Summertime in Lima

Makeshift pool

Washing the car

He sprayed the wrong person!

Here are a few pictures of Cael playing with the water hose outside of our house in Lima. It was a beautiful summer day, so we took advantage of the sunshine and warm weather.

Happy 2010 from Lima Peru

This video was taken from our roof at midnight New Year's Eve. Everyone in the city shoots off fireworks to celebrate the new year. It was incredible to watch and very similar to their Christmas Eve celebration for Christmas at midnight. We hope you all have a Happy New Year 2010!

Pucallpa Pictures

Our friends, the Cintrons, holding the famous 200lb Anaconda in a local zoo in Pucallpa

Local girl and boy collecting fruit along the river.

Local fisherman bringing in their nets

Floating house along the river. The lady in the picture is washing her clothes and hanging them out to dry.

Paul with our friends and fellow coworkers for the last 3 months, Esther and Luis Cintron in a peki-peki boat on the river. (Named peki-peki due to the sound it makes while running)

Local store in one of the communities

Church located in the community of Acho Mego

Bananas being brought into Pucallpa

Local dock in Pucallpa

Pucallpa Bound

Please keep Paul in your prayers this week as he heads to Pucallpa to help with the closing and reopening of the five savings groups. He continues to remain in contact with our coworkers in the FH office in Pucallpa of which several have commented that the groups continue to flourish. This is a huge encouragement and blessing.

Please also keep Cael and I in your prayers this week as we remain in Lima. I am down to the last two months of the pregnancy and it is becoming increasingly more difficult to keep up with Cael! Thank you for all of your prayers and support. We feel truly blessed to have friends and family backing us during our time here in Peru.

Happy Thanksgiving

We were able to celebrate Thanksgiving this year with 20 + friends and coworkers at our new home in Lima. It was such a blessing to be able to host the dinner and spend the evening eating some Thanksgiving favorites and celebrating with our family away from home! Here are a few pictures from the evening.

Lauren (friend and coworker) cutting the amazing turkey she prepared for the dinner!

Cael's buddy, Luis (friend and coworker), helping him eat his Thanksgiving meal and giving mom and dad a break!

Angela (friend whose husband works with FH) and her two boys making their way through the line.

The kids had a great time playing at the coffee table.

Left: Luis, Karina, Cristian, and Lauren

Left: Janina, Kami, Priscilla, and Mesha (friends and coworkers)

Left: Luke, Ryan, and Paul (friends and coworkers...and husband)

Grand Escape

This is a typical scene at our house around 9 in the morning. Cael usually wakes up, eats his breakfast, and is ready to go outside and play until it is time for lunch. However, if I need to get something done, he usually isn't too forgiving, resulting in him hanging on the door, trying to get out! So far he hasn't figured out how to open the door on his own, which I'm not encouraging either!

Baking Cookies

This past Saturday, me and three other girls living and working with FH here in Lima, went to our language teacher's house to show her and her sister how to bake cookies American style! It is difficult to make the common cookies you would make in the states, because you cannot find brown sugar here in Peru. It is even difficult to find molasses to try and make your own kind of brown sugar substitute. However, after living here in Peru for the past few years we have learned to stock up on brown sugar from the states...it is a staple on the list of "what to bring down". Several small packages of MMs were also donated to the project to help flavor the cookies. Therefore, we were able to make monster cookies, sugar cookies, and a chocolate brownie cheesecake as a treat!

It was a long afternoon, but I had a great time hanging with the girls! Paul was gracious enough to take Cael out for a boys afternoon so that I could have the afternoon off. What a sweet guy!!

Me and Irma (pronounced ear-ma), our language teacher

Irma and her sister, Elsa setting out the monster cookies

Mesha and Kami helping out on cleanup

Me and Elsa helping Esther, the chocolate brownie cheesecake expert.

Irma, Mesha, and Kami cutting out sugar cookies