A.M.O.R. Projects' "Donate to Emancipate" Fundraising Campaign
P.S. if you are interested in having our fundraising flyers please leave me a comment or message and I will be more than happy to send them to you! |
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Donate to Emancipate
Ciudad Constitucion Campana
… 7 people in a 5 seated truck, an 8 hour four wheeling trip through the mud of a beginning rainy season, a weeks worth of luggage and medical supplies strapped to the back and you know you're in the mission field. I know for sure that I will forever think twice about complaining on a long or crammed trip in the car. In all reality it wasn't that bad. I mean yeah, my left leg was asleep the whole time, but when you are in great company and a slightly goofy mood (when not sleeping… which only happens for like an hour when you get the privilege of being on a paved roadJ ) no time can be a bad time… there is nothing liked cramped quarters to help you reach a new comfort level with those around you. Besides the smelliness of the monkeys diaper and the difficulty of eating crumbled granola with one hand it really was great.
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The basic medical part of this campaign was really similar to all the rest. Every day 140 (more or less… well forget the less part, but anyways) patients…. Mostly smiles and (in this particular city) stomach problems. Nothing to out of the ordinary as far as the basic work done in pharmacy. We are getting a lot more organized and now that we speak more Castillano and know the meds better things there usually flow pretty smoothly. There were a few interesting cases though…. The bad thing however is that the interesting cases are usually the sad ones. For instance, we did parasentisis on a lady who had so much fluid in her belly that she looked like 10 months pregnant… no joke, we got at least 8 liters of fluid out of her. She had to have been so miserable… and if she doesn't get something done, the problem will just keep returning. It's awful because people in her situation don't have the money or ability to travel to somewhere such as ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />
This campaign really gave me a more in depth look at the lives of many Peruvians and opened my eyes to new viewpoints. Ciudad Constitucion is in an area whose main crop is coca plants. It is easy for one to say "this is so wrong…. Reform, reform, reform!", but when you look a little deeper you see so much more. In this land there is such a vicious cycle… it isn't about bad people growing drugs to use and get others hooked on, but about a people making a living the only way they know how. If you don't grow the crop that sells, you don't eat and don't live. It isn't about a choice of what to plant, but a matter of survival. To them it is the same as planting corn or potatoes… it's simply a crop that puts food on the table. Even if one felt it was wrong and wanted to no longer participate in this crop, getting out would be dangerous, for what you know can get you killed. The people who live in this area have to either deal with the fear of death because of the crop they grow, or the fear of death for not growing. There are commonly gun fights and shootings…. Not such nice people live there… especially if you get on anyone's bad side or the wrong side of town. There is much controversy over this crop and it is best to remain neutral… when I first heard about this way of livelihood my instinctive response was "this is wrong"… but once I learned more of the affects and impossibilities involved I don't know how to respond. I can't imagine a life surrounded by so much difficulty. There is so much more to say on this subject, but more isn't always better and offense can easily happen… from either side of the fence. I won't go into thoughts of those higher in this never ending chain or those who make unsuccessful and damaging attempts to stop it, but lets just say that there are so many unknown depths… of really any story or situation. This is definitely a lesson and reminder to me to not form opinions to quickly… one can never really know the immensity of a situation by simply glancing at the surface.
my life in a nutshell... a really big nutshell
Sunday: This is a day of planning, cleaning, sleeping in and playing catch-up. We usually sleep in until about 7 am and get up and make a special breakfast that we normally wouldn't have time for (such as cinnamon rolls, jungle muffins paired with fried potatoes or tortillas—Peruvian omelets). After that is laundry time, which takes seemingly forever… I really should wash clothes more than once a week, because it takes so long to catch up. WE carry our clothes down to the well, haul up water (good for the arm muscles… it's a deep well) after washing, attempting to rinse all the soap out, and hanging the clothes on the line to dry (I have issues with this part because I always seem to pick a day that it decides to rain, leaving my clothes damp for days and smelly to boot). After that task is done and the house is clean we do meal planning and go to market. Meal planning is difficult, for there is no such thing as quickly running to the store… you have to buy what you need for 2 or 3 days of meals and know exactly what and how much you we'll need before leaving the house… a task we are still far from perfecting. Whether in ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />
Monday, Wednesday and Friday are all pretty similar to one another… the only exceptions being Wednesday and Friday market trips, and Friday prepping the house for Sabbath. On these mornings we ride our bikes to Los Pinos where we teach our favorite class. Professor Jorge leads our students out in the Peruvian national anthem and pledge as the kids go through their marching routine. It's so cute to see them all lined up, especially the kindergarteners. These are the kids we go on field trips with and stay after school to play games with. The teachers here like to involve us in everything… I love how much you can tell they love their kids. We teach an hour of English and an hour of music with the primary students (ages 6-12), and then an hour of music to the kindergarteners. Each day has it's challenges, but for the most part these kids are well behaved, eager to learn, and very loving. The 3-5 year old kindergarteners have very short attention spans, but we are slowly earning their respect and love. They are getting great about participation, always requesting "Las Gallinitas" and "Dios es Amor" to be sung a gazillion times. I love spending time outside of class getting to know them… having little ones fight over who gets to hold your hand as you walk with them through the zoo, or laugh at you as you try to play their games and get stuck while trying to slide under a 6 year olds legs are definitely unforgettable and precious moments. After class we stop by Bria's house where we always receive some homemade gift, fresh fruit or refresco. She and her family are so giving. Bria spent a year in the
Tuesday and Thursday…the bike trip to Yerbas Buenas…Yay! Three km back a dirt-filled bumpy road lies this little village. I am slowly overcoming my great disdain and slight fear of bicycles and they are no longer the bane of my existence after making this trip so many times. Hilly and rocky, it is very uncomfortable on our not so decent bikes. They've redone most of the road now so it isn't terrible anymore… unless of course it rains, and then we are talking an 1 ½ hours of pushing/carrying our bikes up and down hills through the mud… oh what fun and entertainment that is J The teachers at Yerbas Buenas are much more detached from their students than those at km 37 (Los Pinos). I often feel that they see us as a break from teaching more so than as a help to their students. We have a class of 25 5-10 year olds with short attention spans and discipline problems… although with time it has gotten much better. Also at Yerbas we have a group of 20 ranging from the ages of 10-18, all of which are fairly bright and finally starting to see us as teachers. It is so awesome to see the progress made from "I'm too cool for this" to "can we do that again PLEASE". I am glad that they are starting to open up. Of course we have our favorite students at each school, but that will have to be in another blog as well… this one will be long enough as it is. Once we are done at Yerbas Buenas we bike home and repeat yet again the process of cooking, cleaning, planning, and working and yet again head to Campo for night classes.
Sabbath… my favorite day! We all get to hang out and relax. Friday (and Saturday) evenings we get to have longer worships than we normally get to in our morning devotions… it is so great to have that time of worship with others… no matter what race… but getting to come together not only as a "family" but as a family in Christ and a family in the Adventist Church. It may not be vespers at Southern, but it is wonderful. We sing tons of Spanish hymns and have dual language worship… I can't wait until I know enough Castillano so that translations are no longer necessary. Church is often times frustrating, for the language barrier makes things hard…but it is good to be with people who are SO excited to sing and to worship God. It also offers good time for journaling, Bible reading, prayer, and simply spending time with God… which is what church should really be about, God time. Many times we do spur of the moment special music's, piano playing, and sermons… apparently being white automatically makes you capable and a volunteer. On the way out everyone showers you with hugs, kisses, and greetings of "Feliz Sabado"… truly showing Christian brotherly love. Often times our Sabbath afternoons are filled with choir practice and youth meetings, making having our Sabbaths to ourselves a rare occasion. It is at these times I have to try hard to remember that I am here to serve and here for the people, not myself. I miss my Sabbaths… the way they are at home, but I am here for a different cause and when I return hopefully I will be more willing and ready to spend more of my Sabbath helping others out at home too… After all Sabbath isn't only for spending time with God, loved ones and resting, but also for sharing Christ's love with others. Some Saturday nights we have youth games (which will take a whole blog in itself to recount and explain) and others we S.M.'s sit around and hang out… playing games and just chillaxin. I love our group here… we make such a great team. Although it is times like these Saturday nights that I most miss Southern, my friends and Matt, they also remind me of how lucky I am to be with the wonderful people here. We are like a family and fit together so well. The people here will obviously never be able to replace or keep me from missing my family at home, but it is a wonderful and irreplaceable feeling to feel so handpicked by God as a team for this year. I am sure we'll come across problems and have some squabbles or disagreements, and I am bound to really get on someone's nerves sooner or later… but to all who I love at home, know that I am in good hands… both in God's and those of my team, and am being well loved and taken care of. And that is the conclusion of my (normal… if there is such a thing) weekly happenings here in
Animals
Lola and Cheva are our "guard dogs". They act awful fierce if htere is a stranger (or thunder) aothough around us they are nothing but playful and full of smiles. Lola (our mutt dog) likes to play tag with our sheep and cat, while Cheva, our rotweiler and soon to be mom, is a definite animal attacker. Right now she is tied up for eating a baby lamb. She also has managed to barge into the house and attack our monkey twice. Thankfully our monk has good luck... a few squeals and a lot of slobber and all is well.
Joey our cat is super unique. Never before have I seen a cat whose favorite place is on top of a girls head. He loves hair. At any given moment he'll leap onto your back, place his front paws on your head with his claws tangled in your hair and rest his head on top of your own. His other favorite past times are exploring outside, and playing games with the monkey.
Our monkey, Frankie (just because) ASUito(little wow and the initials for Andrews, Southern, and Union) Gordon (after gordon hospital our last clinic group) is a riot. He's super clingy and when he isn't climbing on the rafters, taunting the dogs or cat, or keeping our environment bug free he is sure to be found perched on a shoulder or curled up in a lap. He is soo people dependant. He loves to be curled up with one of us while holding your finger just like a baby. Although he is a bit smelly and can be a pain when he steals the food right from in front of your mouth, he's a wonderful team addition. Changing his diaper and bath time are always great adventures... he squeals like he did when he was Cheva food... youd think being clean was painful. He loves to play with pens while I am journaling... I don't know if you have ever tried it but writing with a monkey attatched to the end of your pen is quite an impossible task. He chirps like a bird and purrs like a cat, but no typical monkey sounds come from our monkabunk.
The two frogs are our toillette buddies... every time thei toilette is flushed they practically jump out. They are no longer surprising although the first time it scared me quite a bit. Now the worry is when one of us accidentally flushes one... that has been known to cause quite a rucus.
Lastly the 13 sheep (there were 14 but Cheva was appearantly hungry) They are a result of the money from cheva's first litter of puppies... who knows, maybe she was resentful...anyways each night before we got to bed someone has to count sheep and put them away... kind of ironic, but none the less true.
Down River Up North
Clinic number two…. Crazy times. We had a group of 20 come in from ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />
First Clinic
One More Adventure
I forgot to mention our eventful trip to massesai... a river town up the Ucayali from us. Two of the previous sm´s worked there for six weeks and a church was planted... so we went to do the church service, kids programs, and encourage the growing church.We rode in extremely crowded oversized roofed canoe for 5 hours to get there and then traveled half an hour by moto (half motorcycle half cart) on a dirt road. This we did a little complaining about, but the Lord has an odd sense of humor when teaching us lessons... it rained on sabbath, which was our return day and was too dangerous to travel. so, we had to sit on the corner of the plaza at 4 in the morning to wait for a moto which then got stuck in the mud... so we walked about 20 minutes to port in the dark and arrived to find a much smaller boat awaiting us. So, lesson learned... don´t complain about your circumstances, cause it could always get worse. |
Earth quake
modern convienences... who needs em?
Hello from peru. sorry I dont have time to send a lot of comments but i figured i could blog to atleast let everyone know what I am up to. So far all is good, we haven´t started our actual jobs yet but when we do i will be teaching english in three places at least three times a week, teaching music, sabbath school and womens classes as well as working in a medical clinic every six weeks. recently they have installed running water but no electricity. i really kinda like that because it is so peaceful, promotes communication, and the stars here are the most amazing thing i have ever seen (well right up there with peruvian sunsets). All though sites from home are definitely more special, the beauty here is amazing (once you look past run down shacks and dirt roads) the jungle is great and the weather is hot but all is well. We have some leway with the food so creativity is helpful and the food here is cheap so we are eating good. Oh and just a side note... you can buy monkeys in the market for like 20 bucks although not entirely legally... anyways gotta run. Until next time, lots of love, thoughts and prayers, Tara |