I Miss Kusi

Here's a typical shot of an afternoon with the kids playing some instruments. Jusepi is particularly good on the guitar. He's not actually one of the Girasoles boys - he's the son of Rosa and Angel, but he considers all the boys here his brothers.You may notice Elber on the bike with the big smile on his face. He's always got a huge smile on his face, and he's a joy to be around.Here's Jonathan Sixto playing the recorder. He's one of the older boys. Jonathan has had a really tough life, but he's a great leader and role model for the younger boys. He wants to go to seminary and become a pastor when he's finished with school. I'm gonna miss this guy. Here's Raul with Rosa and Kari behind. Raul and his brother Jorge came to Kusi on their own a couple months ago. Jorge is very shy and sweet, while he's younger brother is full of energy and hungry for affection. Raul is still adjusting to the life and rules in Kusi. He sometimes doesn't eat, and sometimes gets upset when his brothers ask him to do something simple. Because he's still new to the environment, Rosa and Angel are just trying to show Raul love, something he probably hasn't had much of in his life. Please say a prayer for Raul and Jorge as they adjust to life in Kusi.Here's a shot of (left to right) Miguel, Ronaldo, Henri, and Agosto. Ronaldo is probably the class clown of the group. One night I was eating dinner across from him and Raul. Raul didn't want to eat, and Ronaldo was trying to entice him to eat with some overacting concerning the deliciousness of the bread and jelly. It's really encouraging when you can see how the older boys work hard to make the younger ones fit in and learn the rules. It's encouraging to see how God is working in the lives of these older boys. Here's Alexia, Rosa and Angel's daughter. She's excellent at hiding her face from cameras, but I caught her... and now she's on the internet...

And of course my true loves of Kusi, Regina, Alejandra, and Miriam - the cooks. Every meal was delicious, especially panchamanka, which is a meal that's cooked under the ground. I ate like a pig to make up for the previous week where I was sick and couldn't eat much.Here are Gabriel, Rachel, and Roger looking up some Bible verses. Gabriel is the oldest boy at Kusi, and Angel told us that Gabriel has been an enormous help to him in managing the 21 other boys. Roger wants to learn English. Today I'm going to pick up a CD that teaches English and have it sent to Kusi with the next group.

This is Henri, aka el maestro. He's 16 years old, even though he looks smaller. When asked what he likes most about Kusi, he replied that he liked the food, the sleep, and the school where he gets to go. Three simple things that most people in the states easily take for granted. Another thing that says a great deal about the lives these boys have had is their favorite Bible verses. I was surprised by the number of boys who showed me verses about how God's blessings allow one to sleep in peace.

Here's Martín. He's the smallest at 8 years old and he gets lots and lots of attention for being adorable. He is adorable. I get a big hug every time I pass him. I'm surprised he sat still by himself long enough to take this picture...

Here's Hunter, aka Antonio, aka the Ox. He moved a LOT of adobe bricks. Great man of God, and he's hardcore - he reads the King James Bible.

How bout a sun rising over Huascarán? There are a bunch more of these on my Flickr page by the way...

Here's my best friend in Kusi, Rusbel. The name Rusbel is pronounced like the ex-president... hope you all can figure that one out...

Rusbel is so sweet, so loving, and so goofy that it's hard to imagine him by himself, without a family. He's 15 and crazy about girls, especially the American girls that came from Virginia. It's funny to watch him tease the girls - "Chica mala!"

Rusbel wants to be either a chef or a doctor. On the chef path, he's got his own small garden with onions and some other vegetables that I'm not familiar with. He was ecstatic to see that his plants had begun to grow out of the ground. I think he hadn't checked on them for a while.

He also made his own adobe oven to cook things like panchamanka. It even has a shelter to keep the spare wood dry.

Rusbel said he was going to miss me a lot. I'm going to miss him too. I feel horrible that I have to leave these guys for so long.

Goodbye, Kusi. I want to come back soon. I will miss you, friends.

Back in Kusi

My latest trip to Kusi was by far my best week in Peru, and certainly one of the best weeks of my life. But before I dive in, I have to link you to some videos taken by my buddy Neal during my second week in Peru, in the Amazon. I haven't watched them all yet, but there's definitely one of me, looking like Jesus and chopping down the jungle. There's also another of John Hinshaw eating a live grub. I ate a deliciously dead one, but this one was squirming.

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=butkus777+peru

On to Kusi.

I know there's no way I can capture my experience in this blog, but I'll give it a shot and tell some of the stories behind the photos. I think what I'm really going to have to do is convince each and every one of you to come back to Kusi next year... or earlier if possible...

The week started with meeting the team from Fredericksburg, Virginia at the airport. Amazingly, these folks live only an hour from my previous home in Arlington, and one actually attends the same church as me in VA. These folks from New Life in Christ Church were a wonderful blessing. We had a Bible study every night and met with small groups every morning. It was a wonderful thing to study the Bible in English for the first time in months. The group also has a special relationship with the folks at Kusi, because they've been coming for 5 years, since Kusi was a barren piece of land.

Our first stop was actually in Caraz.

Caraz is a beautiful little town. The highlight of Caraz for me was getting to play some 4 on 4 basketball. It had been sooo long since I'd played basketball against anyone who knew the rules...

When we got to Kusi, I remember having a conversation with someone about how everything in the distance looks like a scenic movie backdrop. Everything over a couple miles away looks almost fake... photoshopped in...

Work in Kusi was rough at first. Most of what I did all week was move giant adobe bricks on my shoulder. The first day I felt like I was going to die, but the work got increasingly easier as I got accustomed to it. Here are the bricks and the house we were working on. The house will be a hotel for tourists and mountain climbers looking to take on Huascarán, the second highest peak in South America.
Here's an awesomely creepy picture of Huascarán.

Mid-week we took a trip into old Yungay, which is where the town of Yungay used to be before an avalanche destroyed the entire town in 1970, killing over 20,000 people. The only part of the town that was not destroyed was the cemetary, shown in the next picture. I was told that 90 people survived the disaster on the top of the cemetary, where the Jesús Blanco statue sits.
And a closer shot of the statue.

Here's a shot of Huascarán from the top of the cemetary. You can actually make out Kusi, the tiny cluster of white houses in the middle, about an inch from the left of the picture.

Here are all the guys at the top of the cemetary.

And now that I'm realizing just how much I want to share about the people at Kusi, I'm going to break up this post into two. In my next post I'll throw up some photos of the boys and workers and tell a bit about them.

No Parasites

Turns out it was just a bacterial infection that had me out of commission during my entire stay in Kusi. I was disappointed that I don't get to have parasites. Last Saturday after returning to Lima, I got sick again. Isabel took me to the clinic, and they patched me up nicely with some antibiotics. I'm back to strength now, and I'm just trying to eat as much as possible to gain back the weight I lost.

I've been extra busy this week in Lima, because I decided to try to put together the website for Scripture Union. They've been wanting to start up their website again, but don't have anyone with the expertise. Well I don't have any expertise, but I spent about 4 days studying online. I'm not sure if I'll be able to put together something professional looking, but I'm going to give it a shot, and in the worst case I'll be a little smarter in the ways of web design.

Tomorrow I leave for Kusi again for 2 weeks, so I'll be out of touch again. I'm very excited to spend some time in Kusi working and playing and NOT being sick.

By the way, there's a radio station in Lima that plays all American 80's music. I think it's the greatest thing ever...

Here are some of the Lima kids. I don't think I've put up any pictures of them yet, and I've spent the most time with them. This is Michel.

This is Victor. He's nuts. I think he's fairly new to the center and he gives me a giant running hug every time he sees me. He then proceeds to tickle-attack me, which can sometimes be painful. He also sings beautifully in Quechua.

Between Victor and I is the most adorable little guy in the history of western civilization. I've tried to ask him his name, but he's tiny and I have no idea what he's saying...

Here are some other boys. The one with the white bandana is Raul. He plays the main role of the streetboy in the choreography I wrote about earlier. He's also the head boy in his class at school - I think that's like class president or something.

This is Jaime. He's posing for this picture, believe it or not. He made me a bracelet, which was very nice of him, and he finally stopped asking me what his name is... every time I see him... which is pretty much every day. A small thing like having someone know your name is a hugely important thing for these kids. Great kid. In the choreography he plays the role of one of the street boys that ignores the help of the SUP workers and goes back to the street.
There are a few more up my flickr page as well, so check them out.

Oh, I'll also mention that I've done lots of reading. I dropped a couple bad books mid-way through, and I finished Dr. Bloodmoney by Philip K. Dick, which was an excellent light read.

Kusi

The first thing you'll notice when you get to Kusi is that it's absolutely beautiful.

Kusi is a Scripture Union boys' home in the Andes, near the town of Yungay, which is not too far from the larger city of Huaraz. However, Kusi is more than just a boys' home, it's planned to be a small town to itself, with a main square, a hotel for tourists and mountain climbers, a small shoe factory, a bakery, a school, and I'm probably not remembering everything...

Today, Kusi has about 25 boys living there with the house parents, Angel and Rosa. Angel and Rosa also have two children of their own that live with them, Yosepe (sp?) and Alexia. The school at Kusi is fully functional, although they're working to expand it so that they can accept more students. The school is open to the boys that live in Kusi, as well as the children of Yungay, especially those children that cannot afford the school supplies required to attend regular gov't schools.

Technically, the school at Kusi is a government school, like all schools in Peru, except that the gov't has given administration of the school to Scripture Union. This is a pretty big deal - I'm told the school in Kusi was the first public, Protestant school in Peru. All Peruvian schools were previously Catholic.

Here's a random shot of some of the buildings in Kusi.

Carmen, who originally sold this land to Scripture Union Peru, manages the construction. She told us that the cost of Kusi is approximately half of the other SUP boys' homes because they use adobe mud bricks for the houses, and the mud is taken straight from the land.

Hence most of the week was spent digging mud, mixing mud with straw, and making bricks in molds. Oh yeah, we moved the bricks too - they weigh about 90 lbs. Luckily, I got to be sick half of the week and was unable to work (I'll get back to that later), but here's the fruit of a week's worth of work - about 1200 adobe bricks.

So day 1 I worked in the morning moving bricks, and in the afternoon, intern Gillian says she wants to cut my hair. Jared says "Sure, I'm sure absolutely nothing could go wrong with you cutting my hair." Gillian grabs some of those scissors that the kids use to cut construction paper and comes after me like Edward Scissorhands (may he rest in peace). After a bit of initial resistance I let her give it a shot, because in the worst case scenario, I can just shave it all off like I did last time...

So Gillian grabs a chunk of hair, and cuts it in no way parallel to the side of my head, down to the scalp. I was a bit shocked, and wished that I had given the scissors to one of the 5 year old boys, because each and every boy in Kusi could have surely given me a better haircut than intern Gillian. So in great disappointment, not so much in anger, I took the scissors from Gillian, threw them aside and walked into my room to get my clippers.

The rest of the afternoon, I had a team of Scots taking turns with the clippers on the back of my head, trying to give me a decent trim and repair the damage done by Gillian. The Scots did a decent job, but I was surprised that they still left me a bit shaggy and uneven in parts. I don't know how you do that when cutting someone's hair with clippers. So after a bit of time in the mirror I managed to give myself the haircut seen in my pictures on flickr. Gillian's missing chunk was visible when I cut my hair, but I think it's grown inconspicuous by now..

Here's me and the butcher herself. She's on her way back to Scotland by now. Bye-bye Gillian. Her Zoolander is good, but needs a bit of work.

Back to the kids. The first night there I had more fun than I've had in a long time. They do choreographies, which are pretty much dancing and singing as a group to some different songs. I have no idea why the choreographies are so much fun, but they are. And every night it was a joy to get carried away with the boys and dance like a fool.

Our second night there, we had a bonfire where some of the kids told there testimonies. One of the standout testimonies was Jhonatan, who is 18 and has had a tough life. He grew up homeless, doing small jobs on the street to survive. He told how through Kusi he found a family, and a place for God in his life. Jhonatan wants to go to seminary and become a pastor. He really is an exceptional guy when you meet him because he's very responsible, sets a good example, and is a leader among his brothers. The last few days of the trip he spent a ton of time with the Scots trying to learn as much English as possible. His determination and quickness to learn was impressive.

The greater highlight of the bonfire night was Yosepe's testimony. Yosepe is the biological son of Angel and Rosa. He lived with his folks in Lima before they decided to go to Kusi. Yosepe was in high school and had lots of friends in Lima. He was determined to stay with his grandparents and not go out into the country with his parents. He said that he spoke with his father about the importance of staying together as a family, and decided to go to Kusi. He said it was the most rewarding thing he's done in his life because now instead of having one sister, he has a sister and 23 brothers. He has a passion for the life they lead in Kusi and has really accepted all the boys as brothers.

This is the thing that everyone who goes to Kusi immediately sees as something so special. The boys call Rosa and Angel, Mami and Papi. Yosepe and Alexia treat the boys as brothers, literally. The boys in Kusi are a real family, and being there to help them and spend time with them is something really special.

Other fun activities at Kusi:
Traditional Andean dances in costumes. Jhonatan is on the right and NOT in traditional wear.

Here's Yosepe and his girlfriend doing a different dance, which was quite impressive. A bunch of the boys are great dancers and can do crazy flips and stuff.


Sorry that these pictures stink - I cleaned the lense of my camera that night.

How generous were the Scots... They bought all the kids jerseys, either rugby or soccer.

AND as a spur of the moment thing, they bought them 6 bicicles in town. The kids went nuts.

With our last full day in Kusi, we traveled up to a lake near the mountain in the previous pictures. It was one of those trips where you had to stop yourself from taking a photo of every mountain and vista along the way.

On our way out, we hiked down this valley for about an hour.

And on the path there are these creepy looking trees that look like something evil out of The Lord of the Rings. The look like they're made of red tissue paper...
On our way back we stopped for some great shots of Kusi from above. Kusi is the cluster of white houses in the middle-left of this picture.

Here are some of the boys - Royer on the left, I think Raul in the middle, and I'm not sure of the boy on the right...

And last of all we say goodbye to interns who are leaving.

Goodbye intern Christy from Charlotte, NC. Christy is returning to teach 2nd grade.

Goodbye translator-extraordinaire and intern Billy Greenman from Michigan. Billy is returning to finish his senior year of school.

Goodbye adorable and dirty Tati.

Ok, I already said last of all, but here's a funny shot - this guy posed for this mugshot himself. He's in his snazzy church attire.

Goodbye Kusi - seeya in a week... ;-)

Stayed tuned for the next episode entitled, "Parasites!"

Update for Contributors

Some great news to the folks who have been contributing money to me and SUP by sending checks to my parents. With $270 of the $870 that I donated last week, the financial director refinished one of the offices in the SUP building that was previously sitting idle, unsuitable for rent. The very next day the office was rented out, and it's now generating $200 income per month for Scripture Union. That money will go to all the ministries, including the boys program.

Adventure Pics

Finally back in Lima, safe and sound, after a wonderful week at Kusi. But before I tell you about Kusi, I'm going to post the pics that go along with story I posted a week ago.

Here's a line of buses stopped in the middle of the night, probably at the first blockade.

Angry Scots, trapped on a bus.

Here's a shot of the town we were stuck in for about a day.

I think this is just before we set off walking. A group of buses moved to the main town square.

I wasn't crazy enough to take pictures along the walk past the strikers, but if I had been crazy, you would see a shot of a blockaded bridge, and another of several fires in the hills above us.

Instead we skip ahead to the nice people with the Gloria van that helped us for a short while.

Next is the cattle truck that Magic Johnson requisitioned for us.
Angry Scots in a cattle truck.

When the cattle truck finally got us to the hotel, we got to shower and rest. The next day we got to take in this view of Huaraz and the mountainside from the top of the hotel.

After two nights in the hotel, the strike was over, but in most places only a single lane was cleared for cars. In this photo of our trip from Huaraz to Kusi, you can see the rocks in the road through the windshield of the bus.
Finally we got to Kusi.

I'll explain all about what Kusi is, and tell you all about the folks there, but I'm going to need lots of time, so here's a shot of the mountains behind Kusi (I forget what they're called). But if you check out my flickr page, you'll see approximately one million pictures of them.