Can it really be Sunday already? We've been here a week, and it seems like a blink and time is gone. The kids are learning SO much....they are picking up on Spanish, and even doing a little arguing in Spanish with the neighborhood kids. Comical to watch and listen to!
The volleyball net is a huge hit, and kids are around all the time now...Brinley played literally all day yesterday! She even skipped going downtown with us......
The roosters, dogs, and squeek horns are really getting on my nerves! No sleep last night. A few blocks away, a neighborhood is having an anniversary party of the opening of their neighborhood.......loud music all night, heard in our house like it was outside our door. They have fireworks here that are hand made, and there are no laws limiting the amount of dynomite. I seriously jumped out of bed twice last night when they went off....thought we were being bombed.
We have several long-term volunteers here.....Luke and his wife have been here 1 month and are staying for 5......he is from Lidgerwood, ND! There are others from Indiana, Washington, and several universities....they all live with families as well. A family with 4 kids our age arrived for a couple of days....they have been in Peru for a year....Can't imagine!!! It just amazes me how people are so willing to give up their time and talents to help out down here.....everyone has their own projects that they are working on.......
The boys will be getting some paint and re-painting the BB court lines....this is their special project they want to do this week....Hmmmm...wonder why?? LOL
Bridger has been a little naughty.....trying to "scare" the lying, sleeping dogs on the street. He makes a fast step towards them, trying to scare them.....when we were in the barrios yesterday, he did this and a dog nearly attacked us. Maybe a lesson learned? He turned white as a ghost and then he got a very verbal lashing from me! He also likes to stick his head out the window and crow at the roosters to get them riled up.......gonna choke that kid!
Despite all my efforts to control what the kids eat, or drink, they still are "pressured" by their peers....Brinley had something us gringos call "liquid typhoid".....I freaked out, of course. She said she only had a bite or two....so far so good, no symptoms of illness. I guess they will learn the first time they get deathly sick....
We are SO thankful that our house mom Mercedes takes such good care of us! We are served meals restaurant style, she does all the cleaning of our bathroom and bedroom floors. She does all of our laundry by hand, which is a HUGE chore! The kids wear their clothes until they are almost crawling which saves on the amount of laundry, but not so much the time.......
I would say we are all about to start growing feathers....chicken, chicken, chicken! Chix n rice, chix n potatoes, chix n potato salad, UGH! All those carbs rev Bridger up, and make me very tired!!! Not a good combination. The food is VERY good, however it's very repetitive. Today we are having lunch at Mario Bazaan's family. Mario lived with us for about 3-4 months one year. He is living in Chicago with his son Delton who is also a good friend of ours.
Soccer tournaments starting, and the kids are already sunscreened up and off to watch...gives me a little quiet time....well, as quiet as it gets, I guess :-)
Yesterday the boys and I went downtown to the warf, Plaza, with Miguel.....so many nice changes since I was here last. We saw the boats//ships, and had a nice time walking around downtown......we found a pastry shop and wanted to get some pastries, but thank God Bridger reminded me we still needed 4 soles to get back home!!! Maybe next time.
The biggest thing that sticks out in my mind is a comment from Brinley and Bridger....."Mom, when do we get to see the poor kids?" I said, "REALLY? Look around!" They told me, "these kids aren't poor....they are HAPPY!" What a PROFOUND view from a 7 and 10 year old who have "everything." We had a long converstation about how really, we are the ones who are poor, because we cannot find happiness...we always want more, we always want the 'best'.....my kids found happiness in using a string for a VB net! Brookston has been smiling more than I've ever seen him...he usually just mopes around with lowered shoulders. Now, he's off and making a difference.......I AM SOOOOO PROUD OF THESE KIDS!!!!
Yesterday, without discussing it with me, Brookston gave his nice pair of BB shoes away.....he decided that his "old" ones that he wears daily here were good enough, and Miguel needed them more than he did......OK---gotta admit I was upset for about 1 second, then I cried.
Gotta go.....boys said they lost Bridger.....UGH!!
More later
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
03/05/2010 by Breaeden Mathern
I am having alot of fun there is this one lil kid who has shoes that squeak when he walks it gets very annoying!!!! today at 2 my mom Bridger and I are going to give alot of stuff away to poor kids and familes. then tonight they have stations of the cross where they dress up and act everything out. Then going to the los amigos band and practice with them. The girls are muy bonita some of them. Im getting good at volleyball i played that all morning with some girls and guys. They have fireworks here they make them by hand and one just went of about 10 seconds ago ha. Im gunna get my hair cut tonight at 9 and will be on facebook for awhile. I have to take cold showers everyday it SUCKS!!!!
i will post more later
BRAEDEN MATHERN
i will post more later
BRAEDEN MATHERN
March 5th
Well, the kids are actually acclamating better than I thought. Yesterday they played volleyball with the neighborhood kids, using a tree branch for a post, and a string as the net. The balls here are very worn out, flat, and they hurt when you use them. Today I promised Brookston and Braeden that they can go downtown with Wilder and get some new balls for the neighborhood kids to use. The boys will also build some shelves in their room to put their clothes on. Their room is literally 8x12 with a bunk bed......no place for suitcases or storage.
Yesterday the kids finished packing the bags for the school kids.....nearly 400 total! They ran out of notebooks, rulers, pens and erasers.....so had to quit. Bridger was using the wheelbarrow to haul the bags to the library for storage....it was very cute!
I had a meeting with their tutor who will be helping with their American homework when I am at work, and teaching Spanish lessons.....The kids really liked Liz and will do well with her.
I made several home visits to the people who will not be able to travel to the medical post when then LAMA team arrives. We have a list of those who need home visits from the doctors. I will be doing visits all day today again. I have an interpreter named Charro....she is awesome!
I also had a meeting yesterday regarding the "Home in a box" project. I will be taking this project on for Los Amigos. It was awesome seeing the families who received a box from the US. I recognized a lot of items from St. Rose Care Center in LaMoure, who sent down 9 boxes.
Today will be very busy, and tonight we will attend stations of the cross in another neighborhood. Each week on Fridays they have stations in a different neighborhood, and the rumor is the people dress up and act out the stations in each place......looking forward to it! The kids will then begin practice with the choir group, who have asked them to join them while they are here.......will be very interesting!!
More later,
Collette
Yesterday the kids finished packing the bags for the school kids.....nearly 400 total! They ran out of notebooks, rulers, pens and erasers.....so had to quit. Bridger was using the wheelbarrow to haul the bags to the library for storage....it was very cute!
I had a meeting with their tutor who will be helping with their American homework when I am at work, and teaching Spanish lessons.....The kids really liked Liz and will do well with her.
I made several home visits to the people who will not be able to travel to the medical post when then LAMA team arrives. We have a list of those who need home visits from the doctors. I will be doing visits all day today again. I have an interpreter named Charro....she is awesome!
I also had a meeting yesterday regarding the "Home in a box" project. I will be taking this project on for Los Amigos. It was awesome seeing the families who received a box from the US. I recognized a lot of items from St. Rose Care Center in LaMoure, who sent down 9 boxes.
Today will be very busy, and tonight we will attend stations of the cross in another neighborhood. Each week on Fridays they have stations in a different neighborhood, and the rumor is the people dress up and act out the stations in each place......looking forward to it! The kids will then begin practice with the choir group, who have asked them to join them while they are here.......will be very interesting!!
More later,
Collette
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
SPANISH CLASS
como estas
we arived at the miniapolis airport only to find out our plane was cancled. 1, 1/2 hours later we got it rerouted it left in a 1/2 hour and we had to clear security and bagage yet, we were literly running down the turminal to catch our flight. once in dallas Texas we rode a skylink (a railrode type thing) we got on our plane and a baby cryed the whole way. once in miami we ate and micdonald, then we had a 2 hour lay over so we went shopping and lost brinly and bridger mom was mad that they ran off. then our flight was delyade due to a big rain storm in miami, then it was delayed again due to the earthquack in chily and the tsunami in the pacific ocean. we flew first class so that was cool. when we arived in lima peru we ran to imigration to beat the long lines then stood in line for 45 minutes trying to get our bags, then we had to go to customes and ofcourse mom hit the button and it turned red so there we were geting our bags checked for bombs again evidentaly you cant have an ipod straped to two water bottles. then willy and hector finnaly picked us up and took us to our hotel room at 3 in da morning.
It was a long day
HI to every one
hast luago
we arived at the miniapolis airport only to find out our plane was cancled. 1, 1/2 hours later we got it rerouted it left in a 1/2 hour and we had to clear security and bagage yet, we were literly running down the turminal to catch our flight. once in dallas Texas we rode a skylink (a railrode type thing) we got on our plane and a baby cryed the whole way. once in miami we ate and micdonald, then we had a 2 hour lay over so we went shopping and lost brinly and bridger mom was mad that they ran off. then our flight was delyade due to a big rain storm in miami, then it was delayed again due to the earthquack in chily and the tsunami in the pacific ocean. we flew first class so that was cool. when we arived in lima peru we ran to imigration to beat the long lines then stood in line for 45 minutes trying to get our bags, then we had to go to customes and ofcourse mom hit the button and it turned red so there we were geting our bags checked for bombs again evidentaly you cant have an ipod straped to two water bottles. then willy and hector finnaly picked us up and took us to our hotel room at 3 in da morning.
It was a long day
HI to every one
hast luago
Monday, March 1, 2010
Tour of downtown, History
Interesting day today. We started out downtown Lima at the Museum of Inquision. Hmmmmm. All about the torture chambers. They had wax dummies for the poor souls being tortured. OK....gotta admit, it was very disturbing, but the kids were very engrossed! The English guide was ill today, so we had the tour in Spanish, but needless to say, it was quite explainatory! Brookston and Braeden took pictures and notes and will do a report on it for their class.
Then we went off to the San Franciso Cathedral. We learned a lot about the Franciscan brothers from Italy who came over.......they had catacombs under the church, with about 25,000 people's bones laying in crypts down there. I had been there 2x before, but the kids were quite shocked. I was actually surprised at how much they listened to the guide, and asked questions! Too bad they wouldn't let us take ANY pictures in there though. It was pretty amazing....we didn't get to go in the cathedral though, as it was closed. We got pictures of it from the outside, though.
We saw the government palace where president Alan Garcia resides. Boys were like, "Mom--these guys are armed and ready to kill".....talking about the security surrounding the palace.....
SO much history here! We then went and bought Bridger his set of professional bongos, complete with a carrying case. He still has a smile on his face! Then, we looked all over downtown Lima for an instrument called a Ocarina, made of bamboo. Both Brin and Braeden wanted one yesterday, but only one where we were, so decided to wait.....long story short, we ended up going all the way across town back to the Inca Market to purchase the one we originally saw......the musician said they are rare, and it appears that it's the only one in the city!!
SO-----I now have one very sad girl. I have put out an APB for one in Chimbote......I sure hope someone finds one for her!!!!! As for Brookston, he will play the guitar, and I will play some sort of marraccas (sp?)......hope to have a whole band soon!
Boys are playing pool upstairs, Willy and I are watching Bridger get a bongo lesson from a hotel guest.....More later!
PS---I am REALLY thinking I've had enough 1:4 time with my kids!!!!!!!!
Then we went off to the San Franciso Cathedral. We learned a lot about the Franciscan brothers from Italy who came over.......they had catacombs under the church, with about 25,000 people's bones laying in crypts down there. I had been there 2x before, but the kids were quite shocked. I was actually surprised at how much they listened to the guide, and asked questions! Too bad they wouldn't let us take ANY pictures in there though. It was pretty amazing....we didn't get to go in the cathedral though, as it was closed. We got pictures of it from the outside, though.
We saw the government palace where president Alan Garcia resides. Boys were like, "Mom--these guys are armed and ready to kill".....talking about the security surrounding the palace.....
SO much history here! We then went and bought Bridger his set of professional bongos, complete with a carrying case. He still has a smile on his face! Then, we looked all over downtown Lima for an instrument called a Ocarina, made of bamboo. Both Brin and Braeden wanted one yesterday, but only one where we were, so decided to wait.....long story short, we ended up going all the way across town back to the Inca Market to purchase the one we originally saw......the musician said they are rare, and it appears that it's the only one in the city!!
SO-----I now have one very sad girl. I have put out an APB for one in Chimbote......I sure hope someone finds one for her!!!!! As for Brookston, he will play the guitar, and I will play some sort of marraccas (sp?)......hope to have a whole band soon!
Boys are playing pool upstairs, Willy and I are watching Bridger get a bongo lesson from a hotel guest.....More later!
PS---I am REALLY thinking I've had enough 1:4 time with my kids!!!!!!!!
First days of trip
WOW---after all the "hoop-la" getting here, we are finally here! Saturday was a plethra of trials. Morning started at 4am, and at 4:30, just 15 min. before leaving for the airport, Jason came in and said he had locked the keys in the pick up! No way, I thought....all our luggage is in the back, so this won't be so bad. We took 2 cars to the airport, thanks to Ann and Dick Miller. It was a VERY quick "goodbye" on the curb, and off Jason and Dick went......
So we are standing in line to check in, and find out that our flight had been cancelled d/t the storm on the East coast. We stood there from 5:15am to 6:30 until they found a re-route for us. I told them if they couldn't muster us up a miracle, then all 5 of us and our 17 bags would be going home with them until we could leave!! I saw the panic in their eyes, and they worked faster! So at 6:30, they got us all re-routed.....we did a marathon........checked bags, passed through security, and sprinted to our gate....for a plane that left at 7am!!! We did NOT expect our baggage to follow us, but luckily it made it!! THANK GOD!!
So off to Dallas TX, then over to Miami........and just when I thought we were "in the clear," a storm hits Miami, earthquake in Chile, tsunami in the Pacific.........UGH!!!!!! Plane was delayed 3 different times......Long story shorter, we flew FIRST CLASS from Miami to Lima, and arrived at 1:30am....only 3 hours late! Step 1---pass immigration. Step 2----collect bags. Step 3---clear customs (OF COURSE I hit the button and it was red, so all our luggage had to be scanned, delaying us yet another 45 minutes!) FINALLY, we are "out" and met Wilder and Hector, who took us to our hotel. Arrived at 3am, had a few Crown Royals, (duty free :-)) and at 4am tried to sleep.....up at 7, ready to go!!
We toured Barranco by foot, then by van.....Bridger had his first experience bartering with a man for a cross necklace. Grandpa Jimmy Joe's order.....he would be SO proud! Bridger said he could only spend $3 US on one so he could have more money for other things!! LOL.
Then we went to Larcomar, a very Americanized plaza on the cliff overlooking the ocean. Kids had a great time playing video games there! 2 tokens for 1 sol, so about 15 cents per token!!
Back to hotel for quick nap, and off to the water park for a very spectacular light show.
Supper across street from hotel....PIZZA TO DIE FOR!!!!
Today, we will tour the Palace, Cathedrals, Catacombs, etc........Brin is very excited to see Francisco Pizzaro's bones in the one cathedral! She's been studying!!
So the kids are doing very well......food has not been a problem this far. They have not asked for too many things to purchase, so mostly just food! They are getting used to not throwing the toilet paper in the toilet, but it's hard!
Will blog again in a few days.....
Love to all,
Collette
So we are standing in line to check in, and find out that our flight had been cancelled d/t the storm on the East coast. We stood there from 5:15am to 6:30 until they found a re-route for us. I told them if they couldn't muster us up a miracle, then all 5 of us and our 17 bags would be going home with them until we could leave!! I saw the panic in their eyes, and they worked faster! So at 6:30, they got us all re-routed.....we did a marathon........checked bags, passed through security, and sprinted to our gate....for a plane that left at 7am!!! We did NOT expect our baggage to follow us, but luckily it made it!! THANK GOD!!
So off to Dallas TX, then over to Miami........and just when I thought we were "in the clear," a storm hits Miami, earthquake in Chile, tsunami in the Pacific.........UGH!!!!!! Plane was delayed 3 different times......Long story shorter, we flew FIRST CLASS from Miami to Lima, and arrived at 1:30am....only 3 hours late! Step 1---pass immigration. Step 2----collect bags. Step 3---clear customs (OF COURSE I hit the button and it was red, so all our luggage had to be scanned, delaying us yet another 45 minutes!) FINALLY, we are "out" and met Wilder and Hector, who took us to our hotel. Arrived at 3am, had a few Crown Royals, (duty free :-)) and at 4am tried to sleep.....up at 7, ready to go!!
We toured Barranco by foot, then by van.....Bridger had his first experience bartering with a man for a cross necklace. Grandpa Jimmy Joe's order.....he would be SO proud! Bridger said he could only spend $3 US on one so he could have more money for other things!! LOL.
Then we went to Larcomar, a very Americanized plaza on the cliff overlooking the ocean. Kids had a great time playing video games there! 2 tokens for 1 sol, so about 15 cents per token!!
Back to hotel for quick nap, and off to the water park for a very spectacular light show.
Supper across street from hotel....PIZZA TO DIE FOR!!!!
Today, we will tour the Palace, Cathedrals, Catacombs, etc........Brin is very excited to see Francisco Pizzaro's bones in the one cathedral! She's been studying!!
So the kids are doing very well......food has not been a problem this far. They have not asked for too many things to purchase, so mostly just food! They are getting used to not throwing the toilet paper in the toilet, but it's hard!
Will blog again in a few days.....
Love to all,
Collette
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