Busin Adventures

I waslost. And I hadent even gotten on the bus yet. I was in Pucallpa our home town. We were running out of time to get to the bus station and i couldn't remember where it was. David got a moto and saved us. The moto knew where the station was and dropped us right on time before the passengers bored and left all within around ten minutes. It was six thirty at night and we were out for a journey up and over the Andies to lima. A long trip that takes all night and most of the day. About 20 hours total. We slept off and on during the night and in the morning were happy to see the beautiful green villages and lakes that are all throughout the mountains. We could feel the pressure of the altitude as we were going up. 15832 feet was the highest point before we headed back down the mountain into lima. Most of us felt the altitude change in our head and others felt it a little more. Over all the trip was a big success, a great experience and wonderful memories of our trip down south. There will be many more excitements these next two weeks and i am so excited. Next is Arequipa.

GOT WORMS???

Yes in fact i do have worms. Late Tuesday night I woke up with this gagging feeling. I had no idea what was happening. It was dark and i couldn't find my light. I kept having this gagging feeling like i was throwing up so i ran to the sink and drank some water. It didn't help. I started feeling something in the back of my nose. And i remember some of the stories Jenni was telling us. I ran to the bathroom and looked in the mirror at the back of my throat. It was a little white worm stuck in between my nose and my throat. I reached in the back of my throat and grabbed it pulling it out of both my nose and my throat. At three inches long and the size of a spaghetti noodle i was terrified that if i went back to sleep another one would crawl up and that was not an experience that i wanted to repeat.
It all started when we decided to take Albendazol. Albendazol is a medication that us sm's are supposed to take every three months to get rid of all the worms inside of us. Well we were a few months late and i guess i let my worms grow to long. They normally come out the other end of you but my curious worm decided he wanted to fight for his life and find a way out. I finally fell back asleep and had no more worms. This is one experience that i hope is not repeated.

Hola Mi Familia y Mi Homies

I have been in Peru now for almost five months. I can hardly believe it. The first three months went by a little slow but now the time is passing in a blink of an eye. My time spent here in Peru has been amazing. Teaching my English and music classes has been challenging but very rewarding. I started out not knowing any Spanish and thinking that I would make very little connections with the kids. Spanish was hard and the kids started out to be little devils. I didn’t know how to handle them by talking in Spanish and didn’t realize the lack of attention that was in their lives and homes.
After the first month an amazing thing happened. Spanish was flowing easier and the children, although still a handful, had worked their way into my heart. A sweet little kindergarten boy who used to run around the classroom is now sitting quietly and singing along with the other children. I get big huge little kid bear hugs from him everyday and I am so amazed by the transformation of our classes.
Classes are ending at all three of our schools on the 14th of December. There summer/rainy break will begin and us sm’s will be heading down south to renew our visas. After seeing some sites in Peru over Christmas break we will be back and ready to work. There will be another clinic in January, lots of work in the fields, and two of our schools will be starting back up with classes during the summer, January 22. I am excited for the break but will be missing all of you.
As we are approaching the holiday season, Km. 38 is looking a lot like Christmas. We have been playing our Christmas music and making our Christmas construction paper chains, hot peppermint mocha tea, and even cut out snowflakes and a Christmas tree. Our house is quite festive but the heat changes the atmosphere from our usual nippy December days. There is no jack frost nipping at our noses, or chestnuts roasting over our fire. The children aren’t bundling up or singing Christmas carols. But the biggest difference is the absence of the family and friends that I have been surrounded by each traditional Christmas day in the past. You will all be missed through this season of joy and cheer. I love each and every one of you and I am so thankful for all your love and support. Keep me in your prayers.

Class Grows to Outstanding Numbers

Three months ago Tara and I started teaching night classes for kids and adults who wanted to learn from English. There was a big want in the community and our two classes ended up being three classes. Every night even three months later I have mothers coming to me with their children wanting to be in my class. I explain to them night after night that I started out with just one class that grew to forty-five students and that I split that class in to two to make a class for children and a class for adults. They are never surprised to hear that I have thirty five kids in my younger class but still proceed to ask if I can take just one or sometimes four more.
The class room really only holds about 25 students. But when you have three chairs around some of the desks it holds many more students. When I first started teaching in Campo Verde it was a little bit of a struggle because I was really the only teacher and I was currently making up the class. I had many students coming and going as they pleased which wasn’t a very good. As I developed the regulars and cut off at around thirty five students. I am now so excited to not just have a class but to have a room filled with many little children that I have developed a relationship with and have grown to love.
One little girl tugs on my elbow every time I write on the board asking me if she has to write the information down. Everytime I know it is her and I tell her, “yes, you always have to copy down new information.” She laughs and says thank you and starts writing diligently. Another little boy names Isou on the other hand copies down nothing. Every once in a while I will quiz him verbally and this little six year old will answer every question correct. Very smart child. Other kids are just so sweet bring me honey and giving me the common Peruvian kiss goodbye. I have grown to love each and everyone of my children and thank God that He has put me in such an amazing place.

Clinic at Luz Divina

As we drove up to our new clinic site, the dirt roads were swarmed with skittering feet of the children. They peered in through the bars of the window to see what we were bringing. As we unpacked the medication, surgical supplies and dental equipment, it was obvious that yes, we were having a medical clinic in the middle of their town.
The people of the town jumped at the opportunity to help. Each of the church members wanted to help with food. They decided that each person would take the responsibility to cook for one of us. Every meal we would get ten different meals and would all pick off of all of them. We were so thankful for our food day after day. As we seepedout the building, people would jump up from their seats and take the broom from us and finish the job. They were so understanding as they waited for us to get medicine bags that we had run out of. And laughed and our good but broken spanish. Dont get me wrong, there are always the people who you want to kick out of the building because they keep coming back with different problems that they forgot that last time they came. But the majority of the time the people were so helpful and enjoyable.
Our team seams to be working so well together. We are like a well oiled machine. Well we do have some mistakes every once and a while but we work so well together. I am so impressed with our improvement and excited that we have the ability to make a little dent of help in the cities around us. God is amazing and helps us through each and everyday and just maybe we have made a small difference in the people that we have served.

A FEW MEMORABLE EXPERIENCES...
We had the opportunity to see two baby girls being born. One of them on Jenni's 25th birthday and was named after her. Baby Jenni. It was an amazing experience and one i will never forget.

Playing soccer with the little boys after a long day of clinic. Tiringbut one of the most enjoyable tasks of the day. The kids are so sweet!!! And amazing soccer pros.!!! I was shocked to see these little 5-8 year old kicking the ball like i see on tv. Wow.

A little girl named Angi. I found her sittin in the mud and was wondering why she was so sad. She later told me something that in spanish that i couldn't make out. We were walking back to her house where i thought she wanted to go when she said the same phrase again. I still didn't know what she was saying. I quickly went and asked jenni what the word meant, it was to hit. Her father hit her weather it was a punishment or even just a small spanking this child was sad. Angi and i decided that stickers would be a good cure for her sadness. We went inside and picked out a few of her favorite stickers and spent the next few minutes smiling and laughing and chatting. As darkness grew stronger she ran off with the biggest smile on her face. She was such a preciously beautiful little girl.

Sweet Reminder

I returned to the doctors room and told him, Dr. we don’t have twenty one pills of this medication you prescribed for this woman. We only have eight. He replied saying that I needed to find it. He told me that if Jesus could turn loaves of bread into enough to feed five thousand, then I should be able to fine a few more pills to at least double the amount we had. I was frustrated and said how am I supposed to do that? I packed the medications, I know what we have, and I have already looked. We don’t have anymore. He said fine and told me to give her what we had. I walked back to the pharmacy frustrated and gave the woman the medication. She had just left as a thought crossed my mind about how awesome God was. He did make enough bread for the people and so maybe he could help me find some more medication. I looked again with a little bit of hope to find more of the medication but yet still with doubt. The second box I searched through there it was. Eight more pills. Doubled the amount that we had to fourteen. I was struck with giggley excitement. I ran outside to se if the woman had left. I didn’t see here anywhere. I looked to my right and there she was just sitting down on the bench. She looked at me and asked what I needed. I said with delight that I had found more medication and that it was only a few short of what he needed but it would get her by. She looked at me with dull enthusiasm not knowing really what was going on and said thank you.
The rest of the day I was just amazed with God. I don’t know if he put those medications there or not. But I do know that he put the will in me to actually look for them one last time. It opened my eyes to see how much God really does care about the little things.

Bursting with Thankfulness

Thanksgiving wasnt a regular day this year. For one it was on tuesday for us out at km. 38. My family, my dad Russell, mom Kathie, brother James, and sister Melissa, all decided to come out and visit this week as well as Taras dad Jeff and stepmom Jane. Emily, Kristen, and Emily were back from their six week long trip from their public health program and our how was full. Eighteen people staying under two small roofs. We were full. We decided to have thanksgiving on tuesday so that taras parents could join us before they left on wednesday. It was so exciting to have everyone together. I never thought that cooking would take so long and eating would take so little time. We cooked for around 4 hours and demolished the food with in a half hour. Amazing. The rest of the week was fun. Having the family there was a lot to take in but very exciting that they could be here and see what life at km. 38 was all about. From sitting in on some of my classes, coming to pucallpa to see some of the sites (the pizza place, market, ice cream store, and hostel), to heading out to San Fransisco island to see that native shipibo crafts and culture. It was a full week filled with excitement. James helped the boys out in the field and dad took many memberable pictures. Mom and missy came to classes and enjoyed reading lots of book and helping out in the kitchen and later enjoyed shopping around in Pucallpa. Frankie was definitely loving all of them as well. He was fed five times the amount of trash as normal and had five times the amount of attention. He became a brat. It was so much fun to see my family and celebrate this wonderful holiday of thankfulness.

Cheva

Cheva our rotwiler was a happy dog. She loved to bark at everything. Lightning, people, balls, sheep. She also liked to chase things. She would run after the lightening, charged us as we were coming in at night on our bikes, lunge and demolish the balls, and even chased the sheep and tested their taste. After two of our sheep died from Chevas taste testing we decided that she needed a new home without other animals to mal on. Until the situation was resolved she was tied up to the house so she couldn’t get our sheep. One day our African killer bees were angry. As David was on his way home he saw that she was lying down under the house. He pet her and noticed a few bees hanging around her head and realized that she was not moving and was entangled in her rope. He ran to the house, we called Jenni to see what we should do, I prepared the epi and Anita ran to her rescue in her bee suit to give her the shot. It was to late. She had already become stiff and there was no hope. The boys later buried her out back. We are sad that our crazy rotwiler has died but are thankful that we still have our other precious animals.

Laura Made an Awesome Video...

"He peed on me"

About once a week, all of our kindergarten kids decide that they all have to go to the bathroom all at the same time. They all race out of the room and find a spot behind the wall outside. One day as we were leaving they all had run out to go to the bathroom. Little Cecilia comes running back in the room a few seconds later wet from head to toe almost in tears because a little boy peed on her. The teacher wiped her off a little and went on with the day. Thank goodness class was almost over.

I AM NOT A GRINGO...

As we teach our classes, our students randomly start calling us gringo.... Tara turns around and says " We are not gringos, we are white and we are living in peru. We are Peruvian..." They now us call us the white Peruvian teachers and whenever anyone comes out to our classroom they are other peruvian white people. hehe. funny.

Kiddish Fun

As I sit in my kindergarten class watching them color their colorful pages of construction paper, i wonder what i am missions out on. Why arent i coloring? I love to color. I pick up the crayons and start coloring away. As i examine the crayons and their colors and inventive names, i remember how much fun coloring was as a child and how much more fun it is now. Razzledazzle Berry which has sparkles, shocking pink that is so bright it hurts your eyes, or my favorite, mango tango. As i pick up each crayon i get more excited to see all the new and thrilling crayons that people have invented and i realized that i has been way to long. I now color regularly with my school children.

Clinic number 3

Clinic was an amazing experience this week. It was the easiest clinic yet and we really had no problems. It was an eight hour trip in our Toyota truck with four people in the back seat, two people in the passenger seat, and our amazing crazy but safe driver Richard. There was a long dirt road with huge pot holes and very narrow bridges. We made it there and back safely. Our week flew by faster and quicker than any other clinic week. It was an incredible. A lot of the people in the area had stomach problems. Often the places that we go have similar problems within the area. There were no big surgeries needed but there were quite a few shots. We all slept in tents at a families house. It was a beautiful house with a decent bathroom and place to take a luxurious bucket bath. There was a paved floor with a drain. This was one of the best places we have stayed. We set up our clinic in a church. It was a nice roomy area where we had plenty space for all of our stations. Triage, consultation, pharmacy, and dental. The week went very well. There were lots of kisses from the people after we gave them their medications thanking us for our work. Most everyone was happy with big smiles. They were so thankful and it was a really positive experience for everyone. At the end of the week when we were packing up to go, our cook came by and thanked each one of us for our services. She told us that she was content with everything and was so thankful that we could come. I was so much fun to see the joy on peoples faces. We are now back at km38. Home sweet home…

Rememberable experiences…

Dr. Richard gave the monkey diazepam and he slept if off for two days. So funny but really sad. He is back to normal stealing our food and jumping from rafter to rafter

The lady who we drained 5 ginormous bottles of fluid from her abdomen.

The whole fish that each of us got for dinner that we passed off to all the Peruvian boys.

The numerous rotted out smiles that somehow were so meaningful and beautiful everyday as they thanked us.

Last Minute Laundry

Laundry can be a very tedious thing. Especially after two weeks. The past week had been very hectic getting our classes in order and I didn’t really have a whole lot of time to sit down and do my laundry. The day I had planned to do it, it had rained. So two weeks passed and I finally decided to take a walk down to our well to wash my clothes. The load was big and took around two and a half hours. But I once again had clothes to wear for the next two weeks. Hopefully it wont be that long before do another load. I have almost mastered the head loads to and from the well.

Challenges and Joys of Teaching

We teach our classes at three different locations during the week. Sundays, Tuesday, and Thursdays we teach two English classes at Compo Verde in the evening which is 3 km down our road. On Monday, Wednesday, Friday, we teach three classes, one English, one music, and one music class at Los Pinos which is right down our road. And two classes Tuesday and Thursdays in the mornings at Yerbos Buenas which is a ways down a nice bumpy dirt road. Every day Tara and I wake up and make breakfast, do dishes, and if we have time shower before we hop on our bikes and head to one of the schools.
Yerbos Buenas
The road to Yerbos Buenas is better now that they compacted it but still not wonderful. Our bikes are a little rickety but still seem to be in better condition than most of the bikes I have seen down here. One morning Tara and I made it to the school and while we were there, there was a huge down poor of rain. Mud, rain, and bikes do not mix. After walking and pushing our bikes through the mud, cleaning the mud from the tiers every 5-10 minutes so that the wheals will keep on turning, our fifteen to twenty minute ride turned into an hour and a half. I was so excited to see that the end of the road was a little bit harder and hopped on my bike just to get stuck in the mud and fall over. I was determined that bikes were supposed to be ridden and not pushed but after trying to ride the bike and falling over straight into the mud numerous times, I finally gave in and pushed the bike to the paved road. We were tired and very muddy, but glad to get back to the house. The classes started out a little tough at Yerbos Buenos because the age range in the classes were so big. The kids took a while to catch on but I see it in their faces every time we come to teach that they love the class and love it when we are there. The have picked up very well, and what we thought would be a hopeless class turned out to be amazing. The kids caught on and are rapidly learning more every day. It is so exciting to see the change right in front of our eyes.
Campo Verde
Our classes at Campo Verde ended up being to separate classes at the same time. Tara teaches one class which is an upper level English class, and I took the lower level English class. We ride our bikes there which is uphill both ways but it seems like a lot of the time we say we will bike next time and catch a moto into town. The class is fun to teach. It’s a little hectic because its not a school hour setting but its people from the community who want to learn English. Every class there are new people which makes it a little difficult to keep up a steady pace of learning. Its coming together slowly and should pull together nicely.
Los Pinos
Our class at Los Pinos is one of our favorite of the classes so far. The bike ride is short and the teachers are very dedicated and love what they do which has made our teaching experience very delightful. The teacher offered us to go to the zoo on their field trip last Friday. We agreed and were on our way. Tara seemed to be swarmed by all the girls holding her hands, arms, and legs most of the day. I hung back with the little boys and spent most of my time with them at the monkey, tiger, snake, and crocodile cages. After we went through the zoo and the museum, we ate lunch. One of the moms offered us food which we gladly took and ate most of. The park has this fun little playground. After we ate we spent a good hour or so on the playground playing and taking tons of pictures of them. They are all so cute. The playground was so much fun. It had all the old stuff like seesaws, merry-go-rounds and four big slides coming from this tall tower. We had a great day at the zoo and have tons of pictures to prove it.On another Friday, the professor offered us to join in on their physical education class. It sounded like a good idea but… They ended up doing these crazy drills in the middle of the afternoon. It was rather humorous. For them anyways. One of the drills we were in two lines, one of boys and one of girls and we had to run to the other side and go under the little boys legs then run back 20 times. Ha… I can barely get my body under that little boy with out him just sitting on me. After a few more drills similar to that one they decided to run. I started and then veered off to the side at a neighbors house and sipped lemonade and helped her son with his English homework. The kids and teachers at Los Pinos are so much fun to be around and I often see some of our students as we walk do the streets every day. They are so cute

One day we went to the zoo so i took a bunch of pictures of the kids before and after. They are just too cute!!!

this was a really mudy day. We left our school and it had just finished raining for our walking pleasure. We walked back pushing our bikes and walking bare foot.

Frankie Our Very Lucky Monkey

He may only be eight inches tall but Frankie is usually twelve feet high jumping around from rafter to rafter enjoying the world below. His big black eyes stare down at the SM team below as we go about our daily lives. One of his favorite times of the day is meal time. Not his meal time but ours. He hops from bar to bar down to the counters and if he is sneaky enough and we don’t grab the spray bottle quick enough, he sometimes manages to grab a little bit of his favorites, cucumber or bananas. The rest of the day consists of catching bugs throughout the house making our faces cringe at the gooiness of it and then finding a nice perch like our shoulders to curl up on and fall fast asleep. As devious as our monkey Frankie can be, we all love him dearly. Not only is he just a monkey, he is our miracle monkey. Dr. calls him Daniel because he has escaped not only once, but twice from the mouth of a lion or Cheva our Rotwhiler.
As the night is winding down, monk monk was enjoying a nice piece of banana and then decided to walk across to the kitchen not knowing that his life would flash before him. Cheva, who was right outside our opened door saw a rat like object crawling across our floor and took it apon herself to try and dispose of it. Lunging through our back door her aim was impeccable as she snatched Frankie off the floor. I ran in screaming as Cheva dropped Frankie out of her mouth and looked up at me like I was crazy. Monk found himself a nice corner behind the stove for the next few moments as I aggressively escorted Cheva to the nearest door. Frankie was wet all over but had not a bite mark on him. That was the first Frankie meets Chevas mouth experience. Just a few nights ago, David, one of our fellow SM’s had Frankie on his shoulder and was walking out to give Cheva some food. Cheva saw the food she wanted and lunged up on Davids shoulder with once again amazing accuracy plucking the monkey off of his shoulder. David plopped himself on Cheva as the monkey was set free and ran to find his nice little spot behind the stove. Our monkey is a miracle monkey. Although a pest at times, we love our new addition to our household.
Frankie came from a little town called Sana Rosa where we did one of our campaigns for a day. We had been talking about getting a monkey a few weeks prior and one day Tara and Jenni came back and showed us our new little baby. The next day he spent on my shoulder in clinic as I passed out patience prescriptions. I was not fond of the caked on mess that came from this cute little fuz balls bottom, but after we hand crafted him a diaper, he became much more loved. He traveled with us back to km. 38 on a 6 hour peke peke and a 24 hour launch boat ride. He was very well behaved. He has now grown fond of all of us and us of him, but Joey, our cat, still is pretty skeptical, but love sometimes takes time.

The Big Jug

The day after we arrived, the boys graced us with running water. We were all thrilled. We were not thrilled when we saw the boards that braced our enormous water jug bending when it was filled. Our wonderful handy men took down the jug and put up harder wood to support the weight. They even managed to paint the tower so the bugs wont get to it. Our new red tower looks so cute next to our little house. After a day of not having water and hauling water from the well, we are pleased to say that all is good and water runs from our faucets once again.