PHOTOS!

I have finally been able to upload some pictures from the summer so far. Enjoy...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2032969&id=67600728&l=b68d891aa0

Our First Team!

After a crazy trip to Lima that included missing our bus, our first team for Arizona arrived in Trujillo last week. It has been a great week with the team of 11 from Journey Church and it has been very encouraging to be hosting a team again. We have spent most of our time at the construction site working on the orphanage and spending time with the kids. We also made a very eye-opening trip to the garbage dump. The team I am hosting are all adults and it is incredible to hear how much they are learning from their time here.
I feel very much at home here and am loving my family of interns I am working with here. It has been awesome to reconnect with the locals and I have been having a great time hanging out with them. I just got the news as well that I will be heading to the jungle with the next team which I am very excited to finally see here in Peru.

Ecuador to Peru!

I am now back in Trujillo, Peru which feels again just like coming back home.  We are staying at the guest house 'Helping Hands', which is where I stayed last year.  The first teams come this week and we are all very anxious to meet them and get going on some projects, but have really enjoyed our time to train and get to know each other.

My last week in Ecuador I had the chance to attend the Ecuador vs. Argentina game which was part of the World Cup qualifications.  It was an incredible time minus the cold rain, but I would do it all over again if I could.  Sporting events here are a lot more intense than back home with people shooting off fireworks, throwing glass bottles at the players and pulling a flag over the fans that covers a quarter of the stands.  

Well I need to run now to play some futbol (soccer) with the locals, but I will write again soon.  Please continue to pray for all of us down here!

The Amazing Race!

We hit the ground running when we landed in Quito! Immediately when we got here we started the amazing race. It was four days of running all over Ecuador in teams of three including the interns and our Peruvian friends from the band Corban. We found ourselves taking buses, taxis, Chivas, motorcycles, and any means possible to reach our next clue. The clues took us up the Bacilica, running through the jungle, jumping off bridges, crossing 'Indian Jones' bridges, dancing folk dances, shaved my head, shot blow guns, and many other exciting adventures. Coming back to Quito where there were warm showers and real beds was all we wanted by the end.
Saturday my friends in Corban forgot some equipment for their show in the Jungle village of El Carmen, so another intern and I grabbed a bus and ran out to the show. It was a ton of fun and I'm very excited for them to come to the US. I hope all of you can catch them on their tour!
We have been doing some great training and are planning to head to Peru on Wednesday night. Pray for us as we get ready for a big summer and are looking forward to all it holds for us....