Peru 2009 - Entry 3: ¡Los Deportes y La Iglesia!

What an amazing day! After a breakfast at the hostal, we headed out to the barrio for a long day of work. I use the term ´work´loosely, because it really was a fantastic day. The common greeting in Peru is to say hello and kiss the person on their right cheek, so for each and every person we encountered upon arriving at the barrio, we each received a hug and a kiss. I don´t know that I´ve ever been kissed so many times in one day! And everyone really makes it a priority to greet us and make us feel welcome. It´s wonderful and it creates such a feeling of fellowship. (I think we should bring this custom to the states... who´s with me?)

Right as we got out of the taxis, I saw Alexander, the little boy I befriended last year. One of my teammates, Tori, said his face just lit up like a lighbulb when he saw me. The kids were doing something different right then, but I ran over to him and gave him a quick hug and kiss anyways. I can´t explain how wonderful it was to see the kids again and for us to recognize one another. Last year I met a little girl named Maria who was very, very timid. She and I had chatted a little bit about halfway through the week and for the following three days she was pretty much glued to my hip. Well, to my surprise, Maria was up front leading the younger kids in some games when we got there. I was so, so excited to see her up in front of people having a good time. They have done a lot to build up the adult leadership in the barrio over the past few years, and I am thrilled to see that it is reaching the children as well.

After feeding the youngest kids breakfast, we did our first lesson. A few of my teammates, Andrea and her daughter Jamie, had prepared a lesson based around the book ´You Are Special´by Max Lucado. (It´s a very cute book--I highly recommend it if you´ve never read it.) It´s essentially about how God´s opinion is the only one that matters, and about how our worth should come from Him. The kids really enjoyed the illustrations and the story, the only bummer was that because it was so long, Andrea didn´t have an opportunity to read it in English and have me translate, I just had to do the Spanish so we could stay within a reasonable time frame. The craft to accompany the story was hand puppets made out of brown paper bags. We brought yarn for hair, googly eyes, and crayons to draw faces and outfits. We saw some of the CUTEST puppets. (My favorites were the boys who put beards and moustaches on theirs.)

I have several battle wounds from today as well. Pretty much the first thing I did after waking up this morning was go to fill up some water bottles from our ´safe´ water source. (The water here isn´t safe, so much that we can´t even eat fruit that has been washed in it, so we have a jug that the missionaries fill up for us that we take with us back and forth from the hostal to the barrio.) Graceful though I am, I managed to fall up the stairs. So for the first time, the first aid kit was used as I cleaned out and bandaged my cut fingers. This afternoon at the barrio, we had another sports day with the adults and youth... and again, I will note that they are both competitive and very good at both volleyball and soccer. We had a really fun time, but I hurt all over. Thank goodness tomorrow isn´t a sports day.

After dinner we had a church service in the community center. It was kind of funny, because about 30 minutes before we were supposed to start they asked us how we were going to decorate. Decorate? Yes. They have decorations and things pinned up on the walls and each week different people are in charge of making the room look spiffy. It turned out all right, but it was definitely a surprise. We did some worship through music at the beginning of the service, which was pretty fun in Spanish. Then Dan, one of the team members, taught about the Holy Spirit and I translated. Then Loys got up and finished the sermon talking about the fruits of the spirit. Before we left, while we were waiting for our taxis, Alexander and I chatted for a little bit.

It was an awesome day. I am so excited we had the opportunity to spend time with these people, get to know them a little more, and love on the kids. The reality is, most of the kids don´t get sufficient attention at home, and when we come, we are really able to make them feel special, like they´re worth something. (Just like in the story!) So that was pretty fantastic.

Tomorrow we´ll be spending time with Mike, Danell, Skylar, and Nicole in Trujillo and then head to their house for supper. (I anticipate being very, very sore.)

Spanish of the Day = papas rellenas (which means ´refilled potatoes´) is the dinner we had tonight. It was delicious and I´m determined to find a decent recipe to make it at some point after we get back to the states.

¡Bendiciones!