The Final Week

My sincerest apologies for not keeping up with this blog....

The final week was a whirlwind of events. The Millers arrived and began preparations for the big wedding on the 17th. Mike and Lupita were very busy hosting pre-wedding dinners, and finalizing all the details of the reception. I continued to work periodically with the social workers and at the medical post. I was also taking my evening Spanish class.

Wednesday, Wilder, the kids and I went and visited the residents of the Kinta Navidad, a secured apartment-like complex where handicapped people reside. We got to meet Marjorie, the 7 year old daughter of Maria. Marjorie has hydrocephalos and has shunts in her brain. She doesn't talk but is aware of people. We got her to smile when we gave her a nice soft blanket made by the Edgeley CYO youth group.

Bridger was busy throughout the week hanging out with Susanne.....a friend of Lupita's. They went swimming, shopping, to the University, etc....and of course out for ice cream several times! She spoiled the kids a lot!

The kids spent a lot of time on homework this week, as the reality of our near departure set in.
Friday was spent at Vesique Beach with the Millers, all the Gringos here for the wedding, and the Peruvian families and friends of the bride and groom. Brookston, Braeden, and Brinley climbed to the top of the "mountain" which overlooked the ocean. They had no troubles getting up, but were very nervous coming down! I held my breathe several times watching them maneuver their way down.

I made my first visit to the cave there. What an awesome experience! We walked through this cave, which is carved out by the erosion of the waves. Then we could see the awesome handiwork of God. The waves were incredible, and the kids had a lot of fun playing there. One little gal with us lost her shoes when a large wave came through. She thought she had her shoes high enough, but was proven wrong. We spent over 1/2 hour trying to recover her shoes....we could see them floating but the waves were too dangerous and too strong to fight through. Patiently the boys waited and formed a plan on how to get the shoes......and they did! She was all smiles!

Saturday was spent getting last minute items for the wedding.....hair accessories, shoes for Brinley and Bridger (theirs were trashed), and an outfit for Samuel (Wilder's brother) so he could attend the festivities with us.

The wedding was beautiful, as was the bride! OK, Mikey looked OK too! LOL. I was a gift-bearer and carried a large loaf of bread to the altar. Brinley was a flower-petal tosser at the end of the wedding. She looked so beautiful and grown up! I think she was actually the prettiest one there!!

So our first Peruvian-style wedding and reception was very interesting. After the wedding we all took taxis to the reception area. It was an outdoor tent about 3 stories tall. We didn't get served food until after 11pm....(wedding was at 7pm)....When they started serving the food, it was 5 courses. Unlike the receptions we are used to, there wasn't really a cash bar. Instead, they had a few bottles of beer at each table and everyone got one pisco sour----the official Peruvian drink. Around 1:30am or so, they had what's known as Hora Loca.....or "Crazy Hour".
Three persons on stilts, and 3 large 2-story puppets arrived for the dance. There were also some regular "jesters" who brought in hundreds of long balloons. So the tradition is for everyone to get on the dance floor and jump up and down acting "crazy" hitting each other with the balloons, and having fun. It was wild!

The kids had so much fun. Staying true to Peruvian tradition, we left the reception at 4:30am (which is actually early!).
Sunday slipped away rapidly due to sleeping in late and packing up our stuff. It was emotional. Brookston was having the hardest time with saying his good-byes.....and he was the one who only wanted to stay for 2 weeks! Mercedes and family were very sad too. In the evening, they had a little "dance" in the house for us as a going-away event. The boys showed off their dancing skills, and Brookston showed Tony's girlfriend Laura how to do the 2-step complete with the twists and turns! They were all amazed!! (I was too...he's actually good!).

Monday morning went by like a blink of an eye. We finished packing, rushed back to eat one last lunch with our family, and then rushed to the parroquia to say our good-byes to everyone there. It was the usual Gringo-farewell, plus Fr. Jack, Sr. Peggy and Enrique were with us....many well-wishers showed up to see us off. It's always very hard to leave, and especially this year because the relationships grew so much stronger.....plus the kids were emotional too, which didn't help me any!

The travel back to Lima down the coast of the Pan-American Highway was uneventful....long....but uneventful, thank goodness!!
When we got settled in at our hotel, we headed across the street for scrumptious pizza! We had a nice time talking with Fr. Jack and Sr. Peggy. Exhausted, we all went to bed early, around 11pm.

I awoke in the middle of the night to a noise. Then I felt the bed start shaking and "jumping". I thought, "Oh my God, it's an Earthquake!" And yes, it truly was! I jumped out of bed immediately, hollering at the kids over the loud sound of the quake......"Get up! Get up! We have to get out of here! Come ON! LET"S GO!! It's an earthquake!".........nobody moved or got up, so I rushed out the door into the hallway to see if anyone was rushing out of the hotel. All was quiet. The night watchman said, "It's just a small one." What!? I mean really......stuff fell off the night stands, pictures were hanging crooked, and I was completely nausious from being so off-balance. But I crawled back into bed and layed there awake for the rest of the night, waiting for the next shake which thankfully never came.

In the morning, we heard that the epi-center wasn't too far away and it was a 4.0. So hats off to all of you who live in earthquake states! One more reason to stay put here in the Midwest!!

Tuesday was spent at the Inca Market getting last minute souveniers.....one last trip to the pizzaria across the street, and off to the airport. All went well, flights were great, and we even made the "marathon" run in Huston. We had 1 hour and 33 minutes to get off our plane, go through immigration, then collect all of our luggage, go through customs, re-check our luggage, go through the whole security check point, and RUN...literally to our gate, which was 3 TERMINALS away! We returned to Minneapolis without incident at 10:30am on Wednesday, April 21st, and Jason was waiting for us at the baggage claim!!!!!

We made a quick trip down to Rochester to see my sister and family and say good-bye to them, as they are moving to Florida......Home and in our own beds Thursday night.....Ahhhhhhh......, and Friday of course unpacking and laundry.

So as we close this chapter of our adventure, we want to say "thank you" to everyone who kept us in their prayers and kept in touch with us while we were away...

God Bless you all,
Collette, Brookston, Braeden, Brinley, and Bridger Mathern