Chincha, Peru - Sunday Morning

The stark contrasts of this country are bombarding our team at every turn, and giving us incredible perspectives on life in a third world country.  Yesterday was our first work day, and we spent our time prepping adobe walls for plaster, installing plastic conduit for electrical wiring, sealing the split bamboo ceiling panels, and getting to know our surroundings and new Peruvian friends.

The house we are currently working on belongs to a grandmother, Matilda.  Her home fell down and she is currently living in a straw ´´estera´´ with her son and grandsons.  This is a unique situation, as the mother of these boys abandoned the family and left Grandma Matilda to care for them.  Her son's house fell down as well, so this family is literally completely with a home of their own, except the straw shelter they share.

Our hope is to get their home close to completion before we leave.  We have a great group of Peruvian guys to work with ... Raul, Rafa, Lucho and Felix ... along with Jo-el ... our translator.  This picture is Grandma Matilda sharing an afternoon coffee break!















The name of the district of Chincha where we are working is called Grocio Prado.  As Gordy led us on a tour of this area Friday afternoon, we also met another grandma named Maria Antonia.  Actually, she is a great-grandmother whose home also fell down.  Her daughters, grandchildren and great grandchildren are living in a home that some previous teams helped build, but Maria lives in a straw house attached to the adobe home.  As we talked with her, she pleaded for us to help by building a small home for her.  Gordy and Dave talked it over and decided that we would try a new and quicker building system with steel studs, drywall and OSB and work hard to get a home for Grandma Maria well on the way to completion.

This is Grandma Maria Antonia standing by her granddaughter´s house with 3 of her great grandchildren.

As far as the team itself ... a few of us are experiencing some "travelers' revenge" ... and trying to stay pretty close to a bathroom.  Please pray that this "passes" quickly .. but more importantly,  stops!!  We want to be at full strength when we start our week of work on Monday.

Our church service will be at 5:00 this afternoon, so we're taking a leisurely morning of going to the market and the beach ... and getting some much needed rest ... oh, did I mention that there was an all-night party at our hostel last night with 100 decibel music!  Ear plugs were not much help.

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers.  We're praying for the Honduras team with you!