Lasting impressions and things I learned in no particular order...
Warm people - who both greeted and said goodbye with a smile, a strong hug and kiss. Often the women would hold us and pray for us as we left.
Missionary, friend, translator and "tour guide" Minina - who was wise enough to know that if you want the "gringa" missionaries to understand the people they must not just see the areas that need ministry but also the riches the Peruvian people have: beautiful mountains, waterfalls, flowers, butterflies, skilled handcrafts, delicious food. She in turn was surprised to have her image of American women as being quiet, reserved and shy blown apart. We had a blast with her.
We were surprised to find that the white balloons were very popular with the children, probably because they didn't often have anything that is clean and white. It was also a popular necklace color outside of Lima in the poorer regions. Necklaces in the red colors or with bright pinks or purples were also popular. Blues, not so much.
Sometimes 11 year old boys like to make necklaces too.
Women we assumed were at least in their 60's because of their gray hair and old wrinkled faces were more likely to be in their 40's.
Rural, poor mountain children in Peru share a lot of similarities with inner-city Rochester kids. They are hungry for attention - and can seek it in patience-trying ways - show up out of nowhere and will stick around for whatever you have planned for them because the don't want to miss out on anything you might be giving away.
Small cheap plastic beach balls are highly coveted objects of wonder to Peruvian children. But even when I was sure one or two of them were running away forever they still all came back.
Cheap frisbee-like rings were also popular. Most successful game: Try to toss the ring on the cone on the ground, hand your ring to the next kid and go to the end of the line.
If you have a balloon-animal making disability and can only make the head of a dog you can tell a Peruvian kid it is mouse puppet and they are overjoyed, especially if each child gets one.
Unlike American kids I never saw them use a balloon puppet to bop another child with (as we adults immediately did while experimenting with our creation). I'm still wondering why.
Everyone loves to sing. They loved new songs; they loved familiar songs. I scored on both counts with the music I had prepped. Everyone loves "Absolutamente Nada" ("Nothing" from FCWC) and my translation of it was spot on according to Minina. Three priceless moments for me were: 1) the 4 boys riding in the back of our van spontaneously launching into singing the songs they'd learned. 2) The women wanting to sing the new songs again while they were working on their necklaces. 3) The two little girls that were around while the women were making necklaces that grabbed a guitar and started trying to sing "Nada". Beth Ann and I helped them perform it for the moms.
Standing in one spot on a jungle trail that was like being in the butterfly garden at Strong with butterflies everywhere including giant blue ones.
Barren highland mountains and thin air at the pass... Forcing myself to move very slowly so I wouldn't get sick. Mild altitude headaches in Huancayo. Using elevators instead of the stairs. Gasping for air while trying to do the motions for "Nada" at 11,000 feet elevation!
Reworking our plans repeatedly and often on the fly to meet the needs of the location/situation. Plans need to be a bag of tricks one can pull from, not an inflexible prescribed plan of attack.
Women who hung on every word when told they were precious to God, beautifully created and highly treasured by Him. Some got teary, even Christian women, as they had apparently never understood this before. Women and children are not as valued as men in this society, viewed as property and often abused. They have low self-esteem.
Being told quietly by some of the women leaders that there is a real need for ministry to abused women and that even the pastors need practical teaching on how to love their families as much or more than theology. Any ministry we develop for the women would best be paired with solid teaching for the men. Christian teaching on Love and Respect is needed.
Young mothers hungrily listened to the children's lessons when the children were sometimes too distracted. There was always someone paying close attention to the message.
Indian markets have beautiful things dirt cheap. I went broke saving money.
Needing a bottle of water at all times. Bottled water was safe and we needed to drink a lot. And brush our teeth with it. If I wasn't drinking water I was drinking Coke, Coke Zero or yellow Inca Cola.
Pachamanca. Being fed this extravagant gift in the Vista Hermosa children's center. Copious amounts of food roasted in the ground: chicken, cilantro coated pork, yucca fries, roasted butter beans in their pods, delicious purple sweet potatoes, white potatoes.
Dishes of hot sauce on every table. Every place had its own variety of pureed homemade chili sauce that didn't look like varieties we get at home. My favorite was a whitish chili sauce we got in La Merced.
Siesta time (roughly noon to 3) is welcome and needed when temperatures are in the 90s.
Dinner happens sometime after 7pm. 10pm is not too late. Ice cream is good anytime and can substitute for dinner.
Finger crocheted necklaces are the perfect craft, loved by the women and the local missionaries. They allowed for plenty of physical contact as we took women's hands and showed them how to do it. Once they got the hang of it they happily worked and chatted or could listen to the teaching while they worked. They were so proud of what they made. If the local missionary women can get a kind of ribbon that will work they will continue to use the project to build relationships with women and teen girls.
Having a long morning cup of tea and good woman-to-woman chat in English with a group of Americans can be a real joy for a long term missionary woman and her adult daughter.
Tearing up as I listened to a couple young pastors grab a guitar and share some of their worship music with me. Even though they looked so different from me, our hearts had the same God living inside. The trials of the world and hope of heaven in the music was very real. Their songs touched me.
Clocks were simply not going to work for Kelly in Peru no matter how hard she tried. (Kelly, my watch works just fine now that it is off your wrist. In fact the alarm I set just went off).
Traffic laws are suggestions. "Stop" means "put your foot near the brake". Do not pass signs or double solid lines on winding mountain roads (with usually no guardrails) mean "don't pass if you are timid. Everyone else use caution and pass aggressively."
Peru team in Lima
The whole team
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Trip Completed
We are done with the trip and back in Rochester again, except for the 4 who stayed on to tour Machu Picchu.
I apologize that I haven't been able to blog for the last several days. I haven't had time or computer access.
Since my last blog we traveled from Huancayo to our 3rd site at La Merced. En route we stopped at the Vista Hermosa children's project in Tarma for a couple hours to eat lunch with the staff and pass out Dress-A-Girl dresses and baseball caps to the kids. What a joyful experience! We had to work quickly with the portion of the kids that were there on lunch break from school. Vista Hermosa is a Compassion International site but goes beyond what Compassion officially does. Compassion provides meals 3 days a week for the kids but the crew there privately provides them the rest of the week as well. With Compassion only one child in a family can be sponsored but Vista Hermosa provides services to many more children...Basically, Compassion International is just one of their main resources. They are in a building project that includes tiling the dirt floors, building steps instead of muddy paths and hopefully adding 6 new classrooms sometime soon when God provides the money. Additional classrooms will allow them to serve younger children. We left the remaining dresses, caps, dolls and Beanie Babies with the teachers to pass out to the kids who would come after we needed to be on our way. While there our team was treated to a pachamanca, which is a traditional Peruvian meal cooked in a pit in the ground. We all had heaps of delicious food.
The drive from Tarma down to La Merced was beautiful as the vistas changed from high sierra to mountainous jungle terrain with fruit farms planted up the steep mountainsides.
Our time in the tropics of La Merced, with temperatures in the high 90s and no AC, was quite a contrast to the dust and crowded conditions of Huancayo. When we dropped by the site at 3:15pm to scope it out and leave our supplies for what we expected to be dual evening sessions with the women and children, we were surprised to learn the children were already arriving for a 3:30 session instead of an evening session. (Change in schedule meets a communication glitch). It was truly by the grace of God we happened to be there with all of our supplies, but this was the schedule we all preferred. We were delighted that our full team of 4 women could work with the kids and then work with the women later. Everything was so much more relaxed and it allowed for plenty of one-on-one contact which we missed with the crowds in Huancayo. We only had about 18 children and 31 women, but our work with them was more relaxed and felt more productive. With the heat and humidity large numbers would have been unbearable. Because we were in the same location as the men we were also able to meet some of them before and after the teaching. I loved hearing them share some of their worship music with us. The Peruvians love to sing!
While in La Merced we women had time to go hiking to some waterfalls and see lots of butterflies and flowers. Before driving out on Saturday and heading back over the mountain pass we made sure our men got to go on a waterfall excursion as well. We got back late Saturday night after having to drive slowly for quite awhile through fog on the mountain pass. Sunday we slept late, packed, went to the big Miraflores church, had lunch with some of the leaders, and spent time touring and shopping before flying out about midnight.
I apologize that I haven't been able to blog for the last several days. I haven't had time or computer access.
Since my last blog we traveled from Huancayo to our 3rd site at La Merced. En route we stopped at the Vista Hermosa children's project in Tarma for a couple hours to eat lunch with the staff and pass out Dress-A-Girl dresses and baseball caps to the kids. What a joyful experience! We had to work quickly with the portion of the kids that were there on lunch break from school. Vista Hermosa is a Compassion International site but goes beyond what Compassion officially does. Compassion provides meals 3 days a week for the kids but the crew there privately provides them the rest of the week as well. With Compassion only one child in a family can be sponsored but Vista Hermosa provides services to many more children...Basically, Compassion International is just one of their main resources. They are in a building project that includes tiling the dirt floors, building steps instead of muddy paths and hopefully adding 6 new classrooms sometime soon when God provides the money. Additional classrooms will allow them to serve younger children. We left the remaining dresses, caps, dolls and Beanie Babies with the teachers to pass out to the kids who would come after we needed to be on our way. While there our team was treated to a pachamanca, which is a traditional Peruvian meal cooked in a pit in the ground. We all had heaps of delicious food.
The drive from Tarma down to La Merced was beautiful as the vistas changed from high sierra to mountainous jungle terrain with fruit farms planted up the steep mountainsides.
Our time in the tropics of La Merced, with temperatures in the high 90s and no AC, was quite a contrast to the dust and crowded conditions of Huancayo. When we dropped by the site at 3:15pm to scope it out and leave our supplies for what we expected to be dual evening sessions with the women and children, we were surprised to learn the children were already arriving for a 3:30 session instead of an evening session. (Change in schedule meets a communication glitch). It was truly by the grace of God we happened to be there with all of our supplies, but this was the schedule we all preferred. We were delighted that our full team of 4 women could work with the kids and then work with the women later. Everything was so much more relaxed and it allowed for plenty of one-on-one contact which we missed with the crowds in Huancayo. We only had about 18 children and 31 women, but our work with them was more relaxed and felt more productive. With the heat and humidity large numbers would have been unbearable. Because we were in the same location as the men we were also able to meet some of them before and after the teaching. I loved hearing them share some of their worship music with us. The Peruvians love to sing!
While in La Merced we women had time to go hiking to some waterfalls and see lots of butterflies and flowers. Before driving out on Saturday and heading back over the mountain pass we made sure our men got to go on a waterfall excursion as well. We got back late Saturday night after having to drive slowly for quite awhile through fog on the mountain pass. Sunday we slept late, packed, went to the big Miraflores church, had lunch with some of the leaders, and spent time touring and shopping before flying out about midnight.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Scattering seeds
Our two days in Huancayo have been challenging yet a blessing as well. The weather has been warm and beautiful both days, even for our trip over the pass where we expected to need winter coats and didn´t even need a jacket. We women have had long times of just shopping the markets for ourselves and also for ministry supplies, eating good meals and plenty of time for intense replanning. Then we have worked very hard from 3:30-6pm doing our 2 hour programs with a packed room of women and about 75 children at another location starting a 1/2 hour after the women.
The women were absolutely delighted with their program and packed the room. They made necklaces both days, making a 2nd one for a friend or finishing their first one on the second day. They also learned how to make a gift box. They beamed when showing off their handiwork and listened closely to the teaching. There is a great need for ministry to poor women in this area.
The children were so so excited they were often a difficult group to control, but loved the singing and participated in the stories and answering questions. The games and crafts were hard to keep organized with the language difficulties, but they had so much fun anyway. One little girl asked "Why don't you come more often?" We had to take 4 little boys back in the van to their mothers at the women's site and they sang all the way back in the car.
It has been hard to adjust to being too busy to work on relationships with the kids and getting only short one-on-one times with the kids. A lot of the work has felt like flinging the seeds of God´s love around and hoping it takes root. There is nothing really wrong with flinging seeds since it is better than saying the work is too difficult, the need is too great, and doing nothing. The seeds that grow will be nurtured by the Peruvians who live and work here and can´t offer what we have done without our help. We plant, another waters, but it is God that produces the growth. I am simply to obey and do my best when God calls me to do something. It is up to God to use what I give however He chooses.
Tomorrow we leave for Tarma and the Vista Hermosa projects where we will be giving out dresses and baseball caps to the poor children and then heading on to La Merced and the jungle.
Thank you for your prayers. They have helped greatly.
Sally
The women were absolutely delighted with their program and packed the room. They made necklaces both days, making a 2nd one for a friend or finishing their first one on the second day. They also learned how to make a gift box. They beamed when showing off their handiwork and listened closely to the teaching. There is a great need for ministry to poor women in this area.
The children were so so excited they were often a difficult group to control, but loved the singing and participated in the stories and answering questions. The games and crafts were hard to keep organized with the language difficulties, but they had so much fun anyway. One little girl asked "Why don't you come more often?" We had to take 4 little boys back in the van to their mothers at the women's site and they sang all the way back in the car.
It has been hard to adjust to being too busy to work on relationships with the kids and getting only short one-on-one times with the kids. A lot of the work has felt like flinging the seeds of God´s love around and hoping it takes root. There is nothing really wrong with flinging seeds since it is better than saying the work is too difficult, the need is too great, and doing nothing. The seeds that grow will be nurtured by the Peruvians who live and work here and can´t offer what we have done without our help. We plant, another waters, but it is God that produces the growth. I am simply to obey and do my best when God calls me to do something. It is up to God to use what I give however He chooses.
Tomorrow we leave for Tarma and the Vista Hermosa projects where we will be giving out dresses and baseball caps to the poor children and then heading on to La Merced and the jungle.
Thank you for your prayers. They have helped greatly.
Sally
Monday, November 7, 2011
half the leaders and twice the program
Quick blog while I wait for the rest to show up for breakfast.
Yesterday we took the winding 8 hour trip over the pass to Huancayo. Everyone seems to have survived with out getting motion sickness or altitude sickness. Our driver and translater, missionary Menina, has her record intact of never having anyone she drives get sick yet. She took good care of us and prayed for us for a month before we left. We went as high as 16000 ft at the top! It was an interesting and beautiful drive. I heard the team that flew to the jungle and then drove for 4 hours over bumpy winding roads didn´t fair as well, getting motion sickness ¬ they were expecting us to have the trouble.
Today we jump into ministry with women and children at the same time doing separate programs. Since splitting our team is down to 3 women plus a translator, maybe 2 if the pastor´s wife helps, and that means I will have about 35 kids mostly by myself for 2 hours while the other 2 work with the women. Kathy Roeters was supposed to be with me but has been sent to another city to check out a possible site for the youth this summer. It will help greatly if I have a translator.
Prayers are greatly appreciated. Please pray for Kathy as well since she will be separated from the team for the whole week, but is in the goods hands of a couple missionary women.
Also, please pray for the jungle team, for those who got motion sickness. Also, their hotel was supposed to have AC but it doesn´t and it is HOT there. They were trying to buy fans.
Blessings,
Sally
Yesterday we took the winding 8 hour trip over the pass to Huancayo. Everyone seems to have survived with out getting motion sickness or altitude sickness. Our driver and translater, missionary Menina, has her record intact of never having anyone she drives get sick yet. She took good care of us and prayed for us for a month before we left. We went as high as 16000 ft at the top! It was an interesting and beautiful drive. I heard the team that flew to the jungle and then drove for 4 hours over bumpy winding roads didn´t fair as well, getting motion sickness ¬ they were expecting us to have the trouble.
Today we jump into ministry with women and children at the same time doing separate programs. Since splitting our team is down to 3 women plus a translator, maybe 2 if the pastor´s wife helps, and that means I will have about 35 kids mostly by myself for 2 hours while the other 2 work with the women. Kathy Roeters was supposed to be with me but has been sent to another city to check out a possible site for the youth this summer. It will help greatly if I have a translator.
Prayers are greatly appreciated. Please pray for Kathy as well since she will be separated from the team for the whole week, but is in the goods hands of a couple missionary women.
Also, please pray for the jungle team, for those who got motion sickness. Also, their hotel was supposed to have AC but it doesn´t and it is HOT there. They were trying to buy fans.
Blessings,
Sally
Friday, November 4, 2011
Hit the Ground Running!
We hit the ground running here in Peru almost a day late after spending Wed. night in Atlanta because of mechanical difficulties and getting up very early the next morning to fly out. After landing in Peru there was time to check in, have a big lunch (3pm) and freshen up slightly before heading to the church in Miraflores to get ready for our evening session with the women after missing the morning.
Our first evening went quite well as I first taught a song, Beth Anne did a Christmas centerpiece demonstration and then taught the necklace craft. All of us then sprang into action around the room helping the women get the knack of finger-crocheting. The women loved the project once they caught on. Insung then shared her testimony and did some teaching on God´s love. We ended with another song 2 1/2 hours after we started. We had a short break, then joined the church for their Wed. night prayer service until after 9. The church served us dinner and we headed back to the hotel for a team meeting to figure out how to adjust our schedules to acommodate missing some of the first day. After also packing and repacking several things so they could be shipped ahead to our next ministry sites we all fell into bed exhausted about midnight (1am Rochester time). My group had breakfast and headed out to Chosica this morning by 7am so it was a short night.
In Chosica my group had a marvellous day. It was warm and sunny - it is a mountain desert area above the fog that sits over Lima. The men there dove into their first day of teaching early while Jane, Kathy, Kelly and I had the chance to relax and enjoy a delightful leisurely morning getting to know missionaries Donna and her daughter Kusi, truly a blessing for all of us. After lunch we headed to the Quechua church to meet with the women. What fun we had with them! They sang us some worship songs including one in Quechua, Spanish and English that we could sing with them. I taught a song in Spanish and then we launched into necklace making, which they loved. Donna plans to try to get similar materials so she can take the project to other groups of women she works with. Kelly taught the lesson on God´s love this time, sharing her testimony. We ending by singing a couple songs again to close and they prayed for us. We had about 40 women and 8 small children there and I think we got hugs and kisses from all of them. It was hard to leave knowing that the other 1/2 of our team would be teaching the next day and we would not come back.
I´ve only been able to speak briefly to Insung, Joyce, and Beth Anne since getting back tonight but heard their 2nd day in Miraflores went very well. They doubled the attendance from the day before, having 72 women. The earring project with these women was also a success. They had the afternoon free and will go to Chosica tomorrow while the the men teach in both locations and the rest of us ladies have a day free.
One prayer request: "Dr. Manny" stayed back today from Chosica today at the last minute because arrived in Peru sick and was too ill to see patients today (stomach bug). I´ve heard he was doing better tonight, but haven´t seen him. Pray he gets better very quickly and regains his strength.
Gotta post. Time for a team meeting!
Sally
Our first evening went quite well as I first taught a song, Beth Anne did a Christmas centerpiece demonstration and then taught the necklace craft. All of us then sprang into action around the room helping the women get the knack of finger-crocheting. The women loved the project once they caught on. Insung then shared her testimony and did some teaching on God´s love. We ended with another song 2 1/2 hours after we started. We had a short break, then joined the church for their Wed. night prayer service until after 9. The church served us dinner and we headed back to the hotel for a team meeting to figure out how to adjust our schedules to acommodate missing some of the first day. After also packing and repacking several things so they could be shipped ahead to our next ministry sites we all fell into bed exhausted about midnight (1am Rochester time). My group had breakfast and headed out to Chosica this morning by 7am so it was a short night.
In Chosica my group had a marvellous day. It was warm and sunny - it is a mountain desert area above the fog that sits over Lima. The men there dove into their first day of teaching early while Jane, Kathy, Kelly and I had the chance to relax and enjoy a delightful leisurely morning getting to know missionaries Donna and her daughter Kusi, truly a blessing for all of us. After lunch we headed to the Quechua church to meet with the women. What fun we had with them! They sang us some worship songs including one in Quechua, Spanish and English that we could sing with them. I taught a song in Spanish and then we launched into necklace making, which they loved. Donna plans to try to get similar materials so she can take the project to other groups of women she works with. Kelly taught the lesson on God´s love this time, sharing her testimony. We ending by singing a couple songs again to close and they prayed for us. We had about 40 women and 8 small children there and I think we got hugs and kisses from all of them. It was hard to leave knowing that the other 1/2 of our team would be teaching the next day and we would not come back.
I´ve only been able to speak briefly to Insung, Joyce, and Beth Anne since getting back tonight but heard their 2nd day in Miraflores went very well. They doubled the attendance from the day before, having 72 women. The earring project with these women was also a success. They had the afternoon free and will go to Chosica tomorrow while the the men teach in both locations and the rest of us ladies have a day free.
One prayer request: "Dr. Manny" stayed back today from Chosica today at the last minute because arrived in Peru sick and was too ill to see patients today (stomach bug). I´ve heard he was doing better tonight, but haven´t seen him. Pray he gets better very quickly and regains his strength.
Gotta post. Time for a team meeting!
Sally
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Packed and Ready
Just a quick note here to say I'm packed and ready. At least I think I am. I'm trying hard not to obsess about the clothes I'm bringing (or not). I've weighed my suitcases and am good to go.
Our plane leaves tomorrow at 10:15am and after making connections in NYC an Atlanta we expect to arrive in Lima at 10:20pm (11:20pm Rochester time - we are leaving Daylight Savings Time a few days earlier than the rest of you). I'm grateful that the big East Coast October snowstorm was a few days ago and not now.
My plan is to blog to keep you updated. Other team members will have a chance to write in this blog as well, if they want. That will also be helpful for us to keep tabs on each other when the 2 teams split up next Sunday and head different directions.
Thanks to all of you who are praying for us!
Sally
Our plane leaves tomorrow at 10:15am and after making connections in NYC an Atlanta we expect to arrive in Lima at 10:20pm (11:20pm Rochester time - we are leaving Daylight Savings Time a few days earlier than the rest of you). I'm grateful that the big East Coast October snowstorm was a few days ago and not now.
My plan is to blog to keep you updated. Other team members will have a chance to write in this blog as well, if they want. That will also be helpful for us to keep tabs on each other when the 2 teams split up next Sunday and head different directions.
Thanks to all of you who are praying for us!
Sally
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