Crazy-cute kids and vampire bites

The kids celebrated their school's anniversary last week with--any guesses???? That's right...COSTUMES! And adorable, creative ones at that. My favorites were Adam and Eve.






Covering his eyes out of shame of his nakedness



Eve

There were also animals---



A spider



A cat



A rat


Lions



A turtle



A dog


And a whatchamacallit



Oh and a Hawaiian girl, too






And a girl with a painted heart.


Another volunteer, Ashley, has gotten me all excited about the Twilight movies. I NEVER thought I would ever say that. I was anti- all that stuff before this trip! However, they are kind-of entertaining and addictive. So we we went the night after Breaking Dawn premiered here. It was even in English!



A pre-flick bite. Notice the dental work and lovely hand-made earrings.




A little more normal

Oops! I did it again...

I played with your heart and fell off the blog train. I got Britney on the brain right now because my sister, brother-in-law and the Guatemalan in-laws are jammin' out right now to her concert in Abu Dhabi thanks to free tickets! But I digress...

This past weekend, my roommate and I traveled to the land of mountains, amazing dairy products, and legendary Inca baths where famous kings and royalty once dipped their toes while planning their next attack... or something like that.
The journey lasted about six hours by bus. We pulled into the station around 4:30 am (the overnight bus left at 10pm) and thanks to connecting with past volunteers from the orphanage, we were offered free housing in a church.



We passed out for a few more hours and then made a plan for the day to head to the Plaza de Armas (center of town-each town has one), climb the steps to Santa Apolonia (where the Spaniards ambushed Incan Emperor Atahualpa in 1532) and bathe ourselves in the famous hot springs. The altitude of 9,000 feet made its presence known right away-- I almost needed an inhaler after climbing a few stairs!


Stephanie and I in the Plaza de Armas



What is a day in Peru if you DON'T see a jester on stilts?!



The steps leading up to Santa Apolonia (white church with white cross above it)= HOLY out of breath.



Almost there!



Looking down





The Plaza de Armas from above (zoomed in with the cam)




So much more green here than in Trujillo!


I made it! (representing in my Cards gear!)

It started to rain at the top of the hill so we took shelter in a micro and headed for the baths. We splurged $6 for a massage and entrance into the Incan baths aka mildly-warm pool.



The entrance to the Inca baths








The scalding-hot water from the volcano- this is what I THOUGHT I was going to submerge myself in.



I was a bit disappointed at this public lukewarm pool. All the Peruvians thought it was lap swim and swim lesson time instead of soak-and-relax time.



This might have been one of the best ice cream cones I've ever had.(We were smart and went back the next day!) It was made with manjar blanco, a sweet milky cream made famous in Cajamarca. It is similar to dulce de leche and not too far off from sweetened condensed milk.


One of the markets



A moto taxi



Beautiful churches in the Plaza










We randomly attended a children's music concert. The streets were jam-packed with adorable kids in different native dress and we just had to attend. Yes, we were the only gringas in the entire enormous auditorium.

Amando Abel (Loving Abel)

To be completely honest, some of these kids in particular are, at times, difficult for me to love. Their lack of positive role models, discipline, love, attention, and consistency didn't give them a good platform to jump from. Abandonment, abuse, and broken relationships can make some kids (and then adults) just plain miserable to be around. You feel like they will NEVER learn, things will NEVER improve and it's just so hard to deal with them and the consequences of the crap they've been dealt in their life.

Tonight I was doing my daily laps around the orphanage as a way of battling the carbs' advances on me, and one of the special needs/ "difficult" kids yelled at me from the top of the slide as I was approaching. As soon as he got my attention, he turned around and stuck out his butt and started doing a butt dance at me and then slapping his butt. He has been told an insane amount of times that this is inappropriate. I told him again and then decided to try to redirect him, even though I figured it was a long shot. I said, "Abel, look at the beautiful sky! God made that for us! What colors do you see?" (it actually was a gorgeous sunset so there were plenty for him to choose from.) I continued my walk and the next lap, instead of a butt dance, he pointed to the sky and said, "Dios hizo (God made)." His speech is really hard to understand but I'm positive that's what he said. I had the biggest smile. He proceeded to walk calmly (if you know Abel, this is totally the OPPOSITE of how he ALWAYS is) about 7 laps or so, "answering" (or just saying unintelligible sounds) my questions and even chiming in to the praise n' worship song I was singing. It was a beautiful moment and I'm so glad God allowed me to see that side of Abel that I usually don't take time to see. Thank you, Lord, for loving me when I'm not the easiest to love myself.



Abel


Trying to correct his crossed eyes with patches


Being tough


Abel with his brother, Italo


Oh, Abel!

Ten years of changing hearts

This last Saturday we celebrated Hogar de Esperanza's 10th anniversary! Some gracious miners from another town offered to host a big party as a fundraiser to support our ministry. The weeks leading up to the event were very busy getting everything ready. While the event was a lot different than expected, God was present and orchestrating everything just so. Because there were a lot of empty seats, all the kids got to come and partake.



The oldest boy here, Josue, 16, shared his testimony with great courage and there was barely a dry eye in the place.



Our kids sang, danced, gave tours, and helped serve the meal.
















It was a great way to celebrate such a special place to us all.
Afterwards, we had fun being goofy with the kids and taking pictures.






Abel (aka a young Steve Erkel) before....



And after!



Do the Erkel!





Our awesome director, Alex