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.