the girls have options of taking electives. Our plan is to have swimming, voice, music, and guitar lessons, however, only the guitar one is up and running at this time. Paul, the president of the organization, has been coming out and teaching 5 to 6 girls the basics of guitar. Fortunately, some of the groups over the years have left guitars down here, so we have 3 to work with. We are just beginning with the lessons –weeding out the girls really. Some of the girls don’t want to continue sadly. The ones that we do have, shown in the picture below, are doing great. Aaron gets to assist as well, and enjoys it immensely.
Music is such an incredible gift, and we are excited to be able to share this with the girls and give them a little something extra as well. Rosany has been the one that is rising above the other students. She is pictured in the first photo with a guitar. She has been practicing and retaining the most. Because of her desire, and effort, she has been loaned a guitar by the organization. Paul has said that any girl that learns the basics of guitar, and can play along with him semi-proficiently, he will purchase a guitar for them. Rosany has been the only one to truly take on this offer. She has devoted time to practicing, and has caught on fairly rapidly. At this pace, looks like she will be the first to take a guitar from Paul.

Evangelistic Series

A pastor from Montana, and his family, arrived here January 2. They are a nice couple with two adolescent boys. They have been running evangelistic meetings on the far side of town in a community building this entire week. We will continue with the meetings next week as well, followed by a one week break, and then two more weeks of meetings. We have had a decent turnout, with the majority of attendance being little kids.
The girls will actually be able to assist in the sermons for the second set of meetings. These are PowerPoint sermons that require someone just to read, everything else is provided for you. The pastor will be working and practicing with the girls over the next two weeks to make sure they (so far only three want to) will be ready. This is a neat transition for the girls to become more involved with ministry, while still having a guiding hand, allowing them to come outside of their comfort zone. Our hope is for the girls to view this more than just a speech, or a few minutes of limelight, but rather as an opportunity to reach others and spread the news. These girls have come a long way from not knowing God a few years ago, to now being apart of an Evangelistic Series. God is good!

New Year's Celebration

It's always interesting to see how other people celebrate New Year's, and this year was no exception. We got to see burning bodies everywhere. That may be a little blunt, so let me clarify. The tradition down here is to create a flammable dummy out of something, like cut grass or old clothes, and stuff the innards into an old pair of pants and a shirt. Most bodies have a messege stating something that home didn't like that year (i.e. some sort of person, place, thing, event, idea, etc.). An example, "Por loco, estoy aqui" was on a body outside of the mental health institution on the road to our town...something that wouldn't, and shouldn't, ever happen in the US. A few of you understand why. Anyways, at midnight the bodies get burned, ridding of whatever problems were attached to the body, and a new year begins. Unfortunately, we drove through and took video when the bodies were nearly all burned. A friend of ours got video going down a street covered with trash from all the partying and bodies burning everywhere. It looked like a warzone...and we were a little jealous. :) Here are some pictures of our own body that we burned with the girls...at 9:30 pm instead of 12. The little ones need to sleep and have a little New Year's fun, too.

Here are the remnants of a body burned on the median of a major road in town. The smoke was thick in the air that night.

Saying Goodbye To Casey’s Parents

This last week we had to say goodbye to Casey’s parents who have been down here with us for the last few weeks. They helped us so much and became Abuelo and Abuela to the girls (“grandpa” and “grandma”). They brought down gifts from afar, thanks to the students and faculty at Great Lakes Adventist Academy, and helped create an amazing Christmas for our girls. We miss them greatly. We all went to see them off at the airport and here is a picture of them with the girls.

As a side note, while we were waiting for the flight, we saw a man carrying water into the airport.

3 New Fans in the Sala

Without any source of air in the Sala (where we eat and hang out), it is always hot. Paul was kind and let us borrow a giant fan for the time being, but it drew a significant amount of electricity (required its own personal transformer) and did not get the job done. A group that was here before Thanksgiving put in the time and money to get us three new fans. Each one oscillates and does a great job of helping cool down this building. It also helps keep the flies away… Thanks so much, we needed them.

A Day Of Fun! (La Casa Fitzcarraldo)

Last week, the week of New Years, 8 of our girls were able to go visit their families (the opportunity to do this depended on the current situation, and the court system). This left us with 8 kids. We decided to take the girls out for a nice, relaxing swim. On the far side of town, there is an old, wealthy person’s estate, which has been turned into a day resort.
This casa (house) has a nice, well kept pool, a three-story tree house, wireless internet, food and drinks. The hammocks lying about are also a nice addition. There is a 5 sol cover charge on any living being that comes through the door, but it’s worth it. Casey’s parents were also here, so it made for a fun, family, get-a-away.

The Playhouse Grows

Thanks to the last group that came, we now have railing and stairs built for the playhouse. We are continuing to work on it, and the progress, although slow, is still moving in the correct direction. This was/is Casey’s dream for the kids out here at Santo Tomas. He fundraised the money needed, and has been working on it ever since.
We have tried to make it as local as possible by using things such as their style of railing (a thin, cut up, tree), the roofing will be thatched, etc… Our goal is to have this be a safe and fun environment for the kids out here, without being too far fetched from what we live with.
We have currently run out of wood for the second floor, but will go purchase some in the coming weeks. Due to the daily schedule being so full, time allotted for this project is random, thus it has taken some time. It has been a pleasure having the groups come down and assisting with the construction. Thanks guys!

Construction Begins on Other Building

Our second wing now is much closer to being done. A group just left which helped fund, and construct, our roof. We now have two rooms, and the support for a roof. We constructed six trusses on the ground, and then transported them up onto the roof –each truss was rumored to have been upwards of 800 lbs. It was an incredible process. Guys were brought in from the street to help lift these heavy, and awkward, pieces of wood. Thank you so much to the group and all that they did. Right now there is a group of local construction workers who are finishing the project. Hopefully we will be able to complete this project here in the next few months. This new addition will provide two new rooms for the administrators and a library/study hall for the girls.

Here are some photos of the process.


Our "sturdy" ramp.

Uncle Sam Heads Home

Sam, or Uncle Sam as we call him, is in charge of all the building projects down here for the People of Peru Project. He lives in Arizona, but when needed, and funds depending, he comes down here. We were able to meet him for the first time this last week as he came out to oversee and assist with the construction of the roof on our second building. The girls are very fond of him. He takes the time to talk and hug each girl. He has a big heart, and the girls are his weakness. Sadly, during his time here, he became sick (on Christmas day), and needed to head home for a more rapid recovery. We were able to all load up on the bus and see him off at the airport.

Hope you get better soon Sam and come back to visit!

Christmas With The Girls

We decided to kick off the holiday season with a big ‘ole decorating party in the Sala. We were able to find an affordable imitation tree, which is something the girls have never had. As we placed the rest of the decorations, the girls’ faces continued to grow. There were smiles all around.
Christmas Eve, the girls went out with the group of volunteers that are here, and were able to walk around the main plaza showing off their new clothes. The girls were taken out by the group and each given some money, and then allowed to go shopping with the group. Tradition is to go to the plaza on Christmas Eve, and walk around showing off your new clothes –the girls looked amazing and were incredibly happy. After they were all done walking, everyone came back to POPPYS house for a midnight dinner (also a tradition). Christmas here is celebrated at midnight. After dinner, we went into the street with the girls and lit sparklers. Everyone was out of their houses lighting fireworks and enjoying themselves.
Christmas day, the girls and we administrators, all went over to where Casey’s parents were staying to open up stockings. With much help from Skip and Terry (and the kids from Great Lakes Adventist Academy), we were able to throw together a bunch of stockings (a tradition we wanted to start) and presents. Sadly, Kelly was up all night Christmas Eve throwing up (and this continued all day Christmas), and Lisa and Casey needed to take a friend to the hospital (and were there 9 hours). It was most definitely a long day, but the girls had an amazing day. We all will remember this Christmas.

A Christmas Musical

A few days ago, we were able to take all of our girls out to a Christmas play downtown Iquitos. A nice couple from our church purchased some tickets for us and our girls to go and watch this performance –we actually found out that they were singing in it. We were able to catch a ride in the organizations bus, and arrived about an hour early so that we could get some prime seats. The musical was at a Catholic school which had a beautiful performance center with freezing air conditioning –we all thought that it was going to be at a typical, no air conditioning facility, hence no jackets or long pants. Everyone was freezing all the way through the play.

We snatched up some beautiful seats four rows from the front. The play was a great depiction of a non-believing tourist who needed to come around into having more Christmas cheer. He eventually caught on to what God’s gift was to him. The live music was well done and beautiful. The girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves and received a great message out of the ordeal –we even were able to stop and get some snacks!

Spirit of Giving

A local program here in town, Caja Maynas, meant to bring a little holiday cheer to the less fortunate, decided to adopt the girls out here at POPPYS house. The organization typically only does things for groups of 100+ kids; however, one of the ladies involved (who goes to our church) was able to get the organization to make an exception for our 18 kids.

The group brought out roughly 25 people, a clown, presents, hot chocolate, a sound system and a beautiful holiday cheer. The clown was able to get the girls involved, go outside of their comfort zone, and provide a fun time for all ages. It was great to see these people treating our girls so well and the effect that it had on our girls was incredible. The hot chocolate was even good –it is still challenging to guzzle down a cup of HOT chocolate when you are already sweating, but we managed.

The group brought down a plethora of fruit cake, which although is not popular in the states, down here, it’s up there with soda. Everyone eats this stuff. I have to admit however, that it does taste slightly better than the stuff that I have had in the states. This group did so much for our girls. Not just with the money that they spent, but also with the emotion and cheer that they brought. We are very grateful.

Marcos Has A Birthday

This last Friday, December 26, Marcos had his second birthday. We tried celebrating it Friday, however the girls were all pretty bummed because we had to say goodbye to Uncle Sam at the airport, and were not in the celebrating mood. We decided to have the fiesta (party) on Saturday, in the afternoon. It was much more enjoyable, and Marcos even decided to wear the cake. With his cake, he seemed to resemble Santa Claus (Papa Noel in Spanish). Take a look!

Here is a video clip of him as well: