A Peruvian Adventure

Day 1 (Saturday, July 11):

We made it to Lima, Peru late last night. It was a long day of flying that started before 5 a.m. and ended around midnight. We got to our hotel and basically went straight to bed because we had to be ready to go at 7 a.m. this morning. We visited an all boys orphanage today with a church from Azle, Texas today. The church has been here since Tuesday working with these boys. I could tell that all of the boys were attached to the group from Azle. At this orphanage, some of the boys were special needs children. This, of course, was right up my ally. We took the boys to see the movie "Up." It was a great experience for them and they were sooooooo excited! They each got popcorn and a drink. The movie was in Spanish and I didn't really know what was going on, so I took a nap. Found out most of my team of 6 girls ended up falling asleep during the movie. After the movie, we went back to the orphanage for some lunch, did a mini Bible lesson with the boys and then had box car races. The team from America had made a race track and each boy got to make a car to race. The boys loved it!!! It was so fun to watch their faces light up as they watched the cars race. At the end of the day, we had to say good-bye to the boys. This proved to be a more challenging task than I anticipated. I started getting teary eyed watching the boys just clasp on to the Americans. They did not want us to leave. After an emotional good-bye, we came back to the hotel and got ready to eat dinner. We walked to this really nice restaurant that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. Even though I was incredibly exhausted, the first day was a great day!

There are 6 girls on my team, all but one being from the state of Texas. We have all had a great time getting to know each other. We have really bonded quickly. I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for the upcoming weeks!

I really appreciate the prayers and I'll keep you posted on what the Lord is doing in South America!

Day 2 (Sunday, July 12):

Today was a great day! We got to sleep in a little later and then we got up and went to church. The service was of course in Spanish, but it was so cool! They sang praise and worship songs and I could figure out what they were in English by listening to the beat and so forth. After church, we went to this cool restaurant. It was mostly outdoors and reminded a few of us of Joe T Garcias in Ft. Worth. This restaurant was on a huge piece of land. Once you got past the restaurant part, there were 4 wheelers, bumper boats, a jungle gym, rock climbing wall, a pony, trampolines, and tea cups. After exploring for a bit, we sat down to eat our lunch. Lunch consisted of cow heart, liver, rotisserie chicken, french fries and salad. Yes, we actually got to eat lettuce and tomatoes!! I tried the cow heart which tasted like steak, but didn't even want to attempt the liver. After lunch, we went to an adolescent girls home. All of the girls have children and they are all between the ages of 12 and 15. It was one of the sadest things I have seen. Most of the girls have been sexually abused and that is why they are in the home. The home was actually pretty nice and is run by nuns. I honestly cannot imagine being in that situation. Here I am 26 and no where near ready to have a child and they are half my age with one. They are all still kids themselves. We painted their fingernails and played soccer with them. We also took care of their babies while they were pampered and played. I think it was a great experience for them. I could tell they were really enjoying themselves. There were twin boys that were the cutest little things! One of them put on someones cowboy boots and was walking around, at least attempting to. It was hilarious! Some of the girls were sad to see us go, but fortunately, we do get to go back to that home in a few weeks and work with them more. Tomorrow is a rest day for us! YEA!! We definitely need a day of R&R. All of us have been commenting that we have only been here for 2 full days, but it feels like we have been here for a month already. It's kind of strange. The church group that is here right now is leaving tomorrow. We had a farewell dinner for them tonight. Our little intern group feels like we have kinda imposed on their trip, but they have been great to us. They have pulled us in and made us feel like we are part of them. It is going to be strange tomorrow when we go to dinner and that group is not with us. The six of us interns are having a blast getting to know each other. We have had some great laughter! One of our fun moments came tonight when we all crammed into a cab. That was quite entertaining. See picture below to see our cab ride.

Again thank you for prayers and support. I feel very blessed to have the support group that I have.

God Bless,
Dawn