Week 7

Last week was pretty relaxing for me actually. I worked on planning out the playground and garden and did VBS. Life as usual here in Peru! I met Brett and Daniel (one of the Peruvian manual labor guys) in Pucallpa on Tuesday and we bought all the supplies for the playground--wood, rope, metal, clamps, screws, etc. Things are a lot harder to find here than in the States. Unfortunately there is no Home Depot where you can get everything you need in one place. Finding the supplies for the playground was an all day affair. We probably went to 20 different stores looking for various things. To make things even more difficult, we weren't even sure exactly what we were looking for. Luckily Daniel had an idea of what he wanted. I don't know what we would have done without him! We'd probably still be looking for supplies right now.

We went to a menú for lunch that day and a meal for three people ended up costing us about $3. Unfortunately it cost me about 5 lbs. as well since I got sick from the food. I was sick for the rest of the week and still have not recovered completely from it. In fact I'm waiting for lab results right now as I'm writing this. The results were supposed to be ready this morning but now they're saying it won't be until this afternoon, leaving me with quite a bit of time to kill in town. Hopefully it's something relatively easy to get rid of. Being sick did have its advantages though. I got to go back to 38 on Friday afternoon and then slept all day Saturday.

Brett's week was a little more eventful. I don't remember exactly what he did on Monday...I think he may have helped Juanito in the jungle cutting down trees. Then on Wednesday and Thursday he helped Daniel build one of the swingsets. I got to see it when I went back to 38 this weekend and it looks really good! I can't wait to see everything when it's finished. We're doing two swingsets with 3 swings each, monkey bars, and a see-saw. They're building everything at 38 and then taking it apart and bringing it to where I live sometime next week I think.

On Friday Brett let one of the other manual labor guys help out with the swingset because he felt guilty that he had an "easy job." Instead he worked on dragging the trees out of the jungle from 8 am until 2 pm, with no lunch break! I don't know how the manual labor guys do it... It's so hot and humid here it's a miracle they don't pass out. I can barely stand running around after the kids for 3 hours every day and they're out there all day!

Saturdays in Peru are not at all restful (unless you're sick, then you get to sleep all day without feeling guilty!). The church that Brett goes to keeps him especially busy. First he goes to Sabbath school, then church, then at 3:00 he visits people and give Bible studies to people who haven't been coming to church recently and tries to bring them back to church, and finally at 4:00 there is a meeting for the youth with games and a short sermon. Saturdays where I am are just as busy. I do Sabbath school with about 75 kids, then sit in church with the kids and try and keep them quiet. After church we go back to the house and make lunch and have a little down time before the youth meeting at 4:30. Then to top it all off we have social games after sundown. Normally you would think that social games would be fun, but I don't think they are. The games pretty much involve running around in circles to music and then doing the chicken dance. And I wish that were an exaggeration. The Peruvians here seem to enjoy it though so that's what matters. By the time Sabbath is over you need another day of rest to recover from your day of "rest".

Luckily Sundays are restful in general. We get to go into town, get internet, eat, walk around, and pretty much chill. Definitely a good time to recover from the week and get ready for the next. Well, I think that pretty much sums up our week. Thanks for reading!

Week 6, sorry for the tardiness

This week was quite a busy week for me (Brett) because it was Week of Prayer at my church, Santa Elvita. After working out in the field for 8 hours, we had to go to the church for 2 hours every night. It was a pretty tiring task for me. I had to open up the Week of Prayer on Monday. The theme was ¨Brighten In Me¨ literally translated. Not sure if it makes sense in english, but that's what is was. On monday I basically had the ¨wake up ¨ message for the week. I preached about how we shouldn't just stay in our comfort zones and that we need to try new stuff and push ourselves as Christians. To wrap up Week of Prayer, we had a party on Sunday. It opened up with games at 10 in the morning on a field. We did all the camp relay games and had some good, clean competition. My team, of course, won haha. We were called the ¨conquistadors¨ and had a great time showing everyone how talented we really were. I had 3 little peruvian kids on my team from the church, we had a great time. In the evening, there was a valentine dinner for everyone from the church. Julie helped decorate for the valentine dinner, and it looked great. There were some cheesy games played before dinner, but the funniest one was for the couples. Of course they elected and have Julie and me play. The object was for the couples to turn around and not face each other and stand about 5 meters apart. Then on the male side, we had to crow like a rooster, each of us one at a time. And then the girls had to chose which crow was her man, it was called ¨eso es mi gallo¨. It was good fun and great food, i think the week of prayer worked out really well.

On Thursday, we had a day off to be able to watch the superbowl, but this didn´t work out so well. Apparently, when the people downloaded the superbowl, they didn´t realize they had only gotten the first half. So after all the waiting and anticipation, i was only able to watch the first half. I did eventually get to watch the second half earlier this week. I was such good revenge to see the Colts lose after they beat up my Bears 3 years ago, as i watched that game in the dorm in Spain at 4 in the the morning.

Work was pretty much the same. We basically mowed the 1-2 foot high grass around 38 with machettes. This work is brutal and my hands blistered up so quickly. I couldn´t even use my right hand the next day, and ended up switching to using my left hand. Work here is amazingly difficult and painful on the body, but in the end it rewarding. I love working with the peruvians. We always have a great time talking and joking around. I'm really happy with the job I have and would never trade it for any other job here.

Julie had a pretty chill week she said. She went to pucallpa pretty much everyday to plan for her park that she's going to be putting in the area where she's living. She was trying to figure out how many jungle gym items she can afford along with all the plants. It's quite a task and takes a long time. I went down to pucallpa after work on friday with one of the peruvian workers that know a lot about building. We went everywhere to get prices on wood, screws, bars of iron and everything else we need for the park. It´s a lot of work because no one really knows anything about jungle gyms, and around here they're mostly made out of iron. But I have complete confidence in Daniel that he can make an awesome park for the kids in Mariopesa. It was a really good idea by Julie and it's awesome that her parents funded it. It's gonna be a lot of fun to build.

Julie also went around a neighborhood called, Jardines, to started another VBS for the next three weeks with the kids there. So she's gonna have a lot of fun with that again, ha ha. I hope the kids there will be nicer to her and give her an easier time. It´s hectic trying to deal with so many kids in another language, i can´t even imagine it. I can barely do it at summer camp in english. But it´s a good experience for her I think and she´ll have a lot of stories when she comes back home. It´ll be a time we´ll never forget and can always remember back to what we did in peru. Hope everyone has an amazing weekend, and week 7 will be written on Sunday. Take care!!

Julie's week 5

Wow, I have had the craziest week! So much stuff has happened that I don't even know where to begin. On Tuesday morning I went into the city with Mike to make copies for the kids to color in the afternoon. We got a motorkar back to where we live and right as we were coming up to our street a bunch of guys with their shirts off ran by us. They were all carrying rocks, planks, or machetties in their hands and running in the direction of our house. The motorkar driver stopped and asked someone what was going on and the person said that they were going to fight the police! We were so confused but the motorkar driver told us to go to our house, shut the door, and not come out until it was all over. So we ran to our house and on the way we saw about 50 police with full riot gear on and a crowd of people chucking rocks and whatever else they could find at the police. It was nuts! We went into our house to find out what was going on. Nobody knew for sure what was happening but they told us that this had been going on for a couple hours and that we needed to just stay out of it.

A little later our neighbor told us to come with him and watch from a safe distance. So a couple of us went with him because we were kind of curious as to what would happen. We got over to where the action was happening. This one huge Peruvian woman with a cigarette in one hand and a fence post in the other sees us and yells something to the affect of "the gringos are on our side!" We decided that it probably wasn't a good idea for us to be there so we went back to the house. Later that day we found out what happened. There is an empty plot of land next to our community and a gang from Pucallpa decided to go and squat the land so that they could buy it for a cheap price and then sell it and make money for the gang. I'm not exactly sure how it works but if you live in a place for a month the owner of the land has to sell it to you for a really cheap price. You can then go and sell it to someone else and make a profit. Of course the owners of the land don't want this to happen so they do everything they can to prevent people from squatting the land. They called the police to kick the people out. The police came and were chasing the gang away and one of the guys ran into a house in our community. The police followed and tore the house apart looking for the guy. A 12-yea-old boy was inside and the police got confused nad thought that the boy was a member of the gang and and they beat him and took him to jail. When the people in our community heard about this they got really upset and started fighting the police. It was a huge mess! We were never in danger and everyone is fine. The police left a few days later so I think it's all over now. I guess we'll see though. They tell us that this sort of stuff happens with every invasion community and sometimes it can go on for months or even as long as a year!

Anyway, that was Tuesday. Wednesday had some drama as well. A guy who lives two houses down from us got into a fight with his wife and ended up drinking a whole thing of rat poison and then refused to go to the hospital. So the family comes to get us since we have 4 nurses and the Bible workers. The Bible workers talked to him for a while trying to tell him why life is worth living, etc. etc. and they finally convinced him to let our nurses help him. All we had available was a few charcoal pills though. They ended up having to burn wood and then crush it up and have him drink it. He is still alive as far as I know.

Here in Peru people are deathly afraid of white people. A lot of them believe that if you're white you will kill them and take their organs to sell on the black market. I guess a group of people actually did do this at one time so it has only cemented this idea in their heads even more. They call the gringos "face peelers." A lot of the time people will yell this out at us when we're walking down the street. Anyway, a few days ago this little girl died a few streets away from our house and there are rumors going around that she was cut open and all of her fat was taken out of her. Of course the rumors are also saying that we are the ones that did it. So we have had some problems with people not wanting health lessons or Bible studies anymore... Luckily only a few people are listening to these rumors and most of the people here know that we are their friends and are here to help them, not hurt them.

On Saturday I went to church at a place called Tupac Amaru. They had the last campaign there so they're sending two people there every week to support the church that they set up. It took us about an hour and a half to get there by motokar and it rained the whole way there. For some reason the road is made out of clay so you can imagine the mess it makes when it rains. On the way home we kept getting stuck and the driver and Mike would get out and push the motorkar. At one point, a guy on a motorcycle was passing us and completely lost control of the motorcycle and fell over into a huge puddle. It was so funny! He was pretty embarrassed I think. We got back to where we live and the tent where we have our evangelistic meetings was completely flooded so we had to cancel the meeting for that night. Instead I got to go back to 38 and see Brett! :)

In between all of the drama and excitement I have been going around to various places to find plants for the garden and researching how to build playground equipment. We were given two lots of land and have it all planned out. Now we just need to get started! First we need to clean the place up though. We also had our last week of VBS for the kids in our community and this week we are starting the same program for the kids in the next community over called Los Jardines. Today we've been advertising for it and trying to find a good location to have it as well.

I just ran into somebody from 38 and they told me that the dental trip that Brett was supposed to go on may be cancelled? Not sure why or whether or not it's true. Anyway, that's all for this week!

week 5 (Brett)

I´m writing my version of the week first because Julie did not have enough time to write. This keyboard doesn´t allow me to capitalize some letters, so i´m sorry for you english majors if my blogs aren´t up to par for you guys. You´ll just have to deal with it. :)

My week here was not that exicting at all. On tuesday, we just went back out to the lemon tree field and began hacking away with our machetes. It´s quite tedious and boring, but it´s somehow benefitting the project, so I just go out there and do my blue collar work. Tuesday afternoon was quite interesting because the doctor wanted us to empty our gigantic fish pond that had been filled with tons of water by the rain. There was so much water in this pond and he wanted it emptied for the tractor to be able to finally complete the project. So all of us manual labor guys lined up in a single file line and began taking out the water with buckets. A bucket brigaide!! Absurd right?? Well, this went on for about 45 minutes when we realized that we were doing absolutely nothing and didn't even put a dent in the water in the pond. One of the peruvians started saying that we weren't slaves and shouldn't have to do this, so he just gave up and we all followed. I thought it was pretty funny. 

From wednesday to friday I helped a guy from town that cuts down trees and begins sawing them into pieces. We're going to cut down 15 trees and use the wood to build a church down at santa elvita, the church that i go to every week and preach at occasionally. The job definitely isn't the most exciting thing in the world. I just go out there in the jungle and basically watch him find trees, cut them down, and start sawing them into pieces. I help him move the wood around, but that's about it. It's kind of interesting watching him do this though and it's pretty amazing to see the wood making progress from scratch with a chainsaw. He's an interesting guy and we talk all the time. He's quite hard to understand though; even the Peruvians warned me how he tends to mumble and slur all of his words. We somehow manage to communicate though and ended up talking about Osama Bin Ladin one day for quite a while. The jungle is a pretty amazing place. I just stare off in to the jungle for 30 minutes at a time while he's sawing the wood. Most of the time I'm just trying to ward off the 1000 mosquitos trying to bite me the whole time. For some reason have like a 1000 following me, and the Peruvian guy has like 2 trying to bite him. I don´t understand it at all, it's not fair. I'm gonna try to video the next tree he cuts down and upload some pictures of us working out in the field when i have the chance.

I'm leaving on a dental trip this next friday 12 de febrero untill the 23 de febrero that takes us to 8 different cities in 11 days. It seems like it is going to be pretty exciting and full of amazing stories. I'm not going to release any details for my moms sake until I get back alive, but I'm sure I'll have a lot of stories from this trip. I'm supposed to just go on this trip and learn how to give lidocaine shots and pull teeth on the fly, so wish me luck. Hopefully I will have no fear and will be able to pull a lot of teeth without any problems, haha.

Hopefully I'll be able to watch the superbowl on thursday before I leave. One of the guys here is going to try to download the game tomorrow and we're gonna have a party on Thursday before the dental trip leaves. I don't really care who wins, but last time I was out of the country, I watched the Colts beat up my Bears, so...I do kind of hope to see some revenge. So no one tell me the score so I can watch it. Until I return, que tengan una buena semana.

Week 4 "Brett´s Style¨"

I'm writing this blog late because I could not make it to town on Sunday. Apparently when you eat the food in Peru, it is possible to get some parasites in your GI tract and feel really terrible for a while. I had stomach problems for a few days, took some charcoal, but they still did not go away. After a couple of days I got a fever and felt just horrible the whole day. A nurse that graduated from Southern last year thought that I have some parasites and prescribed some metrodinazole. After resting all day Sunday and taking the day off Monday, I feel a lot better.

This past week was pretty much full of the same slave labor that I do every day. On Monday we went to work on cleaning the sugar cane field in the rain with our machetes. My back felt pretty terrible from bending over all day, but you always feel accomplished after cleaning weeds down to the dirt with a long, metal blade in your right hand. Tuesday we went back to work finishing the fence that surrounds 38. We finally arrived to the end of our property which ends at a town called Yierbas Buenas. This town is full of farmers that grown coca leaves and sell them to people that may use them to make cocaine. When we first arrived there to dig holes for the fence, I saw people carrying out like 10 huge bags full of coca leaves and spread them out on a dirt field to dry in the sun. There were so many leaves everywhere. I asked the guy if I could have some because apparently the mountain people chew on them for energy or something. The guy said i could have some after they dried but never ended up fulfilling his promise. Apparently we have some at 38 if i ever decide to try it.

The rest of the week was pretty much full of the same work. We had to clear a two meter circle around lemon trees so the weeds don't choke them out. It's hotter than satan´s house out there and the humidity is so unbelievable. The peruvians are so fast at machetting, i think they can clear my lawn faster than a lawn mower. They wonder why we use machines in the U.S. when you can "have a good sweat using a machete". I told him that's because Americans are lazy, ha ha. But the work out here really does require a machete more than a machine. The weeds are just way too thick for any week whacker or lawn mower to handle.

The weekend was pretty much full of the same, opening up with friday night vespers at santa elvita. I have to lead out vespers every friday day with another labor manual worker named Dane. Saturday I always lead out the youth sabbath school. It's hard to get those kids to talk about anything. I just have to keep blabbering away with my infantile spanish and try to get them to answer just any questions. I´m gonna have to figure something out. Sunday was a horrible day of sickness. They finally played soccer at 38 with people from yierbas buenas and campo verde, and i couldn't even play.

Monday was a pretty chill day. I took the day off from work and ended up just doing sudoku all day long. It was pretty relaxing. At night, a couple of the girls wanted to go to the tent meetings that were happening where Julie is at and they needed a male companion. I was free so i ended up going with them (plus i wanted to see Julie). We had a pretty interesting ride on the way down there. We ended up taking the van from campo all the way to pullcalpa. On the way we picked up a drunk guy that got on and sat next to one of the girls. He started to smell her hair and act super weird. Luckily, the guy in charge of the van made the guy sit in the back of the bus away from her. That made me feel better because i didn't really want to try to make the guy move myself. Close to arriving the pullcalpa, the owner was starting to collect money for the ride on the way down. Well, of course the drunk guy didn't want to pay. He started causing a fuss, another passager started to get frustrated with the guy asking why he would get on and not expect to pay. Some words were exchanged between the drunk and the other passager, one the phrases ended up offending the passenger and he slapped the drunk. Now, the drunk guy must have been in his 30s or 40s and the other guy is like 60 or so. Well, the drunk guy started swinging and punching the passenger and they started fighting. I let them fight for about 5 seconds before I decided to step in and take control of the situtation. I jumped up and grabbed the drunk guy and threw him against his seat and yelled at his to leave the bus. I think this startled his a lot, but he still didn't want to leave and still tried to fight. So this time I grabbed his and started to choke him a little to really show him that I was serious and told him he had 5 seconds to leave the bus or there would be trouble. I stated to count to five while dragging the man by his arms out of the bus. By the time I counted to five, I dragged him out the bus and threw him to the side of the road. I bent down and asked the guy if he was ok and told him that I was sorry but he left me no choice. I really felt bad for the guy, but i had to protect the girls I was with and the women and children on the bus. I didn't want the guy to pull a knife or anything, so I made sure to take control with some force and make him leave. After I got back on the bus, the owner said I had a lot of strength, ha ha. I guess in peru I do because everyone is like 5 feet tall. I´m a giant here and seem to intimidate pretty much everyone, everywhere I go.

This week was interesting but I'm sure the next will be full of fun stories as well, haha. Until next time. Adios.