I ate Easter Dinner with my hands...don´t tell my mom!

Happy Easter! I hope that everyone had a fabulous day with their families...I am sad that I did not get to partake in my families festivities but I did have a great day! and a great Easter holiday for that matter.

Let me start with telling you all that Easter here is celebrated all week, it is called Semana Santa. Starting with the special soup that is only made this week...it includes 15 grains and fruits and vegetables and fish and about everything that you can imagine. It is good, but it is a meal all in itself. That is always served on Wednesday but most people eat it most days of this week. Thursday and Friday of this week are the big days. First on Thursday night there are 3 processions that take place, starting at the church and walking down the main streets of the town and back to the church. The people walk while holding candles and singing, people take turns carrying a cross. The cross weighs about 150 pounds, women, children, and men take part in carrying this burden down the streets. This is an amazing sight and sound...people crying and praising. No one that i asked knows the significance but they do this three times on Thursday night; at 9, midnight, and 3am. Liz and I walked in part of the procession at 9 with our ´mom´ from here and then later at 12 with our ´sister´Carmen Amelia. It was an amazing experience.

Friday during the day we went to another town called Urcuqui. They had a parade during the day, where they carry the saints and other church paraphernalia down the streets and sing. The togetherness of this culture is truly something that we in the US lack and the longer that i am here the more that i notice the differences. After the parade there was a carnival set up, so we decided that we should partake in the festivities! First up was the ferris wheel...a lawnmower motor connected to a spinning metal rod which was then connected to the ferris wheel. He had to pull start this lawnmower motor every time that he stopped the ride...it was rusty and rickety and every revolution seemed as if we were going to fly off. After Liz was green we decided to stop for some fonesca...after our tummies were full we played a game of ´shoot the crooked gun at the candy stuck to a board´ which of course was much harder than it looked. Finally we road a giant worm down the streets of Urcuqui with Aventura blaring and the driver jerking from one side of the road to the other. All of these adventures were made possible by our new friend Ricardo...

Friday night was the night of the parade, which consisted again of the church paraphernalia in the street and people dressed up as Bible characters. There were lots of people in the street to watch...including us. Saturday we got up early and headed to Otavalo for the day. Otavalo is the largest market in South America, possibly the world so Lonely Planet says. We bought a rug for a new apartment! and had a good time looking at all the handiwork. We bussed back to Ibarra and Ricardo met us at the bus terminal and took us to his farm.

Ricardo, Im not sure if I have told you about him before...he is from here but has lived in Virginia for the last 20 years of his life. His family owns a farm not too far from here. It is a beautiful place...with horses and cuy (guinea pigs) and dogs and cats and rabbits and lots of plants. It is peaceful and relaxing. This is where we spent Easter Sunday. We slept in, had muesli with fresh fruit and yogurt for breakfast then road horses in the beautiful sunny weather. While we were out having our fun Mariela was slaving away making cuy for us! Cuy is guinea pig and a delicacy here. Ricardo raises and sells them but he cooked up a few for us! They were yummy...heads toenails and all! Yes mom I did eat this rat and on top of eating the rat I ate it with my fingers! Easter dinner with my fingers...a tragedy if my mother would have been sitting next to me!

This week the Vice President visited us here in Pimampiro, he is handicapped and is making a lot of headway into making this country more friendly to those that are disabled. The mayor of Pimampiro asked us to meet him, and continues to ask to for our help with the center for the disabled. They need a nurse and a doctor or a physical therapist. The center is here and ready and there are a lot of disabled people and the mayor and vice president are trying their best to get the resources here that are needed. This could be an amazing program.

Tomorrow we will visit the daycare in Paragachi. There are 30-40 kids there every day with 4 women that work there from 6am until 8pm most nights. They get very little funding from the government and these kids are the poorest of the poor. These women feed the kids three meals a day but do not have the resources for toys or other teaching supplies. We will visit tomorrow and take pictures and fill you in on the rest of the information. But, the new house is in Paragachi which means that these are the kids that we are hoping to be able to give more resources. There is a lot to do in this small town...but great benefits that will be reaped eventually.

So much to do here...I am ready to get this show on the road! But, we will go to Lima this week and work with Solidarity in Action for 2 weeks and then return here to get things going! We are more than ready...and cant wait to see where this adventure takes us!

Check out Liz´s blog!! We make a pretty good team, so maybe together we can fill you in on

everything that is happening here! http://lizallison2887.blogspot.com/2011/04/easter-cuy.html

This is our new house!! Definitely needs some work but has all that land and great potential! Our orphanage dream is coming true!!

Dreams are coming true...

We bought a house!!! and we have 2 months to come up with the money...only $5000! this house is going to serve as a base for our operations, our orphanage, a place to house volunteers, a place to teach English classes, and a place to grow produce! we are going to go to the house and take pictures in the next few days and i will post them! we are super excited! it definitely needs some fixing up which we are estimating to cost another couple thousand dollars and we are hoping to be self sustaining within a very short time! we are working together with Montañas de Esperanza (http://mtnsofhope.org/) to get this project started. we are super excited and ready to get things going! the community that the house is in is a place that we love, we have many friends and kids that need so much. there are 200 kids in this community...150 families that need our help. Paragachi is a town without irrigation water (which we are working on getting the funding for) which means that it is super dry and they cannot grow any of their own food. we were lucky enough to be invited into the home of a family there this week to share a meal and be a part of their lives. these people are very warm and open and willing to give every little thing that they cannot afford to give. we are amazed at the opportunities that we have been presented with and cant wait to see where this life takes us!

On top of this amazing opportunity we ´ran into´the mayor the other night. we need a physical therapist or a doctor who is willing to work with the disabled. there is a center that was built a few years ago specifically for the disabled...but it is not being utilized at this time since there is no staff. please keep this in mind as they are willing to accept volunteers.

Volunteers are welcome...please keep us in your thoughts and prayers! we have a lot of work to do and need each and every one of your support.

home?!?

I am not sure why this is a long run-on paragraph but i cant figure out how to change it....sorry!! Liz and I...and Katie have arrived back in Pimampiro!! yes, back in Pimampiro and we have an apartment!!! we are super excited to have a place to live and stay for a little while, things seems to be falling into place. there is so much opportunity here! we have alot of options of programs and projects and and and. there is so much potential and these people want nothing more than to help us help them! you would not believe the faces of our friends here when we arrived two nights ago...they are all so happy and even more happy that we have returned to spend the Easter week with them. this is a very special time here where there are lots of parades and food and family time. of course, we are welcomed into every single home...i can only imagine the amount of food that we will consume over the next week. they make a soup called fanesca which includes all the grains that you can find and beans and squash and bananas and lima beans and cheese and and and. we partook in this soup today, and it was a-ma-zing! we will have it again in another community with another family tomorrow and im sure 1200 more times in the next few days. Last night was a special event in Pimampiro that i am glad that we did not miss! they call it trueque (the night of exchanging literally) but it is a night where no money is involved. everyone comes from the communities all around (hours away) to exchange their goods, the people from the mountains come down and exchange the things that they grow up there and the people from the valley come up and sell their produce. its amazing! we decided that we were going to exhange sugar...of course if you know me thats what i would want to exchange...we bough 100 blocks of panela. panela is sugar cane that they press out the juice then boil it and make it into blocks, they package them in a pack of 100. we seperated them into bags of 4 and exhanged this sugar for everything from squash to tomatoes to potatoes. no money involved...and an amazing experience to see everyone out in the streets! Let me tell you about our apartment!! its amazing!! it has three bedrooms and one bathroom with hot water (even though we have no water at all right now)!! and a big kitchen and living room! apparently there was a land slide sometime last week and knocked out the pipe that brings the water to Pimampiro and the town has been without water for quite sometime. luckily we had some yesterday and got to shower and this morning we were warned that we would have none for an undetermined amount of time so we filled everything that we could find and borrow with water! this too shall pass, its a small price to pay to have the privilege to live in this amazing town, in this amazing country, with these amazing people! So, let me back track since it has once again been a million days since i wrote. we left Pimampiro with the intention of returning the first week of June, we were supposed to be in Lima now. but...life has a funny way of working things out exactly like they are supposed to be. just so happened that Katie and Paul (our guy from Pimampiro) flew into Guayaquil airport almost at the exact same time. Paul was headed to Lima for a few days and Katie was coming to work with us for a few weeks. i went to the airport with the driver in his tiny burgundy hatchback car that doesnt go over 40mph and barely fits 4 people to pick them up. as we are driving im telling katie that the plan is for us to head to Lima to work with the orphans and the kids in the schools but at the same time Paul is telling her all about Pimampiro. of course, she immediately was hooked on coming up here! Paul is a great saleman for this town! but...she is hooked as well! While in Guayaquil we worked with MMRC and visited the clinics that they will be working with. while we were there, on our way to the bus station i was sitting in the front of the truck with our driver (Edisson) and typing a text message when all of a sudden my phone was no longer in my hands. we had stopped at a red light for a few seconds, my window was only half way down and a teenage boy grabbed the phone right out of my hands and ran away with it. he didnt touch my hands at all, he had amazing hand-eye coordination! i mean, i guess if someone had to steal something from me im glad that he was good at it! my purse was in my lap with money and my passport and camera and all of my important possessions...so i was thankful that only the phone was stolen. i have decided that Guayaquil has something against me, it is the only city in the entire world that i have had anything stolen in (knock on wood)or that i have been touched against my will. did i tell that story? im afraid that i didnt, i was never in danger BUT a teenage boy trying to sell cookies grabbed my butt while i was walking on the sidewalk! i told him i didnt want to buy his dag on cookies, which apparently he didnt care regardless and he grabbed my butt and Liz and I turned around so fast ready to chase him down but he ran so fast it was impossible! dont get scared...i have never felt in danger... After leaving Guayaquil we headed 3 hours to the coast! the beach! i love the beach...the sand, the sun, the warmth! we arrived with a million things, remember that we left an entire suitcase of stuff in Guayaquil when we came up here the first time...so we had that plus katies stuff. we were backpackers PLUS! as we wonder the streets of Montañita to find a hostel, batteling the other backpackers, the hippies selling their goodies in the street, the dogs, and our biggest obstacle being the mounds of luggage...we finally found a hostel. cold water, bed bug infested beds, smelly, dusty....but we had a window looking at the ocean! that final thing allowed us to choose this, what most of you would say horrible place to enjoy our ¨vacation¨. its funny how little things make me happy! we had an amazing time! we took surf lessons and sat on the beach and drank coco y ron ( fresh coconut with coconut juice and sweetened condensed milk) and hung out with the locals! the coco y ron is a thing of my dreams...when i was here 4 years ago i remember sitting on the beach and drinking them in the same town in the same place...being back there after all these years of thinking about the fresh fruit and the beach was an amazing experience! After 3 full days of beach we decided that Pimampiro was calling us...so we packed our bags, said goodbye to our new friends and our amazing beach view and headed to the highway. after standing on the north bound side of the road for a good 3o minutes the bus finally came, we threw on our stuff and jumped on. after a good 2 hours we changed buses again this time supposedly to Quito. this was supposed to be an 8 hour bus ride, well when midnight came and we were told to get off the bus on the corner and wait for another bus to Quito we were definitely confused. the good thing is that we had made friends with the guy who collects the money on the bus and the bus driver so they waited on the corner with us for more than an hour. during this hour they were stopping every bus asking them to take us to Quito and of course no one wanted to take us so they convinced us to go to Ambato with them. when i say convinced our choices were slim...we stand on the corner for who knows how long or we get back on the bus and go wherever it goes. another two hours, and two hours the wrong way we arrive at a hotel...we got door to door service at least. the bus driver helped us carry our stuff into the hotel and made sure all was well and then they left us...this was about 2am. this ¨hotel¨ left little to be desired...i chose the bed closest to the door since i was absolutely freezing and thought maybe it might be the warmest of the beds. we had traveled ALL DAY and changed buses 4 times and sweat to death and barely eaten (expect for some mystery meat and rice at a so called truck stop) and all we wanted were warm showers and a comfy bed. alot to ask for, i know...but it had been a long day. Liz decided to suck it up and shower...the water was FREEZING and the air was freezing and the room was more freezing! while Liz was showering Katie and I decided to find as many clean clothes that we had to put on and hopefully get in bed and be warm-er. i thought id at least brush my teeth...no water in the sink (of course is water supposed to come out of the faucet?) so as Liz was showering i was spitting my toothpaste into the toilet and sharing her freezing water to brush my teeth and wash my face. this event led to a pool in the bathroom which ended up being a hazard for Katie in the morning without her shoes! oops! after this fiasco i jump into my bed only to land on a rock...most definitely the hardest thing i have ever called a bed. one single sheet with holes in it so i could see the patterns of the mattress with a single sheet and blanket on top. my pillow looked as if someone had swept the floor with it...black lines and dust on it...but at least it didnt have a giant foot print on it like Liz´s did! we shut off the lights quickly so that we didnt have to see what we were sleeping with and tried to sleep. apparently Katie couldnt sleep becuase her sheets kept coming off leaving her on some plastic cover thing and i was wimpering in my sleep because i was so freezing. Katie said that she was afraid that maybe i was freezing to death...i was curled in the tightest ball possible with lots of clothes on and i was still shaking and wimpering. i survived... Now, remember we are in Ambato (yes Alessia we were in your hometown) which is 2 hours south of Quito which means we are about 6 hours south of Pimampiro...the last thing that we wanted to do was get back on a bus and ride for another 6 hours. our choices being slim once again we decided to hit up the nearest breakfast place and then head north. little did we know that breakfast would be such a hassle...we had two choices: desayuno completo (complete breakfast) or desayuno simple (simple breakfast). seems straight forward but when i asked the kid (he might have been 15 and his baby and baby momma were sitting in the restaurant too) he just mummled so we figured we couldnt go wrong with the complete breakfast. usually this means eggs and break and cheese and coffee or tea, this time it did not mean that it meant rice and chicken and salad and fried plantains AND eggs and bread and cheese! no thank you in the morning! after we got breakfast straightened out we headed to the bus terminal to board yet another bus....it was a beautiful ride but longer than ever! it rained most of the way, there were twice as many people as there were seats to sit in, it was windy and bumpy but we survived once again. we arrived in Ibarra to be greeted by Paul...waiting for us! amazing how he just so happened to be there when we would arrive. we loaded up our stuff and headed ¨home¨! how amazing did it feel to know that we would be arriving back in Pimampiro and we would have a place to live! a place all to ourselves! timing, somone up there is watching out for us! apartments are hard to come by in this town...and the time that we asked this one was available! So much potential here...so much that can be done...so many people who need so much help and who appreciate the tiniest things that you and i take for granted every single day. for example today Paul called us at 9am and said that he was on his way with our refrigerator and with some people to help us at the house. we jumped out of bed and started cleaning the kitchen to make it ready for the people and the stuff. after they helped us and we got some things together we cooked up some eggs and boiled some water for coffee and tea and sat down in our new place with our friends! im sure that i have mentioned Luis before, he is the president of one of the communities here and he weaves in the traditional pre-Colombian back-strap style and his work has been looked at by experts in the US and it is museum quality! amazing! he is an amazing person with so many talents and such a heart for the kids of his community! he has the dream of weaving and selling his products in the US...he makes everything from bags and purses to bedspreads! some time ago he was having severe back pain from sitting at the loom for so many hours weaving, so Paul was asking how his back was feeling and his response was as simple as ´it depends on the day and if i have food to eat´. can you imagine if that was your only complaint in life? I could go on for days with the stories of these people here, they are amazing and resilient and happy. they love every day and smile constantly...they do not know what it is like to have any modern commodities...but they are happy! i can only hope that i someday can be as happy with so little...

Donation Info!!

Here we are, in Guayaquil working with MMRC...today we spent the day driving to the clinics and talking to the directors about possible surgical candidates. Tomorrow we will hit up another clinic or two and make times to do initial exams on these patients and determine which are most in need of surgery. MMRC is hoping to get teams down here in the next 5 weeks, the type of surgeon will depend on what we identify as the biggest need. Katie is coming tomorrow!! Cant wait to see her and work with her down here! I have answers for the donations question! The guy that we are working with up north, in Pimampiro, has been super nice and has shared all of his connections with us and once again he is hooking us up and allowing us to use him for donations (so its tax deductible)! Check out his website at www.mtnsofhope.org. And you can send any donations to: Mountains of Hope c/o Focus International 4930 East Texas Road Allentown, PA 18106 Check memo: Ser Viva Health Project Dont forget the memo line!! This is what we are calling our project in Pimampiro for now...we are hoping to find some property and make these dreams a reality very soon!

Missing Pimampiro

Once again it is Monday...and I am realizing how many things have happened and how many things I havent written about. So...we found out that our dream house/farm is much pricier than we had expected and much pricier than it should be. So, we have a plan and a budget and everything but now we have to find a place to do it. This farm is great, perfect location, perfect for exactly what we want to do...but obviously this is not the place but I am certain that we will find it. We have an amazing team here and so many people that want to help us make our dreams come true...so I/we are trusting that all this works out.

We have arrived back in Guayaquil as of 6 am...its hot and we miss Pimampiro already! The entire floor of the hospital where we are living is great! It has 11 bathrooms and 8 bedrooms and tons of space for us to house all of the MMRC volunteers! We will be doing screenings over the next week here and finding out what surgical teams are needed. Hopefully shortly after we will put together a team and get these surgeries done! MMRCglobal.org is meeting a little bit of resistance from the hospital staff here, they dont want any donations of equipment since they are a for-profit hospital. This means hopefully that when we get donations Liz and I can take them up north with us! Thankfully Liz and I have met no resistance in the north, the people up there are nothing but nice and gladly welcome any help that we can give them. Everyday we are given more opportunities and have more people willing to help us to help more people. It is amazing how things work out when I/we are so open to doing whatever comes my way. I am more than confident that the dreams and goals that the three of us (new Paul, Liz, and I) have are going to become a reality in only a short time in Pimampiro.

Katie comes this week and we are super excited to see her! She is bringing us all kinds of goodies...since she is the first person to come down since we have been here. We are super thankful for all of the things that she is bringing in her suitcase! Who is coming next??

I, of course have to mention the bus ride yesterday...might possibly have been one of the worst. First, we find out that the "nice bus" is full...so we decide to go to the bus station a little early to see if we can find something earlier. This original "nice bus" left at 730pm and got us to Guayaquil at 6am...this meant that we had to leave Pimampiro around 5. Well, after we called and found out that the bus was full we decided to leave early...it was about 3 when we got on the packed bus from Pimampiro to Ibarra. This is about an hour ride, but this time it took almost 2 and a majority of this time we were standing. Finally we got to sit down, but when I did a man reeking of alcohol decided I needed some company. He started asking me all kinds of questions, one being if I was from Pimampiro...of course I answered yes! Then he laughed...after one more question I told him very bluntly 'I dont want to talk to you!' he of course asked why and with no response he gave up. All this happening while Liz is about 5 feet away yelling at me to move away from him...unfortunately there was nowhere to go. When we arrived at the bus terminal there were people everywhere...we bought our bus tickets and found a place to wait for 2 long hours. We missed the 3pm bus and had to wait until 7pm...we ate and talked and sat and and and. 7 finally came, we boarded the bus...the guy that sat behind us had his not so personal sound system blasting, a lady came stomping and crying mascara running down her face and yelling at the man that was with her, and it seemed as if every child on the bus was screaming! Finally when we left at a prompt 7pm, as they said that we would (saying we left at 730 might be optimistic) and of course our driver was a crazy man! It wasnt one hour into the ride and we hit a small truck! Of course the people on the bus are screaming at the guy and screaming at our driver, after about 20 minutes sitting on the side of the road (and Liz hanging her head out the window to make sure our bags didnt get pulled off the bus) we were off again only to stop again shortly after. This time, not for an accident...but for who knows what. But, the people on the bus started stomping their feet and yelling for the driver to get back on the road. RIDICULOUS! But....luckily we made it here in just about 11 hours and it only cost us $10!! What can you ask for for only $10? Not too much...obviously!

As far as donations we will be setting up a website, or adding onto a website a donate button specifically for Liz and I and our projects. As for now, if you just cant wait let me know on facebook or by email and Ill give you an address! Thank you all so very much for supporting us!

We just got back from looking at a house/farm that would be perfect for our orphanage! It is about 10 acres, has fruit trees and a garden, and alot of rooms and bathrooms! We plan to take in as many kids as we can, employ as many women in the community as we can to cook and clean, and a few men to teach the kids how to work in the garden. The plan is the teach the kids how to grow as much food as possible and eventually grow all the food that is eaten on the property. We also plan to teach the kids English, and teach the people in the community English because the people who speak English have many more opportunities here. Once we get all of this under control then I hope to be able to have all my friends and family from home come down and share in my joy with these kids! So many things that we want to do! and cant wait to get them started! The only issue is money...it is for sale...we are going to talk to the owners tonight! If this place is meant to be, please pray that it will all work out! Yesterday we went up to Chuga...a community that we can see from Pimampiro...but that is about an hour drive around the mountain and up a very steep bumpy terrible road. The first time that we went to this town (one day last week) we went on dirtbikes. Shhh, dont tell my mom! It so happened to be raining that day, which it does most days, and the guy who was driving the dirtbike couldnt keep it on the road. It was definitely an adventure, with only one time that we were going one direction and suddenly we slid in the mud and were facing right back where we came from. There are about 100 families that live in this community but there are about 5 other communities that feed into this one. It is beautiful and the people have an amazing spirit. All the people here work so very hard and have so very little but are truly happy. We worked with the nurses in the clinic and saw quite a few patients...they only have a doctor in this clinic on Wednesdays so the people come from far and wide to see him. You would die if you walked the distances that these old ladies walk...i would die for sure! I just realized that the last time that I blogged was last Tuesday....I know that I say this everytime that I blog but the days are flying by! I dont even know what else to write about...this weekend we went down to Quito and met up with a bunch of whities! They all work in different parts of Ecuador for the Peace Corp. It was a fun weekend, we ate alot and spoke alot of English! How nice it is to be able to speak English with someone else other than Liz...dont get me wrong I love speaking Spanish but I cannot truly express myself in Spanish yet. It is super frustrating and I wish that it was easier...but someday...I hope someday soon it will happen! Before we went down to Quito we went to Paragachi...remember that little town with about 100 families just down the road from Pimampiro? It is super dry and Montañas de Esperanza (the organization here that is doing the biointensive gardening) is trying to get them water. They have rights to water but dont have the money to channel the water from its source to their town. They have drinking water but are not allowed to use that water for their plants. We are hoping tto get that project going soon! But, we went there on Saturday with our friend Romero who works for Child Fund out of the US. They work with the families and kids around Ecuador to get them food, clothes, and schooling. Since there were going to be lots of families and kids around we went to ask them some questions, to see if there are orphans in their town, what kinds of foods that they eat, and what we can do to help them. These people are so happy and they live in a desert, lacking most everything that you or I would consider necessary to live... While in Paragachi I got so many bug bites that my left ankle was swollen to the size of an older lady who hadnt gotten up to walk in weeks!! It was horrible...so swollen and so itchy...its getting better but I still have dark purple circles all the way around. This is the worst of my suffering, on top of the shower...I will survive! I love it here! One day this week we went to Ibarra, Ibarra is the closest ¨city¨to where we are...the main reason we go there is to have capuccino! Its the little things in life that make me happy! What I would do for brownies or homemade chocolate chip cookies or a fabulous breakfast!! The things Im willing to do without but...still miss all the same! This capuccino place makes great coffee..i mean great compared to the instant stuff that this entire country drinks daily. We also went there to get jackets...we have to wear white jackets when we work in the clinics, cause all of the nurses here wear all white. They say that they people dont know who we are if we arent wearing them...haha! While driving down the street that day Paul ( the one that lives here and invited us up here) started yelling at someone on the sidewalk. We parked quickly and started talking to this guy...he just so happens to be the medical director of this entire province. Amazing how things just work out! He actually used to be the director here in Pimampiro of the clinic and has organized some medical students from New York University to come and work down here. He is super excited to have us here and wants us to go to Ibarra to work and his very good friend is the administrator of the hospital there. This hospital in Ibarra is the closest hospital to Pimampiro, which means that if there is something that needs more attention than the clinic here can handle everyone must go there. Its about an hour away...can you imagine?? To answer the questions about donations...we plan to set up something somewhere to make that possible. As soon as I get it figured out I will let you know! Thank you all so much for all of your love and support!! I couldnt do this without each and every one of you...

Passion

I cant wait to get back to Lima to see my kiddos! Dont get me wrong, I love Pimampiro but the faces of those kids are in my brain every day! Its amazing how small town a small town can be, I know that I grew up in a small town but I didnt walk the streets of Greenwood or frequent many places on a daily basis...here after only being here a little over a week I see the same people every day. Its amazing how much of a family one entire town can be. Last week we bought white jackets to wear to work, because all the nurses here wear white, and a lady here in town told us that she would pick them up for us on Saturday. Well, every day this week we have gone by her house to ask her for the jackets and every day she tells us first she will have them in the afternoon then later that it wont be til the next day. Yesterday afternoon we asked her again, she said she had no idea when she could get them. But, while we were having dinner we got a phone call from Romero (a man that works with the organization that we work with here but doesnt live in Pimampiro) and he told us that our jackets were ready. All night we were wondering how in the world he knew...this morning we asked her and she said that his wife is his cousin. Crazy how interconnected EVERYONE is here! I feel like we made alot of headway this week...met alot of people and have alot of opportunities. Our number one priority is assessing the area to see if an orphanage/daycare would be useful. Liz and I have both dreamed of someday having an orphanage, and we think that every day here is a day closer to achieving that. Ultimately we would like to help Clara in the orphanage in Lima by building on to the house that she currently has and by helping her feed the kids the remaining 15 days of the month that they have no food. We would also like to start an orphanage in Pimampiro. There are a few orphans here but the majority of the kids are just super poor. They have parents but they live in very terrible conditions and do not have much food. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers, we have alot of planning time to spend both here and in Lima. This planning time is coming out of our own bank accounts which is slightly stressful knowing that our time here may be cut short for something as ridiculous as money. But...we both know that we are right where we are supposed to be and things will work out just like they are supposed to! On top of our passion of the orphanages we are working to find out what health needs there are in Pimampiro. We are working together with MMRC to hopefully provide medical care such as surgeries or equipment to help better this community. These people are amazingly appreciative of the smallest things, and they always have a smile on their faces! Definitely a lesson for those of us who have everything...