Team Trujeque 1st Week

Wow, where do I start? What a week we've had! We left a week ago from Tampa delayed by thunderstorms and finally arrived in Ft. Lauderdale. Our flight from Ft. Lauderdale was uneventful on Spirit airlines, but the seats were pretty cramped especially for me for some reason. ;0) We finally arrived in Lima late Saturday night and found that Kelsey's, Taylor's and my bag didn´t make it. We were catching a connecting flight to Chiclayo and the bags didn't come in on the next flight from Spirit. They would need to be forwarded to Chiclayo and would not arrive until Monday morning. It was really fun washing my undies in the sink for a couple of days, NOT! Thank goodness my wife came prepared with laundry detergent (she did come from Boy Scout family)!

The first camp (Mon & Tues) we held was in a community callReque and it went very well. The playing conditions were tough as we set up camp in a courtyard with about six inches of loose sand and rocks everywhere. Picture the surface of Mars and you can get an idea. Wardell and I picked our teams and we would play the tournment on Tuesday. Tori, Yolanda, Novene and Daniel picked the volleyball teams for their tournament with the girls. On Tuesday, as we were approaching the stadium, we could see hundreds of people walking to the event. What a site to see all of the kids in red t-shirts with the parents and siblings walking along the roadway! Wardell and I got the two soccer games going and my teams won both games (of course)! However, the loudest and craziest of the events was at the volleyball game right in front of the stands. It was a hard fought battle but Team Yolanda and Novene handed Team Trujeque and Tori our first loss ever! We handed out medals, pictures, and a trophy to the winning teams. The kids were ecstatic with all of the gifts! It is so amazing to see these kids playing on the dirt fields barefooted or in flip flops. They are so skilled with the ball dispite never getting a true bounce because of all of the rocks. We had a small church service and Shamon officiated with Daniel translating. One of the Moms brought us some arroz con leche (rice pudding) and they serve it hot here. It was very good especially after 8 hours of camp and the tournament. These people don´t have very much but their hospitality is amazing for the gringos from America!

Camp number 2 (Thurs & Fri) was at a community called Ciudad De Dios (City of God). We were welcomed here with over 400 kids from community. Day 1 was crazy as the team was working hard to set up the soccer and volleyball teams and the vacation bible school. It was very windy with blowing dirt but we were able to get some scrimmages in and the girls were able to play volleyball. It is so amazing to see how much fun Tori is having at her first mission trip. She has had a great a great time working with the chicas and they have really responded to her. She tends say si a lot when the kids are talking to her. LOL! Taylor is the rockstar as usual with all the girls hanging on to her and now some of the teenage boys were flirting with her. I'm not ready for this stuff! ;0) Kelsey has been working all over the place here. She has been working with the soccer, volleyball and of course my gopher. I was offered ten cows for her from one of the boys and I'm holding out for 12. If I get them she'll be married off before we leave here! LOL!

I better end for now as I've been hogging up the PC. More on day 2 later.....

Andy