Saturday, October 30, 2010

Not too much to report

   
   Thursday we painted our final wall for now. It was teal; the older girls at the home helped a lot. They really enjoy helping us! In the afternoon we decided to buy the kids some toys! We got 2 jump ropes, 2 balls, and 2 hula hoops for about 5 dollars! The kids loved them! We also bought new toothbrushes for all of them, that we need to label with their names before we give them to them! Also that afternoon, a friend needed us to be judges for some plays that were being put on by her English classes. They were plays in English, and they were very amusing! We really enjoyed it! Thursday was also a huge feast day for Peruvians. As the story goes, an African slave painted a picture of Jesus crucified on a wall somewhere in Lima a long time ago. After a few earthquakes, that caused everything else to collapse, the wall remained. It was then named Senor de los Milagros. (Lord of the Miracles). To celebrate this feast they had a huge procession! We really enjoyed it. It is always nice to participate in cultural things like that. Yesterday we spent most of the day in because Andrea was very sick from some cotton candy she ate from a vendor the day before. In the afternoon we went again to see if we could speak to Sister Margarita about the health situation at the home. Yet again she wasn't there so we left another note.
   First thing this morning we were woken up by a call from Sister Margarita, she was finally able to speak with us! It turns out that there are about 40 or so Americans here on a medical mission! We made kind of an unspoken deal, because they need help and so do we. We worked with them this afternoon to sort medicine and supplies, and will be translators for the OR doctors and pre and post operation nurses this week. In return they will have a team put together to come visit the kids at the home, to check on their medical needs. We are very excited and grateful for this opportunity especially since nursing is still a possibility for both of us. We are also thrilled that the doctors who will be examining the children can speak English, and probably have better training than the Peruvian ones.
   Please keep us in your prayers.

Andrea and Kelli

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The things you would never think....

1. Fruit is served for breakfast, lunch and dinner, cake is served maybe once a week, therefore we eat at least 2 bananas each, a day.
2. When walking down the street, not only do people stare, but they yell out random words that they know in english!
3. In this particular town, it is very possible to go a day without seeing a car.
4. People take siestas. Everything shuts down from 12pm to like 330pm.
5. A ride from one end of the town to the other costs less than an ice cream bar.
6. The lowest bill they have is a 10, everything else is coins.
7. We had goat today for lunch.
8. Its so common to eat guinea pigs here, that they farm them.
9. It is more common to buy one or two cigarettes than a whole pack, and they will sell them to anyone.
10. Everyone is always late, because here, time is not money. Time is friendship.
11. Our primary source of entertainment here in the bishops home is a British priest, who we eat with. He is constantly making strange noises, and faces. And his accent in Spanish...is so funny.
12. In the market, when you walk past the meat section, people shout at you to buy their meat, as they wave it in your face!...Sometimes, we just wish we could say..."What in the world am I going to do with a chicken???"
13. It doesn't matter if you're taking a taxi 1 block down the road or 20 blocks, it always will cost 1 sol. (35 cents)
14. Days WITHOUT diarrhea are rare.
15. Kelli has eaten rice, every single day we've been in Peru....63 days.
16. We've never appreciated dryers more. Clothes lines stretch clothes, and your clothes don't end up smelling good.
17. Air conditioning or heating, absolutely does not exist in Chulucanas.
18. Power and water will randomly shut off. We've been advised to always know where a flashlight is. So far we've experienced this once.
19. It is very dusty and dirty here, because of this, if you wake up early enough, you will see many people sweeping the streets.
20. People have tiny monkeys as pets.
21. The nearest grocery store is 45 minutes away.
22. There are more donkeys here than cars.
23. There is only one ATM machine in the whole town.
24. There are no set prices except for ice cream and taxi rides...everything else is whatever the seller feels like. We have been charged two very different prices for the same exact thing, at the same exact place, by the same person!
25. We think people try to over charge us because they think we're rich Americans.
26. Here everyone seems to know everyone.
27. The bishop is like a celebrity.
28. It is hard to find candy or ice cream that isn't made by Nestle.
29. Apparently there is a large pool here, we have been told to avoid it, because most people use it for bathing.
30. At the home, there is always someone screaming, crying or clinging to us.

Quick Post before Dinner!

  Well today, first thing, like we said we met with the carpenter to see if he could fix the broken bunk beds and add the railings that they need. He was very helpful and had everything fixed by the end of the day! He fixed 5 beds, which means 10 kids no longer have to share a bed! He basically gave us 5 beds for 80 soles, 30 dollars! Everyone is so excited to not have to share a bed from now on!
   Also, by popular demand we started to paint a pink wall today, and spent a lot of the day preparing the other walls for painting, because our friend Sarah is coming in a week to paint the murals!!!! We're really excited to see her! And the kids are excited for the murals! Tomorrow we will finish the pink wall and paint a wall teal!
   We still haven't heard back from the head of the health department, and Maria Luisa hasn't mentioned anything about the therapy that Tulio and Maria Fernanda need. We will ask her tomorrow if she has found out anything.
   First thing tomorrow morning we will see about the religious education for the kids, and then continue painting. Tomorrow at some point we will buy another mattress, because the carpenter fixed a bed that does not yet have one!

Time for dinner!
-Andrea and Kelli

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

10/26/10


   Today right after breakfast we went to see Sister Margarita, a nurse, who is charge of the health department of the diocese of Chulucanas. She wasn't there so we left a message to have her contact us as soon as she could. We will be speaking to her about the health situations of the children, and how to improve them, especially those who seem malnourished. Although she is Australian, she speaks Spanish very well, and will be able to help with our communication with Maria Luisa.
  After this we bought some more thinner, and then began to prepare the next wall for the paint. While we were there we discovered that there were many top bunks at the home that were not being used. The reason is because they do not have a railing and the child would fall off in their sleep. If the beds were fixed something like 5 or 6 more beds could be in use. Since we can't go out and buy a drill, we spoke with a friend about meeting with a carpenter who could fix them! We will be meeting him first thing tomorrow morning.
  Since yesterday we took out money we were finally able to replace this one mattress that was absolutely destroyed. It belonged to a fifteen year old girl Antonella who shares it with Tulio, the one and a half year old. We asked her if Tulio would sleep in a crib, if we were to buy one for the babies. She said that she would not want him too, because at night she is afraid, and feels safe with him there. As for the other babies, Maria Fernanda sleep with Ingrid, 17, who truely does not mind her. And Ana Cristina sleeps with her 16 year old mother, Sylvia. Since they said cribs really wouldn't be used we decided to spend the money we would have used on cribs on high chairs for the babies! We bought 3. Before the older girls would just sit them on a regular chair, which is quite difficult to use for kids so young. They were all very excited, and the chairs are beautiful. Also we bought pillows for all of the kids, before they had none.
   Just to give you an idea we bought 12 nice pillows, a mattress and 3 very nice high chairs for under about 180 dollars. So your generous donations are going a long way! Thank you all so much!

Andrea and Kelli
  

Monday, October 25, 2010

Today...

   So after buying the tables...we didn't have anymore cash, so this morning we took a trip to the nearest big city, Piura, to take some out. Its about 45 minutes away, and we went with a group from the bishops house so it took all morning, and until a little bit past lunch. This afternoon we went to the home to speak with the women in charge about the health of the two youngest children. Because of our language barrier we aren't completely clear about what is being done for them, but she did say they are being helped some how. Apparently they have very thin limbs and a huge stomach because they were at one point malnourished, but when they were refed, they didn't form muscle like they should have. She said that they are eating plenty now, and simply need therapy to help them build muscle. She also said that she still needs to look into therapy, but we would really like to get the kids blood tested to make sure that they don't have parasites or any other problems.
   Fortunately we found out which parish zone the home is in, so tomorrow we plan to visit and speak with the person in charge of catechetics for the parish. We hope to have a cathecetics team come out and teach the kids once a week or so. They go to Mass every week but they need more formal teaching in our faith.
    We did some looking around at furniture prices and have some good ideas. Also not sure if we mentioned that the tables we had made for the home have arrived and they are gorgeous! Nothing special really, they are very simple, but made a huge improvement!

Thanks again to everyone who is helping us help these kids!

Andrea and Kelli

Friday, October 22, 2010

Trip with the Bishop

Well our trip to the mountains with the bishop of Chulucanas, turned out to be alot more than we expected! It was really great. We left Monday around 130pm and went straight east, right into the mountains. It was a pretty eventful ride up! We passed every kind of wild farm animal imaginable, and had to wait for them all to get out of the road! The mountains were gorgeous! The first hour and a half or so of the trip was on a paved road the last 4 hours were on an extremely windy dirt road. It was incredible! The windshields needed to be on because we were driving in the clouds! We drove forever in the clouds and then suddenly they disappeared! We had crossed the Continental Divide! It was so beautiful! We rose to about 10,500 feet, about 2 miles high. We didn't see any llamas but plenty of mountain goats, donkeys, wild horses, piglets!, cows, bulls, and plenty of mountain people! It was a really great ride, besides a little car sickness...

Once we were there we had a nice dinner at the parish house, which included wild chicken! It was amazing! Completely different from any other kind of chicken we've ever had. Then we were shown the house that we were to have all to ourselves! It was tiny and so cute! Kitchen, bathroom, dinning room, and 2 bedrooms that all fit into the size of a good sized master bed room back in the states! We loved it! Then we went out to the plaza (town central square) and watched some traditional Peruvian celebrations! They were celebrating 25 years of a specific Franciscan order of nuns' presence in the town.

The town was tiny! About 1400 people lived there! When we woke up the next morning and headed to the convent for breakfast people really started to stare. All of them had black hair and have dark skin and in such a small remote town, we stood out a lot. Literally people stopped what they were doing just to stare at us for as long as they could. After breakfast we walked around the town a little before the celebration Mass, and again we felt like celebrities because of the way people stared. When it was time for Mass and we entered the church, everyone sitting turned and stared at us. Then they would whisper and tell their friends to look! Besides the awkwardness, the Mass was very nice! And afterwards we went briefly to a celebration in the hall, before eating lunch and getting back on the road. We tried to sleep on the way back, to avoid getting sick and it worked!

But it was back to work the next morning! Thank you so much to all of you who contributed to our efforts here. We are now able to take out the money and can really get going on everything now! Keep us in your prayers.

-Andrea and Kelli

Monday, October 18, 2010

Quick post before we leave

We are about to head up to the mountains with the bishop!! We are very excited, everyone says its really beautiful there! We get back tomorrow night! Today we prepared some more walls for painting, and just hung out with the kids! Some good news is that as soon as we walked in we noticed Maria sitting at the table. Thats the girl that ran away. Not sure what happened or how they found her but she seemed more friendly and talkative than normal... strange. Anyways we're praying for all of you!

-Kelli and Andrea!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

10/17/10

    Today we woke up had breakfast and then got ready for Mass. Then we went and met the kids at the albergue and went with them to Mass. It was much different than the Masses we participated in, in Chaclacayo. In Chaclacayo singing seemed to be everyone favorite part of Mass, whereas here the music ministry was less devoloped.
    After Mass, we took all of the kids to the part for a while. During the time at the park, a little girl, Maria, probably 12 or 13 years old, went outside of the gate and clearly ran away. The older girls went to search for her, while we stayed with the other children. They could not find her anywhere, she was gone and not coming back. The older girl, Ingrid, said that Maria was new to the home, and did not seem to like it there at all. After a while of searching we all returned back to the albergue (the home) and a few of the older girls went to tell the police. Please pray that she is found, and returns safely.
    Most of the children at the home seem smaller and thinner than most kids there age, but there is one boy in particular that appears to be extremely malnourished. In fact, he is the only boy there at the moment, and he is the youngest. His name is Tulio and he is about 19 months old. We spoke to Dr. Anthony Lazzara, who ran the home we just left in Lima, and he told us what needs to be done for him. Hopefully sometime this week we can get him to see a doctor, but if there is not a pediatrician in town there is not much we can do since he needs special treatment. Dr. Lazzara offered to take him into his home in Lima for sick children, when he returns from his trip to the U.S. November 16, if we were not able to find a place here to refeed and care for him. Please pray that there will be a pediatrician here to care for him, or that he'll be able to survive long enough to make it to El Hogar San Francisco de Asis.
   We will be going to the mountains with the bishop tomorrow afternoon until Tuesday night.

Keep praying for us!

-Andrea and Kelli

Friday, October 15, 2010

Orphanage Update and Chulucanas

   Well the kids helped us to paint two walls today. One blue and one green, for ocean and jungle scenes. Our friends that we made at the home in Lima should be here around the 27th of October to start on the murals. Besides the painting we going to spend alot of time with the children at the home which was great! Not sure what tomorrow's plans are. Maybe we'll paint some more or start cleaning!

  Here's an update about us. We are in Chulucanas, a city in the province of Piura, which has about 30 thousand people. We are staying in the bishops home. It is a busy place! We have every meal with a handful of priest and one nun.  
   We have seen some interesting things here... like pet mini monkeys... yeah. They're so cute! We have already made a lot of friends around the town. Particularly people who work in the hardware stores and around the market! The town seems very busy but in comparison with Lima its pretty chill.

     Its extremely hot here during the day. Like the desert and it gets pretty cold here at night and in the early morning. There aren't many cars here, most people use bikes, motorcycles, or moto taxi's, which is like motorcycle turned into a trike. The driver sits on the motorcycle part and the riders sit in the back trike part. Some people have running water, but most people on the outer parts of town don't and they use donkey's to pull carts with big barrels for water to their homes. There are donkeys EVERYWHERE.
  
    The bishop is going on a trip to the mountains from Monday till Tuesday to celebrate and recognize the 25th anniversary of a Franciscan order in their diocese. He invited us to go along with him! We are very excited and hope to be able to go. We agreed to help out a friend both of those days, so we'll see if it happens.
   Everyone is extremely friendly here. It truly is just a really nice small town where everyone knows everyone. We feel very welcome and are so happy to be here. Come visit us!

Andrea and Kelli

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Day 3 in Chulucanas

Here are some picture of the kids and home. Please keep us all always in your prayers.





Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Day 2 in Chulucanas

Today we were able to purchase some nuts and screws to repair the beds. We fixed them this afternoon, as well as made plans for the rest of the week. Tomorrow we will be cleaning the walls and getting them ready to be painted. We made a friend at our last stop, in Lima, who is an art student. She painted a Finding Nemo mural there and we've asked her to come here for a week or so to paint some murals. Since we are waiting to see if we'll be able to pay for other things we are focusing now on getting everything ready for when she is able to come in a few weeks. Also tomorrow we will be speaking with a local carpenter to see if he'll be able to make bunk beds, cribs, tables and cabinets for the home. Please continue to keep us in your prayers, because that is truly what we need! God will provide!










If you wish to help pay for the improvements at the home, please comment on this message or somehow contact Kelli, Andrea or either of their families. Thank you so much.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Chulucanas Peru

So we left last night around 730 and arrived in Piura this morning at 11. From there we made our way into Chulucanas, a remote town in northern Peru. After a good lunch and some time to rest we went to the alberque "home of refuge" for the very first time. It was shocking to see the great need that this home is in for such basic things. Let me give you an idea.  The home is for children whose parents don't want them, are unable to take care of them, abuse or neglect them.
Right now in the home there are 20 children between the ages of 1 and 16. The building that they use is old and dirty, it would be considered an abandoned warehouse if it were in the US. There are 20 children but only 12 beds. There are 20 children and 3 desks pushed together for a dining room table. The beds are falling apart and dangerous because of that. The walls are dirty, white and the paint is chipping. The kitchen is tiny with a four burner stove, it needs to be better, but so does the food situation. They eat when there is food. Sister Maria Luisa who is one of the main ladies in charge told us that some days the children have to go out and beg for food.
They depend solely on donations, but they are few and far between. There is a classroom, with one desk and no books or shelves, where some of the children are tutored. The childrens' clothes are stacked on the floor in either of the three rooms with bunk beds. They don't have much clothing and not all of it is the right size. There are quite a few kids under 3, and they don't have any cribs. The bathrooms are unimaginable for an American. In addition to all of this, because of their family situations the children are very distrustful and clearly have emotional and psychological disorders.

It is our goal while we are here to make this into an appropiate living space. The immediate needs would be to get members of the Chulucanas community to support this project with donations of particularly food, and clothing as well. But there are many other things that need to be done that are going to cost more than we can afford. Tomorrow we hope to repair beds that they currently have, by putting in new screws and such. But there are still 12 beds and 20 kids. With financial support we'll be able to supply them with at least 4 more bunk beds and maybe even a few cribs.
We would also love to buy 2 simple dining room tables, if we were able to do this than the desks that are used to eat on, could be moved into the classroom and used as desks! Tomorrow also we will be going through the clothes on the floor and attempting to organize them as best we can. But cabinets would be amazing...again they cost money.
As soon as we're finished with the clothes, we will start cleaning the walls of the dust, dirt and spider webs. But even with that cleaned, it is still an ugly old warehouse. We would really love to be able to paint at least the common areas in some bright colors to make this home a little more fitting for a handful of children.
Please if you can give anything to help us help these kids please let us know. We haven't figured out how to get the funds, but we are working on that now. Thank you so much for reading this. Check out the pictures and please keep us in your prayers!

Friday, October 1, 2010

Its Official

Things are going great here, but yesterday a new vounteer came, and two more will arrive today. Also the doctor told us even more will be coming as we move further into October. Because there will be so many volunteers, it is time for us to move on to a place where our help is much more needed.We will leave October 10th at 930pm for the Province of Piura, and arrive there the very next day around noon. From there we will be going to a city called Chulucanas. While there we will be staying at the Bishops home, and working with abandoned children who live at the home that they have their. We are very excited, the home in Chulucanas is very simple and poor and we can't wait to contribute as much as we can. If you'd like to read about either of the homes here are the websites. 

http://www.villalapazfoundation.org/

http://www.diocesisdechulucanas.org/english/orphanage.htm#titulo

Also for those of you who are kind enough to mail things to us, please do not mail anything after tomorrow at the latest because we probably will not get it in time before we leave.