We went to BBC, a bible center for Shipibos, to give out gifts with the missionary kids to the shipibos.
Dick and I can be goofy on occasion... this was at Receka's house, I had the worst allergic reaction in my life to the dust in her house.
Amy and Kara were in their church's musical. I arrived late though..because Dick was in a major motorcycle accident.
Just before heading to Amy's play, we received a call from Solomon in the hospital telling us that Dick had been in a bad accident and had hit his head hard on the pavement. I called my friend Rebeka to go with me to the hospital to visit him and when we arrived, he was hardly conscious. He doesn't remember anything that happened that day but basically when I arrived they had already given him stitches, bandaged up his head and were about to give him an injection to help prevent infection. He had a really strong reaction to the medicine and was vomiting for quite some time and then finally could rest for a while. Rebeka and I headed to Amy's play but were late because we didn't want to leave Dick until he started to look better.
He's a little melodramatic about death... those who know him well know exactly what I'm talking about. One day, however, he was laying there just like in this picture with all of us around (it might've even been that day) and he was pretty quiet until his eyes sprung open and he hastily said "sorry, sorry, sorry!!" and whamm he ripped a big, loud fart and everyone laughed hysterically.
This is the emergency room entrance, the two christmas trees in the corners both had those lights that play christmas jingles but they were on different songs at the same time and it was really annoying while we waited to see Dick.
We went out to San Jose and he let me drive his 4wheeler a little bit. We didn't do much because we weren't wearing helmets or much of anything protective.
On Christmas day, John let me use his motorcycle and taught me how to drive it. It was pretty easy to learn because it was a light bike, like 250cc or something
We helped Monica and her husband move into their new house, those boys had fun loading all the stuff and climbing all over the truck
This is Monica with her baby in their new house, she actually just had a second baby girl. She is one of my favorite peruvian ladies, she is so understanding of my inability to say some things (especially during this trip my spanish wasn't really the best..)
Christmas day, our official Christmas day picture with the Lucas. They take this same picture every year and have a whole photo album dedicated to just this picture setup. Minori (the mom) has changed quite a bit over the years, she isn't in this picture however.
While Dick was in the hospital recovering for a week, we had fun swimming in Yarina lake with our buddies. This is Amy and Rebeka
Andrew got reallllly sunburnt. He needs to learn to wear sunscreen.
Gerardo then let me take out his 600cc motorcycle (wearing proper gear of course) and we hit up what I call the turtle pavilion in the nearby Shipibo village called San Fransisco
We, unfortunately, got REALLY stuck in the mud. This kind of mud is the kind that sticks like crazy and sucks your shoe right off of your foot. So just imagine the mud buildup on the tire.. we ended up having to call his friend to come pick us up and drive the 4 miles out of this mud. In his 4wheel drive truck it was a little bit iffy at times.
Some of these pictures are a little out of order.. this was actually Christmas eve, the day Dick got out of the hospital. In Peru, they celebrate Christmas on the 24th and visit each other all day. Then at night they have a nice dinner with friends and relatively, shoot off fireworks (the small ones that just make a lot of noise and let out a small flash). Then at midnight they all go out in the street and greet each other. If they exchange gifts, they do so at midnight. Most families don't have money to spend on gifts, like Dick and his brother didn't get a present and he didn't get anything for his parents or brother. He thought it would be funny to wear angel wings all night.. I dunno hehe. We danced a little bit too, but don't tell anyone cause it's strictly forbidden in their church. opps.
My favorite picture of me, Dick and Rebeka on Christmas
Raul and Andrew by the Christmas tree that they assembled on the 24th and take down on the 25th... why they have Christmas trees like this in the middle of the jungle is strange to me, it's also funny that they only put them up for about 24 hours.
New years eve everyone wears a ton of bright yellow. They have whole stands dedicated to yellow stuff, yellow underwear, hats, shirts, everything
I celebrated it with the missionaries. I'm pretty sunburnt in this picture... I spent too much time in a park without realizing how much sun I was getting.
We played with sparklers and Andrew had a setting on his camera to draw things with the light. it was pretty cool
John took us out in his boat through the thicker park of the stream, we had troubel getting into this section at first but persistence paid off. It was really neat back there. I think it would've been especially cool in a small kayak like the native's use.
John's boat in route to the lake which feeds into the stream. It's so gorgeous in Caimito
Just hanging out with at Dick's house with his cousin, neighbor and brother.
We went on an excursion to Dick's grandparent's house out in the more remote area. His grandpa is an 'ecological engineer' and does a lot with the forest and so forth. This is Andrew with Cucu hehe, cucu (real name is kenneth) is like Andrew's favorite
This is Dick with his little grandfather. Dick and I are the same height so you can only imagine how tall his gpa is. He's so used to mosquitos that they would land all over him and it wouldn't even phase him.
Andrew turned 21 so we had a big surprise party for him, everyone had to dress up as a superhero. I think that Dick is a flintstone's character (not a real superhero) and Kyle is like the math wizard or something (also not a real superhero). It was mroe of a costume party anyway