12 Plates at Easter

Update on some of the children at the Casa...

Zoe, will be 2 in May

Zoe and Marleni had cleft palate lip surgeries two weekends ago through Operation Smile.  This was Zoe's second surgery, after nearly a year, to repair the inner palate.  Born premature, and extremely malnourished and underweight nearly two years ago, it's taken a lot of extra nurturing to nurse her to a healthy weight, required for her first surgery.  She has had a difficult time recovering from this one, suffering from post-surgery pain and bleeding, and consequently not eating.  She re-entered the hospital on Tuesday last week and went into emergency on Wednesday.  It turns out that some neglectful care in the hospital was reason for her admission into emergency.  However, she is thankfully slowly regaining strength, and is back in the Casa under our care.

Marleni, after her surgery

Marleni before her surgery

When Marleni came to us as a newborn in September, she responded well right from the start to the special feeding bottle, and has come along well in her growth.  She is now recovering well, smiling lots, and although looks like a completely different baby, is looking more and more beautiful as she grows!

Carlos came to us in September at 3 months old. He was born 3 months premature, and extremely tiny. His mother has older children, is an alcoholic, and didn't have the resources or want to care for a special needs baby, so she brought him to us. He suffered a lot in those first few months, not sleeping normal hours, and quite irritated and unable to feed properly. Part of that was due to having an undeveloped nasal passage which caused some constriction in breathing when he was trying to feed. However, alot of the irritation was also likely due to fetal alcohol syndrome. (Even one alcoholic drink taken at certain crucial times of prenatal development can cause fetal alcohol syndrome). Thankfully, his nasal passage has developed, and Carlitos is feeding normally now, enjoying the pureed veggies and cereals we've been introducing to him. With lots of nurturing love and care, Carlos has come along well, is responding more to the caregivers and environment around him, and sleeping normal hours for a baby his age. However, at 9 months old, he is still wearing 3-6 month old size clothing, having hardly grown much. All of the children in our care get regular check-ups, and the doctors have said that his head growth is normal, which is the most important thing.

Carlos, 9 months

Carlos, 3 months old

Carlos, 6 months old

Click the link below for a short video of precious Carlitos enjoying the new baby swing with the little animal sounds and springy animated toys:
http://youtu.be/86Rg1JyL1MA


When I arrived in August last year, I had really wanted to spend more direct time working with Daniel.  He is 8 years old, but developmentally closer to age 4.  When he was given over to the care of the Casa a few years ago, the judicial people told Ruth that he was mute.  Though he doesn't use clear words, Daniel certainly does understand what we say, can follow direction, and communicates quite well his needs.  When I had arrived, he spent a lot of his time in bed, quite lethargic and had no appetite to eat properly.  A huge part of that is due to side effects of medicine he takes to control his seizures.  After the influx of babies we got in September, I didn't have time to solely dedicate to Daniel, so Ruth hired a local lady to work one-on-one only with Daniel.  Whether part is due to his medicine being better regulated, or all due to his having full-time attention, he is like a different child.  He is active, sometimes not wanting his mid-afternoon nap, now eats full meals, and loves to do different activities. 

Check out the link below to see a mini clip of Daniel dancing to someone's music around the house!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKTOtDLaRls&feature=youtu.be

Easter in Peru

Here, the people have two weekday national holidays which entail Holy Thursday and Holy Friday, in recognition of the suffering that Jesus went through leading up to his death on the cross. 
I have never really heard of Holy Thursday, sometimes called Maundy Thursday, but there is an interesting story on this topic here .
Traditionally in Peru, some people have a large meal on Friday afternoon, with twelve plates, always meatless, that are sometimes followed by a period of fasting. These plates are to represent the 12 apostles at the last supper.  I'm still not clear on if these plates are consistent, or vary from family to family.  I've heard that sometimes they include 6 main courses, followed by 6 desserts. 

I've been discovering that Walter can cook!  We spent Friday cooking together 3 plates that his family would normally prepare.  Walter made a delicous soup: Sopa de Fideo- a noodle soup that usually has chicken or some other meat, but for Holy Friday is made meatless with machas (mini clams) and usually with fish eggs as well.  He also prepared fried pickerel with rice, and I made Arroz con Leche (rice with milk), with the typical Mazamorra Morada - a purple custard/jelly like pudding that's  made from purple corn.

In Cusco, the week starts off with a large procession in the main plaza on Palm Sunday.  Many of the Catholics celebrate different saints of the area throughout the year which also somehow represent Jesus.  The patron saint of Cusco is Lord of the Earthquakes.  The Quechua/Spanish name is Taitacha Temblores and this dark-skinned statue is still held in honour today after centuries of following.  The story goes that in 1650 a terrible earthquake shook Cusco, and although the cathedral and structures surrounding it were destroyed, a painting of this Jesus (that had come from Europe originally) remained standing.  This caused Incan and Spanish locals to believe it was a miracle saint sent to protect them.  Today, the tribute statue is kept in the main Cusco cathedral (the largest cathedral in South America) and is carried in this procession every year at this time from one cathedral to another.  I didn't personally go to see it, but I hear that the streets and plazas are packed tight with people trying to get a glimpse of this statue or pay tribute to their saint.

Although there's something to be respected about people's devotion year after year to their beliefs, I have to comment that it is so much more liberating to follow a living Jesus day to day who is ALIVE and always working in my life!

I hope your Easter passed well!

"But God demonstrated His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8  
"...if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."  Romans 10:9
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23

The Children in Poroy, Picarones & Chirimoya fruit

Poroy

Walter and Katy and I put on a small Sunday School for the children in Poroy on the weekend.  Walter has worked extensively with the children in Poroy in the past, however it has been quite a few months since he last taught Sunday School there.  It was exciting for him to see some of the kids since then and how some of them have grown over the year.

Poroy is a small, poor community outside of Cusco.  When the Sunday School project started a few years ago, they had about 10 kids, which grew to about 70 children the last time Walter taught.  Over the past few weeks the children have been without a consistent teacher, and the number has dropped again.  We came without any 'pre-warning', so the kids were not expecting us.  A lot of the regular attendees were also still returning from the mountainside, bringing their family's livestock home.  The children often leave early in the morning, before 7am, to take their family's herds over the hills, sometimes walking many miles for the animals to graze during the day.

When we arrived on Saturday the 10th,Walter rounded up about 10 kids, walking through Poroy. By the time we ended our time with them, we had 26 kids in a small mud hut room.  I was so impressed at how eager the children are to join as they hear from word of mouth that a Sunday School class is in process. 

I started with an introduction (with my limited Spanish) on "Measuring God's Love" using a measuring cup, measuring tape, and wrist watch as object lessons.  Walter followed with a few words, we introduced an action song in Spanish, handed out activity and coloring pages for the different age groups, and served Fanta pop and homemade cookies.

I am so appreciative for the website I found with free English and Spanish Sunday School material at Sermon's For Kids:  http://www.sermons4kids.com/yr_a.htm

Walter and I are excited to work together with these kids more regularly in the next several months.

Walter rounding up kids in Poroy

Is it possible to measure God's love?

The older girls filling in activity sheets

The kids love coloring





Peeking in but not ready to join

Picarones

Before Katy left, I made sure to take her for Picarones.  It is a popular Peruvian dessert served at little stands and mini restaraunts around Cusco that open in the early evenings.  There are variants, but often they are made with sweet potato (camote) flour, deepfried like donuts, and served with maple syrup.

Chirimoya

We also tried a fruit, new to both of us, Native to the Andes- South and Central America.  It is hard to describe, but has a nice, sweet flavor and a texture similar to the pear. 





Special News & God Parent's Day

Special News!

Two of my long-awaited prayers have been answered in the past 6 months... one being finding fulfilling work and the other someone special to spend my life with! 

Walter and I have gotten to know eachother over the past year and a bit, when I met him here two November's ago on my first short-term mission trip to Cusco.  He works in tourism, also has a heart for children, has many projects and visions for helping people in his community, and we share similar values and interests, and always have alot of fun together.  

We started officially dating in October, and he asked me to marry him on February 2nd.  The wedding is set for this June here in Peru!  I am looking forward to exploring the wedding traditions of Peru, which already I am finding can be quite different, and in combining our cultural traditions!

Steph & Walter in Puno, Peru

Life in Cusco

Due to some changes in my room-mates plans, she has moved back to the States, and I am currently looking for an apartment.  Thankfully I've had the opportunity to house-sit in the same community for the two weeks since moving out of the other place, and am able to stay here with a great family from the UK until I find something for myself.  Looking for places is a very time consuming process.  There are always new places for rent, and new ads come out in the Rueda de Negocios paper every Monday and Thursdsay. The ads aren't organized by location or any other sub-grouping, so it takes some time to scan through them all, and then, relying on public transport, to actually view places.  Hopefully in the next days or weeks I'll find just the right place!

A good friend of mine from England arrived on the 12th, will be here for a month, and is helping out at the orphanage some days.  It's great to have her here sharing in my adventures!

Unfortunately it's been raining every day and night since, without much respite.  It makes for cold evenings and mornings in Cusco at around 5-10 degrees Celcius without in-house heating.  I'm getting good use out of my alpaca wool toques, sweaters and scarves!
But, we  enjoyed a much warmer weekend in the Quillabamba area visiting Walter's family, and enjoying the tropical-like climate despite lots of rain there as well.

With Katy in the Quillabamba area

Traditions

We have gotten to experience some of the traditions surrounding a yearly fiesta that is dedicated to "padrinos", called Dia de Compadres (The Day for godparents).  It is very customary here to have godparents appointed for different life-stages.  Godparents are selected for a child's baptism, a youth's graduation, a couple's marriage.  These godparents are specially selected by the parents or couple as a representative of someone they look up to or respect in their walk of life; someone they can go to for advice, and also someone who looks out for them in different ways.  They are also responsible for different gifts or monetary responsibilities regarding the occasion- such as shopping for and buying the graduate's dress, or purchasing the wedding couple's rings.  This holiday involves the two weeks that surround Valentine's Day, with the first being dedicated to the godfathers, and the second the godmothers.  Around town and in the markets are signs and manequins dedicated to specific godparents.  Some places also still follow an old tradition that involves painting the face with a natural red powder followed by water play.  How these are connected, I haven't yet figured out, but I think it's just another way of celebrating, as the Latin American culture is fond of doing!
There are also special plates served.  Katy and I got to experience first-hand dishes served up, and lots of it!
The morning started with a chocolatada including boiled banana and ripe avocado followed by a second dish heaped with rice, boiled potato and sheep meat.  Katy and I, both being vegetarian, were served fried cheese in place of the lamb.  Later in the day we were served again huge plates filled with rice, garbanzo beans, boiled cabbage, potato, moray, yuca, camote, peach, banana, and choclo, with optional aji topping, and of course meat for the others.  Our stomaches are certainly a bit stretched from all the eating!

Dia de Compadres

Traditional meal

At the Casa...

Although some days feel like we're just trying to 'stay afloat', especially with all the baby-care, I've tried to introduce regular craft-time and constructive activies with the kids, toddler age and older, since the beginning of the year.  Since Christmas, they've been begging me to decorate sugar cookies (hmm, could it be the sugar!?), so we decorated heart-shaped sugar cookies for Fabi's 5th birthday which falls on Valentine's Day.  We put together little colorful paper fishes from different heart shapes, and glued heart shapes with colored yarn onto various colors of construction paper for decoration.

Sugar-coated lips... & excited for the candy necklace sent from Canada

We've painted with tempora's (another big favorite), colored outside in the yard (until the sun started  melting the wax crayons), made little crowns from foam craft material and flower bouquets out of pipe cleaners and toilet paper rolls.  When I was in grade one, one of the first arts and crafts projects I remember doing was making toilet paper dolls.  My saved toilet paper rolls from the past few months have been coming in handy!  On Wednesdays, I work one-on-one with all of the preschool age kids for about 45 minutes each, doing pre-school learning, especially concentrating on math.



The kids enjoying Katy-time!

Trip to Bolivia

Wow; six months already!  The time has flown by!

In order to update my maximum six month tourist visa, I needed to leave the country and re-enter.  Bolivia is the closest, and by far the cheapest place to go.  So I took a week to head to La Paz, Bolivia, getting to see some of the main attractions along the way. 

The first leg was from Cusco to Puno, a 9 hour bus ride, which stopped at four main attractions including a tour of a huge cathedral in Andahuaylillas (which I have seen previously), the Inca ruins of Raqchi, buffet lunch inclusive at Sicuani, and a museum in Pukara, a town that specializes in ceramics and its origins that date back to 1600 years BC .

Ancient ruins of an Inca temple in Raqchi, 118 kms from Cusco

Buffet place in Sicuani (which did not serve alpaca meat)

Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca is a huge lake on the border, a length of 190 kms or 58 000 squared kms, 60% of which is in Peru and 40% in Bolivia.  There are 35 islands on the lake, as well as 60 man-made floating islands.  The floating islands were first constructed in defense of or to hide from the invading Spaniards.  I found it really interesting that although the islands are all on the same Lake, some of them traditionally speak the Quechua language and others the Aymara language.  Although similar, culture varies from island to island and from surrounding community to community.

The floating island of Uros is supported by 5 families, as is general for each floating community.  We were greeted by the families in their traditional attire (still generally worn all the time) and with a mini-demonstration and explanation of how the islands are created and maintained, which I found fascinating.  The islands are made from reeds that float on square meter blocks of earth that the reeds grow on.  Fresh layers of reeds are placed over the island every week in order to keep it floating and maintained.  Most of the islands have a little fishing pond in the center where they can catch a variety of 5 different fish from the lake.  The white part of the reeds which they use to build their islands and homes can also be eaten, and is still quite a staple, having a consistancy somewhat like celery but tasting distinct from anything I've ever had.  Drinking water is gathered from the lake and purified with tablets.  The islands are held in place by anchors and are possible to be cut and separated, which has happened due to family disputes.  Some of the islands, such as Uros, have small solar panels for their homes, which have been donated in recent years, so that they can have light after dark, watch tv or listen to the radio.   They do have toilets, which are flushed back into the lake below.    The island people are still quite traditional, and rely to a huge degree on tourism, selling their hand-made products, tours of their islands and rides in the reed-built boats. There are schools and even seventh day Adventist, evangelical churches and mormonism on the islands.

UROS ISLAND

Typical community on a floating island

Miniature replica of an artifical island, sitting above a square meter block they use for keeping their islands afloat

Kitchen stove and pans

The women sending us off with a traditional song

Island of Amantani

Part of the tour was an overnight family stay on Amantani Island, including a good hike up the mountain to some ancient ruins and a beautiful view of the island and Titicaca Lake before sundown.  It is a beautiful island with rock fences bordering all of the pathways, homes and fields.  The family I stayed with have been hosting tourists in their home since the 80's.  The food was simple and meatless, the rooms also simply decorated but with normal mattresses and sheets and adorned with their traditional blankets.  All agriculture is still done by hand, and their are no machines or vehicles on the island.

The family home I stayed in for the night

Home-stay private room

Island of Amantani

Bolivia

The closest main stop across the border from Puno is Copacabana, a quaint little touristy-type town with a street lined with great restaraunts and little gift shops.  I had the best fried trout there!   From Copacabana traffic is routed across a channel and it's another five hours or so by bus to La Paz, a huge city, very underdeveloped and disorganized.  They still do not have bus stop signs and there were long line-ups of locals waiting for the buses up and down the streets, especially at night.   But, because the Boliviano currency is so low, (right now one Canadian dollar is 6.91 Bolivianos) it's a great place for outsiders to shop for good deals on electronics, clothes, and musical instruments. 

Transporting our bus accross the channel

Near Copacabana

Copacabana, Bolivia

La Paz, Bolivia

Before heading back over the border and getting an update on my visa, I got to see one more attraction along the way.  Also on Titicaca Lake, Island of the Sun is a quaint island also saturated in history and culture dating back to as early as 3rd millenium BC.  The terrain is very rocky, but pretty with rock pathways, terraced fields and the view of the waterfront.  The whole way from Puno to La Paz there were kids working in the tourism sector, operating the boats, or trying to sell homemade wares on the islands.  The kids on Isle del Sol were very insistant to get 'tips' of any photos taken of their island animals, and I was swarmed for a photo under a rock archway by a group of little kids.
Throughout all of this area, the people seem very industrious and work hard for their living, yet are content with the little they have.

Island of the Sun

A shot of Island of the Moon
from Isle del Sol

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The boy in this photo was quick to insist I pay after taking photos of his baby donkey

The kids who looked so casual prior, all swarmed in for this photo and then had hands out asking for 'tips'.  My 20 centimos for each one wasn't enough apparently, as they asked for 1 dollar each, or, since I didn't have any more change, bills would be okay too!

Our very casual, young boat operator from Isle del Sol back to Copacabana