Day 7: Wednesday: DayCare, Camp & Soccer

We left a bit early today and headed up to Ventanilla, but instead of heading up the Hill to Las Lomas, we went to visit another community, Pachacutec and a day care in Wawawasi.  It's a community mainly made up of people from the mountains, hard working, humble people.  There s a day care we try to visit with donations as they have no Voices4Peru to support them.  We stayed about 15 min as it was lunch time, and brought some simple toys and clothes for them.
Day 3 brought the kids a hike up to the top of the antenna and the hills of Las Lomas.  With some great Peruvians guides, off for an hour long hike they went.  Kate stayed behind and helped me sort clothes.  After they returned, we got going on games, dancing, and fun.  We played Sharks & Minnows - huge fan favorite, but they all cheat and cry, so i'm not real sure why they want to play it so much lol.  We did a relay game with a very small spoon and a fuseball.  Our big final game was volleyball with a beach ball.
After another delicious dinner, we headed to our last soccer practice only to find the electricity to that block was out, so they were playing in the semi-dark. lol  We gifted out vitamins to the kids and they were much appreciative!!  The lights came back on for the 1st division practice, so we stayed til the end and gifted out vitamins to them too...and sadly said out good-byes to those kids.  They have all made us feel so welcome, tomorrow is going to be hard......

Day 6: Tuesday: Camp Day 2

Another great day up the hill!!  After our morning Starbucks & Metro run, we headed up the Hill for Day 2 of camp.  Most of our days start with some dancing, but today we started with some bubbles.  HUGE hit!  Watching the kids do bubbles with the little ones and watching them try to pop them... priceless!!  We did get some dancing in again today - crowd favorite!!  Did some Duck Duck Goose too...and they play that real well.  Did some balloon pop where they run down to a chair & sit on a balloon to pop it. Hilarious to watch the little kids try to pop their balloon.  We did some pass the Hula Hoops.Out last relay was to put a ball between 2 people on their backs and have them watch down and back.  A fun new one to add to our toolbox!  We ended the day with some good old fashioned dodgeball.  After another delicious dinner, I made good on the bet and bought the girls ice cream!  Way to go clean plate club!!!
Our early night home allowed us to sort out vitamins and gift bags.  We sorted all the donated vitamins into baggies of 50 to be able to gift to the soccer boys Wednesday. The kitchen looked like a bad scene out of Breaking Bad! lol  We also decided to gift out bags to the kids on our last day.  We filled them with candy, suckers, toys, socks and a stuffed animal.  We made 42, so hopefully that will be enough....but cool if we have more kids show!!

Day 5: Monday: Camp & Soccer

Today was the first day of our sports camp of games with the kids!  What a blast!
We left around 11 and made a Starbucks run (of course), and then headed up to Ventanilla.  Takes about an hour to get there with all the crazy traffic.  First stop was lunch:  chicken, potato & rice in a delicious green sauce!  Yum!!  Potty break & shopping fun at Metro and then up the hill we went.  A few kid were already there, so we blew up some balloons to prep for a game and got the tunes playing.  Did some dancing to the ever popular Macarena, YMCA, chicken dance, Hokey Pokey, Cupid Shuffle, etc.... Played a round of musical chairs as well as Sharks & Minnows (Tiburones).  Next up was MataGente (Dodgeball).  Afterwards, we split the kids (and the gringos) into 4 teams and did an obstacle course with them.  We then did Dress like a Gringo, which always brings laughter to moms maybe more than the gringos!  Last up was Tug of War.  We played the 4 teams against each other and then did Peruvians vs. Gringos  What a gran battle it was!!  It was great to see many old and some new faces there - probably had 40+ kids play with us today!!
We went down the hill for dinner (chicken saltado), and then headed to soccer practice.  There are 2 practice times:  6-8pm is the Juniors (12-16 yr olds).  The gringos were divided up onto teams and played with the boys, and then we ended with a Peruvians vs. the Gringos....sadly tonight we lost :(  From 8-10pm are the older boys (18-25 y/o). Many of them have a sponsor who pays for their college ($150/month) and there are many still looking for a sponsor so they can study to be accountants, truck drivers, hotel & management, veterinarians, etc....
All in all, a great day....a bit chilly, but it's winter here so it's to be expected.
Another day of games coming our way tomorrow - cannot wait!!!

Day 4: Sunday: Swimming with Sea lions

Today we headed down to the port to go swim with sea lions.  There is a colony outside of Lima on the Palomina Islands where oodles of sea lions (lobos) live.  They have no natural predators up here as there are no sharks in this area.  We boarded out water taxi that took us out to our boat, where is was a bunch of Peruvians and us 7 gringos.  The ride out lasted about 90 minutes and, even though we all took Dramamine prior to departure, it was pretty rough once we made the turn around San Lorenzo island and were out in the open seas.  We all just went to our 'happy place' and survived without vomiting...but it was touch and go there for a while.  The 4 girls who decided to go in got their wet suits on, and Diego joined in the fun as well.  Carly was the brave one and volunteered to jump in first.  The water was a balmy 65 degrees (at best), so was a bit of a shock to the system but then they adjusted.  They swam out towards the sea lions and some swam near them but none touched them.  After about 20 min, they returned to the boat, exhausted, but glad they did it.  We took the long way back to the port and missed seeing the penguins so as to avoid the horrid waves.

Back on dry land, we headed back to the apartment, showered and changed, and went to Plaza Salaveery for dinner at Papacho's, a typical Peruvian restaurant with great burgers!  After a gelatto dessert, we headed back home, exhausted but lots of awesome memories!!

Day 3: Saturday: Lima, Soccer & Oansa

Today we got up and headed downtown Lima to take a tour of the city center.  All the buildings downtown have a colonial style, beautiful architecture & bright colors.  We parked and headed in the drizzling rain to the cathedral & catacombs.  Peeked in the church while waiting for our English tour...only to find a memorial service going on.  Kids did a catacombs tour with Diego, might have gotten a bit lost, snuck some illegal pics....but all is good!  We headed around the corner toward the main square and the Presidential Palace.  The square is surrounded by this yellow/mustard colored buildings with beautiful wooden porches.  There's another cathedral there too and a fountain in the middle of the square.   Took some pics & off we went, heading north towards Ventanilla.
After a delicious lomo saltado lunch, we went to a soccer game.  V4P has a soccer team who just took 2nd place in the Ventanilla tournament, and qualified for the Copa Peru.  Copa Peru is a regional tournament of 16 teams. Our first game was at 4 today against a team from the Callao. It was tied 0-0 at half when we left...and found out later they ended in a tie 1-1.

We headed up the hill for Oansa.  It's like Sunday School for the 6-12 yr olds.  The start out by dividing up the kids into 4 teams, and heading out to the court to play games.  Most of the games involve them running around in a circle and racing toward the middle for the bottle.  My gringos were able to play and were divided up onto teams.  Fun to watch them participate with the Peruvians and negotiate the language.  After many many rounds and many may varieties of the game, we headed inside while the kids broke into groups for a bible study.  We then sang songs with them, listened to a short bible story, and found out the winning team.  We also invited them to come play games with us Mon-Thurs next week, so I guess we'd better be prepared!!

We headed back down the hill for another amazing meal:  Chaufa.  And, even Kayla joined the Clean Plate Club tonight!!!!!!

Back up the hill we went for Youth Group.  As part of their 'contract,' all the soccer boys must attend 2 Saturday Youth Groups to be eligible to play.  Many of them filtered in late as they were playing and freshening up, but was good to see them all there.  My gringos did pretty well with the songs - having the lyrics on the screen helped.  Was great to see a community come together as it wasn't just all soccer boys & the gringos.

Another spectacular, but long day.  Home to be to rest up for the sea lions tomorrow!!

Day 1-2: Welcome to Peru

Welcome to Group #3!!!!

Our last group of the summer!!  I have 6 girls (Addie, Bell, Bri, Carly, Kate & Kayla), 1 boy (Quinn) and a mom (Valerie).  They made the trek down to Lima, a bit of fun at check in with overweight suitcases. Great flights - all went well.  Luggage made it to Lima - phew!

The boys & I were waiting for the kids at the airport and off we went into the crazy Lima traffic.  Back to the apartment/townhouse for a nice welcome from Voices4Peru staff!!!  Had a pizza dinner and sat and chatted for a while.  Kids were tired so off to showers and bed for them!

Day 2 started when Victor & i took the girls on a tour of Ventanilla, Mi Peru, Pachacutec & Las Lomas.  Ventanilla is the city north of Lima, by only 15-20 miles, but an hour in traffic!!  Gotta love traffic!  We stopped at an overlook so we could see a lot of Mi Peru. Talked about a human trafficking ring and some of the other social issues plaguing this area.  We toured bumpy Pachacutec and oddly enough visited a cementary where the mafia "sell" you a plot and then dig up your loved one to see the organs.  We stopped down at Bahia Blanca beach for some fun jumping pics.  Lunch was up next - we eat at Victor's sister's restaurant.  Lunch was ahi de gallina, a very typical Peruvian dish of a cheesy/creamy sauce with shredded chicken, potatoes, and rice.  

Next we headed up the hill to Las Lomas, the forgotten/ignored area of Ventanilla.  This town has been in existence for over 25 yrs, but yet the city won't pump water to this area.  An average family lives off of $300/month, so if university costs the kids $150/month, most kids don't continue in their studies after HS.  We were greeted with smiles and shy looks from the kids who were out already.  But more showed and the laughter and fun began.  The girls jumped right in and played with the kids, even ended up in a 4 on 4 basketball game with the older boys!  

Friday is arts & crafts at the center, so most kids went in to participate, so we went for dinner (spaghetti & chicken), a Metro stop to pee and to get some ice cream from McDonalds....with and without spoons, and then off to soccer practice. Only the younger kids had practice today as the big kids have a game tomorrow. My super soccer studs scrimmaged with them and then we did a Gringos vs. Peruanos....and my gringos won!!!!!!!!!!!

All in all, a great first day! Plus, it was Kayla's birthday so we celebrated with some McDonald's ice cream!!!