ends and beginnings

Well I guess it has been pretty much forever since I have last posted something. As most of you know, I have safely returned back to the United States all in one piece, much to the relief of my family. I have only been home for a month now, yet it already seems like Peru and all that I was blessed to experience was so long ago. Returning to life back here in the States has filled me with mixed emotions. It is so wonderful to be back home with my family, sleep in my own bed (which seems so incredibly huge, not to mention soft and clean), and be able to talk and communicate with friends and family a lot easier than through emails, unreliable internet calls, or calls from phone booths that had weird and often inconvenient hours. To be able to actually communicate in person or be able to just pick up your cell phone wherever and whenever and call still is crazy to me, despite my almost religious and obsessive use of my cell phone up until the day I left to go to Peru back in July. It's crazy how you just get used to not using things, because I'm still having to get used to having my cell phone around and that the weird little jingle that registers in my sub-conscious is actually a cell phone ring and not a taxi-driver honking his horn down on the street below my apartment in Pucallpa.

I arrived safely back home and the first thing my family and I did after leaving the airport was head to Taco Bell. I don't know what it is about the place, because Taco Bell is not exactly the best representation of fine Mexican food, but whatever the case, those burritos tasted simply amazing! Nothing like craving mexican food, and especially Taco Bell for the last 9 months and finally being able to bite into a delicious burrito from a fast-food chain store. It's not like I hadn't had enough beans and rice during my time but, I have realized refried beans are completely different from those beans down in Peru, whatever they're called.

Other novelties such as having hot water, electricity and light past 6p.m. (this whole sunset at 8:30pm thing is really confusing for my inner time clock), being able to actually blow-dry my hair, walking barefoot on carpet floors, simply throwing my clothes in a washing machine followed by a dryer and the whole process taking only a couple hours, sitting on chairs and couches that are padded and actually comfortable to sit on, being able to just get in my car and drive wherever (though the extremely high gas prices have seriously discouraged me from taking advantage of this opportunity), visiting the local grocery store and purchasing everything in one place (though I kind of miss the bargaining, not to even mention the more delicious, fresher, and much cheaper fruits and vegetables available in Peru), having a wide variety of foods to choose from (aka NOT having to eat rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner). And this is only a partial list of things that I have quickly re-acquainted myself with over the past month.

At the same time I am experiencing all these "new" and exciting things, I realize that so many of the people I have just returned from interacting with are at this moment working under the hot tropical sun, trying to earn a living for their families, which amounts to about $5 per day. And the mother of the household is spending her day, as she does almost everyday, washing, scrubbing and wringing out her family's clothing items, almost all of which have permanent dirt stains and holes throughout. Between that, she is slaving away at the open fire next to her simple home, cooking rice, and frying up fish for the noon meal. These things and so much more make up a simple lifestyle that I have been able to experience firsthand for the past few months; but as I have recently returned to the States and been adjusting back to a lifestyle filled with school, work, career searching, friends, and all the other responsibilities and stressors that are placed on young adults like myself; not to mention the seemingly “luxurious” opportunities (at least that’s what it seems like in comparison) that living in the U.S. allows, I can’t help but feel a bit guilty. This is definitely the “land of promise” and no wonder so many people want to move to the U.S. and pursue the “American Dream.” How did I become so blessed to be born in a country where there is the opportunity to pursue whatever I want if I just put my mind and energy to it?

These past nine months have been an interesting and eye-opening experience. I have learned so much not only about myself, but also about different cultures and peoples, and how to live and work with others all with a common goal of service for others. I have been pushed to new limits, seen my strengths, realized some things I need to work on, and been so incredibly blessed to have worked with a group of young people who everyday challenged me to become a better servant of Him. I feel so privileged to have lived, worked, laughed, and cried with these people who have become more than just friends to me.

Looking back at when I first arrived, with all my expectations and ideas for what this experience was going to be like, I realize that it was all so much more than I could have imagined. Of course, if I had known everything that would have happened, all the challenges and struggles we were all to face, I don’t think I would have been able to handle it all. But God is good and realizes our apparent limitations and helps us along the way, giving courage and strength to faces the challenges and trials that come our way.

I think the greatest challenge yet best memory and greatest joy was taking care of Hector, the little Peruvian baby plagued with malnutrition who turned out to be HIV positive. Many a night I stayed up with the little guy, not able to get much sleep because of his crazy medicine-taking schedule, and quickly getting a taste of the heavy responsibilities placed on young parents (wow!!). I struggled with lack of patience with the little guy at times, but one night I finally prayed to God to give me the patience and energy to take care of him and give him all the love I could because he deserved the best! A peace came over me and I was able to care for him with patience and love. Ever since then, he has had a special place in my heart! Taking care of him was a full-time job for our team; thankfully there were usually lots of willing people to take care of him so Jenni and I could actually get some work done. Saying good-bye at the airport was one of the hardest things for me. Because of his condition, I just didn’t know whether he would last a few days or many happy years. Of course, we all hoped and prayed for the best, but in the back of my mind, there was always a reminder of the “statistics.” And realizing I didn’t know when I was going to be able to return to visit Peru, made it even harder. I still remember as I kissed him good-bye that last time, he had a little smile on his face, which of course just melted my heart. I had to turn away and wipe the many tears streaming down my face. Why did I have to say good-bye to so many people especially little Hector, such an amazing experience, and a place that I learned to call my home, all at the same time?! Coming back to the States and seeing so many other little babies, some with cries terribly similar to Hector, I am constantly reminded of him. And just a few short days after my arrival back in the States, Hector celebrated his 7-month birthday, which is amazing! God is incredible!! However much I wish I could say this little baby boy is still continuing to grow strong, I cannot. Hector passed away in his sleep in the wee hours of Sabbath morning, May 31. The little baby boy, the one who we had all laughed and cried over, the one who we had all had our share of sleepless nights trying to take care of him, was gone. Despite this incredibly deep sadness that we are all feeling and experiencing through this, I and the rest of my fellow team members know all of the time and energy spent caring for him was not in vain. Showing love and care towards this little bundle of joy was the most rewarding experience for me, one that I will never forget. This baby was completely innocent, knowing no wrong and living with no knowledge how much the odds were against him. Our whole team was dedicated to caring for him in the best way we knew how, showing him all the love possible to make his life as special as could be.

My time down in Peru is done for now. I am heading back to Southern in the fall to complete the courses required of me for my degree. But this doesn’t mean my mission is done. Instead it is just taking on a new front, among my peers, classmates, friends, and family. I am excited to share about my experience and also be able to witness for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And though I am terribly sad about leaving Peru, this country that became my home, and all the people that I was blessed to meet, especially little Hector, I can know with faith I will be meeting these people, including my precious little baby Hector, in Heaven very soon!! For Jesus promises that he will return soon again. I like how His return is spoken about in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” I can practically hear the loud shout right now! We can be comforted in the knowledge that when this day comes, Hector and everyone else with disease and pain will be given a new body. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21:4). I can’t wait for this day!! I pray that each one of us will be ready for this glorious day to meet our Savior in the Heavenly clouds!!

Less than a week!!

My time here in Peru is rapidly drawing to a close and it is with deep sadness that I am saying good-bye to the people I have befriended and the place I have called home for the past few months. It seems like just yesterday we all arrived here, but really nine months of crazy adventures and memories have take place. There is still much I need and want to do before I leave, but with God's help my stress will subside and I will be able to do all that I want before I leave.

The 3rd week of March we held a clinic in Nueva Era, a Shipibo community just out of Yarinacocha. The week was quite successful, with lots of people passing through medical and our dental team saw record numbers. Brent's family was able to join in on the fun and help out a bunch at clinic, so that was a huge help. Nice to meet you guys!! blessings

The next week, my family came down to visit, which was quite the time. I had a great time seeing them and it was awesome to be able to show them all that we have been doing, meet the team and make the project much for "real." On Friday afternoon, my dad tripped and fell on one of the streets in Pucallpa, dislocating his shoulder, so we had quite an adventure seeing firsthand Peruvian healthcare. My dad had to be put under general anesthesia and the doc put the joint back in place. Thankfully it all went well, God blessed us with some good connections to doctors, and we were on our way after a few hours. Unfortunately, my dad has since re-dislocated it and so is going to be having outpatient surgery the day before I arrive home, so please pray for him!! Well, my family was all good sports about the whole thing and the whole time here and they had a good time here!:-)

Our dental team has had the privilege to hold 2 more mini clinics in 2 different places in the last couple weeks. The first clinic was in Bena Jema where we held clinic in the SDA church. We were there for three days and saw quite a number of patients, though the numbers weren't as high as our previous clinic. During these clinics Brent and I were training in Willem, who is going to be taking over dental after we leave. The second clinic we had was at km. 13 San Juan. We were there for 2 days and saw a good number of patients. It was quite fun to play with the kids and get to know the community a bit. I was able to spend some time talking with the Shipibo women and learn a little more about how they live. One of the ladies actually walks around Pucallpa selling her necklaces, purses, bracelets, and other little "touristy" items around the square. So I run into her every once in a while and talk. These clinics have been quite nice for me, at chance to pull some more teeth, get to know a new community, and talk to others about Jesus.

In less than a week, four of us will be flying up to Iquitos to see the Amazon River and see some "real" jungle. There is another Adventist non-profit up there (People of Peru Projects) and so will be getting to know that team for a few days. Then its down to Lima and a day of surfing and sandboarding before heading home. I am quite excited for the upcoming adventures and travels, but really I'm quite sad about leaving this place. This week is the week of "lasts." Last time eating my favorite meal at the vegetarian restaurant, last time eating fries, last night in my apartment, last time buying at the market, etc. the list could go on forever and then I get quite sentimental and it's no good!:-) I think the thing I'm going to miss most are the people, especially the people I have been working, eating, living, sweating, laughing with. Each and every one of them are amazing and unique. We have all had a great time and experienced many different things that will forever bond us together, that nobody else will completely understand. God definitely had a hand in putting this team together and I have been blessed beyond belief this year with such awesome friends aka my brothers and sisters. I will miss them all terribly. Almost all of us are returning to the States either to continue schooling (Brent, Tara, Kaitlin, David, and me), finding that perfect job (Kristin), or getting married (congrats Emily!!). but it will never be exactly the same. Dr. Mathews, Willem, and Jenni are all still here in Peru and are planning on staying a while. But I must end this now because I will start to cry...:-) besides I have much to do before I leave! argh...until next time Blessings

our team pictures

some pictures from the past weeks

Baby Hector Update

So much has happened in the last month with this little bundle of joy. Emotional and mental ups and downs, it’s hard to summarize them all. In the month-span that we have been privileged to take care of this little guy, much has happened and so I will try to summarize it because I don’t have much time. As I write, Hector is laying on my lap, crying for attention and for his bottle of milk. I’m still working on the multi-tasking concept, which I think is pretty much impossible when trying to take care of a needy little 4month old boy, named Hector!

After spending about 9 days in the hospital, little Hector was discharged and sent to km. 38. Over the next week, he quickly developed many mommies and daddies, all taking care of the little guy. But by the weekend, he was have difficulty breathing and Jenni and Anita took him back to the hospital. He was diagnosed with pneumonia and began rigorious anti-biotic and breathing treatments. Despite difficulties and frustration with being in the hospital yet again for a few days, and with hospital staff trying the patience of Anita and Jenni, Hector was again released, with the promise by Jenni to take good care of him outside of the hospital. So with IV’s hanging up around the room and a crazy 24-hr schedule of medication to give the little guy, Hector became the center of attention. Anita and Jenni faithfully took care of the little guy, many times staying up all night because of the crazy medicine schedule and little Hector not wanting to sleep either.

Every few nights, I stayed up with Hector, allowing Anita and Jenni some much needed and deserved sleep. Over the next week or so, Hector improved, though one was fearful of gaining too much hope knowing that he, just like any other little baby, could become sick with a fever in a very short time. Throughout this second bout of illness, he lost weight. Drinking milk become quite difficult because he was having such a hard time breathing and drinking at the same time. Often he would go into coughing spasms and throwing up much of the milk he just consumed.

Despite all the anti-biotics, vitamins, breathing treatments, minerals, and milk little Hector was being given, he still wasn’t getting better. Nobody could understand why. These medications were top quality, yet the baby wasn’t improving. Why? Back to the laboratories for more testing. Over the next few days, Jenni faithfully took Hector to various places for tests. On Friday morning the results came. Providing answers, yet leaving so many unanswerable questions. Why does this have to happen to such a small, innocent little boy? It’s NOT fair!! Hector. So tiny. Cute. Precious. Lovable. Innocent. Yet, he test HIV positive. Why? I don’t understand.

Hector´s mother has also been diagnosed with HIV, which at this point have already become full blown AIDS. Dad has also tested positive for HIV. They have two older sons (one from the mother´s previous relationship) and neither one has tested positive. Praise the Lord!! Please keep this little family in your prayers. This news has been devastating to say the least. We have been praying for a miracle for little baby Hector. Despite all the nights he keeps us up, you can help for love and adore the little guy. He is just so special to each of us. I don´t know how long he has to live: days, weeks, months, or even years. What I do know is that this little baby deserves the best chance at life as any other baby. Each and every moment I spend holding him, listening to his little coos, watching the little smile crease his face, or even caring for him (even at 3am), I treasure, because I just don´t know how much more time he has, and I want little Hector to know that he is loved!! God can and is doing amazing things in this little boy´s life, please pray for little Hector!

House Hunting part 2

Well, the search is over. At least I think so. We have moved into a new room. After walking up and down street after street in Pucallpa, Jenni and I finally decided on the original place we first looked at. A 4th floor room, with an amazing roof-top view of the city, though you have to walk out onto the veranda area to actually see the viewJ, it’s quite the place, not to mention some quality stair-climbing exercise! Throughout this whole time of searching for a place, I felt God opening and closing doors to various rooms. Some just didn’t have the right location, or the room was really small, or there was no chance at having internet. Needless to say, I feel God has led us to this room, high above almost all of the city. Walking onto the veranda, we are able to receive internet signal. The location is perfect. Being just across the street from our former room, we are just as close to everything, even closer to the french fry place!J We have our own private bathroom, which is great, not to mention cleaner!! Of course, after living here not that long, actually the very first night, we discovered that the ceiling leaks and the water randomly turns off and on. Well the ceiling has since been fixed (thank goodness). However we are still trying to figure out the water situation. Apparently we are under city water, which tuns off supposedly between 1 and 6pm each day. Thats fine with me. If its consistent, i can plan and be prepared. However, the water thing has been anything but consistent. One time it was off for 48hours with no sign of life anywhere. Water is pretty important and so to have its supply source be very unpredictable, makes it a frustrating situation. We hope to have this resolved in the very near future! After organizing and finally settling on Thursday, I have been able to make use of the desk that was already here and finally get some quality work completed. It’s exciting because our little room is finally looking like home and becoming comfortable, despite it’s little quirks. the picture is of our old room. new pictures of new room coming sometime soon...

House Hunting Part 1

Considering the recent events leading us to feel unsafe and not secure in our present home, Jenni and I made the unanimous decision to move out. However, finding a new home has quickly presented us a challenge. Where do you find a room/apartment that is decently priced, close to the center of town, is safe, comfortable, and maybe, just maybe have a wireless internet signal? For over three months, our little hostel room has served us quite splendidly. Being within two blocks of the taxi stop to Campo Verde aka Home, only one block from the post office, vegetarian restaurant, french fry place, market, being right on the plaza (which is an easy orientation point when lost), not to mention the quite dependable free wireless internet that the Pronegocious warehouse has unknowingly provided us. God has blessed tremedously. However, we feel it is time to move out.

So, Saturday night and Sunday we spent apartment shopping. Well, it has been fruitful in many ways, finding some nice places and some not-so-nice places. From a dungeon/prison cell at about S/.120 (a little under $40 a month) to a fully furnished two bedroom, kitchen, and living room with outside garden, with air conditioning, water, and light included for a mere $350 per month (that’s about S/.1000 aka out-of-my-price-range-but-lovely-to-look-at), we searched Pucallpa. Sunday afternoon we went around town in a motokar with a “real-estate agent.” Actually, he was a guy that is developing some new homes/apartments and wanted to show us. Well, quite fun, mostly cause we got a free ride around town, but also because we got to become a part of Carnival.

Carnival is a Peruvian holiday that lasts the entire month of February. Hearing stories about past experiences during the month of February, made me dread the coming of February, but now it’s here and it isn’t even half as bad as I had heard. Let me explain. I don’t know too much about it, except that for the whole month it is a huge water fight between guys and girls. Guys throw water on girls and vice-versa. Fun right? Well, the problem and grossness comes in when people decide to throw water that isn’t really water, more like sewage and other nasty stuff. That’s not fun. However, this year a law was passed that states no dirty water can be used and if caught, the device used to throw will be confiscated (however, if it’s an arm used to throw the dirty stuff, I’m not sure how that works) and if it becomes a public annoyance, then the person is arrested. Amazing. So walking and driving around town on Sunday was quite fun and refreshing. I was hot and tired, and some Peruvian guys must have seen this and decided I would be a perfect target for their water balloons. I was actually quite grateful and felt refreshed after. Driving around town with our “real estate agent,” we were able to see quite a number of young people in little groups, waiting for the perfect person to chuck a water balloon at. A few times, I just smiled real nicely at some of the little kids and I think they must have gotten scared cause they didn’t throw any at me or Jenni. Haha:-) We also witnessed someone getting arrested for throwing apparently dirty water at passer-bys. So the law is enforced around here, which is good to know.

Since school is out for almost all the kids, they are definitely taking advantage of Carnival month. Little groups of kids gather on street corners waiting for people to pass by before throwing water balloons at them. And of course, white girls walking by always has a special draw to the Peruvian guys for some reason and so they seem especially eager to get us wet. I think it’s hilarious, not to mention it feels great to cool off. I think our team should pick a street corner next Sunday and join in on the fun!

Praise God, despite the hard times

"Praise God from whom all blessings flow..." When trials and discouraging times fall upon us, it's only natural and easy to look at the situation and feel broken down, betrayed, or depressed. But recently I have been trying to look beyond the negatives in a particular situation and see how God has blessed in the situation, despite the obvious discouraging aspects. Last Friday afternoon, my camera and Brent's laptop were stolen from Jenni's and my hostel room in Pucallpa. When Jenni and I discovered this fact, I felt betrayed and pretty much was in denial. I couldn't believe that someone would take these things. It just doesn't happen to me. I hear/read about it, but not actually to me personally. But, after searching our entire room, which didn't take too long, we realized someone had come into our room and taken these two items.

As the realization set in that I would most likely 99.9% never seen my camera or Brent's laptop (which had all of Jenni's administration documents) again (unless God worked a huge miracle), I searched for the blessings that I could find in this situation. Well, first off, I didn't have any pictures really on my camera (except a few of the baby, which weren't that great anyway), I happened to not have my 4G memory card in the camera case at the time, and I even found one of my extra camera batteries in one of my other bags that I had been meaning to put in my camera bag but kept on forgetting (for which I am now thankful for forgetting). As I searched through the room to see if anything else had been stolen, I realized how many other valuable things were in the room, yet weren't taken. My passport, which was really close to the camera bag and laptop, multiple hard drives, printer, PC desktop, clothes, my laptop, and other things. The room wasn’t trashed or messed up at all. The door wasn’t broken down or anything, a very clean steal. This experience wasn’t violent, nobody got hurt or anything. Just someone decided they wanted some of our stuff and took it.

Through this whole experience, I have realized so much to be thankful for. A camera and laptop. Yes, very important and quite useful, but in the whole scheme of life, they are only things. Replaceable. It’s so easy to place a lot of value on things of this world, thinking that if we didn’t have this or that, we wouldn’t survive. This year I have learned a lot about the essentials I absolutely need to survive. And really, it’s not a lot. With this modern world the way it is, we are constantly bombarded with new gadgets, nicer clothes, better this, faster that, things we “need,” at least according to the advertising world, to survive. But I challenge each of us, myself included to not place our hearts and desires on things of this world, things that we “need.” Instead, let’s focus our eyes to the treasure God has laid in store for us in heaven. In Matthew 6:19-21, Jesus promises, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Little Baby Hector

We have been blessed to be able to help this little baby boy Hector Daniel. He was born to a mother who, because of some health conditions, was unable to nurse and take proper care of him. So Hector’s aunt tried to take care of him, feeding him rice water and other stuff that doesn’t carry really any nutrients a baby so desperately needs. So after 3 1/2 months, this baby was barely alive, skin was turning gray and he pretty much not an ounce of fat on him. His stomach was sunken in and you could see his ribs quite well. After hearing about the condition of this baby, Jenni offered to take the baby to the hospital for care. Sunday, the family brought him over and Jenni and I took him to the hospital late Sunday evening. All the nurses and doctors were shocked and in horror at the little baby in Jenni’s arms. 3 months?? Are you serious?
The doctor who helped us in emergency was Dr. Mendoza, a friend of Jenni’s from years ago. He had been the doctor in charge of Pancho, a baby helped last year. Ever so kind and helpful, he saw to it that baby Hector and both Jenni and I were taken care of. The health-care system in Peru is quite different than that in the States. First, I am learning a new definition of sterile. I’m pretty sure they have never heard of gloves here in Peru, or at least in the hospitals. Everything is done with the bare hands, including drawing blood, sticking needles, and other such “clean” activities. Secondly, all medications, syringes, and other such items must be purchased by the patient (or family) before any sort of treatment can be done. After the doctor’s rounds each morning, involved a trip to the pharmacy on the hospital premises to purchase the day’s supply of medicines and syringes. There is insurance and so if bought at the hospital pharmacy, there is a discount, but if bought outside, no such luck. So, if you happen to have an emergency, I hope you brought a family member to go buy your IV set up and medications, otherwise, you’ll have to wait until someone can purchase the stuff. And hopefully during that time, you won’t bleed to death.


Back to the baby. Hector has improved 100% over the last few days. Each day, he has a marked improvement in energy and movement. Sunday night, I was running around town buying medications for the baby. Finally after everything, we were admitted to the hospital. The baby laid on the bed and Jenni and I looked at him and looked at each other and were like, NOW WHAT?? Since, it was after 11pm, we both decided to spend the night in the hospital bed with the baby. Quite cozy. Well, since neither of us have experience being moms to a 3 month old, the first night was quite the experience. Needless to say, we didn’t sleep the first night. The baby kept us both awake the entire night. He really liked the whole idea of sleeping maybe 15 minutes, followed up with a cry of hunger until we fed him some PediaSure milk through a syringe because he didn’t know how to suck on a nipple. This was his first time getting some nutritious food and he was hungry. By the next morning, we realized this taking-care-of-baby-thing was gonna be a handful. And to add to that, all the moms in the pediatric ward thought the sight of two white gringas taking care of a 3 month-old Peruvian baby as the craziest sight ever. Needless to say, over the next few days, we had quite the steady stream of visitors, all wondering how in the world we ended up with this baby and why we weren’t nursing the poor little guy. Well, those explanations were always fun!! So, over the next few days, I truly felt like a mom, spending day and night with the baby. My whole life seemed to revolve around the baby, nothing else. My days and nights were spent rocking the baby, feeding him, and sometimes being able to watch him sleep. Sleep. For the first few days, Hector didn’t know what that word mean’t, therefore, he didn’t practice it. Up until Thursday night, he didn’t sleep more than 30minutes straight. Day or night. Meaning, Jenni or I didn’t sleep more than 20 minutes straight. So after a while, we got into a system of watching him. Switching off nights taking care of him. Finally on Thursday night, realizing the baby wasn’t going to be released anytime soon, we called up our backup moms from km.38 to help out, especially for nights. So now, little baby Hector has many mommies.

Hector has improved soo incredibly much over the last days. When I first saw him, he just laid motionless, with no energy or color in his skin. Now, his eyes are wide open, very curious to the world around him. He especially is fixated with a painting of Pinocchio on the wall. He has color in his skin again. His tummy is full and looks like it’s about to pop each time he is fed. He loves scratching his head behind his ears and just tries to kick and move, though he is still unable to move his head. He is able to sleep for hours now, which is amazing and makes nights so much easier to deal with. Pretty much, he’s doing amazing! Praise God!! Little Hector has been released from the hospital today and so is being taken back to km. 38 for a little more strengthening before heading back to his family. I have had such a great time with this little bundle of joy, now realizing how much of a responsibility and sacrifice it is to have a baby. Please continue to pray for little Hector as he is soon to return to his family, where it will be harder to receive the nutritious milk he needs.

January Clinic

Our latest campaign saw us quite close to home, which in fact was quite lovely indeed. Sleeping in my own bed for more than two nights in a row, eating at the house with everyone and just taking a break from hostel/city living was very much appreciated on my part.

Clinic this time took place in 3 different places. Sunday through Tuesday we were at Dos de Diciembre, about 5km. down the road from our house. The first three days saw little patients. The pace was slow and the lines short. The biggest excitement was a runaway bull charging through our clinic away, scaring everyone as we heard screams and loud stomping of the bull as it neared the schoolhouse where we were holding clinic. Thankfully we were able to get everyone safely inside the building and watch as someone on the back of a truck tried to lasso the bull. Cf course, it didn't work and the bull ran away. Quite fun. The people of Dos de Diciembre were quite nice and with the clinic being a slower pace, I was able to sit and chat with some of the people hanging around. That's when you really get to know the people and see the needs. One of the ladies asked me if I had any children. Well, I said no, but then she started talking about how there were so many orphaned children in this village or children with parents, but the parents are unable to support the child. no money for food or clothes. The lady then proceeds to point to a boy standing just in front of us, who I guess is a child of parents who can't afford to take care of him. He is smiling broadly and joking with one of his friends. As I looked at him, trying to imagine life without parents, a life without ever having enough food to eat or having clean, hole-less clothes, it made me really sad. At that moment, I so wanted to just adopt that boy and all the other homeless kids in Peru and take care of them. Of course, right now for me that would be impossible, but....

Wednesday found us quite busy in Santa Catalina. With only one day in this village, the people made the most of it. With leftover donated glasses from the Gordon Hospital group clinic back in August/September, David and Kristin were quickly trained and were able to pass out prescription glasses to those in need. Definitely a popular place to be. The optical team were quite busy the entire day…and clinic for that matter. Dental was pretty crazy too.

With each clinic, I get better, more confident and efficient pulling teeth. Some patients take less than 10 minutes, while others I have poured sweat and worked on for over an hour. Those are the patients that test my patience and trust in God. Each time I honestly feel like giving up and letting someone else try, right on the brink of giving up, the tooth pops out! While working on each patient’s mouth, I am praying to God for a steady hand, clear head, and patience. I could not be able to pull these teeth without God’s help. Some patients are nearly impossible to numb, which makes it all the more difficult to pull the tooth. So I pray for patience, a firm steady grip, and the knowledge to know how to get the tooth out quickly and smoothly without too much discomfort.

Driving farther in for clinic on Thursday and Friday, we were able to help people in the larger village of Nueva Tunuya. These two days were quite busy for us in dental and so I didn’t have much time to take pictures and get to know the people as well, but those I did meet were so kind and helpful! Many of the kids enjoyed just hanging around and watch dental. They were all so cute and sweet!!:-) Friday was a crazy long day with seemingly extra-long/hard patients. After lunch I worked on this elderly man’s teeth for what seemed like forever. He wasn’t getting numb and I was getting frustrated, because he seemed to be wincing in pain with the slightest touch, though ALL of the kids I had worked on earlier that day had been tough as steel!! Grrr…finally I was able to get the teeth out he needed and finished up. I was still feeling a little grumpy as I took my last patient for the day and clinic. She was only six yrs. old and the cutest little thing ever. Actually she and her twin sister came in at the same time and Brent took one and I took the other. Sooo adorable. Both of the girls just needed a little help getting some rotten baby teeth out, so with just a couple gentle tugs, I got her tooth out. All done. Less than 10 minutes!! I like finishing the clinic week with a good patient like that. But what really made my day was when her and her sister both thanked us for helping them and shook our hands. Not only was it the most precious thing ever, but it just really made me realize yet again how much a simple thank you and smile can make someone’s day!!

On a really sad note, our team found out on the Monday after clinic week that one of the leaders of the village of Nueva Tunuya and his family had been shot and machetted to death over the weekend. Apparently he had made an agreement with the government to inform them of the location of his village’s cocaine fields. The town found out and took revenge, killing him, his wife, his brother, and his children. It really hit home, knowing that we had seen these people and helped them in medical, dental, and/or optical on Thursday or Friday. Life is soo short! I pray that in the short time we were in Nueva Tunuya for clinic, we were able to show Christ to these people and be a blessing!! I hope and pray I will see these precious children of God in heaven one day!

January clinic and other random pictures

What is A.M.O.R. Projects?

Here is the video of A.M.O.R. Projects that is being sent to the missions, conferences, and unions of Peru. It's kind of a promo thing for A.M.O.R. Projects. If you are interested in receiving a copy to show at church, schools, or another event, please let me know. God bless!

clips from Peru

Here is a video of random clips from life in Peru, mostly from life at km. 38. All the clips are pretty much unedited, cause I was running out of time when I made it, so it's kinda longer, but it's still fun to look at. sooo...tada

pics from the trip

Bus rides, uncooked eggs, people watching, and sunburns

Christmas vacation. What comes to mind? Probably not hiking, sunburns, traveling around in buses for hours and hours, or even eating pizza for Christmas dinner. Well, what’s traditional anyway? When living in Peru, it’s all about living the nontraditional life. Considering we traveled around southern Peru for two weeks, which means tons of adventures, there is not time to relive all of them right now, I will mention some of the highlights.

So we left Saturday night on a 20hr. bus ride over the Andes to Lima. I have never spent so many hours in a bus before and with it pretty much impossible to get any sort of quality sleep, the hours dragged by. But we eventually got to Lima and were able to stretch the legs and wander around the city with our huge, badly-packed backpacks. Using buses as our main source of transportation between major cities was not only cheaper but much more adventuresome than flying. Of course, the big drawback for busing is that it takes forever to get anywhere. So…many a night was spent driving from one city to another, usually with not many hours of successful sleep. Arriving at the bus station around 5 or 6am, many a time we were greeted by a handful of desperate off-season hostel owners, begging for our business. It was great! Usually we wouldn’t know where we would be staying in the next city, soo these people answered our prayers with amazing hostels for unbeatable prices that could be bargained down even more!! So for less than $3 a night, we were able to enjoy free breakfasts, hot water, our own beds, luggage storage, not to mention meeting some really nice people and just having a place to crash after traveling around town all day. It was such a blessing!!

For living in Pucallpa for about 5 months and not seeing hardly any foreigners except those from within our group, arriving in the Lima airport and traveling to the different touristy cities and places was actually quite a culture shock. I hadn’t seen so many English-speaking people, it felt really weird to talk to these people in English. So many of the restaurants catered to the tourists, and so much of the time we would ask for a menú (which is the cheaper food a restaurant serves, costing usually about $.90-2.00). Many of the restaurants didn’t have menus, or the cheapest plates they would have would be like S./10-15 or about $3.50-5.00. Quite expensive for us from Pucallpa where it’s quite easy to find places to eat cheap and safely! And when we did find a place to eat, we complicated matters by asking for vegetarian food. Much of the time the only option was eggs, rice, soup, and salad. So by the end of the trip, we all hated eggs, mostly cause Peruvians don’t know how to properly them and so much of the meals consisted of almost raw “sunny-side-up” eggs. Nasty. So finding food was always a stressful time, because we would be hungry but unable to find places that would serve decent food at a reasonable price. On Christmas Day, however, we splurged and went to a tourist restaurant and ordered clay-oven baked pizza, for about S./12 (about $4.00) per person with a pitcher of lemonade to share. AMAZING!! We felt so giddy and weird spending so much money on one meal, but hey, it’s Christmas right?!

Our travels took us to Arequipa, which is quite a beautiful city. I highly recommend it! From there we traveled to Cusco, Puno, which took us to the floating islands and Isla Taquile of Lake Titicaca, then on to Copacabana, Bolivia where we renewed our visas and spent a beautiful night on Isla del Sol!! Quite an amazing two weeks. Definitely the highlight was hiking to Machu Picchu, just outside of Cusco. The three of us girls, Tara, Kaitlin, and I had ever really backpacked before, but thankfully Brent, is not only an expert backpacker, but also very patient and helpful to us newbies!!J The first day of our quest for Machu Picchu found us riding a supposedly 5hr. bus to Santa Maria. It turned into more like an 8hr. ride as our bus as to navigate through mud slides, some of which came a little too close to the edge of the cliff for my liking, but our guardian angels were with us, and we safely arrived in Santa Maria. The trail we were to take to Machu Picchu started in Santa Maria, with us spending a day hiking for about 7hrs. to Santa Teresa where we would spend the night. The 2nd day of hiking had us hike from Santa Teresa to Aguas Calientes. The third day hikng from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu and spending the day checking out the place.

Well, we got to Santa Maria safely. But we didn’t really know how to get to Santa Teresa. Of course, there is the road, which cars take, but we wanted the trail, and of course we didn’t know where that was. So after some searching and asking around, we finally figured out the general direction to take. So early the next morning we set out, knowing that a few other guided groups were to be on the trail as well, so if we didn’t know which direction to take, we could just follow one of the groups. The trail was absolutely amazing! Incredibly beautiful. As we slowly ascended higher and higher along the narrow path, the view would just get better and better. Hiking the trail wasn’t easy and we had to stop often, but it was totally all worth it. In the late afternoon we came to the part of the trail where we had to cross over the river by a simply constructed cable car. Quite a thrilling experience. After hiking a few hours, we stopped at some hot springs just outside of Santa Teresa to relax with the other groups of hikers for a bit. This whole hiking experience was different because there were quite a number of places/towns to stop at along the way, so we didn’t have to carry any food! Many of the locals have taken advantage of having the trail run practically through their front yards and have set up water/Gatorade/snack stands along the way. Day two of hiking was much easier, though my back was still sore from the day-before’s activities. We hiked through almost every kind of terrain possible, or at least it seemed like it. So fun sloshing through creeks, climbing over rocks, descending steps, and climbing seemingly straight up a mountain, crossing rivers by cable cars, walking on railroad tracks, mud, so much variety, it never got boring! After hiking along the railroad tracks, we finally made it to Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of Machu Picchu.

We got up early the next morning to climb the last little bit and enjoy the sunrise on Machu Picchu. Well, when we finally arrived at the top, the fog was so thick we couldn’t see anything. So we decided to hike around and find the classic machu picchu photo op. Place. Well, apparently we were overachievers and instead climbed Machu Picchu mountain. With the fog so thick, and after climbing for over 1 1/2hrs. with no luck, we finally stopped to rest and have Sabbath worship. As we sung, the clouds parted and Machu Picchu unveiled itself in all it’s glory over 1000ft. below us! It truly was beautiful. As the four of us surveyed the scene below us, we could see much of the trail that we had hiked, except from way up on the mountain top. As the clouds continued to burn off, we could see for miles and it was so amazingly beautiful. This place was just breathtaking, I can’t even imagine what heaven will be like!! Well, we decided to actually go explore the lost city, and so made a much quicker decent down to the ruins. Brent practically ran up Waynapicchu (probably to escape from us slow-pokes..haha:-)) as us girls decided to rest and take in the whole scene. We spent the day checking out the place and unknowingly picking up quite a bit of sun rays apparently, cause when we got back down to Aguas Calientes, we discovered we got quite toasted:-). Well, Machu Picchu was quite beautiful, though I think I enjoyed the hike (as hard as it was) and the view from Machu Picchu mountain better.

Sunday was spent trying to get back to Cusco, which consisted of riding the train partway, then riding a stuffed minibus (21 people, 2 babies, and the cutest little puppy ever, plus all the luggage) for 3hrs and catching an overnight bus back to Cusco. Quite the trip back, but definitely cheaper than $46!! The four of us then caught a bus to Puno where we spent Christmas Day visiting the floating islands and Isla Traquile on Lake Titicaca. Riding the bus across the border into Bolivia to renew visas was uneventful, except being from the U.S. always requires more money to be paid and a few extra documents, but soon we were on our way to the border town of Copacabana, Bolivia. We quickly found out that the town is like Hippy-capital. So many foreigners, I hardly saw a Bolivian the whole time. I liked Bolivia, mostly cause the exchange rate is even better than Peru!! But Lake Titicaca truly is more beautiful on the Bolivian side. We took a boat out to Isla del Sol and camped out on the island. Soo beautiful. With snow-capped Andes mountains painting the backdrop, we slept under the stars and watched an amazing sunset and sunrise on the lake. Soo cool!

We then headed back over the border with no trouble, and so I’m now able to live in Peru for another 90 days legally:-). So we then spent the evening in Puno making quite a few purchases at the local alpaca markets. We then headed to Cusco then back to Arequipa to catch our plane back to Lima. So we arrived safely back in Pucallpa early Monday morning. and that was 2 weeks! Now I need a vacation to recover!!

For many many pictures from the trip visit (click "Christmas in Peru" on the left side): http://s48.photobucket.com/albums/f214/lkclark/