Machu Picchu

Yesterdays adventures started at the crisp hour of 5am. We left our warm, cozy beds at Atek to be on a bus at 6 to leave for the train station to begin our journey to Machu Picchu. After winding our way through the busy morning streets of Cusco we boarded our train to start the three hour travel to get to the town of Machu Picchu. Our train ride consisted of passing villages, crops, streams, and a continuous view of the amazing Andes mountains. When arriving to the town we then caught a bus to begin our ascent into the mountains. A multitude of switch backs, close passes with other buses and an incredible view made for one of our most exciting bus rides yet. We began our climb and tour of Machu Picchu right away. Our tour guide Mario told us of the history of the archeological site, the Inca Trail (he thinks that climbing the Inca Trail is a great honeymoon idea)and also felt the need to constantly tell us that pumas were all along the mountains waiting for Canadians to eat. We climbed the whole site in the scorching heat, finding shade where we could, pausing at the top of the mountain to feel the cold breeze in an attempt to cool off and drinking about 25 litres of water throughout the day. We also of course saw the famous Machu Picchu llamas and some of our team members were even brave enough to reach out to pet them and of course take selfies with them. As exhausted as we all were the end view was breath taking. And of course we took the classic Beach Corner Church Machu Picchu Peru team picture. After a great day of exploring one of the seven wonders of the world we started to make our way back to our home for the past two weeks. Our last full day in Peru was fulfilled with many memories and now today we pack and begin our long journey home. We are all very thankful for you keeping us in your prayers for these past weeks. We would ask that you continue to pray for good health and strong minds and bodies for our travel home. We will see you all back in Canada soon! Bailee

Back to ATEK

Team 2 got back from the second village/kid's camp. It wasn't so much a village as a town. This was the first time this particular town had held a kid's Bible camp. We were all housed in a church and meals were served in the back yard. There were about 100 kids, but the number seemed to grow for the lunch and supper meals. The kids were organized into color groups and our job was to be in charge of serving one of the groups for all the meals. We were responsible for collecting the cups, plates and spoons afterwards and "washing" them under a faucet of luke warm water. We also took the kids down to a large concrete pad near a school in the town and playing games with them. Our purpose on this trip was to take care of the serving type jobs so that the teachers could focus on teaching the kids. It was a blessing for us to experience the openness, love and physical attention of the children. They loved learning English words and also asked us what our names were. Our empty hands were often filled with the hands of loving children. They loved hugs and touching. One girl kept touching my hair as some of our team were peeling potatoes in the kitchen. Even though we didn't know the language, we were able to share many laughs and exchanges of information with the Peruvians who were helping us. They thought it quite funny how inadequate we were with using a knife to peel potatoes, and there was some comparing of potato peel lengths, as well as tips given as to how to accurately hold and use the knives. They mentioned how tall we were and found it humorous to see that my son was taller than me. We had a soccer tournament on the second day there. We are happy to report that we won against the teachers. There were a couple of strong players on their team, but Seth's skills helped carry us through to a win. Jeff was an awesome goalie and the rest of us directed the ball as best we could. It was 0-0 after the first half. During the second half Seth scored three goals and they scored 2. The second half lasted a lot longer than the first half and we were a bit worried that they would keep playing until they won, but the whistle was finally blown to end the game. The game attracted the attention of two police officers. Fun was had by all! Jennifer Team 1 was at ATEK today for another day with the kids. We had planned to teach them to sing a song but they wanted to go to 'El Parkay' so off we went for another round at the park. We had figured out at this point that all the children needed a hand to hold since we cross the highway as well as the 'dog park' on the way there. Unfortunately some of the children tend to like to 'mark their territory' at the park which proves embarrassing for us when the Spanish women ask if those children are ours. We had fun regardless and a few of us (Amanda and I) were able to carry the babies on our backs like the Peruvian women. Afterwards we made Sammi's craft of sombreros with the children which consisted of our numerous paper plates with hole punches and yarn. The kids LOVED it and we found it humorous. They really have warmed up to us and many of us will miss them. The biggest joke is when they try and pair off team members with each other. Today they decided to touch one team members' lips and then run to a team member of the opposite gender and do the same to imitate a kiss. Their affection and jokes make me smile whereas other team members role their eyes and prefer to have their space (it's more because we're at the end of our time here). The encouragement is to finish well and love the children even though they don't understand boundaries all the time:) . Machu Picchu is tomorrow so we will have an early morning but I'm hoping it will be a good full day instead of a hectic one. Only a few more days here in Peru, looking forward to seeing our family! Brianna The answer to yesterdays' guess who is, Stephanie! Although nearly every time I've caught myself laughing at someone else's misfortune I find myself in the same situation. i.e. Today I was the one who had a wet child ;)

Shake it - Frutti Flex 50

So... yesterday was so busy that we forgot to make a blog post. Better late than never. Yesterday began like most days, 6:50 breakfast and 8:00 devotions with Pastor Bill and the Quechuan women. We had a break after that to collect ourselves before jumping in to help babysit the children. When we met back in the team room we were asked to help bathe the children but ended up observing instead. This lead to less tears on both of our parts. I think the children have realized that baths aren't as horrible as they first thought. We had what was probably my (Sammi's) favourite meal yet which was chopped up carrots, beans, hash browns and eggs. Overall, the kids were in a much better mood than the day before so we took advantage of their passiveness to make music shakers out of paper plates and rice, which they really enjoyed. During which the kids decided that Sammi was pregnant and continued to follow her around, pointing at her stomach saying "bebe". (I'm really not mom!) We then went to the park for a walk. The park experience was much better than before, we came back with all of our kids and had only one fight break out between kids! Spencer got ice cream cause he was snackish. The kids also find it entertaining to take the babysitters phone and video tape us on the way back from the park and then watch it when we get back so we have to make sure we are on our best behavior. After the park we went to go get Pastor Bill ice cream but the ice cream stand was closed and the rest of us ended up stocking up on all the Peruvian chocolate bars and cookies. At night the girls had a devotion with Brianna about spiritual gifts which we all took a test to see which ones we had. While the team was occupying the kids, our translator Daniel took Lucas to a clinic run by an American missionary. Upon arrival, they discovered that the doctor was out getting a bite to eat, so the nurse took his blood pressure and a few other things and they came back to ATEK for lunch while they waited for the doctor. When they left again and found out how long it would take (close to an hour), Daniel left telling Lucas Pastor Fredi would come pick him up. Lucas got his diagnosis and was given pills and two liters of a vile liquid to replenish his electrolytes. The liquid is called 'Frutti Flex 50' and according to Lucas, has the same consistency as milk but with a medicinal fruit taste... After receiving his meds, Lucas waited and waited. Pastor Fredi forgot him, and hours later when Daniel went back to get him, he said he finished an entire movie in Spanish in the waiting room (haha). Later on, while the girls had their devotion, Spencer and Lucas went for a walk and explored 'the main drag' (Spencer's words) and ended up purchasing a pizza that was fire roasted in a brick oven. Needless to say, their 'bro-time' was fulfilling in more than one way. :) Answer to the last guess who is Amanda. Todays is, "Who got soiled on (peed on for those who didn't get soiled on) at the park?" Jeff was supposed to write the blog today but he went to the village with the other group to take Lucas's spot due to Lucas being under the weather. So this blog is from a group of us. - Stephanie, Lindsey, Spencer, Sammi, Amanda, Lucas and Brianna. :)

It was a day...

Today Team Two left for the village... May the Lord be with them and their tummies, I’m sure some of the members will shave off a few pounds during their stay. Hopefully they will all make it back in one piece and in good health. Jeff took Lucas' place due to his poor health. Seeing that Lucas is bed ridden and Pastor Bill is working hard every day with all the women I have been left as the Lone Ranger. Hopefully it will not be too hard to adjust to the overwhelming estrogen-to-testosterone ratio. Later today Team One took care of the kids and decided to take the kids to the park to blow off some of their never ending energy. We took fourteen with us and on our way back realized that we only had seven with us. We managed to grab another seven off the street and claim them as our own, hopefully they were ours… All the children down here look the same so it makes it difficult to distinguish between whose kids are ours or not. Then the team decided to go to the “big” market half way across Cusco to get some more snacks. Turns out that the store wasn’t as grand as I was informed it would be. All the shelves had one single row of cans for food. Turns out Peru isn’t in any rush to restock their shelves. We managed to find some things that we liked and made our way home. As dinner approached members from WYCLIFF arrived and joined us for dinner. They will be staying at ATEK till Friday. Looking forward to returning home! -Cole (Cause the locals can’t say Spencer) P.S. The answer to the guess who question from yesterday is, Lindsey! Today's guess who is, "To put it politely, you're not my cup of tea" Who said it?!

Going to the park again

This morning we woke up again at 6:30 am, ya I know mom and dad I got up that early! We had a great breakfast which consisted of bread and jam again. We had another church service this morning where Kaitlyn shared her testimony for the ladies. I think its really cool how the ladies here are so on fire for God and how they sing their hearts out for God and then we stand in the back trying to sing along to another language. Last night we dedicated all the children in Atek and prayed over the kids and their moms and it was powerful to see how much dedicating their kids meant to them. Today we tried a spiritual time with God for half an hour after the service and it was a really nice to have that time with God. Everyone was feeling pretty tired and drained this morning and after our time with God most of us felt more energized. Kyle has been taking videos of us all day to put in the church slideshow while some of the team cleaned the 3rd floor for another team to stay there tomorrow for 3 days while group 2 goes off to the village. The rest of the team got ready for the next village trip, and played with the kids. The kids are getting really friendly, maybe a little too friendly. Every time they see us they hang off of us and wont let go to the point where we have to lock the door of our rooms so they don't come in, but they are super cute. We play a lot of soccer with the kids but every time we do someone (Seth) gets its stuck on top of a tarp and we have to spend the majority of the time playing soccer actually trying the ball down. Later we took the kids to the park again which they love and we spent a few hours there making sure the kids don't fall of the teeter-totter again. After the park the team went to go to the market to get snacks for group 2 for the village but it just randomly closed down so we went down the road and bought a cake for the team which was amazing and hopefully satisfies our North American food cravings everyone is having. We had fried chicken for dinner which everyone was pretty stocked it wasn't bread or soup again. After dinner I gave my testimony which I was freaking out about all week and I was the last to go but I finally did it and I'm doing it for the ladies tomorrow morning as well. We had team time again tonight and prayed for everyone who is under the weather which is a majority of the team with just a cold to a slight fever. Today was a pretty chill day and we just got ready for group 2 to go to the village from Tuesday to Thursday. So pray that they have a safe travel and a good time there and that they don't have to play what part of the animal they're eating in their soup. I miss you mom and dad i'll see you Sunday :) and good luck on you're baseball tournament this weekend as well Cole. Todays guess who: guess who sleeps with cough drops in her hair..? The answer to yesterdays guess who is Spencer. The story behind it is a joke that Brianna gave Spencer peppermint oil to rub on his tummy in the village to help him feel better when he was sick and he thought it was the weirdest thing. -Stephanie :)

The Adventure to the Orphange's

Good evening from Peru! Our day started fairly normally, we served the women breakfast and ate our own. We then listened to Pastor Bill preach to the women. The we tried to leave at 9 am to start our adventure for the day, which included visiting both Azul Wasi and The Josefine House. Both of these places are orphanage's. However there was much confusion on if we would have a translator or not (we didn't have one), and our bus driver spoke little English. Our plan was to go to the super market and buy sandwich items to make sandwich's for lunch and buy some staple foods for Azul Wasi. That plan was put aside when the driver had no idea what we were asking, meaning we had no lunch items. After asking many locals, police officers and driving down a very small road, we finally found Azul Wasi. We got there later than expected, and the director wasn't around when we arrived. So we looked around and kicked around a soccer ball with the children. The director finally arrived and he took us on a tour of place. Two years ago I was at Azul Wasi, and the change from two years is incredible. They got a new greenhouse and had two new buildings were built. Sadly we couldn't spend too much time there because we had continue on our journey. We tried to tell the bus driver that we wanted sandwich's but he didn't understand. So we had a nutritious lunch, including Coke-cola, mayonnaise, oregano and cheese, and BBQ chicken flavoured Lays chips. We also had cookies and buns from a car trunk (Seth may have had sand on his bun). We then tried to make our way to The Josefine House. However, just like on trip to Azul Wasi, we got lost, and tried to cross a bridge that was too small. We eventually made it. The children were all just waking up from their naps. I still remember some of the children, including Carlos, Daniel and Zoe. Josefine House is building a new house for the children, and it looks amazing! We played on the playground with the kids and passed around a ball. It was very hard to say good-bye to the children, because we had slowly become attached. (Stephanie, Carlos is doing well! I can't wait to tell you more and share pictures and videos!) We safely made our way back to ATEK without getting lost! Praise the lord! We got back to ATEK just before 4, and at 4 we joined a church service at ATEK, with the ladies. We were planning on doing one baby dedication, however after the first baby dedicated all of the ladies wanted their babies dedicated, so instead we just blessed the children and their mothers. All of the ladies then wanted pictures with us according it Spencer we took 37 photos. We are finishing off the day with some team time. Please keep our health in your prayers, some of us still aren't feeling well. As well Pastor Bill's voice, he is teaching every day for very long times. Team unity as well. The answer to yesterdays guess who, is Sammi! When we were in the village the squaties weren't really flushing, so Sammi went to the bathroom and afterwards, she exclaimed "I peed on the poo!" Todays guess who is " The way to pick up a girl is to rub peppermint oil on her tummy." Love Amanda

Hello all! Team one just got back from the village this afternoon (Brianna, Amanda, Lindsey, Stephanie, Sammi, Jeff and Spencer). We were at the village for three days and two nights and experienced many firsts for a lot of us. Our first day there started off with us settling into our room then introducing ourselves to the approximately 130 kids participating in the children's camp. The introductions went fairly well except for Spencer accidentally introducing himself as "Spent-Cole" which stuck with the children, and the rest of us as a group joke. We then ate lunch with the kids which was soup that consisted of rice, potatoes and more potatoes. It was also most of the group's first encounter with chunos (for those who don't remember what those are they are the... interesting dehydrated potatoes). After lunch the group went exploring throughout the village where we found a mangy looking scarecrow to take a selfie with. The kids continued on with there camp throughout the day where we played games with them and learned just how much energy they truly have. At the end of the evening we showed three short films to the kids which were about health, hygiene and some other questionable material that left us a little uncomfortable to go to bed after watching. The next day was an early start, we helped serve and eat breakfast with the kids and most of us witnessed our first sheep slaughtering. It started off with some men dragging a sheep through the area where we were eating in and continue to slit its throat as we tried to finish eating our meal. After seeing how intrigued we were (well some of us) at the process, the men let us watch them skin and gut the sheep, which a few of us took the opportunity to do so. the majority of us left once they began to clean out to stomach and intestines in the same sink we wash our dishes in though. The day continued on with a similar schedule as to the day before with the camp. It was also the day we encountered the squatty problem. We agreed that we felt we had out ventured out of our 'first world probs' when our biggest struggle became trying to find which of the three squatties had the least amount of poop all over it - which was a very real problem when you had 130 young children using them. And when we say there was poop all over, we mean ALL over. That day we also had our soccer tournament, which went much better than expected! We managed to at least get one goal, and to no one's surprise was scored by Sammi. The sheep made its second appearance during lunch in our soup, which was surprisingly comforting to at least know where the 'mystery meat' came from. In the evening we showed the kids how to properly brush their teeth and handed out the supplies to do so. We also participated in the kids' drama presentations, we did two skits where Spencer did a lovely performance of Jesus in both skits despite him being sick at the time. That night the group also came to the consensus that we would exaggerate certain aspects of our village stay, aiming to scare the other group for their trip. After slaughtering our lunch and being forced to go to the bathroom in the bushes due to the squatty situation, it wasn't that hard to come up with ideas. The next morning was thankfully a later start. During breakfast a few of us were offered just plain chunos (which taste even worse than when they are in soup or something) which wasn't exactly what we wanted to be eating first thing in the morning. We then played more games with the kids, made salvation bracelets, packed up our stuff and handed out gift bags to the kids while saying our good-byes. Despite getting lost on our way back to ATEK, we all made it back safe and sound ready to initiate our plan to scare the other team. After exaggerating the food, sleeping conditions, lice situation and the bathrooms (which needed no exaggeration) we had successfully traumatized the others into being extremely nervous for their trip. Our fooling came to an end finally at supper when we explained everything and reassured the team that the village trip was all around a very good and eye opening experience - and they were very relieved. At supper Dried Potato shared her "tater-mony" while we shared the remainder of our true village stories. - Lindsey The answer to the previous guess who is Seth, who showered Kaitlyn in cracker crumbs and spit. Todays guess who is someone from the village's quote of the day was "I peed on the poo!" guess who it was?