Last Post from Peru

This will be my last update from Peru, since we'll be out all day tomorrow and then traveling all day on Tuesday- getting back to the States early on Wednesday. We had a busy day today, but I wanted to write about the girls home that we spent Friday and Saturday at before I wrote about today.

This girls home was specifically for girls ages 13-17 who had been involved in prostitution. It was run by an order of nuns and has been in existence for 130 years. At night, the nuns go out onto the streets of Lima (especially near the airport) and invite the girls to come live at the home. Sometimes they go out for months, establishing a relationship with a girl, before she'll agree to come and live there. Once the girls are in, the place is protected by high walls, guards, and barbed wire, to keep the girls from being tempted to return to their former life of prostitution.

I have to comment on the organization of this home. Maybe it is because it is run by the nuns instead of the state, and maybe it is because it has been around for 130 years, but the place was incredible. The girls are required to go to regular schooling in the morning (within the compound). They have required uniforms and cleanliness requirements. In the afternoon, after a lunch and chores, they all have to attend one of the trade schools on the premises. There is a cosmetology school, a technical computer school, and a textiles school where they learn sewing, etc. They also have a bakery on the premises that makes some incredible treats. These are sold to the otuside pubic in a seperate shop to bring in money for the school. They also have a daycare ministry there for the community, and a meals program for the elderly and disabled, where the girls cook and serve an early lunch every day for those who can't cook for themselves or can't afford to buy food.

Our projects here were medical and getting their large dining hall painted where they do their meals for the elderly. Because I couldnt be in the paint fumes, I assisted with medical (mainly doing vitals) again. There are also some single mothers here, so I helped with the babies too :-). After lunch the first day, we did relay race type games with them and a bunch of us brought nail polish that a salon in the States had donated and painted all the girl's nails. They were thrilled :-). When we were finished, we donated all 100 bottles of it (from Trade Secret) to the cosmetology school there, and their teacher cried, she was so happy.

On our second day there, the painting was mostly done and so the majority of the day was just to spend time with the girls. I had brought blankets that were donated by friends in the States. Some of them were brought to the single moms home, but I brought eveything I had left here. It was amazing how God worked it out- I had 11 left and there were 11 babies there. I even had the right number of girl blankets and boy blankets :-). I brought some clothes to a single mom who had a 2 month old, and the rest of the clothes, the girls asked if they could take to their friend in the hospital. She is 8 months pregnant and had been violently raped just before coming to the home last week. She was in the hospital recovering from reconstructive surgery on her genitals, and she was 13! All of the rest of the newborn clothes that Erica Shier gave me went in a bag to go to her in the hospital.

One of our team members did a salvation message and invitation as part of our presentation this day, and more than a dozen girls came forward to commit their lives to Christ. Like the other orphanages, we gave these girls each their own Bibles, which they were so happy about. We did music with them again, and then one of the girls from the cosmetology school braided cornrows in some of the women's hair. I got them just on top and about 1/2 way back, but only kept them in for about 24 hours because they were SOO tight!

Then, we turned some US CDs on the sound system and taught the girls how to line dance. It was quite fun :-). Then the girls wanted to turn on Salsa music and show US how to dance. I will tell you that most of us took a LOT of practice to master the coordination. Pretty much when you salsa dance, you have three different movements that you have to coordinate. Your feet have to move side to side and/ or front to back in time with the music. Your hips have to pretty much swivel in a continuous tight circle (I liken it to one of those hawiian hula dancers on a dashboard- you poke it once and the hips just keep moving and moving!). Finally, your shoulders have to move in time to the beat as well. For the longest time, I would have 2 out of 3 down, but would mess up as soon as I added the third part. Finally our translator Sylvia (who is our contact in the country who coordinated everything for us- she worked with Leslie, from Buckner Orphan Care to set up the trip), when she could stop laughing at me long enough to speak, came and worked with me until I mastered the concept. :-)

Last night we had our goodbye dinner for our translators- 7 university students plus Sylvia (who has kids in their teens) who were indispensible to us for the past 10 days. It was cool though, because Leslie (our Buckner contact from the US) had been telling us the day before that Sylvia was not a Christian, and I had really been feeling led yesterday morning to pray for her in that regard. Leslie shared with us last night at dinner that she and Sylvia had been driving together to her father's grave to put flowers on it for fathers day and had started asking questions about eternal life. By the time they got to the cemetery, Sylvia knelt at the gravestone of her father and prayed to accept Christ as her savior. I was so happy to hear this!! Sylvia and I have sat together on the bus rides all week- her teaching me spanish and me teaching her english. I told her that now, we can live next to eachother in Heaven and she can teach me more spanish :-)

Sooo, I wanted to talk a little bit about the fun stuff that we've gotten to do on our "off-duty" time. Once we have our team meeting after dinner at night, we have the rest of the night off to ourselves. There is a mall right on the beach that has an arcade and pretty much any type of store you could think of. On Friday night, I went down shopping after dinner with Shane and Elisha- the married couple of the trip. I have found that I am spending a lot of time with them because they're the only ones my age who are in the same stage of life (anyone else who is married on the trip is about twice my age). We went glow bowling, which was fun :-).

Last night, the translators took a group out to a club to go salsa dancing. I mut admit that I had an internal struggle for a bit about whether or not a pregnant, mother of 3 should be going out salsa dancing at 11PM (the club didnt open until then). Finally, I came to the conclusion that I'm 26- I'm not 46! Even though I have kids, I can still act my age and go out an have fun. The club was mostly adults, so it was a classier salsa club. I had a LOT of fun and really would like to take some more lessons in the States once I get back.

This morning we went to a church that is supported by the US church of some of our team members. They have an American pastor from michigan, and the service was incredible. I had forgotten about the level of energy in worship in Latin American countries! After church, we went out to lunch at another traditional peruvian restaurant, and then took a 3 hour historical bus tour of the city. We saw all the old spanish buildings, big castles, Incan relics, etc, which was really cool.

Tonight, we got to choose what we wanted to eat, and so most of us chose pizza :-). So, currently as I type this, I am eating pizza and breadsticks and watching the red sox game on TV... Oh the joys of technology!

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for me on this trip. It has been incredible seeing what God has been doing here in Peru! My final request for prayers would be that our last 2 days here would be uneventful and that our traveling would go well. On our day of traveling back, we have an 8 hour layover in Mexico City and will be traveling to visit the temple of the sun- the 3rd largest pyramid in the world. I love historical stuff :-)

OK, time to watch the 9th inning. Goodnight!

-Elizabeth