Girasoles

Tikuna

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Since last August, there have been a few additions to the Casa Girasoles Puerto Alegria home.

With its unique location, Puerto Alegria is the most multicultural home that Scripture Union operates. While the majority of the boys here are from Iquitos, Belén and the surrounding areas, a handful are from farther away.

A few years ago, three brothers from Brazil came to Iquitos with their mother. Their father had traveled by boat for 5 days from their small town in Brazil in search of work in the “big city.” After months of not hearing from her man, the mother came with her three boys to Iquitos to see what he was up to. Upon their arrival, she found him living with another woman, supporting her and not caring about the family he left in Brazil. The mother had nothing to do but find her own work in Iquitos. What she found did not pay much and she couldn’t take care of her three boys. Along the way she came across Gene, who, at the time, was the house parent of Puerto Alegria, and asked him to take care of her three boys until she was able to herself. They came to live in Puerto Alegria with the other abandoned boys, not speaking very much Spanish.

More recently, about 3 months ago, a group of 7 boys from the region of Caballococha, at the border between Peru and Brazil, have come to live in Puerto Alegria. From Caballococha, it is 3 days by boat, traveling all day and all night.

These 7 boys make up just a small part of the multiculturalism of Puerto Alegria. When they arrived, they did not speak Spanish very well (and some still do not). Their first language is Tikuna, one of the most difficult languages in the world.

Little by little, I have been learning a few phrases and important words from both Dairo (12) and his younger brother, Waldair (10). I don’t know how the words and phrases are spelled, just a pronunciation guide (of mixed Spanish and English pronunciations) for how to say it.

“Ta-ku ni a cue-ga.” What is your name?
“Joe-aa ganee Kate” My name is Kate

Every once in a while, I will catch a few of the 7 who speak Tikuna talking together, of course in Tikuna. It’s very interesting to watch them since they are so animated with their conversations. It is not just because they are happy, or excited about something, it is because they are speaking a language they understand – they do not have to think about it.

I understand how they feel. I am by far no expert in Spanish. Yes, I studied it in college and I have lived abroad for an extended period, but I am still lacking in my ability to recreate my “English-speaking personality” into Spanish. Jokes just do not make sense, and some things just don’t translate despite how hard I try or how many times I explain it. I lose a bit of my personality and gain something different in Spanish.

After a few days of lessons with Dairo, I asked him to sing a song for me that he learned at home. He was a little hesitant at first, and shy about singing while I recorded, but he finally overcame all of that. Here he is singing Demos Gracias al Señor in Tikuna.

The same song, as I know it in Spanish.

Conjuntivitis Epidemic

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Life is always different when you live with 40+ boys and 10 support staff.

Things take longer to do, require a little more planning, and not to mention – it is always an adventure, there is always something going on, somebody to talk to, somebody to have fun with.

A large group setting works both ways. In almost every way it is a lot of fun, like I said, there is always something going on. But, when it comes to illnesses, it is not pleasant.

A few days before the group arrived, I noticed a few of the boys were rubbing their eyes. The next day, the same three boys came to breakfast with blood red eyes, like they had been crying all night. Unfortunately for the rest of us, this was not the case – they had contracted pink eye, conjuntivitis.

It was just 2 days before the small group of 3 infected boys turned into almost every boy in the house, and it did not stop there. A day later, I got it in my right eye, along with many others from the Not Forgotten team. For the next few days, we were constantly putting drops in our eyes, walking around with blurred vision and just looking like a complete mess.

Thankfully, by the time the team left this morning, almost everybody has gotten over the infection.

Mery, the house mother, was talking to me yesterday with her little 2 year old son, Timoteo, and she mentioned that she thinks he might have varicela (chicken pox). It is not looking like he has it, but thank God I already did!

World Cup Fever

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The 2010 World Cup began today and it has taken Peru by storm. Despite Peru will not be represented in this year’s competition, fútbol is fútbol regardless of who is playing (just as long as it isn’t your team’s arch-rival; Alianza and U in Lima, Real Madrid and Barça in Spain, the list goes on).

During the time I spent in Lima, I saw countdown clocks til the first game, advertisements every commercial break, posters all over the city, and entire sections of department stores like Saga Falabella converted to World Cup fever. Even Wong, one of the grocery stores has promotional posters and life-size cutouts of soccer players hanging from the ceiling.

So, despite being away from the city and outside the reach of traditional electricity from Iquitos, I doubt I’ll miss very many of the games.

Case in point, we went into Iquitos today with all 40 boys to see one of the first games – Uruguay vs. France. Unfortunately it was not a very spectacular game, neither team scored a goal, but it was fun to go to a restaurant and watch the game, and just to be away from the house for a bit.

Hopefully we will be able to watch a few more games over the next month!

Here’s a commercial that I see almost every time I walk past a television.

A Return to the Jungle

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After many days of travel and delay, I have finally returned to the legendary Puerto Alegria where I will be living for the next three months.

Upon arrival to Peru, I spent a three days in Lima before flying north to Iquitos. I spent another night in the city at La Lampara, Scripture Union’s home base for the medical program, because of issues with the boat’s motor. It was not until Wednesday afternoon that I finally reached Puerto Alegria.

I arrived to the home with Gene and Patty, the former house parents, to meet the new parents, Moises and Mery.

It has been very nice to become re-acclimated with the boys – many of which are still here from 2009. I always find it interesting to see what they did during the past year, and learn some of the new games, jokes, and stories – all the things boys like.

But, before all of that, a conversation with a boy from last year usually begins with “recuerdas cuando…” (Remember when…) about a particular event from last summer. Joel asked me if I remembered when there was a huge billboard that had fallen across the road in front of us in Iquitos. Junior asked me if I remembered a particular afternoon we spent lounging in a hammock down by the river. And Marcelo asked me if I remember being his “protectora” during an intense thunderstorm boat ride from Iquitos. It was raining so hard that we all were soaked, cold and tired. Marcelo, who was sitting next to me, huddled under my arm to evade the rain as we sang songs together.

From Wednesday until today, I have been getting back into the routine of living with the Girasoles and at Puerto Alegria. Mornings start at 5:45 with straightening of rooms, a devotional led by Moises, and breakfast before the boys are out the door to school at 7:30. After they are off to school, I spent the next few hours working on some projects, getting to know the other SU staff here, and reading.

This Sunday morning (tomorrow) the non-profit group The Not Forgotten (based in Birmingham, Alabama) will arrive. While a handful of the people in the group are from Birmingham/Huntsville, it is a mixed group of people from all over the States – basically, they all knew somebody who knows somebody who has been to Peru (including a friend of Billy who used to come with Ward in Northville). The Not Forgotten partners with Scripture Union Peru to bring work teams exclusively to Puerto Alegria 3 to 4 times a year and works to raise awareness about the plight of street boys in Peru.

It all begins tomorrow.

Just 2 days.

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In just 2 days, I’ll be back in Peru for the 3rd summer working for Scripture Union as a translator and team guide. When I returned to Michigan in September ’09, I agreed to return in 2010 – not knowing that God would be seriously moving mountains for me to go full time for 3 years as a LAM missionary working with Scripture Union (you can read all about that here).

I will be leaving this Friday, May 28th and returning to Michigan on August 19th to finish raising support so I can work full-time with SU. The decision to become a full-time LAM missionary wasn’t an overnight decision for me. I have been feeling “the call” for the past few years (which I talked about in this conversation sermon at First Dearborn), but didn’t take it seriously until recently. God has been working in my life in various ways preparing me for this calling – by giving me a love for helping others, a love of travel, the gift of learning Spanish and the confidence, ability and experience during the 2008 and 2009 2 summers in serving Him with Scripture Union in Peru.

For this summer, I will spend a majority of my time at the same home as 2009, the jungle home of Puerto Alegria. Puerto Alegria is located about 45 minutes down the river from the city of Iquitos. We’ll have electricity from a generator each night for a few hours and all of our water comes from the river. There are about 40 boys living at the home, and I’ll be working as a translator and team guide for the groups that come, including my own group from Dearborn, who will be volunteering at the home for the first time.

In preparation to head down to Peru for the summer, I have been getting things ready. This means, airing out my bug tent, gathering clothing, making little piles around the house of the absolute essential things to take, wearing my Chacos to get them appropriately sized, and picking up 3 months of malaria medication. I went out to Costco this afternoon to pick up the preventative pills and was reading through the enclosed paperwork, which includes a very comprehensive list of side effects. The side effects include, but are not limited to: stomach upset, stomach pain, nausea, fever, hair loss, ringing in the ears, dizziness, drowsiness, headache, insomnia, strange dreams, lightheadedness, unexplained anxiety, mood changes, depression, hallucinations, restlessness, and confusion.

This is the third year that I will have used the medication for a few months and thank God the only side effect I have ever had was an occasional strange dream.

So, I encourage you to follow my 2010 summer here at A Life in the World as I return for another summer in Peru, and as I transition from volunteer to full-time LAM missionary working with Scripture Union!

See you in August.