Changes (Dan)

(continued from Dan's last post)

Now for the big news!

...... I´m heading to Cajamarca! Yes, that´s right, as of tomorrow night, Sunday, I am moving up to Cajamarca, (about 7-8 hours north) to help the kids up there. A pretty big shock to be sure, but it´ll be a great opportunity and challenge. I will be working with the kids at El Bichito, which is a food center run by a woman named Feliciana. In talking with Chris, a great guy I met who worked there with his wife this passed summer, I´ll be helping the kids with their homework, and also with learning activities. I know I´m going to miss the Aldea immensely, but I know that I can do some good in Cajamarca. I also hope that being the only volunteer up there, I´ll be able to improve my Spanish even more rapidly. I´ll let you know more next week about the changes and everything. I´m excited to serve the good people in that pretty city.

This past week, as I´ve been preparing to leave, I´ve been doing some last minute activities with the kids and tias in the Aldea. I´ve been trying to make pizza or bread with each and every house in the Aldea before I leave. I´ve been teaching the tias how to do it, and the kids have been having fun mixing and kneading the dough, and of course eating the final product. It´s fun to share what I know (thanks to Preston and Kelsey for teaching me the cooking skills) and have a great time with the kids. Guadalupe in casa 1, who loves to dance, and great fun grating the cheese and punching the dough until it was ready for pizza. We´ve also been doing a lot of drawing and coloring in casa 6 (the craft house) and it´s been fun to do paper airplanes as well. I love seeing some of the more rambunctious kids like Jonathan or Pedro, get really serious as they prepare their airplanes for flight. I don´t look forward to saying the last goodbyes to the kids. This really does feel like home, and I will miss their smiling faces and laughter. I´ll also miss those at the direction like Eduardo (our stake president), Cesar, Blanca and Estelle in the direction, and so many others too. I will miss the tias especially, as they are so kind and helpful with us and cook for us the great Peruvian food all the time. We just had papa de juan gallina, which is potatoes with this creamy sauce poured all over it. Hmmmmm, so so tasty! Entonces, I´m sorry about the long email... I just need to write more often, and keep them at a better length. I´ll try to do that better in Cajamarca.

Update from Aldea (Dan)

I know it´s been a while since my last email, sorry about that, life´s been particularly busy and crazy here in Peru. So we had a power outage for about two days a few weeks back that was actually a lot of fun. We had a few candles and flashlights that helped during the night, but it was actually great to have the lights off in the Aldea so you could appreciate the stars. It was cool how bright the milky way was, and how much you miss them when the lights are always on. We´ve had a great time playing futbol lately, and I´m proud to say that I´ve been getting better. We had some penalty kicks the other day and I scored on Cesar (probably the best kid here) and then I saved his penalty kick. Yeah, I was proud of himself. It´s great when the all the kids come together and play. Before, it seemed that Cesar and some of the older boys would only play if there weren´t younger ones playing as well, and maybe it´s just the lack of other boys to play with, but everyone has been coming together to play. Just yesterday in fact, we played a marathon game where Cesar´s team beat us 22 to 21. It was in the smaller field/court, but it was still tons of fun. Since I can be a little competitive, it was fun to have a such a crazy game. We´ve also played lots of volibol lately. The tias have been getting into it. Tia Rosa from casa 5 (with the older boys) got some of the older ones to play with the girls, who are really good. Tio Nelson, the handyman of the Aldea also comes and plays sometimes. For the older girls as well, like Ingrid and Antonia, it´s great to have some fun physical activities. Also, I went on a side trip up to the Cordillera Blancas with Asha, as it was her last week. We went on a magnificent 4 day trek called ¨Santa Cruz¨ that was absolutely spectacular. We climbed up to 4750 meters, which is about 15600 feet. At times it was challenging, and the altitude does make you slower, but it was totally worth it. At nights it was freezing, especially since the wind chill was so big, but during the day you had to wary of sun burn. An amazing trip, and a good send off for Asha, who will be sorely missed here at the Aldea.

Fundraising Banquet