The Moment That Changed Everything
This month we have been staying in one
of the most dangerous parts of Trujillo, Peru.
We spent the first few weeks of this month living in the slum district
of Victor Raul, El Porvenir, Peru. Our
contact here is an American doctor, his wife, and 4 kids living inside our
compound. They have been here for a few
months and they are here to run the orphanage once it is built and to train
some Peruvians to eventually take it over.
But Friday afternoon everything changed
just another day in the Peruvian desert.
We had our breakfast then got ready for work. A little bit into working we were called over
by our contact to help him fix a broken pipe on the well. Like every time we talk to him he tells us
about his vision for what the orphanage will eventually be and his passion for
Peru and the local community.
After working we went to lunch at the
local Menu (restaurant) in town, just like almost every day since we have been
here. We started walking down the road
not expecting what would happen moments later.
All of a sudden a truck came flying recklessly past us down the narrow
sand road. We wondered what was going on
but kept on walking. Then a few seconds
later a taxi flew down the road following the truck. I gave the taxi a second look, wondering why
a taxi was driving through Victor Raul. When
we are in town and ask a taxi to take us to our compound in Victor Raul they
usually just laugh at us and say “it’s too dangerous”, especially for
gringos.
When we got to the Menu, the same one
we go to everyday, there was a man waiting for us outside. He started telling us about how he has
watched us work the past few weeks and he saw how hard workers we were and he
wanted us to help him on a project on how to improve relations between
Peruvians and gringos. While talking to
him we all had a strange feeling that something wasn’t right with him and the
whole conversation. We brushed it off
and went inside to eat lunch.
everything started making sense. We were
greeted with some of the girls who decided to stay back at the compound huddled
around our contacts daughter. They
explained it all to us. After we left
for lunch our contact and his 11 year old daughter also left to take their
puppy to the vet. As they were driving
out of our compound a taxi stopped right in front of them. Our contact slammed on the breaks and tried
to get around the taxi but all of a sudden his truck was surrounded by 6 men
and he had a gun to his head. He was
able to knock the gun away from his head then they pistol whipped his head and
grabbed him out of the truck leaving his daughter inside. Eventually they noticed her and grabbed her
from the truck as well. She was able to
get away and they let our contact go and the men stole the truck and sped
through town right where we were. At the
same time the man at the Menu was there to distract us while they got
away. We realized that we had been
watched for a while and they knew our exact schedule and where we go to eat
every day.
stuff packed up and we were on a bus out of there to a hostel in Huanchaco, a
small beach community about an hour north of Victor Raul. We said goodbye to our contacts and friends
that we had made at the compound, secretly hoping that within a few days we
would be back, but we never went back. Right
now we are spending our last week in Peru at a hostel 10 feet from the beach. We don’t have any contacts here so our squad
leaders told us to make the best of our time at the beach; to grow as a team,
to rest before Bolivia, and to just dig and rest this week.
bummed to be here. Even though we were
only feet from the sand and crashing waves I wanted to be back in Victor Raul. I wanted to be back there moving tons and
tons of sand, doing concrete work, spending my afternoon after at the garbage
dump, and walking through all the trash in town to the sound
of kids shouting “Gringos”. I left
there feeling we left with unfinished work to do there, but after the past few
days it has been enjoyable to just hang out as a team and relax before starting
up another month.
Please be in prayer for our contact and his family. They planned on staying in Peru for a few
years but only ended up staying a few months.
They are in the process of packing up their stuff and moving back to the
States this week. Pray for them as they
decide what is next for their family. Also
pray for our continued safety the rest of this year.
