After three glorious months, I have made it back to Michigan.

Here are a few videos from the summer:

Boys from the Girasoles home in Kusi performing a choreography to Marcos Witt’s song “En los Montes, En los Valles”

David, one of the youngest boys at Girasoles Ica, sharing a birthday message to Jonathan, another boy from the home.

Part of the traditional soccer game that occurs every afternoon before dinner at the Girasoles home in Puerto Alegria. Hox is singing the Peruvian National anthem in the background.

More videos are online at Vimeo and photographs on Flickr.

Yesterday was my last day in Kusi for the summer.

On Monday and Tuesday, the work team from Virigina wanted to host a VBS-like program for the Girasoles boys, children that attend the SU-operated school at Kusi and children from the nearby villages of Ongo and Aira. Both days the team prepared songs, games, dancing, a craft, story and skit to share with the children, which was both successful and lots of fun. On the second day, they ended the event with a big carnival in the main square of Kusi. There was face painting, crafts, games where the children spun around a baseball bat (which is quite funny for those watching) and where they had to match numbers on floating little yellow rubber duckies. They even had a beauty station with manicures for the mothers that came with their children. It was a great way to end the two days of events!

Pijamada, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

In an effort to do something different and have a little fun on my last night in Kusi, Katy (another translator who is here from England) invited Rosa, the house mother at Girasoles Kusi, and her 13-year old daughter, Alexia, to spend the night in our bungalow and have a pijamada!

So, after returning from having a delicious pollo a la brasa (rotisserie chicken) dinner in Yungay with the work team and all 40 boys plus staff, we returned to Kusi, spread out the mattresses, grabbed our blankets and got comfortable! Pretty soon, our bungalow was full with Katy, Rosa, Alexia, Carmen (another translator with us in Kusi), and the three ladies from the work team.

We started the evening with a short devotional by Rosa and then had a time of prayer, where we were able to specifically pray for the needs of the group. We ended the night watching “Una Noche Fuera de Serie” (Date Night).

It was nice to take an evening “for the girls.” Alexia, who lives in Kusi with her brother, parents and 40 boys, is usually the only girl at events and rarely has the opportunity to spend time with friends, or have friends come visit. It was nice to be 12-13 again and spend the night just watching movies and having fun.

I couldn’t have asked for a better last night in Kusi.

Pijamada, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Of course, there were some silly moments throughout the night. :)

Llanganuco, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Today I went up to Llanganuco and the Huascarán National Park for the last time this year with work teams. This beautifully blue-green lake, which is 30 meters deep, is located in the valley between Peru’s tallest mountain, Huascarán, and others in the Cordillera Blanca.

Thankfully, we had beautiful weather for spending the morning at the lake and then walking through the park.

Since Billy was with me this time, we took a photo together – something that has become sort of a tradition over the past few years (in 2008 and again in 2009).

Salon, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

The last few times I have been in Kusi, Rosa, the house mother that takes care of the 40 boys living at the abandoned boys home, has always asked me to have a “girls day” with her in Yungay when we had some free time between teams. Her idea is to go into the town and spend a part of the day together, doing things like shopping, going to a café, and getting our haircut. In previous years, we have done everything but get our hair cut.

Last night, I floated the idea of going to get our haircut to Rosa (who I knew was going to love it). Of course, within 10 minutes she was on the phone asking about an appointment for the next day.

Katy (a fellow SU translator who is here from England) decided to join us and we spent the morning at Yungay’s nicest salon. We all got our hair wash and cut, and all for an amazing price of S/.5. That is just $1.73. After leaving a tip, the entire morning did not cost anything more than $3.

More photos from our morning in Yungay are on Flickr.

(In the above photo, Katy, Rosa (in the middle) and I are with the two ladies that work at the salon after getting our hair cut.)

The Small Ones, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

After a few months of the jungle in Puerto Alegria/Iquitos, a couple weeks in the desert Ica, and some random days in the city of Lima, I have finally made it to the Andes – in Kusi!

I first visited Kusi in 2006 with the group from my home church, First Presbyterian. At the time, there was not much on the property. We stayed in a nearby city – Caraz – and spent all of our time making hundreds, if not thousands of adobe bricks that would be used to build the city of Kusi.

It was not until 2008 that I was able to return to Kusi. I was fortunate to spend a month at the home. At this time, more buildings had been completed and there were approximately 35 Girasoles boys living in Kusi, along with the house family. The city had begun to grow and now included a functioning elementary school, bungalows, and foundations for future buildings. During the month I was in Kusi leading and translating for work teams, I was able to get to know the house family and Girasoles boys – something that has made Kusi one of my favorite places.

Thankfully, I have been able to spend more time in Kusi over the past year and a half – both with work teams and simply vacation.

This year, I have returned to Kusi with a team from Virginia. They will be here for about 10 days before returning to Lima. I will be able to stay here for a few days after the group to meet the next (and final) summer work team.

The photo, which is one of my favorites, was taken in 2008 when I took some of the youngest boys with one of my teams to Llanganuco, a national park near Kusi. I am happy to say that all 6 of these boys are still living in Kusi – they are just much taller and a few years older!

It’s a big election year in Peru and things are just a little bit different than how it goes in the States. You can tell when it is campaign time because every available wall is painted with political propaganda, every street light has a sign hung on it, and people start wearing the free t-shirts they are given with a candidate’s name. Every seat from local, regional to national is up for grabs and the campaigners are out in full force sharing their platform and ideas for the country.

Since there is a large population of people that can’t read, and a large number of political parties in Peru, every sign usually includes some sort of logo and “marca así” (vote like this). When the people go to vote, the symbols are included on the ballot to help those that can’t read, or simply can’t remember the name of their candidate!

I found out today that a friend from Iquitos just entered in the upcoming political elections on October 3rd. He’s running for mayor of Punchana in the party Restauración Nacional, which according to my friend, out of 20+ political parties, it is the only evangelical Christian party that exists in Peru.

In this particular election, he is competing against 14 others for the title “mayor of Punchana.” Since elections are in just a few months and he is running against a large number of people, I asked his strategy for campaigning. He replied, it is three fold – traditional, churches and, finally, 12 by 12.

Like every other candidate, he now has signs hanging around the city, posters on the back of mototaxis, walls painted with his name, and television and radio ads. The next part of his plan is to visit every church in the city of Punchana, whether it be during Sunday services, small groups or fellowship meetings. Since he is part of the only evangelical Christian party, they are the only ones that have easy access to this form of campaigning. And finally, his last method of campaigning is 12 by 12. Like how Christianity was spread throughout the world through the 12 apostles proclaiming the Good News to those they met, he will be using this method in his campaign. If he can convince 12 people to vote for him and have those same 12 to get 12 more people, and they another 12, and so on and so on, he can gain supporters and share his mission.

I’m excited to see what the outcome is of the elections on October 3rd!

Military Paraders, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Happy Independence Day in Peru! Today, the country celebrates 189 years of independence from Spain.

The last few years, I have spent the 4th of July at the Casa Girasoles home in Ica with the group from my home church, First Presbyterian. Augusto, the house father in Ica, is very patriotic towards his country Peru, and every year tells me he feels honored to spend our Independence Day with us (the Dearborn group) in his home. In the three years I have known Augusto, never have I been able to share in his Independence Day, fiestas patrias, at the home in Ica. In 2008, I was in Cusco and last year, I was still working at the Girasoles abandoned boys home in Puerto Alegria.

This year, after leaving the jungle and returning to Lima, I headed south to the desert – partly to help adjust from the hot and humid jungle weather before going to the cold mountains, but mostly to see friends in Girasoles Ica. I arrived to Ica on Tuesday night, the day before the national holiday festivities began.

This morning at breakfast, I asked Augusto if anything special would be happening for the holiday and he mentioned the parade through the city center. We didn’t think much of it and were not planning on going, but we needed to run some errands and ended up walking along the parade, watching the local schools, army, police officers and every form of civil servant march through the streets of Ica. While this was not my first parade in Peru, it was definitely the most organized.

After the parade, we returned to Girasoles and found the boys humming and singing the chorus of the Peruvian national anthem (Somos libres seámoslo siempre, seámoslo siempre!”) and wearing their escarpelas in honor of the day.

Happy fiestas patrias.

Here is a small selection of photos from my last week working at the Casa Girasoles home in Puerto Alegria. Many more photos from the week can be found online at Flickr.

While the work team was at Puerto Alegria, we took one night to celebrate the birthdays that were in July – Oriel, Leyner, Joel and Xavier all turned one year older this month. As part of the celebrations, Gene, the director of Girasoles Iquitos, led us in some party games and songs.

Gene, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

As part of their fiestas patrias (independence day) celebrations, the boys paraded through the playground of their school with various tissue paper lanterns. Each lantern had a lit candle inside and at the end of the parade, the students select a the best design and they win a prize. Here Jair is working on putting the tissue paper on his star.

Jair, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Waldair, who is 10 years old, trying to fit into my duffel bag so he could travel with me around the country visiting the other Girasoles homes of Ica and Kusi.

Waldair, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Luis, the youngest boy at the Girasoles home in Puerto Alegria, during one of the traditional afternoon soccer games.

Luis, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

One of my many photos with Luis.

Luis, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

With Mansur.

Julio Mansur, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Moises, Mery and their three boys – Elias, Dan and Timoteo – came to say goodbye to me at the airport in Iquitos.

The family, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Tonight I said goodbye to my final group that would visit Puerto Alegria this summer. Hailing from South Carolina, many of the people in the group were here last year and it was so nice to see some familiar faces! While I enjoyed catching up with those I knew, it is always great to meet new people. When new people join a group, it means work teams are going home and sharing their experiences and Scripture Union’s ministry with friends and family, getting them interested in what we are doing here.

In an effort to mix things up a little during the work team visit, we held a mini-competition between the 39 boys and 20 team members. The boys and team were mixed and divided into 4 teams, following the 4 final World Cup countries – Spain, Holland, Germany and Uruguay. Within the teams, they had to come up with a choreographed dance to Shakira’s Waka Waka song, which was to be presented on Wednesday, the team’s final night at the home. Since lights were just added to the soccer field (to allow for more opportunities to play soccer), the stage would be set up on the field for the event.

While I enjoyed the competition, lets just say that after hearing Shakira sing “tsamina mina eh eh, waka waka eh eh, tsamina mina zangalewa, this time for Africa!” countless times in both English and Spanish, I am not jumping to hear the song again. After three nights to rehearsals, the four teams presented their choreography and each did an excellent job.

Since this was my last group in the jungle, I have just 4 more days at the home before I return to Lima and start traveling to a few more of the Girasoles homes.

This morning, I woke up to another cold day in the jungle. The past few days there has been a considerable drop in temperature, so much that it feels like we are no longer in the jungle, but in the sierra.

When I walked into the dining room for breakfast, I was greeted by the boys, many of which were wearing their very thin blankets and sheets as robes and capes. Many had multiple short sleeve shorts on, and one of the educators told me he was wearing 5 pairs of socks. It was cold, but not quite that cold.

Being from Michigan, it makes me laugh to see all of these tough boys freezing in weather we at home would find in the fall or late spring. But for the people that live here all year round, it is cold – like how it occasionally drops very low during winter. Unlike how we are prepared to brace cold weather with warm jackets, hats, gloves and boots, very few of these boys have anything more than shorts and t-shirts. Why would they have long sleeve shirts when it is usually very hot?

According to the news, a cold front has been making its way north, from Madre de Dios, through Ucayali and making its way to Loreto – the state where Iquitos is located. The front should pass within the next two or three days, which will make for some uncomfortable weather, something we are definitely not accustomed to here in the jungle. This cold weather has apparently taken over the entire country, not just in the jungle, and has called the government to issue a “state of emergency” within the country.

My final work team arrives later today and they are going to be in for a surprise when they get off the plane!

As a sequel to the Mala Trip video my brother Randy made in 2008, here is the 2010 Ica version, starring the youngest members of the Dearborn team, Sarah, Brandon and Griffin.

In this video, Sarah, Brandon and Griffin take you on a ride through Ica to a market where they purchase various Peruvian candy bars to share with the 33 boys living in the abandoned boys home at Girasoles Ica and the children of First Presbyterian Dearborn.

Here are a couple videos from time spent at Puerto Alegria and in Iquitos. There is always something exciting going on (or somebody being silly) when you live with 40 boys!

I love listening to these three boys (Dairo, Waldair and Jair) laughing! One afternoon, we went to a park in Iquitos to play. They loved going on the seesaw and just could not stop laughing the whole time they were on it.

No work teams and the weekend means lots of fun and playing around. Here, Junior and Jair, are going a little stir crazy and being little boys.

Here are some photos from the last week in Puerto Alegria.

Luis, at 5 years old is the youngest boy at Puerto Alegria. He was not too keen on watching the World Cup final game on Sunday and was more interested in making silly faces.

Luis, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Jair is one of the boys from Caballococha who speaks Tikuna and not very much Spanish. Because of this, he is usually quiet, but has a beautiful smile.

Jair, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

One of the groups brought packets of glitter for an art project. Of course, the glitter never made it to the project, but rather all over the faces, arms, backs and legs of many of the younger boys, not just Dairo and Junior as seen here.

Dairo, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Junior, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

It has been hot and humid this week, which means lots of swimming in the river!

Xavier, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Segundo and Tercero are the oldest boys at the home in Puerto Alegria. After the last work team left on Friday afternoon, the older boys returned to their rooms and I now have neighbors. The twins’ room is just a few doors down from mine and every morning, afternoon and night they walk past my room trying to startle me, share some silly joke, make a comment, ask to borrow a magazine or just look in to see what I am doing. I can’t help but laugh when they do this because they act just like they are my little brothers.

Segundo & Tercero, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

When there isn’t a team at the house, life is somewhat slower and more time is spent on chores, homework, school and just hanging out. When I started to read some of the magazines I brought, pretty soon I had a group of boys wanting to read too. Even though the majority of the magazines are in English (afew are Spanish or bilingual), they still enjoyed looking at the photographs and seeing what is going on in the world.

Luis Enrique & Marcelino, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Reading, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

And finally, here’s a photo of the 40 boys who live at the home, plus the house parents, directors and staff.

Girasoles Puerto Alegria, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Every trip to Peru is ripe with adventure, but I think last week’s events top the list. No more is the “day of 10 parades and one protest in Cusco” or “the 2 boats, 5 buses, 1 plane and 2 cars in 36 hours” or one of the others at the top of my list of Peruvian adventures.

Let me tell you how one of my days this past week went.

On Sunday evening, Moises (the house parent at Puerto Alegria) and I decided that we would go into Iquitos the next day. He had a meeting in the afternoon, and I needed to check email and just spend a day in the city. We decided to leave at 11am, so Moises could get to his meeting on time, and we would be there until 2 or so.

When I woke up the next morning, Moises greeted me by saying we were going to leave in 15 minutes so he could take Luis, who had recently fallen from a tree, in to the hospital to have his cast and broken arm checked out. That was fine with me, and we met down at the boat to find the motor not working. 25 minutes later, with the help of the groundsmen and watchman, the motor started and we were off.

Since a group was arriving at the end of the week, Moises decided to send the boat and motor to the mechanic to have it fixed so we would not have any issues in the next week. We parted ways with the boat and headed into the city. We had left the house before any of us had breakfast, so Moises, Luis and I went to a little café on the street in the city and got something to eat. Breakfast here isn’t a bagel and cream cheese, or rolls with cheese and ham. I had arroz chaufa (fried rice), while the guys ate something much more hearty.

After breakfast, we parted ways – Moises and Luis to the hospital and me off to the Internet. We were to meet at 3pm at the port where we dock the boat to head back to Puerto Alegria.

By 4pm, I had yet to hear from Moises. I wasn’t surprised; I did not expect to get a call until much after 3pm. By the time I did hear from Moises, he told me that our boat would have to stay in Iquitos all night to be fixed and we would be going back using public transportation down the river. Secretly, I was a bit excited about this since I wanted to go on one of the boats that pass by our house carrying people, goods, and the occasional livestock.

But, since it was later in the afternoon, those public boats would not be traveling up and down the river and we would have to rent a small, private canoe. Moises left little Luis with me at our usual port while he went to find a boat operator. As Luis and I waited for Moises to return, dark storm clouds came over the city and there was a flash of lighting.

By the time Moises returned, it had started to sprinkle and we were slowly getting wet. After 15 minutes in the small canoe (that was not covered), we were soaked. It had started to downpour, and the lightening and thunder had become more frequent.

Our boat looked something like this one. Luckily for these people, it wasn’t raining.

Without any form of rain jackets or plastic bags, our belongings were drenched in water, our clothing thoroughly soaked. It was getting difficult to go any farther so Moises asked the boat driver to stop along the river so we could take shelter in a neighbor’s house. Our luck, we didn’t stop at one of the handful of houses right on the bank of the river, the place we stopped was about 200 yards from the river. We trudged through the mud, puddles, and torrential rain to a stranger’s house where we rung out our clothing and waited for the storm to pass.

After 20 minutes of trying to warm up and dry off, we headed back out into the night, down to the boat. At the river, we tried to take off, but were stuck waiting for the boat driver to start the engine. Thankfully the rain had stopped and we were just sitting in wet clothing in the dark – a perfect haven for the mosquitoes of the jungle.

We finally got moving again and slowly made it up the river. The strangers we had stopped at had generously gave us a plastic trash bag that Luis was wearing and a large piece of plastic (like a table cloth) that I was using to protect us from the rain.

The next 45 minutes were just traveling down the river in the pouring rain, trying to avoid floating logs, other boats and not run into the shore.

At one point, the motor got caught in somebody’s fishing net, so we stopped to have it removed from the propeller. Strangely enough, it stopped raining when we had to stop to fix the engine or the propeller, but picked up with force once we were moving.

Another 30 minutes later, Moises tapped my shoulder and pointed out the familiar and friendly light of the house.

After almost 90 minutes (on a trip that should have taken no more than 25) we made it back to the house completely soaked all the way through. The night’s adventures made for some interesting stories with the boys when we returned, and they of course enjoyed laughing at how silly we looked in our soaking wet clothing.

I don’t think I have ever been so happy to return “home,” to Puerto Alegria, than I was that night.