Peru, Ride for the kids

The next day started with us having to do final interviews with the camera crew. They wanted us to share what the experience was like and how being at the orphanage visit effected us. We rode to the town square to do the filming.

Once finished, Flavio took the camera crew to the airport several miles away. We would meet up with Flavio later.

Myself, Neale and Ross headed back over to the orphanage to visit for a while before we had to get on the road.

When we got there things were pretty quiet. But the calm didn't last long. As I was walking into the dining area there was a commotion outside just behind me. Michael had started to have a seizure and fell down. I had never before seen a person have a seizure, I was kind of freaked. Michael is seriously handicapped and also has epilepsy. What was amazing to me was how calm everyone stayed. Even the little kids were fine, I guess they had seen it enough and it didn't bother them any more. There is no medical staff or a doctor or anything, they just deal with these type of things as best they can.
ABout twenty minutes later, Michel was up and walking around as if nothing had happened. Amazing. To me anyway.

after the bit of excitement we went to the dining area and had some coffee and cookies as we talked to sister, Rosa and some of the other staff members. These people are awesome, they are doing such great things and have been doing so for years.

After some great conversation and more playing with the kids it was time to go.

Leaving was bitter sweet. I really like being at the orphanage and hanging out with the kids and seeing them smile and have fun. But on the other hand, and more importantly, I really really missed my wife and my kids. This trip felt like it lasted for a month. I have been on trips that lasted longer than this but for some reason this trip just felt long. So I was ready to get home and see my family.

We jumped on the bikes and began our ride to meet Flavio. Neale had done some traveling math guesstimations and determined that we would be meeting Flavio at a certain spot on the road at 3:00pm. In order to get there on time we needed to get going.

The ride to the orphanage took seven days and we had only two and a half days to get back, so we had to get with it. No sight seeing and no detours. We didn't ride through the desert this time. Well, its all desert, but we didn't go off into the sand, we stayed on the asphalt all the way.

It was very dry and I was still drinking about five liters of water each day.

Our stops for lunch were short and breaks were quick.

We made it back to Lima safe and sound. We had diner at the hotel that night and we were already reviewing pictures and reflecting on the journey we had just been on.

We all made it back home safely.

I have been home for a few weeks now and I think about this trip every day at some point. What a great experience. I cant wait to do it again at some point.

Ya know, I have often prayed that God would allow me to use my talents as a driver/instructor to do some good and glorify him in some way. But how in the world could a driving instructor use his skills to glorify God? Well, this trip, for me was God showing me how he could use me. This trip wasn't about me and yet I had to use every bit of skill I had as a motorcycle rider to get to this orphanage. Some of the sections of desert we rode were so incredibly hard while others were just down right beautiful. The things I saw on this trip and the people I met, have forever changed my life.
Now, I'm not one of these people that now thinks I need to live in a box. See, sometimes I've seen or heard where people will take trips to third world countries and come back home, sell everything, live in a cardboard box and give all their money to charity. Well, okay, whatever. But for me that's not the effect it had. For me it was more like a "but for the grace of God, there go I" moment. I came away with a better appreciation for where God has put me on this planet. I think its okay to HAVE things and I don't think we need to give up all our nice stuff because other people in the world don't have the same things. I have no problem with someone being successful and becoming very wealthy. And I understand that some will never know what that feels like. But I also feel that its very important for those that are successful to give the thanks and the glory to God. The Bible puts it like this. In Luke 12:48 it says: "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." See, I think that if we are fortunate to have, then we are required to help.

In summary, this was one of the best trips I have ever been on in my life. I pray that God will continue to use me in whatever manner that He can.

How will you use the talents God has given you, to bring glory to Him?

We arrived at the orphanage around noon. Sister wanted us to come in around noon so that we could join them for lunch after church.
When we first arrived we had to cross a rather rustic bridge to cross a creek. I later learned that this bridge was a relatively new addition to the orphanage. Quite some time ago they had a bridge that was destroyed, during the earthquake maybe, don't really remember. Regardless, what struck me was to hear that during the time that the bridge was out, the kids that attended the public school would have to walk about a half mile up creek, out of the way, to get to the next bridge so they could get to school. These kids did this every day to and from school. Immediately more of the things we take for granted hit me. I mean, my kids would freak if I told them they were going to have to walk to school. Let alone that the walk was going to be through fields along a creek and then through town. Heck, they don't even like to take the bus!

When we finally pulled up to the building and parked the bikes, the kids ran out from the dining area. I still had not yet finished looking at the landscape around the facility and here come these precious kids. When I thought of the orphanage I wasn't thinking happy, fun, exciting kids, but that's exactly what they were. I didn't really know how to react at first. I had never done anything like this nor been in an environment like this. What do I say? How do I behave? I don't even speak their language so how would I communicate. What should I do? It was a bit overwhelming. And then it hit me, just be yourself and let God do the work. So a deep breath, relax and here we go.

Right away the kids wanted to play with the motorcycles. They were fascinated by these big BMW bikes. They have a lot of motorcycles and mopeds around the area, but nothing as nice and new and big as the BMW R1200GS and F800GS. I bet I picked up thirty if not forty kids that day, putting them on the bikes.

I peeled myself away for a minute so that I could take off my riding gear and put on clothes a bit more comfortable for playing and relaxing. Sister was kind enough to allow me to use her personal facilities to change. Sister had just recently had her own quarters build and it was really nice, and well deserved. And when I say "really nice" it means that it had her own shower and toilet and bed. As well as a study where she could work. It wasn't like she had a palace, but in comparison, it may as well have been.

When I returned it was time to eat. For right now it was just the staff at the orphanage and us that was eating.
Its an awesome system that sister has developed there. All the kids help the younger kids. So for example, the eldest kids are the ones that helped prepare and serve the meal. The next age group down would watch over the younger kids and those younger ones would watch over he youngest of them. It seemed to work very well.

For lunch we were having chicken, rice, vegetables, salad and rolls. This was a heck of a meal and quite a treat. All the food was grown or raised right there at the orphanage. I think this was the first time I had eaten at the same place where the chicken was raised, killed and prepared. This may not be new to some, but it was certainly new to me.

Over lunch we had some "get acquainted" conversation. Sister was originally from Canada and has been here at the orphanage for over forty years. Sister Loretta has cared for over three hundred kids since she has been at the orphanage and shes still going strong today. To learn more about the history of the orphanage as well as sister the easiest thing to do is go to Wellspring International Outreach
Neal has done a good job of putting information there. Also, Neal had an article out that talks a lot about his personal journey as to how he came to be a part of the orphanage and start Welspring. You can find the article here CHF Monthly

After finishing lunch I went outside to see the kids, they were out in the field that they commonly use as a soccer field. They didnt have much in the way of things to play with. There was a tattered soccer ball, an even worse shape basketball, a couple of old big truck tires and that was pretty much it. In another part of the orphanage there was a swing set and a couple other things, but I never saw them play on those.
I decided to try my hand at soccer, they killed me lol. Within a half hour I found myself sitting in one of the old tires that was laying on its side, gasping for air as the kids laughed at me. This was fantastic. It was great to see these children so happy, in spite of the things they don't have.
As I was relaxing, or as I like to say, saving myself from a heart attack, I noticed one of the littlest kids just sitting by herself with one of the older boys watching her from a nearby distance. I walked over to her, she was, as I found out, just two years old. Her name was Angelina. I sat and started to talk to her as well as talk to the young man that was watching her. (his name escapes me at the moment, he was thirteen). As we talked, a few more of the younger kids came around and for a long time we played with nothing but sticks and rocks. It was so peaceful. We couldn't communicate very well because of the language barrier, but we managed to built little stick houses and tents and just had fun, without really saying a word. So different than my world at home.

sidebar - As the kids and I were playing, I heard a motorcycle start so I look up and I see Ross mount his F800 and ride off. I knew he said his stomach wasn't feeling well so I thought maybe he went back to our hotel to get some medicine or something. ok.

So back to playing it was. Once we were all tired, Neale took me on a tour of the facility.

Let me just say, ya know when you sit at home and you see the infomercial about the kids that need your help? Well here I was smack dab in the middle of one of those infomercials. The dining area where we had lunch was nice. (and again, please remember that nice is a relative term)
The living quarters for the boys consisted of about twelve rooms, all connected. Each room held six boys. there were thee sets of bunk beds and each of them had a metal locker to keep their things in. Each had put some of their own personalities on the wall by their bed by way of magazine pictures or some even did their own graffiti. The floors were concrete. The roof was made of tin an had holes in numerous places. Along the edge of the roof, where the wall and the roof met, the boys had stuffed old socks and t shirts in the gap to keep the wind and sand out. They don't get much rain so that's not a big issue, but the wind blows the sand around and it comes through the cracks just like rain would.

Most of the boys rooms that I saw were relatively clean and neat (they are still boys so I wasn't expecting much in the way of neatness :-) but they did pretty good)

Next I went to see the girls rooms. Same sleeping arrangements with respects to the quantity per room and bunk beds. The rooms themselves are a bit different structurally in that they seem to be a bit more solid with no holes in the walls or roof. They did have a concrete floor like the boys, and let me just say, girls are messy :-)

The helpers that lived at the orphanage also stayed in the same type of rooms that the girls did.

The girls and boys sleeping quarters were on opposite sides of the grounds so they also had seperate bathroom and showering facilities. The bathrooms were very much like what you may see at a camp ground or something like that. All tile, rows of showere and rows of toilets.

For doing their laundry they had an outside patio area next to the water spring that they had running across the farm. They used the water from this spring for everything from laundry to farming. For the laundry they would fill a big tub with the water and put soap in it, then they would rinse in the spring and hang the clothes on the line.

As we made our way to the farm area they had all kinds of animals, pigs, geese, chickens, turkeys, hamsters, rabbits, birds, cows and goats all of which would either produce food or become food. The facilities for keeping the animals was pretty rough. I mean, I didn't even want to touch some of these animals let alone consider the fact that's where diner was coming from.

They had some crops as well. I'm not sure what all they had growing because I didn't ask and I have no clue what various vegetation looks like so I cannot speak specifically to what they were growing.

They had a Chapel on site but it was not open while we took out unguided tour and I never asked for keys. It was a nice looking structure from the outside.

As we were coming back around to the dining area where we started, we passed the TV room which had one TV in it. The kids would lay in the floor (concrete) and there were some pillows around for them today their heads on. Believe it or not, they also had two desktop computers as well as wireless internet! Strange to me, but they had it. The two computers could only be used at certain times.

When we got back around to the dining area Neale and I sat down with sister and a had some coffee and just talked for a bit. Neale gave sister the check that we brought for her. The timing could not have been more perfect for her. Sister said she was down to her last 50 soles, that's about $13US. I cant even imagine the stress of knowing I had a facility like this to run and all these mouths to feed and all I had was $15! So when sister got the $10k check it was a huge blessing and she was already talking about the things she needed to do with the money. Like the hot water system that they have (solar based) needs to be replaced. It has broken several times and has had many holes in the piping repaired. The engineer that came out to look at the system last time told sister that there was no more repairing the system. If it were to mess up again, they would be out of hot water.
So the money will certainly be put to good and necessary use.

So it was time for us to leave. As we got back on our bikes, the kids all gathered around to wave good bye. We would see them in the morning before we leave to go out of town.

Getting back to the hotel

As we return to the hotel, I'm starting to wonder about Ross. Ross never returned to the orphanage.

When I get back to the room, Ross is laying in his bed asleep. I didn't want to wake him because I knew he wasn't feeling well. But then I noticed that there was a note on our sink tat said "do not use, broken". Then a lady came upstairs and told us we were having to switch rooms due to a plumbing issue with he sink. So Neale and I moved our stuff to another room trying to let Ross sleep til the last minute. We finally had to wake Ross up and when we did, wow! DUDE was in bad shape.

Ross could barely stand up straight. He said he was having muscle cramps in his legs as well as his stomach. He had a fever and he said he had thrown up a few times and has diarrhea. This is not good.

Ross went back to bed in the new room. Neale and I were going to grab a bite to eat and I asked Ross if he wanted something, like maybe some fish or spaghetti lol. His reply was, "I'd like a Snicker's candy bar if you can find one". lol, Ok "I'll see what I can do"

Dinner that night was awesome and I did manage to find a Snickers bar for Ross.