Meet Amy

Hola! My name is Amy. I am 20 years old and currently working on my Elementary Education degree with a minor in Spanish. In a nutshell, I love educating little latinos! I look forward to my experience at el Girasol with a little trepidation but high hopes. As I look back on the past few years of my life, I can see the hand of the Lord very clearly; countless experiences have helped me recognize the power of education, and further experiences have led me to study and love Spanish so that I count it a crucial part of the woman I desire to become. I hardly know what I can do to help the children of el Girasol, but I hope and pray that we can grow together.

Meet Brittany

My name is Brittany, but most people know me by my nickname "Bernie." I love dance parties, dressing up in ridiculous costumes, hiking, swimming, making cookies, listening to world music, and going on any random advertures or road trips. I am from Washington state, but I have spent the past two years in Utah and Hawaii attending Brigham Young University. I am studying nursing and minoring in Spanish and international development. Coming to college really opened my mind to considering traveling outside the country to have an opportunity to learn from going abroad in my studies. I'm so excited to have the opportunity to work with and learn from the children at the Orphanage and to learn about Peruvian culture and life.

Meet our interns

We have a great group of interns heading down to Peru. Some of our interns are going to Urubamba, Porcon, and Aldea. We are excited to have their service in all of these cities to help the people of Peru. We are also excited to hear their reports, and they will be making posts for our blog while they are doing their service.

The next few posts will be from a few of our interns introducing themselves.

"Help them help themselves" (Laura)

One of the lessons we've learned in our endeavors to help street
children is to "help them help themselves".  A good example is
Carlotta, the girl in the yellow collared dress in the right side of
this picture.  Carlotta's father is MIA and the mother cannot sustain
the family.  Carlotta is registered at El Bichito (The Little Bug)
and comes regularly for the daily meal.  The women running the home
discovered Carlotta's amazing voice and her love for performing
Peruvian songs and dances, but since she always had to rent her
costume to do so, it took up the majority of whatever she earned.  So
a native costume was purchased and now she is able to help provide
for her family.  These simple type acts help break the cycle of
poverty within an entire family.

quick note from The Little Bug (Laura)

(Note: Laura has been traveling in Peru and visiting our new funded orphanage: The Little Bug. She has lots of great stories and photos to share, but for now, here's just a little snippet of her visit.)

Things here are amazing and the children are amazing. One girl came into today that was 14. She was carrying a baby so I asked her story.... Her mother recently died and father has been sent to prison for 25 years. She is now in charge of 7 siblings..... she farms the smaller children out at night so they have places to sleep and she sleeps on the street. She would be the first one to have a room in Little Bug. She had a big smile on her face and is so positive.

Stay tuned...

flashback friday (natalie)

today's photos come from the June 2007 expeditions. This was actually a dental expedition with Wings World Wide. On these expeditions, they will travel to nearby villages to provide dental care, newborn training, dental hygiene training and hand out school kits.



While the dental group performs their magic in their make-shift clinic, others provide newborn training for mothers and their babies.


In the first picture is Heather and Ashley - rubbing lotion on their little sunburnt cheeks.

Katie, Ashley and Heather all had a great time bathing these little babies and teaching mothers how to care for their little ones.


Thanks to everyone who has donated newborn and hygiene kits! It's villages like these who are the recipients of your generosity!

wednesday give-away! (natalie)

So we're going to do what blogs do best - give stuff away, have contests, and eventually raise some money. But today's give-away is FREE!

A few months Joy made some beautiful cards and calendars with the children's pictures on them. Today's winners will receive either a card set or a calendar (yes, it's April, but I promise you'll still love it!). If you want a sneak preview - there's a link on the right side of the blog under "Need a Gift". The above photo really doesn't have anything to do with it. Just a photo to remind you how cute these kids are.

All you need to do is write a comment on this posting and tell me why I should give you a card or a calendar and we'll announce the winner next week.

on the road (natalie)

So one of our faithful followers emailed me about how much she enjoyed the blog and how she checked it everyday (thanks Tammy!). That gave me the boost I needed.

I've been traveling a lot lately - California, New York, North Carolina - but will be back in town for a few weeks soon!

I'll have new stories and photos to post soon so stay tuned...

thanks all for your support!
Natalie