Day 9: Funtastic Friday

Today's games were Pop The Balloon, Musical Chairs,  and Dodgeball.
Pop the Balloon consists of a balloon being tied to everyone's ankles and the goal is to pop the other teams balloons. So the kids run around trying to pop the other teams balloons. So much fun!!
Musical chairs was fun and got the kids up & moving around.
Dodgeball is always popular and all the kids can participate.  They call it Matagente, which translates to Kill People. And, not do they!!
Afterwards was a special time as we divided up a bunch of the clothes that had been donated and the staff passed it out to all the kids. Everyone went home with something, and the excitement on their faces when they received something was priceless!!
Had our last night of soccer practice and home we came to pack. We will tour Lima tomorrow,  then head up for Awana and Youth group,  and then to the airport.  Can believe our time is up already....

Day 8: Games, Games, Games

Had  a quick stop at Starbucks this morning to get ready for a busy day. The girls were in charge of planning today's activities. They came up with a variety of games as the kids didn't have school due to the Saints day Thursday & Friday.
They divided the kids into 3 teams. First game was Pass the Lime. They put a lime on a spoon and weaved down the court between cones and had to pass it to the next person.
2nd game was Pass the Melon. Basically they had to pass a melon over their head and the thru their legs to the next person. Over, Under, Over, Under....
Game 3 was Volleyball, but with a beach ball.
Final game of the day was soccer.
The girls did great!! And quickly realized how competitive the Peruanos are and got a glimpse into the life of a teacher!! LOL

Day 7: Mantas Miércoles

Today we took some kites up to the kids and flew those after lunch. With a little bit of wind, the smiles on their faces were priceless!!
Afterwards, we set up for our blanket (manta) activity. After all the flooding in March, we had asked what the kids could use and we were told blankets. So we decided to do the fleece tie-blankets. But once we started buying the fleece, we realized it was thick enough and we could give more kids a blanket if we did single-ply. We did cut the fringes and planned to have the kids just tie the fringes together. So we had enough for 20 students to participate. After we got started, more showed up. Told them to come back the next time.  So the girls and I each had a table and helped our 5 kids create their own blankets. They were so cute and worked so hard and were SOOO proud when they were done.  Lots of hugs and huge smiles!
We went to watch soccer but this practice was at the city field, the dirt field. A stark contrast from our fields at home. The older kids practice at the turf field, but it's not a full, regulation size. They have 3 teams: 16 & Under, 1st Division and 2nd Division. They practice Mon, Wed & Fri and usually play weekly. They all have to sign contracts to participate. Daniel started these Clubs with 12 kids and now is up to over 100...that's over 100 kids off the streets, in school,  and not in gangs.
Thursday & Friday are holidays so more kids will be out & about so we're going to do some organized games!!

Day 6: Time 4 Fun Tuesday

The girls went to the local market this morning to buy fruit for the kids as prizes. We noticed last year how much they loved it so we decided to repeat that again. We organized a big game of Volleyball and played a few rounds of that...Yolanda's team were the champions!! Next up we did Tug of War...boy, do they all get into that.  Young and old joined in the fun!! Lastly, we taught them how to play kick ball. They sort of got the hang of it after a few rounds. All in all, it was a great day. Decent weather, but started spitting a bit at the end of the day.
Food has been great, thanks to Victor's sister!! We chilled out tonight, watched a movie, and prepped for our blanket activity tomorrow.
Enjoy the pics!!

Day 5: Monday Mania

Monday was a pretty busy day for us...so busy I fell asleep before i could blog, so apologies! We started out the day taking a tour of Ventanilla, a city outside of Lima. It's about a 45 min drive there. It's a pretty modern city, but it's up in the hills where the V4P school is. We drove to a couple overlook spots for the girls to see the enormity of the amount of people in such a small area and their conditions. We stopped at a community cemetery which now has a fence & security cameras around it. Apparently,  the mafia have been known to come in and dig up the bodies for the organs. We then drove to another community and visited a daycare. They opened this day care in
Wawawasi to allow the moms the ability to work and to have a safe place to place their kids. They pay 1 Sol, or 33 cents for the day. Usually there are 15 kids under the age of 3, for the 3 teachers, but today when we went, there were only 10. As we knew there are 30+ more suitcases full of donations coming over the next few months, we packed up backpacks for the little babies & their families.  We also filled a suitcase for the teachers with school & personal items. What fun we had!! The joy over backpacks, balls & PlayDoh was enough to melt your heart and want to stay & play all day.
We picked up lunch and headed to the V4P school. Today we got out the sidewalk chalk and went to town. The kids started trickling in one by one and soon the whole court was decorated with all sorts of drawings, Tic Tac Toe, etc....They got out the Fusball table and that was good fun too. Some Moms showed up for Bible study while we played with the kids. After a dead battery in the van and a jump from the neighbors, we went for dinner and then soccer practice. The girls even did some warm ups with the 2nd Division team.  Overall a busy, but wonderful day!!!

Day 4: Subdued Sunday

It was a pretty quiet Sunday for us here in Perú.  We didn't sleep much last night due to the club near our hotel that was blaring music until 5am. So we had a slow start to our Sunday. We made the 4 hr trek back North to Lima. Stopped downtown at Larcomar, a mall right on the Pacific coastline. Afterwards,  we headed back to our townhouse. We spent the next few hours sorting through all the donations. We brought 8 suitcases full...but not sure what's exactly in the suitcases until we unpacked them. We are doing an outreach tomorrow, so stay tuned to see how that goes. We ordered pizza, watched Netflix, and prepped for our blanket activity tomorrow.  Excited for tomorrow so we'll see you then!!

Day 3: Dunes....and lots of sand

What a day!! We awoke to our oasis in the sand. The girls climbed the hill to get a beautiful view from above.  Had lunch in our little hostel. Played some UNO. Did some shopping around the lake...all while awaiting 4pm. That is when we had our dune adventure. We loaded up in our big dune buggy with our driver, Antonio, and hit the dunes. He took us up and down and around the dunes to see the immense amount of sand around our oasis. It looked like the Sahara...sand as far as the eye could see. We climbed a big hill with the boards and down the girls went. They surfed on their bellies about 3-4 times. Sand everywhere! But watching sunset was worth it. Had a BBQ back at our hostel, played UNO, Connect 4, and Jenga before calling it a night. Tomorrow we head back to Lima to see the capital city.

Day 2: Perú

Today was a pretty chill day. We slept in...travel can be exhausting. Headed out for lunch at Tantra and had some traditional Peruvian food, which was a hit with the girls. Afterwards we headed up to Las Lomas and the school. The kids are only in-session, but some were having arts & crafts time. There were a few outside playing around...which soon grew to a few more as they learned the 'brings were here. Was fun to see some familiar faces and many new ones too. The girls started playing soccer & tag with the kids and our time today ended with Duck, Duck, Goose. Girls did okay with their Spanish...just need to practice but love their efforts & willingness. We headed back down the hill to watch soccer practice. We stayed for part of practice, ate some dinner, watched a bit more, and then left. Tonight we're heading to Huacachina,  basically an oasis in the desert, so tomorrow we can head out into the Dunes for some sand surfing.
Enjoy the pics from today!!