Kawai Reunion

Last week I returned to the place where I spent my very first week in Peru - Kawai. I was excited to meet up with some friends that I haven't seen in months - the boys in Kawai and a couple of Scripture Union interns as well.

On the down side, after I posted my pics of Kusi, the memory card in my camera died. Apparently it's not initialized or something... Anyway, I can't fix it, so you'll be very sad to hear that the rest of my time in Peru will probably be a little less interesting since I won't be able to post my pictures. I'll try to get my hands on some photos taken by the other folks in my groups if it's possible.

When I hopped on the bus from Lima to Kawai, I was pleasantly surprised to see a couple interns that I hadn't seen for a while, Ms. Kate Hambley from Sherwood Forest in England and Ms. Christina Jennings from Fredericksburg, VA. We were joined by a mixed group, including a group from Scripture Union England, another from Minnesota, and lonely Ms. Kelly Maconahay from Alabama. I spent my first two weeks in Peru with Kelly's church, so we're continuing the trend of everybody knowing everybody when you come to Peru...

I'm sure everyone remembers the bearded gentlemen in the top right hand corner of this webpage. This was the guy that the kids met in June. They surprised me by recognizing me almost immediately. One boy said he knew me by the way I walked and the way I talked... which would probably be really creepy in any other circumstance...

So the week set out with lots of concrete mixing and shoveling. My body was only conditioned for adobe brick carrying when I arrived, and my concrete mixing muscles were a bit out of shape, so it was bit painful to get back into the work cycle at Kawai. After a couple days of struggling, I got back into the flow and the work was only moderately painful. And now if my camera worked you all could see just how far along the bungalow in Kawai has come since we started it in June.

Here's a missing photo of the worksite. The bungalow has brick walls, concrete supports and concrete floors that we poured. Isn't it fantastic how far we've come!

[Missing worksite photo]

Of course everyone knows that mid-week when we had our Lima day, there was the massive earthquake in Pisco. We were on a bus going to dinner in Lima and couldn't really feel the impact - the bus shook for a couple minutes, but that was all. We didn't know it was so deadly until the next day. When we returned to Kawai that night, we were rudely awakened by many aftershocks, and they continued over the next couple days. Kawai is only a few hours from Pisco. Fortunately for the folks in Kawai, there wasn't any serious damage. It will cost them some money to fix up a number of things, but the structures are built to withstand earthquakes, so all but the oldest building are in good shape.

After we got back from our Lima day, I got my first taste of real responsibility. For the first time I was the intern in charge with the group. It wasn't too tough. I can pretty much understand what the Kawai folks are telling me with a small to moderate amount of frustration on their parts, but thanks to their patience, everything turned out pretty well. Everyone that arrived in Kawai left with all their limbs - success.

As far as hanging out with the kids, I made the huge mistake of doing some crazy dances, including the robot, as well as some dumb magic tricks early in the week that I didn't expect to be tremendously popular. So for the rest of the week I got to deal with the boys demanding that I entertain them.

Here's a missing photo of me doing the robot.

[Missing robot photo]

The time spent with the kids in Kawai is a bit different than it is in the other sites. You don't exactly live and eat among them, so you only get to see them for a couple hours at the end of each day. It's more difficult to get to know them like I got to know the kids at Kusi. Even so, I managed to spend some time with boys that I didn't get to know well in June.

I spent lots of time fighting and throwing the boys around. The little ones are pretty demanding in that arena...

Julio and I tried to turn some Psalms in Spanish into songs. I think we failed terribly, but it was fun anyway.

The highlight for me came the night after the earthquake when we didn't have any power. It was really dark when we went to visit the boys. Junior laid out a blanket and we sat in the grass with Kelly and Juan Carlos, teasing them about their girlfriends and just being ridiculous in general. I really enjoyed talking to Junior. He was mellow and goofy and reminded me a lot of Rusbel from Kusi

Oh, and I have to mention that there was the most adorable little puppy - probably no more than a month old. It was the cutest thing ever, and it was impossible to walk by him without playing. So I'm pleased to show you this missing photo of the new cutest dog ever.

[Missing puppy photo]

So while Kawai was a bit disappointing because I didn't get as much time with the boys, I got to see some old friends again, I got to make some great new friends from the states and the UK, and I got to wield the full breadth of my intern power.

My next post should be coming soon and will be regarding Jared's disdain for tourism. Thanks, God bless, and sorry for the missingness of my photos.