Our first week was spent with Joka (ho-ka), a 25 year old Peruvian that has a massive heart for the kids of Trujillio. He spends time with the kids in the community by taking them sandboarding (which is pretty much like snowboarding except in the desert), and building skimboards with them out of large flat pieces of wood and then teaching them how to skimboard (which is kind of like a slip and slide except you run and then jump on a skimboard and “surf” across the slip and slide track).
So for our first week we cleared a field with machetes and then dug up and graded a LARGE rectangular shaped “hole” for the skimboarding track in the mornings, and made the trek out into the desert and climbed massive sand hills with the kids in the afternoons for sandboarding. On our last day with Joka we woke up at 6am and hiked up the side of a mountain that overlooked all of Trujillio and had a bible study and hung out while enjoying the incredible scenery that God created.
Our second week of ministry was working on the compound doing construction. Tony, an awesome American dude that is doing an internship with Inka Link for 3 months was our “contact” for this week. Our week consisted of digging, digging, digging, and more digging, with a little bit of wheel barrowing and raking thrown into the mix just to change it up. We basically spent the week moving sand and dirt from one place to another. We levelled out the volleyball court and added new sand, brought in dirt from outside the compound to level out the ground for the concrete pours, and taking sand out of an area that is eventually going to become a spectacular garden escape. At the end of the week Tony took us all into town for a special treat…..DESSERT!!!
Our third week was spent at the after school program that was a combie ride away from the compound. They provide lunch for the kids from the neighbourhood and play games, read bible stories, and put on skits for them. Our days would start at 11, we would head over to the facility where we would have a bible study and prayer time with the women that worked there, followed up with lunch, and then it was time to work. We were not actually working with the kids this week but instead were helping to sand and paint walls, doors and railings. The white paint for the walls was chalk based and needed to be mixed with hands before beginning to paint…..everyone that was painting walls would leave covered in a layer of white chalky paint. Sarah and I were sanding and painting railings, we would have to mix the silver paint with paint thinner in order to stretch it out and make it last, and at the end of the day we would leave feeling light headed and a little woozy from the fumes. But then we would get to go out onto the soccer field and run around with the kids and play and love on them.
Our final Saturday of ministry was at the dump, there are families that live in shacks there made up of pieces of wood and metal and tarps that for the most part were found amongst the garbage. They work at the dump, sifting through the fresh trash that comes in in the middle of the night looking for glass, metal, and other recyclables that they can sell for money. They also dig through the garbage looking for food that they can eat andor take home to feed to their families with, if you think that this sounds bad keep in mind that in Peru they do not flush their toilet paper but throw it in the trash, so there is used toilet paper mixed in with all the rest of the garbage they are digging around in. After work they leave the walls of the dump and go home to the slums that are located right next door.
The air is filled with the stench of burning plastic and garbage, there is trash everywhere, smoke fills the air, and wild dogs poke around through the piles looking for their next meal. The people in the dump have grown up in these conditions, many of the kids were born on the dump site and attend a school that is located just outside the dump. They have never known any different. The ministry is run by a woman that has a heart for loving these children and in turn their families. There is a small building erected that the programs are run in. She along with other volunteers teach the children about the love of God, teach them bible stories, sing and dance with them, and do crafts and play games. It is all about showing these kids that there is more out there. She is casting vision to these kids, if this program was not running then these kids would be working inside the walls of the dump with their parents. It is a way of keeping them in a clean and safe environment and out of the dump.
