After hours upon hours of driving endlessly through the Peruvian desert, we were finally picked up by our contact a little before midnight and began to wind our way through Trujilllo towards the Inca Link compound, our next temporary home for the month. I’ll admit I was a bit disheartened at the thought of spending another month in the middle of a huge city, so it was an exciting suprise when I hopped out of the mini-bus to the smell of horses, hogs, and corn. We were located on the outskirts of the city in the impoverished neighborhood of Porvenir, where the houses meet fields and sand dunes.
In the morning we loaded up with two other short term teams who were there with us for a few days, and headed off to the garbage dump to translate for the short term teams as we split off and handed out hats and toiletries to the people who made a living there rummaging through the trash searching for recycleables, feed for their animals, and other items to either use or sell. We also invited them to bible classes later that week held in the ministry building located in El Milagro (the neighborhood within the garbage dump).
The rest of the week and month we filled by helping out with/leading [Wednesday] school classes in El Milagro, organizing the stageful of suitcases full of clothing, school supplies, and miscellaneous donations, taking down bunk beds, and helping out with various projects around the compound.
We spent a lot of time helping out Joca, one of the Inca Link leaders, with his outdoor ministries which mainly consisted of skateboarding and sandboarding. (Sandboarding is just like snowboarding, except down a sand dune.) I tried to learn how to skateboard from a few 8 year olds who seemed like pros, and got to try my hand a time or two taking on the sandboard.
We did [a lot] of laundry, moved a lot of sand, and cleaned a lot. Claire and Dani learned how to be electricians helping the grounds keeper Valentin finish wiring a local school/day center for kids.
I tried to help out Brenda, another one of the Inca Link leaders, with all of her ministries. I led a bible study for teenage girls in the area and we created a dream wall with all the things they wanted to do when they got older. I also sat in on the manuelidad (handcraft) class held once a week for local women to come and create manuelidades or sew bags and purses to sell as a bit of income. Mostly I hung out and tried to joke around with them and make my friendship bracelet while they sewed together book bag.
Highlights
Our main building/kitchen/hangout space had a loud and messy sparrow infestation, so Justin made a wise investment in a nerf gun, making bird hunting our entertainment for the month.
Patrick and I sang a Turn the Page duet at the short term teams’ sendoff/talent show.
Karissa invested in some amazingly awesome water painting colored pencils, thus birthing “Doodles in the Dark”.
We spent the month playing pranks on each other with the resident creepy manikin we nick-named Chucky.
Hiking the mountain with Joca.
Showing one little old lady at the manuelidad class how to make a friendship bracelet.
The Dream Wall
