Week 9 & 10

The weeks have started to go by really quickly lately. All the days are blending together and it's really hard to separate out in my mind what we have been doing. We have started to become accustumed to life here in Peru. Waking up sore every morning, having to go back to the grind for another 8 hour day in the hot, humid, miserable jungle. Or for Julie, dealing with kids and having them bug her nonstop, all the time. We have become used to this sort of work, and it's become a routine now. However, we definitely have started to feel the effects of homesickness, Julie a lot more than me. America is just a lot more comfortable and easier in every way possible. Food, sleep, work, climate, and the list goes on and on. But I know for a fact that it was been a good experience so far, and I'm extremely glad that I chose to come down here for these 4 months. I know I have a month left, but the time is going to fly by and before I know it, I'll be back in America.

These past two weeks are kind of blended together for me. I can't remember what I did exactly each day, but we did finally go down to km 4 and set up Julie´s jungle gym for the kids. It was a mess of a day because it decided to rain the day we went to set it up. It was such a miserable ride down there in the back of the truck. And it was even harder getting the area ready to put up the equipment, because the site was a complete mud pit. But the rain did decide to quit enough for us to get the equipment in the ground and cemented in there so no one can steal them. I came back a few days later on my own and bought paint for them. The day that Julie and I wanted to paint them, the weather decided to play with us, and it was another downpour, ha ha. I had to come back another time and we finally were able to paint just the monkey bars. There was a big miscommunication with the paint and primer and all the things they want you to mix in the paint here. The paint apparently doesn´t come ready to be brushed on here, and that was just a mess trying to figure out how to get it right. We finally just started slapping the paint on the wood, so hopefully it will stick for a few years. The kids absolutely love the jungle gym and we couldn´t even keep them off it for us to paint them. Julie eventually finished painting the other 2 swing sets. It looks really cool and we put on some extremely bright colors to really make them looks flashy. I think the kids are going to love them and it was a really good idea to put them there. I know there will be some broken bones because of us, but that´s just a part of growing up, at least for me it was, haha.

The past two weeks we've been playing in a basketball tournament in Pucallpa. It´s been a lot of fun just getting off of 38 and being able to play some sports. We started off 3-0, but had a couple of really close games. One game, each team only had 5 players, so none of us could foul out or that would be trouble. The game was neck and neck the whole time. The peruvian style is so much different than ours. All they do is fastbreak and cherry pick the whole time. We like to play big and slower. The two styles clash and it makes for an interesting game. We seem to not be able to stop the fastbreak, but they just can´t handle our power and height. In the end, we ended up winning by one point, my free throw with 10 seconds left in the game. It felt good, but it only lasted for about 4 days. Our next game was against the guy who is running the tournament and been watching all of our games. He knows our strengths and weaknesses. He told Jose, our cook who got us in the tournament, that he was going to beat us badly. We had no idea what was coming. Apparently the guy brought in some ringers from the mountains to play against us, and I believe it. Ther were two guys taller and bigger than me and a point guard that could handle and shoot the ball really well. The game was extremely close the entire time, we were actually winning for the majority of it. But inevitably, the fastbreak started catching up with us and it ended up killing us. Another killer was the fact that I couldn't outrebound them every time because of their two tall guys. It was a hard battle, but I'm sure we would have won if our two best players hadn't fouled out at the beginning of the 4th quarter. The refs are obviously not for us, so that's always a struggle too. So our perfect record is tainted at 3-1 with two games left in the tournament. I´ll keep you updated on how it ends, and the revenge that I personally seek on the Raptors.

The girls also got to play a game last week. Julie was the team's point guard and it was quite a site. I know Julie doesn't play basketball or even like the sport for that matter, but she was out there giving it her all. The girls only had 5 players, and boy were they exhausted. I've never seen Julie sweat so much in her life. They eneded up loosing pretty badly, not necessarily because they aren't good, but they other team had some amazing players. Yet again the fastbreak killed the Americans. This tournament has been something good for everyone to get off base and relax a little. I'm glad the Doctor let us join and have a life outside of 38.

Julie's campaign ended and she is now back at 38. I know she's extremely glad to be back at a more comfortable location. Plus she doesn't have to deal with a 100 kids everyday. Next week, a group of 23 highschoolers are coming from Ozark Academy. So...we´ll see how hard these guys can really work. They're coming to help us machette in the fields and construct some random things the doctor wants. It should be interesting with all the people that will be there, I think a total of 50 will be a base. Way too many.

Until next time, hope everyone has a awesome and exciting week.

Week 8

This week was quite an adventure. I finally got to get off base for a while and get to do some real missionary type of work. It really got my energy up and back into the spirit of working out here in Peru. I really was dragging for a while and it was really hard to motivate myself to get up every morning, put on my work boots and head on out into the jungle and machette or carry lumber. But this really brought my energy back.

To start off the week, we had a free day with the manual labor team because we had completed all of our tasks for the two month stand. But instead of having an entire day off to do whatever we wanted, such as play soccer, basketball, and go swimming, the doctor wanted us to be productive and go and help other people. The idea wasn't a bad one, so we agreed and ended up going to a hospital for a few hours and visiting with the sick people there. It was a good experience and I think the doctor had a good idea. After visiting, we played some basketball in a park in pucallpa. We tried to teach the peruvian workers, but that was an epic fail. They just can´t handle the basketball well, or shoot at all, haha. After some basketball, we just ate lunch and headed back to base. It was a great day off of work and an excellent way to start off the week. Tuesday, we just hauled lumber out of the jungle all day. Not as bad as you think, but way more primitive than we would do in America. It's not a bad task, and a pretty good workout. I kind of like doing it actually.

Wednesday is where the real fun begins. We had a 3 day dental trip at km 4, the town where Julie is staying. I got to learn how to numb people up and yank some teeth on the fly. The first day I just watched a lot and learned how to give the lidocaine shot. I actually practiced on Julie how to give a bottom IA block, numbing her entire bottom left jaw, tongue, and cheek. I hit it perfectly, and she was numb for a long time, ha ha. Thursday, I actually got to pull my first tooth. It´s a lot harder than it actually looks. I was just too careful initially and needed to just force my way in there. Finally, with some coaching from the rest of the team, I was able to finally twist that sucker out. I felt really bad for the guy, they have no idea that when we´re there, speaking english right above his face, that the other people are teaching me exactly what to do and where to stick the needle and stuff, ha ha. But they get free dental care and I get to practice doing something pretty fun. I didn´t end up working on many more patients. I pulled 4 teeth and 2 root tips out of a little girl on friday, poor girl. She was young and absolutely hated the dentist, and she had no idea that i was brand new. I struggled for over an hour trying to get everything out, but finally did. It was a good struggle, the more problems gives me more practice. I get more practice in 3 weeks and another clinic in kilometer 8.

Julie had a pretty relaxing week. It was her last week of VBS, so she was pretty excited to get that over with. She finished up with the kids and was trying to keep planning for her park. It was awesome that I got to see her for a few days that week. I don't envy her at all where she lives. I slept terrible and did not like the bucket showers at all. I'm extremely glad where I live and I'm sure Julie will appreciate coming back to base as well.

Also, a group of us missionaries entered a basketball tournament in town and played a game on wednesday night. They had us play an exhibition game to see if we were good enough. They put us up against a mix of some of their best players. We just played 2 ten minute periods. It was a lot of fun playing some real basketball against some peruvians. We definitely were good enough for their tournament. We won by a ton and are ready for the tournament now. We were supposed to have a game on Saturday night, but there was some miscommunication, so there ended up being no game. But I´ll keep you updated on what happens throughout the tournament.

Sorry for writing this so late, Sunday was an unnecessarily busy day. I´ll write a new one this Sunday to keep things flowing again.