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Team Report 5

Well, it has been a while since I last updated you on what team Peru are up to!

We finished our project in Arequipa and had a big party to celebrate and say thank you to the church for all they had done for us. We had relay games with bricks and worksite equipment, and a quiz hosted by Jamie and Stephanie. We had also prepared a drama of our time at the church and summed up our stay in 10mins or so. It was very humorous and the church loved it! It was heart-warming to see how close we had all come to the church and how sad it was to leave. And it was especially hard to say goodbye to Fermin, and as he waved us off at the bus station we realised how close a friendship we had all formed with him. We are all so thankful because Fermin gave his life to Jesus before we left Arequipa. Praise the Lord!

So we left Arequipa and headed off to Bolivia, to lake Titicaca, for our team holiday. It was great to chill and see a new place. We went back into Peru and visited the uros floating islands and stayed a night with traditional families on the island of Amantani. It was incredible to experience the basic, but perfectly sufficient conditions they lived in. We all dressed up in the traditional clothes of the host families and joined together for traditional dancing!! The boys dressed in ponchos and knitted hats, and the girls in floaty skirts, big shirts, and headscarves! Then we moved on to 'canyon de colca' where we did a 3-day hike down into the depths of the canyon, staying in bamboo and palm huts. We were encouraged by our guide who was intrigued by Christianity and tired of the idols of the overriding catholic faith in Peru. We pray he keeps searching. Our last day we were up at 2.30 ready to trek back out of the canyon before the full moon could be replaced by blazing sun. We all managed it and were filled with a great sense of achievement at the end, and a great view.

Our journey from Arequipa to Huaraz was a bit of a nightmare. We managed to lose a box of presents, a guitar and spend 36 hours on various coaches. Only 16 hours over what it was meant to be! But we are here now and the guitar is on its way back to us, so Joel will be able to lead us in song again shortly!

Our project here in Huaraz currently consists of a lot of sanding of table legs at a 'carpenteria' for the computer desks at the orphanage, lots of games of mafia and the culinary delights of our domestic gods and goddesses. Huaraz is beautiful and our accommodation is more than sufficient for our needs. The church is really welcoming and the people are all really friendly. The bible teachings have been really good, and even better with our improving Spanish.

So all in all it has been a really good start to a new project.

Gloria a Dios.


prayer requests

- couple of tummy bugs, but nothing serious
- that we all keep learning and growing in the knowledge of Christ
- that we make the most of our last project

(from the steps team website www.stepsteam.org)

In Huaraz

I´m really sorry but this is going to be really quick... we´ve arrived in Huaraz... was really emotional leaving Arequipa... i wasnt really prepared for how hard it was going to be, our maestro Fermin became a christian a week before we left and it was SO hard to say goodbye to him, he cried which set all of us girls off again! but Huaraz is an amazing city, much smaller than Arequipa and already noticing differences, again here we are surrounded by amazing scenery and the weather is good, much cooler at night but sun hot in the day. None of us have had any problems with altitude sickness thankfully and so far we are all well (except a few tummy bugs) but nothing too bad. getting stuck in to the carpentry work we´ll be doing for 2 weeks, and have been to the orphanage we´ll be working with and the kids are gorgeous. will tell you more when i can grab a moment! xxxx