destination...Guayaquil!

Guayaquil! We have arrived! It only took a 28 hour bus ride, some Chifa (Peruvian Chinese food), lots of random stops for the bus driver to buy things for himself, and boarder crossings. We left Lima at 3pm on Sunday, luckily we found a bus that wasnt too expensive that would take us the entire way...no dragging our bags across the boarder and finding a new bus to bring us the rest of the way. This bus was nice, air condition, blankets and pillows, and food! And the most important part...a bathroom! Now, let me enlighten you on this bathroom...imagine an airline bathroom with a window. The seat is spring loaded so you have one of two choices, sit on it (which in my case was not an option at all) or hover over the large silver hole. The issue with hovering is that the bus is moving, the roads are bumpy, there are potholes, pedestrians, oncoming cars, animals...so the chances of hitting this hole arent so great. Fortunately they give you a handle attached to the wall directly across from the toilet, if you grip it tightly, bend your knees at just the right angle, and levitate at the perfect height going to the bathroom is a possibility.

Once we got here, we met the rest of our team (Paul, Bridget, and Nick) at a hostel where they have been for a week waiting on us. This place is beautiful, overlooking Guayaquil with hammocks and a pool. Dont get too excited, we are only here for a few days. The best part is this hammock that I am laying in right now...Liz and I have been wishing for something comfortable to sit in for a very long time. We are convinced that Peru has no comfortable seating, all of the seats basically try to throw you out...no place to lounge and be comfortable. We are very grateful to be able to relax!

Tomorrow we will begin our house hunting, we are trying to find a place to live and to house volunteers while we are down here. We have a few good options, so we are hoping to secure a place in the next few days. This week is Carnival so everyone is on vacation, but we have been contacting people and getting some connections and going to get started working as soon as possible! Javier, our contact in Lima, is coming up sometime next week, he knows a lot of people and we are hoping that he gets us hooked up with some contacts. We are all anxious to get this show on the road, but as for everything in life we are trying to be patient!

The school...we ended up seeing about 700 of the 900 kids at the elementary school over 3 days. The issue apparently is that in the first week not all the kids show up, for numerous reasons. We are compiling the data, but it is ridiculous the amount of kids who have lice. We will be giving the information both to the school and the public clinic in the area so that they can send the information home with the parents and hopefully get this under control.

What do you think of when you think of lice? I would presume that most people would think only of the nits/eggs that are usually found in the hair, well here we not only find those nits but bugs. Bugs, big bugs, bugs that if I had them in my hair I would know it, i would feel them moving! But, these kids have no idea...if you ask them if they feel something moving they say no. The biggest problem here is that they do not have hot water, they must boil all of their drinking water and washing everything that they own in hot water just isnt an option. The only other way to get rid of lice from your house, clothes, stuffed animals is to put them in plastic bags for 2 weeks. Unfortunately they dont have enough clothes and things to just let them sit in plastic for all this time. We cannot come up with a good idea to eradicate these bugs, especially from the orphanage.

Speaking of the orphanage, MMRCglobal.org has decided to see what we can do as an organization for them. They need more space, Clara the lady who owns and runs it and who is the mother to 15 kids, does a great job with what they do have but they need more space. The house is small and they have one covered cement area that they eat and play in. Otherwise they have an upstairs with 7 sets of bunk beds, and a bathroom. We are trying to figure out a way to either build onto her current house or what the procedure is to build something from scratch. This is a lady who loves all her orphans and all of the kids (somewhere around 30) that she watches every day. Liz and I really think that helping her will help the community of San Genaro and help these kids to have a better future. We are uploading pictures of each of their faces to the mmrc website over the next couple of days. You will have the opportunity to see each one of them and help us to help them!

Saturday Liz and I took 10 of the orphans to the beach! They were so excited! We got two cabs, stuffed everyone in and headed to the closest beach. This beach, Vanessia, is nothing like Chorillos...we could actually see the water and play with the kids! We played in the water and the sand with them, they loved every second of it! Since they obviously have no sand toys they were playing with trash that they found, wait until you see the sand castles that they built with straws and other various objects! We cant wait to get back down there and be able to take them other places and do other things with them! It is amazing how appreciative children are over the smallest things here, I would love for every child in the US to experience one day in the life of a child in a third world country.

Now that I have taken up most of your day reading about my past week, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers and take a look at the mmrcglobal.org website!

the smiles of the orphans...

Tomorrow we begin an endeavor that seems much to large for us to accomplish...lice removal of 900 kids! Granted we are going to be given some help, two "nurses", altogether making 4 nurses and our man Javier and our friend and translator Mayra. The reason for the quotes is because nurses here, so we have been told, are different. We arent exactly sure what that means but as soon as I find out Ill fill you in! As far as Javier, he is our contact and usually sits somewhere just in eyeshot looking at his watch. That makes him sound impatient, truly he runs errands for us when we run out of things. Or if I need medications or anything really, he is the man. Mayra is so much help, we have been truly blessed to have her, she is willing to do anything and everything. She gets in there with us and picks lice and does whatever is needed to be done. We will be very sad to leave her, we might even try to take her to Ecuador with us! Mayra is 17, she is studing communications at the University. She speaks both English and Spanish and spends every day all day with us. She also volunteers her English skills and teaches 3 days a week at a school for teachers, where they are learning to speak English. They believe that if they can speak English that they can better their society and make more of a difference in their country! Yesterday we had the opportunity to go into the poorest part of Lima, they have no water, no electric, no homes, no nothing. Of course "no" is not totally true, the water truck comes 3 times a week with not drinking water but water for bathing and washing clothes, the electric is "borrowed" (wires are rigged from the electric poles into the houses) from the power lines closer to the city, and their homes are made out of scraps and trash. This place is on the side of the highest point in Lima,which makes it the hottest in the summer and the most wet in the winter. Apparently they have mudslides which wash away their "homes" so they have created barriers with old tires and rocks to try to decrease this issue. Regardless, these people are in need. Javier is trying to figure out where we start, what can we do for these people to make their lives just the tiniest bit better. He introduced us to this place so that we could help in deciding what to do. We stood in this shanty town, with the kids playing in the dusty street around us and the mothers washing their families clothes in buckets of freshly delivered water, thinking. What do we do to help these people? I am truly "at home" here. I love being here, I love working here, I love the people and the language. I am looking forward to meeting our friends in Ecuador and getting some of our own projects started, but being in South America makes me feel like I am right where I am supposed to be. I do not miss anything of the United States, except my family and my little doggers Leila of course, but I havent thought once that I am missing out on anything in the good ol US of A. Crazy, I know...but amazing nonetheless. Today, we got to play with our kids at the orphanage! I love those kids and they love us! As soon as they see us drive up they are at the gate yelling our names, when we enter they are jumping on us and kissing and hugging us! Not one second goes by while we are there that they are not in our laps or dont have their arms around our necks! They need so much love! and I want to take every single one of them and love them forever! It breaks my heart every single day when I have to close that gate behind us and tell them goodbye. Clara, the owner/teacher/mother of all of the kids gives them all lots of love...but could you imagine having 15 kids to take care of and splitting your lap and neck time? On top of the 15 that live with her she takes in somewhere around 30 more every single day as like a daycare. She is an amazing woman. Soon we will be posting the pictures of each of the orphans with their names and ages so that you can see them and see what we see in their beautiful faces! Think about us as we come in contact with 900 kids over the next few days...in a very poor area with lots of needs and even more lice!

RECRUITING ALL LOUSE REMOVERS

So, I just noticed that my blog is making me crazy! I KNOW that I blogged on tuesday night but it says it was Monday, I thought that maybe I missed a day! Hopefully it is fixed this time! So, I left you after we removed lice on Tuesday...well on Wednesday we did the same thing all over again. Javier, our ¨main man¨, said that he believes that lice is an epidemic here in Peru! Funny, but he is probably right. Wednesday morning we went back to the orphanage/daycare and removed more lice from kids in the community. We spent all day there, there were so many kids...so many dirty kids. It was a long long long day with some kids that had obviously had lice for a very long time. Some of the bugs were bigger than ants! We came back to the convent and had some lunch and then headed to central lima! First we visited the Church of San Francisco and the main plaza then we went to the Parque de los Aguas (Park of the Waters). This place is full of water fountains with lights and music and all! Its beautiful! Eventually we will post some pictures. Thursday, we thought was going to be a new day, new things other than lice, but little did we know that we would be acting like monos (monkeys) all over again! Luckily this time we gave the mothers information about what they needed to do to get rid of them and we didnt have to actually ¨pïck¨each and every bug and egg out! The kids that attend the kindergarten have a little bit of money and most of them have running water, so they were pretty clean and free of lice. Just when we thought that we were done (that we had seen all the kids for the day) another 10 showed up at the door...and these kids had lice. boo! Luckily we gave the moms the information and let them take care of it themselves. We had a great late lunch made by the lady who owns the school (who is also one of our contacts who sets us up with alot of our work) and then called it a day. We came back to the convent, showered and then met my friend Diego in Miraflores. Diego, I met when I was here two years ago (he is actually from Hungary) and we have kept in touch ever since. Waking up Friday we were dreading what was ahead of us, seeing old people in San Genero Dos. This ¨community¨ is super poor, they do not have running water, bathrooms, or any type of modern commodity. They must wait for the water truck to bring them water, and their homes are made of what you or I may call trash. The roads are all made of dirt, there is sewage running down those streets, the smell is of urine, the sun is burning all exposed skin. This is a place where the poorest of the poor of Lima live. Though these people are at the bottom of the chain they are the nicest, so giving and loving. We took blood pressures and talked about their medical issues, treated a few people for infections. One lady in particular that I will not forget came up to us, she looked very sick. She complained of fever, difficulty breathing, weakness for a few days..her eyes were glazed. First, and foremost we made her take off the 14 layers of clothes that she was wearing. I was sweating wearing scrub pants and a tank top, I cannot imagine wearing the amount of clothes that she was wearing even without a fever! Her lungs sounded like crap so we treated her with antibiotics and motrin, we will follow up with her this week at her house. Today was a day of rest, the beach seemed inviting but once we arrived (after walking quite a distance down-the convent is on the edge of a cliff) there were so many people bothering us we joked about putting a sign on our umbrella saying ¨do not disturb¨. There are thousands of umbrellas and chairs and people selling things and and and. Definitely not relaxing, but I did steal a few minutes of sleep and have a churro! Dinner with the nuns...and off to bed at an early hour! On our way to the beach today, we thought that we would drop our laundry...the nuns told us that it was close to here. Thinking that it was close we put all of our clothes in one big black trashbag and started down the street...little did we know that we had to cross 10 streets and go through a main square. While we are standing on an island (between a few major roads) suddenly we get squirted! Luckily it was just water...but picture two white girls struggling to carry one large black trash bag full across a busy street and suddenly they are soaked by a squirt gun! Tomorrow is still to be determined, we have to make some teaching handouts and we will probably do some reading. or Spanish studying!

we have arrived!

Liz and I have arrived in Lima...with no problems! We left Miami bright and early on Sunday morning, thanks to Jackie we arrived right on time. We checked in for our flight, but unfortunately we were informed that we must claim our luggage in Bogota and recheck in for our flight from Bogota to Lima. Im pretty sure that I did not agree to that when booking the tickets. Fortunately we made it...off the plane, thru customs, claimed our luggage, got back in line to recheck in and thru security and customs AGAIN to finally arrive at our gate just before boarding time. Then, for whatever reason they stamped "standby" on our tickets...so we waited with our fingers crossed hoping that we could get on the plane. luckily...we got on...all our luggage was in Lima and our contact Javier was awaiting us with a smile and a sign! As soon as we met Javier English was to become our second language...Spanish is the only option here! Liz and I did wish that we would become fluent in Spanish in our first two weeks here...little did we know that we would actually have the opportunity to make that come true! Javier (our chauffer, contact, go to man, etc) has introduced us to so many people it is ridiculous! After arriving at the airport we packed our stuff into Javiers car and headed for the chalet (a convent overlooking the beach). When we arrived at the convent we met the head nun (Graciella) who showed us our room, which is a room with 4 smaller rooms each with a bed and dresser and a bathroom (with a shower with hot water!). Every morning and night we have food prepared for us by the nuns, they even pack us a lunch for the road! Javier left us here at the chalet and told us to rest cause we have a full two weeks! Monday morning Javier arrived around 9 and so did is daughter Mayra who is our translator. She is 17, super cute and nice and speaks English pretty well. She is studying at the university but spends every day, all day with us teaching us Spanish and helping us to understand the more difficult Spanish words! Monday was a day of introductions...we met teachers at the school where we will be doing lice removal on 900 kids next week, the director of an orphanage/daycare where we did exams today, and alot of other people! After a long day of introductions we worked on handouts to use on things such as handwashing and teethbrushing and their importance for the remainder of the evening. This morning we were more than ready to begin our work here, so we got up early, had breakfast, dressed in scrubs, and prepared for the day! We arrived at the orphanage/daycare...Im calling it this because 12 of the children live there full time and the rest come during the day while their parents work. There are about 30 kids in total, with a few coming from the community to be checked added on top of that. Liz and i checked all of these kids for skin rashes or infections, lice, flat feet, or anything else that we noticed that we could do something about. We are sure of the significants of the flat feet either, so dont worry! but apparently it is important here in Peru! After checking all of these kids...we started shampooing and combing all of the lice and nits from the kids hair. This took us ALL day! These kids have lots of hair...lots of thick hair..with lots of nits and bugs! We will return to this place in the morning to say hi and play with the kids some and also return next week to make sure that the lice are gone. I think we counted one million and one louse removed! haha! After the louse removal session we had a quick lunch of Chifa (what the Peruvians call their take on Chinese food) and then off the English classes. There are about 10 classes of English that are take at a school a few blocks from where we are staying, Mayra also teaches there. We got to introduce ourselves to the classes and speak in English (funny how easy it is to forget something that you use every single day when you stop using it for only a short time) with the students. Most of them are beginners so they ask simple questions, but we got to interact with a classroom of teachers who teach English and we got to actually speak and interact with them. Overall it was a great day... Tomorrow we will get to play with the kids and see some of central Lima...

sorry for the delay...

As I sit here in Miami listening to the ocean I am becoming anxious about my upcoming trip. No, it most definitely is not where I thought that I would be at this time in my life. I was so set on Haiti, 6 weeks ago i was supposed to be going down to Haiti to live and work for an undetermined amount of time. That obviously was not meant to be, so here I am about to head back to South America!

As most of you know my friend Paul was wrongfully imprisoned in the Haitian penitentiary for 18 long days. Because of this and because the organizations that I have worked with previously are/were full of volunteers I started to look into other opportunities. I was determined to find a third world country that I could use my nursing skills in. Liz (a nurse that I met while in Haiti who will be in South America with me) and I started to research our options when she came across Solidarity in Action. Now, I dont know all the details because she has been so kind as to take care of all of the logistics but I do know that we are headed to Lima on Wednesday to work in a clinic. Also we will be doing some school programs such as "lice removal" and teaching basic hygiene.

Recently, as I have been thinking about my life and all of the opportunities that I have been afforded and all of the traveling that I have done, two things continue to come into my mind. I have been struggling recently, feeling like I am being pulled in two opposite directions: find a place to call home and move to a third world country and work. I think a large part of me wanting to make a "home" is because I have been close to my family and have really enjoyed the time that I have gotten to spend with all of them. I love being able to have lunch with my mom or go to DC and hang out with my sister. And now having Jonathan close too has made my decision to travel even harder. Needless to say, I am sure that I am right where I am supposed to be, right where God has placed me. So, back to those two things that I cannot forget about...speaking Spanish and going to Australia. Of all of the things in my life that I have accomplished these are two that I have yet to do.

I have a love for Latin culture and have spent many years speaking Spanish here and there but I have never become fluent...here is my chance! I have said for many years that I was going to just move to South America and stay until I could speak fluently...now is my chance! So, with all of that said I hope to accomplish my dream of speaking Spanish in the next few months! As far as going to Australia that is in the works too!!

Liz and I will be leaving on Sunday and flying into Lima where we will stay in a chalet (or so they are calling it...Liz thinks that it is going to be a castle with a moat! i will not bust her bubble since she has no idea what to expect!) and work with Solidarity for 2 weeks. After those two weeks we will meet with Paul Sebring (MMRCglobal.org) in Colombia and begin working there as well. We will blog while we are gone to keep you all informed. We would love to hear from everyone! And please keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going, I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone." -Thomas Merton

Haiti on my heart...

today is a day closer to me being back in Haiti...every day working/being in the states makes me more thankful but causes me to wish that i was in Haiti all the more. every day that i look at my facebook there is a new post, a new post from one of my dear friends down there, begging for help...asking for everyone and anyone to give their time or supplies or whatever they can to help out the people. today, i read my friend stacey's blog (http://charitystace.wordpress.com/)...she so vividly depicts what is going on down there. she writes a few short paragraphs and every time that i read them...i feel like i am there...like i need to be there, now. then i find a short video clip (http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=887031823978&oid=274499941808&comments) ...my friends working with samaritans purse, the clinics and how much they are doing and what it actually looks like down there.

all of this, every day makes me want to be there more and more but i keep reminding myself that i will be there soon enough. all the questions keep coming...how will you be supported down there? how long will you be there? what exactly are you going to be doing? questions questions questions...that i will figure out when i get there. i feel like Haiti is where i am supposed to be right now and thats what i am going to do. as everything else in my life has just "fallen into place" i expect the same in this situation and i am thankful every day for the time that i have here, close to my family, before i head down there.

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." Dalai Lama

inspiration

today has been a relaxing day with the parents. i have one obstacle to overcome before heading down to haiti that i had to go to the doctor about today. i had a consult with a surgeon about fixing my hernia (which came back after i already had surgery december of last year), it bothers me at this point and is growing by the day. im going to have it fixed the first week of december so that i can be ready to work!

on to more exciting things...i have amazing friends! and i thank God that he has blessed me with so many amazing people in my life. today i thank him for Jackie...she is such an inspiration to me, always full of so much advice and love for me no matter what kind of crazy ideas that i come up with. always supportive and not afraid to play the devils advocate and to help me out no matter what! she is always full of inspiration and this is what i received today...

"Be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. Make all your friends feel there is something in them. Look at the sunny side of everything. Be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Give everyone a smile. Spend so much time improving yourself that you have no time left to criticize others. Be too big for worry and too noble for anger." The Optimist Creed by Christian D. Larsen

aside from jackie i am inspired by mother teresa (who isnt?), i love to read about her life and how she gave her entire life to people who were in need. i can only hope that i am given the opportunity to touch a small percentage of the people of the world that she did. a few quotes (of mother teresas) that i try to live by...

"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."

this quote is exactly my motivation for my work in Haiti...so much desperation...so much work to be done it seems overwhelming. everyday when you wake up down there you, a choice has to be made...what do i do today, what can i do today that will make the most difference.

"The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it."

i love what i do...i love my work in the US but even more outside. sometimes i have to remind myself that my life has been and will be full of pleasures and that the time that i spend giving to others is also pleasurable. i truly do enjoy all that i do...every single day...i love my life and all the opportunities that i have been given.

"Our life of poverty is as necessary as the work itself. Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them."

every day that i give to these people they give me more than you could ever imagine.

and my number one goal in all that i do is to..."Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier."

i hope that you all had an amazing day...