Pan de Vida

When we first started talking about exploring Peru, a friend connected us with Carlos, who runs a multiple non-profit organizations in Arequipa. After a couple conversations, he invited us to come visit. To understand what he does and why, one needs to hear his story. Born in Peru, Carlos was abandoned at a very young age, then adopted by a Dutch couple. He grew up in the Netherlands, and when he became an adult, returned to Peru with a heart for the children there in difficult situations. He raised money to build a children's home, which opened in 2014 and is currently home to some 20 children under 16, most of which are very young. Some are eligible for and awaiting adoption, others have lived there for many years. Carlos also started a feeding project for children who may not have access to sufficient meals at home. Over the last twenty years, this has grown from one location to forty, now in many locations throughout Peru! Please take the time to watch this video introducing three of his projects. You'll also get a bird's eye view of the area where we stayed, the city of Arequipa and a look at the local market, a bright and busy place.

After Carlos got to know us, he invited us to help out with the children a bit by walking the big kids home from school, or taking the little ones to the park. 

A few times we got to play with the big kids after they completed their homework. Journey showed them the church clap dance and they all tried it.

To celebrate Arequipa Day, we walked with all of the children to the mall for ice cream. Afterwards we returned for a traditional meal together back at the Casa. 

Along our walk I saw swallows dipping over the fields with volcanos in the distance. So charming.

We had the honor of being invited to attend and celebrate the quincenera of one of the girls. In latin culture, the 15th birthday is when a girl becomes a woman, so it's a very important birthday and one that is celebrated with a beautiful dress, food, guests and lots of traditions. I gifted my photography skills for the party and made portraits of her before the party began. Isn't she lovely?

You could just see how incredibly proud Carlos is of her. Having lived at the house for many years, she is now the oldest and has taken on a mothering role with the younger children. I was very impressed with how well she takes care of them and anticipates their needs. She is a very sweet, young woman with a kind heart and a beautiful smile.

Everyone lined up to give her hugs!

I took photos of her with each of her guests. Here she is with the women who work in the house taking care of all of the children. It's not an easy task, but a tremendously important one. 

Before we left, I took portraits of the rest of the children for Carlos. Such precious little ones each with their own big personalities.

After spending three weeks here with Carlos, his family and the children, I can't even begin to express the impact he is having on vulnerable children of Peru. The feeding program is making a huge difference in the lives of the families participating. If they can't be with their birth or adoptive parents, the children's home is the next best scenario for children who are in a very difficult situation. Having been separated from their parents, they find here a loving home, one with rules and responsibilities, they attend school and come home to a house full of brothers and sisters to play with and caretakers who feed them, help with homework and take very good care of them.

We're so thankful for the opportunity to meet Carlos and his family and spend time with the children. They are doing amazing things. If you would like to support them thru prayer or donations, connect thru their website here. 

What I learned from the Maasi

I know some of you have questions about our time in Africa. I figured I'd tell you a bit of the cultural differences we noticed before I get to our conversations with the Maasi.

One of the first things we noticed in Kenya were the men with rifles. At first it's intimidating, but then you come to understand it's mainly a preventative measure. From what I could tell, every business, hotel, restaurant, etc was protected by not only a barbed wire enclosure with metal gate, but also armed security. Speaking of armed security, taking photos of any government buildings (and I'm guessing, persons) is prohibited. Even looking towards non-government buildings with binoculars can throw security into a tizzy. Ask me how I know. It was a tense few minutes spent explaining what binoculars are and reassure them about what they don't do.

This is a residential gate.

There are a wide variety of languages spoken across Africa. The people of Kenya speak English for business and schooling and Kiswahili (also known as Swahili) for everyday situations and then their own tribal language at home and within their community. Uganda is different. They speak English, Luganda and their tribe's language, but historically choose not to speak Swahili, even though there is a push to make it an official language thru more of Africa. Their resistance has much to do with how Swahili was used by soldiers in the past.

The Maasi are a pastoral, nomadic people. They treasure their livestock (mainly cattle) as currency. They are loose, so someone must keep watch over them at all times and keep them safe from not only vehicles, but lions and hyenas. They move quite often to graze them on new land, avoid bad weather or if someone dies. In that case, they bury them the same day and move along. In the past, they'd been able to move freely about, so they didn't really understand land ownership and its value. In the early 1900s treaties began pushing them out of the areas as they became designated national parks. In more recent years, other people knowing the value of the land asked if they could build on their property. When they said yes, they lost their ownership rights. The new people built a fence so the Maasi's cattle can no longer graze on it. Kenya experiences some very difficult droughts. During a recent and particularly horrible drought, in an act of desperation as cattle were dying in huge numbers, some Maasi let their cattle graze on someone elses' property and every single one was shot per the new land owner. What a tragedy for people whose only means of income and survival is based on livestock!

When it's time to move, each family member gathers belongings, which for some is merely a cup, plate, blanket and bedding before moving on to the next place. When they decide to settle down again, the women build a small, circular hut out of sticks with grass roofs and held together with hot, fresh cow dung. The house has just enough room for two beds (cow skins) and one small hole for a window which is necessary since they burn fires inside.

It's common for men to have multiple wives. One of our new friends told us her father had five wives and 29 children. A normal routine for her as a child was to wake at 4am in order to walk 4km to school and arrive by 8am. When school was finished at 4pm, she began her journey home, often barefoot, keeping watch for lions and hyenas along the way. Wow, and in most of the United States it's illegal to merely leave a child under 12 alone safe at home for any amount of time! People walk everywhere here. Alongside paved roads are worn, dirt roads nearly just as wide for pedestrians. Other modes of transportation are boda bodas (motorcycles where you sit behind the driver), tuk tuks (three-wheeled motorized rickshaws) or of course, the automobile.

If someone kills a lion, it's a sign that they are very brave and they wear the skin of it. They will then become an elder of the tribe.

They sometimes drink a fermented concoction of cow blood mixed with milk.

A young Maasi will greet an elder by walking up to them and bending at the waist. The elder will then touch the head of the person with his or her palm.

As I was swatting flies from myself, I was told having flies on you is a sign of wealth as "flies don't come to nothing". Our new friend from South Sudan told us in his country there are tiny flies that go right for the eyes resulting in many people going blind because of this belief that you shouldn't swat them.

While there is a push to educate people in Kenya and Uganda to stop harmful traditional practices, they still occur. Female genital mutilation, using bone setters and the practice of using cow dung to seal a newborn baby's umbilical cord, commonly lead to infections, hydrocephalus and death. It's sad to see a few simple changes could stop so much hurting for those who refuse to let go of those long-held traditions. One thing is certain- change is difficult no matter where you live.

Why we ended up here {ITEC Ecuador}

Spending a good chunk of time immersed in a Spanish speaking culture has been high on our list for a couple years now. Though my husband is Cuban, he did not learn spanish at home. We both have a desire to be fluent in spanish and a strong desire for our children to learn the language while they are young. We thought our initial Spanish immersion experience would be in Spain, then it changed to Colombia, but shortly before our South American adventure began, we found our expertise could be of use in Ecuador, assisting an organization that was already dear to our hearts.

ITEC Ecuador trains indigenous Christ-followers to meet the physical needs of their community as a door opener for the gospel. They provide basic medical training for community health workers deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon jungle. They teach people to use an iPad to record and edit a compelling video documenting the ways that the lives of themselves and those around them have changed as a result of their relationship with Jesus. This way they can easily share the gospel with others who speak the same language while avoiding the language and cultural barriers that many face when trying to share the gospel to people outside of their own culture. I was shocked to see how many people in very remote areas such as the jungles of Ecuador and the plains of Kenya, have smart phones and use them to watch and share videos.

ITEC is now self-funded by AeroFOR, an organization run by the same people thru which they build and sell airplanes and canoes, offer air transportation and are contracted to operate medivac services for sick and injured people deep in the jungle. Without this service, an injured person may have to endure a lengthy hike and/or canoe ride upstream to where a car can finally transport them to a hospital, a journey that can take days. It's been incredible to see the impact they have on those who depend on them to save the lives of people who would otherwise not make it to a hospital in time.

One of the 40ft canoes in production.

A completed canoe

A beautiful RV-10 nearing completion.

ITEC Ecuador produced and performed a musical, The Prince of Egypt, to a packed house in Puyo, a much larger city 10 minutes away. The two hour long musical told the story of Moses and the Israelites' exodus to a packed venue of about 400 guests. 200 custom costumes were created for this one night only show. It was a lovely way to bring to life the story of God's power and provision.

The story of ITEC really begins back in 1956 when 5 missionaries left this very same airstrip in Shell, never to return. They were killed by the people they had hoped to befriend. You can read about it HERE. Today, a yellow Piper airplane sits atop an oil drilling well in Shell's central park as a reminder of the history of the area.

With Galo's translation assistance, Daddy was able to share the miracle that happened when God saved his life during a deployment. Despite 17 broken bones plus lots of other injuries, he is here with us today, by the grace of God, the one and only true God who desires a relationship with each one of us. If you haven't yet experienced a real relationship with God, drop me a message and I'll be happy to share his and my own experiences with you. 

I recently finished reading Walking God's Trail, a book written by Steve and Ginny Saint sharing some of the ways that God has revealed himself in their lives. If you have ever wondered if God is real and if he cares about the details of our lives, this is a must read.

2019 {Year in Review}

2019 was an incredible year of new experiences for us. We spent five months living in Ecuador, one month in Colombia, then ended the year with a roadtrip from Florida to Ohio and Tennessee. While living in Shell, Ecuador, on the edge of the Amazon, we experienced earthquakes, and learned when you hear a "train", you run for cover, because that is the sound of serious rainfall headed your way! Asher and Journey attended an actual school for the first time ever, which of course was in Spanish! This freed up Daddy and I to be able to volunteer at ITEC Ecuador, helping with anything from cleaning to accounting to building canoes and airplanes! At school the kids learned to play futbol, and found you don't have to speak the same language to be friends. 

We spent time in the "ring of fire". Rode a tram 10,000ft up a volcano where we then explored on horseback, enjoyed lunch from the rim of one of only two inhabited volcano craters in the world.

We explored Cotopaxi National Park by car, on foot and on horseback and experienced blizzard conditions when we tried to hike up the snow-covered mountain.

In Mindo's cloud forest, we rode a cable car over a deep valley then hiked a popular trail past 7 waterfalls. I saw a Cock-of-the-Rock and a Long-Wattled Umbrellabird. 

Nicole and I spent a week birding like mad from the cloud forest, to the paramo of Cayambe Coca, to the Amazon jungle tallying 380 species of birds, while staying in numerous interesting places, meeting incredible people and improving my spanish. 

We spent four days in the Amazon learning what life is like for the Waodani people. We met Mincaye and Kimo, men who killed our friend's grandfather. The bigger shock is that same friend actually introduced us to these men who are now totally changed Christ-followers. We saw firsthand the power of redemption, forgiveness and true love. I watched Mincaye, hunched in his old age, walk barefoot thru the jungle holding the hand of his bride. If you only knew how she became his, you'd understand why I still get emotional thinking back to this memory. 

With the Waodani we planted crops (plantain and yucca) and ate monkey, piranha, wild boar and chontacuro (palm grubs- Asher) in the jungle. We experienced culture shock when we arrived, and again when we traded jungle life for a high-rise in Medellin. A visit to Comuna 13, one of the most dangerous locations at one time, gave us a new perspective on life and how much can change in a short time, both for the bad and the good. 

Back in the states, I had the pleasure of attending Night to Shine with my buddy, Lisa. We milked a cow for the first time at the Fugate homestead. The Obrien's showed us around Chattanooga and treated us to the aquarium. Daddy finally bought another Jeep Wrangler and began outfitting it for overlanding. 

In Florida the kids took classes in Batik art, archery, volleyball and tried indoor skydiving for the first time! They witnessed the birth of 8 puppies and observed their development and helped with their care. They also learned thru fostering that saying goodbye is hard, but it's still worth doing. Numerous trips to Tallahassee and Sarasota gave us time to spend with family. In Ohio we visited Chrissy & Shaun, toured Shawshank (Mansfield Penitentiary) and attended J's annual Halloween bash. When we left Ohio we had no way of knowing it would be two years before we'd be able to return (upcoming covid pandemic). 

At home in Ecuador

Our first week in Shell was spent with Galo, his wife and their three children. Before we arrived my children were very nervous about communicating with kids in Spanish. To their delight, their oldest son knows quite a bit of English. By the end of the night all five kids were running and playing together and sad to say goodnight. They took great care of us by showing us around Shell and feeding us delicious food until our house was ready for us.

 Here is the house we rented in a compound with great neighbors and their six dogs! It was huge- five bedrooms, three bathrooms, a full kitchen and laundry room. A hide-and-seeker's dream. With all that room you'd think we'd spread out a bit, but no. We closed off the extra three rooms and the kids shared a room as always. Twins that are best friends can't be separated!

View from the front (above) and back (below)

The house is one of 10 residences inside a fenced compound behind a mission-built hospital. The homes were built to house the hospital staff, however after a hospital opened in the next town, this hospital was closed and later reopened as a clinic.

Most people in Shell have a locking fence securing their home and bars on the windows. Initially Journey thought there were a LOT of jails in Ecuador. Ha!

4 of the 6 dogs of the compound. 

On a clear day (which is rare) two volcanos can be seen from our house. This perfectly cone-shaped one is Vulcan Sangay, a 17,158ft active volcano that we witnessed sending up puffs of smoke at times.

(Our house on the left, clinic in the background and Sangay in the distance)

The other volcano, El Altar, is the most rugged mountain I have seen. At 17,451ft, it is always snow-capped and is a real treat when the cloud curtain rises to reveal its beauty.

Having a playground in the backyard was a wonderful bonus.
My children enjoyed playing with our neighbors who were close in age. 

It rains pretty much everyday, often multiple times a day, and sometimes for an entire day. It's not the kind of rain I've known in the US, this feels as though the sky opens up and just pours out from the heavens. When you're outside and hear a train coming, you better hope you're less than 30 seconds from shelter, because that's not a train!

This is a photo from our patio looking thru rain at our neighbor's house.

Some of the most beautiful rainbows appear afterwards.