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!

Last Day in Kusi is a post from: A Life in the World.

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. :)

Pijamada! is a post from: A Life in the World.

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).

Llanganuco is a post from: A Life in the World.

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.)

Haircut in Yungay is a post from: A Life in the World.

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.

Happy Fiestas Patrias! is a post from: A Life in the World.

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.

A Rainy Night in Iquitos is a post from: A Life in the World.

Despite our distance from the city, lack of constant electricity and news access, World Cup fever definitely hit Puerto Alegria this summer. Even though Peru was not represented in the 2010 games, I think I have had or heard a conversation about the event at least every day, especially on those days when I wear one of my World Cup t-shirts (thanks to Saga Falabella in Lima).

While we have not been able to see many of the games for the 2010 championship, we of course were able to watch the final match between Spain and Holland. The generator was turned on for the big event and everybody headed down to the maloca where we set the television on a table and lounged on the floor or hammocks.

After the new antenna was properly connected and we had somewhat of a clear picture, the entire group fell somewhat silent for the following 2 hours of the game, intently watching the every move of the ball, groaning when either team (especially Spain) missed a goal, and whispering about what would happen if the entire game passed without one goal from either team.

Happily for us, Iniesta scored a goal and victory went to Spain.

We watched for a few more minutes of programming after the game ended before the generator was turned off, and it was back to normal life in Puerto Alegria.

World Cup, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

World Cup Final is a post from: A Life in the World.

While we were only at the home for a few hours, it was nice to see some familiar faces from the home, like Paul and Luis Polanco!

Paul

Paul, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Luis Polanco, who has grown tremendously over the past year. I first met Luis in 2002 on my second trip to Peru. He was 8 at the time and sort of a little boy for his age. He is now 16 and almost as tall as me! Here is a photo of him from this year, followed by one from just last August.

Luis, June 2010.

Luis Polanco, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Luis, August 2009.

A Stop in Kawai is a post from: A Life in the World.

After a week in the jungle at Puerto Alegria with my own team from Dearborn, we returned to Lima for a few days – back into the city, “back into civilization” as I heard one member of the team say. It was back to warm showers, soft mattresses, television, electricity, food choices and other people! To go from the little village of Puerto Alegria with its 100 or so residents (45 of which live at the SU home for abandoned boys) to a city of 8 million was quite a change.

We had originally planned on returning to Lima on the 5:50pm flight from Iquitos, but a few days earlier, I received word that our flight had been cancelled and we were rebooked to leave Iquitos at 11:30am. This cut our stay at the house by a few hours, but allowed us to spend a considerable amount of time in Miraflores, one of the nicest districts of Lima, which is something we have never been able to do in the 10 years the team has been coming to Peru.

Today, we spent the day doing the usual Lima things – tour of a church with catacombs, a walk through Lima’s downtown pedestrian street, a few hours wandering in the indian market, and the traditional pollo a la brasa dinner at Pardo’s. Unlike previous years where we have left dinner and proceeded directly to the airport or headed back to Kawai (another SU property and home for abandoned boys), we spent another night in a Miraflores hotel, before heading south to Ica the next morning.

In the photo above, Griffin and Brandon are enjoying the “World Cup Fan Fest” in the Plaza de Armas in downtown Lima.

2 Days in Lima is a post from: A Life in the World.

Craig (71 / 365), originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

It’s a great day for America everybody!

Tonight Craig Ferguson played at the Royal Oak Music Theater and I went to see him!

Over the past few years, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson because he is just absolutely hilarious. There is no other talk show that is as funny as his. He is one of the two celebrities that I follow on Twitter (the second is Conan O’Brien), just because he is hilarious. So when I heard about his upcoming performance in Royal Oak, I knew it would be just as funny, if not better.

I wish I could remember the jokes and share stories about what he said, but all I can remember is laughing so hard all night.

He ended the hour-long performance with a little dance by Britney. Since no cameras were allowed, this video is from when he danced on his show. It is is pretty much the performance he gave tonight but without the puppets. How does this not make you die of laughter!?

Want to follow Craig on Twitter? His user name is @craigyferg

Craig Ferguson is a post from: A Life in the World.