June 23, 2008, In and around Pucallpa

Hello everyone, sorry I have not had a chance to update my blog yet. This has been the first time we´ve been able to access an internet cafe.
The trip from Charlotte to Miami to Lima was long and the air on the planes were pretty dry but we finally arrived at 4:15am in Lima, Peru´s capital city. Baggage claim took a long time because they lost a bag which actually worked out because John Lucas, our leader, happened to oversleep his alarm. He called another missionary who was picking up another group at the airport and asked him to find us. When I walked through the doors to find John, Tom approached us and said ¨hi i´m tom, is the rest of the group coming?¨ which was really ambiguous and a strange way to approach someone but luckily John met up with us just at that moment. John reminds me a lot of my uncle Hugh, the way they stand and talk is similar. We went to the guest house in Lima where we spent the night. We walked to the mall in downtown Lima which has your typical american influences of KFC, McDonalds, Chili´s, etc. Near the mall was a type of food fair, I ate seco de res which is a type of beef. Sarah wanted to try cuy which John advised her against because it is guinea pig, gross.. on Monday we took our flight to Pucallpa, on the other side of the Andes mountains. The flight to Pucallpa was one of the most beautiful experiences I´ve ever had; the mountains were sticking up through the clouds and we could see little villages of maybe 50 to 100 people along small streams. Once in Pucallpa, we met Minori, Kenji, and Amy, who are John´s wife, son and daughter respectively. Minori is a 90lbs Japanese woman who is absolutely adorable, Kenji is 12 and very quiet, and Amy is an absolutely gorgeous and intelligent 16 year old. The SAM base is only a 5 minute drive from the airport, which was sorta disappointing because we didn´t get to see the downtown area.
For a few days we just tried to get used to the area, we played a lot of games which were great for getting to know eachother. After a while we went down to the downtown area to the Bible Institute, which is a pretty big (but tightly packed) place for Shipibo indians and other Peruvians to go to learn trades and take classes. Jim and Rene, an older couple who has been in Peru for40+ years, started this complex. Both of them have amazing stories which I don´t have time to share but Rene started a drug rehab center, which I will explain in great detail later.
Starting on Wednesday, we began to spend a LOT of time at Divino Redentor, the church that the Lucas famiy (john, minori etc) attend regularly. Victor, Dick, Jimmi, Harler, Pati, and Pati are a group of people our age and the ones we have been working with on a skit for kids, which is very funny and in the end has a Christian message. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we spent a lot of time with them, learning coreography to a few song, practicing music, and trying to learn the skit so we can do it on our own. Victor, Dick, Jimmy, Harler, Pati and Pati are all incredibly talented and all of the guys are absolutely hilarious. Trying to talk to them in Spanish is pretty difficult (more frustrating than what I was hoping for) because they joke around and it is hard to follow, especially when they use local words (I´ve learned Spain spanish) and say them quickly.
In addition to working with these funny people, we have been experiencing what SAM has been doing in Pucallpa. The Bible Institute employs Peruvians for all of their construction jobs, all the worship is done by locals and Shipibos (the jungle tribes) and they learn very practical trades to make progress in their lives and in Pucallpa. The drug rehab center, started by Rene (the older woman), takes in people who seek rehabilitation (she no longer goes to them asking if they would like to participate, it is all by word of mouth from former addicts who have recovered). Their facilities can hold around 45 people, but usually they take in around 20-30. They stay for a year and work in their bakery, wood shop, or doing maintenances around the site, and additionally take classes during the week. She has had a few teams come down from the US to do projects but she said ¨they are what you call ´white elephants´¨ because the things they build are incredibly sloppy and could be done so much better by Peruvians. I took a picture of one wall which just looks horrible and it erks me to think that some team from Florida went home saying ¨we helped this drug rehab center blah blah blah¨ when all they did was waste material and money because the rehab center is tearing the wall down and rebuilding.
Some things about Pucallpa:
The city is pretty poor, especially by the Ucayali river. Some parts are better than others. There are moto-taxis everywhere.
want to say hi to karen, hope you are doing well babe. thanks everyone for your support i am loving the trip!

June 15, I have arrived

After a long train ride and several planes, I have arrived safely in Lima, Peru. We will be heading to Pucallpa in the morning and be at the base before 10am. My teammates are hilarious and Liz tells the same type of corny jokes that my stepfather, Ken, tells, which I´ll forgive her for ;) I´ll post more tomorrow hopefully, I am going to go play Spanish scatergories.

June 12, heading to Charlotte then Lima then Pucallpa

Hello everyone, I am leaving for Charlotte, NC tomorrow on the Amtrak from Philadelphia. The train ride should take about 11hr45mins so I'll have plenty of time to re-read my Spanish text book. Once in Charlotte, I will be staying with Christian Listro and his family who will not be heading to Peru for a while (long after we've come and gone). The next day my five teammates, Erin, Paul, Liz, Andrew and Sarah, will arrive in Charlotte and we will stay the night at Kirk Ogden's house. Then we will be heading to the Charlotte airport to head to the capital city Lima, Peru. From there we will make our way over to Pucallpa on the East of the Andes Mts, along the Ucayali River which nearly border's Brazil. I will try to post once in Pucallpa.

A quick but important update on my life is that on Saturday, June 7th, I passed my check ride and am now a private pilot. I have been working on my license for a while now, my dad as my instructor, and I am very excited to say that I was able to finish it before heading to Peru. I fly a Diamond Eclipse, a very sporty cute plane.