The Awesome people at the Parish, Santisimo Sacramento, Piura, Peru

The people on my trip that have influenced me the most aren't the people that I help everyday, but rather the people that assisted me through all my stay here at Piura, Peru. These people are kind, caring, funny, and extremely hardworking. Everyday, they stay up late to help us to plan for the next day's mission. They are always ready in the morning to serve us and bring us to our project site. They never complain about their long hours and they truly love what they do! Here are some pictures of the people that I work with and love!

Fanni, the school principal of Madre del buen Consejo

Fanni is awesome and has provided us valuable insight into the school Madre del buen Consejo! She has a great sense of humor and knows a lot about everything, really!

With Juan Carlos

Juan Carlos helps to manage the wireless networks in the parish, and also helps out the missionaries' daily activities such as purchasing supplies for people, bringing people to different places, and managing the electronics at the school.  He's a great guy to hang around with and definitely cares about his work.

With Johnny

Johnny is the multitalented electrician at the parish. He wired all the routers here. I've been working with him for the past couple of days to improve the system installed here at the parish. He learns extremely quick and has taught me many things about wiring and electronics as well! In addition to all of these talents, he also plays the guitar with great mastery and often plays it during mass!

Kitchen staff,  Fatia, and I peeling carrots

 Everyday, the kitchen staff work extremely hard to prepare enough food for 72 missionaries as well as the staff at the parish! They're really kind, and they make delicious meals! Fatia, student nurse from Marquette University is multi-talented and extremely good at cooking as well!

From left to right: Edith, Reyna, Karina and Ginet 

Edith, Reyna, and Karina are all amazing social workers that somehow remember a humongous list of families and manage groups of missionaries! They're all amazing and they love the work that they do. I'm very grateful for their dedication and hard work. They really connect the families that we provide services to us. They explain concepts very clearly, and never hesitate to help others!

Last but not least is Ginet, the mastermind of the whole operation! She call me nachito!. Ginet plans the missionaries' activities for the day. She also coordinates with the families and other places such as the school, boy's and girl's orphanages, and makes sure that everything is working smoothly. In addition to all of these responsibilities, she has to pick up missionaries from the airport and drop them off there as well! Still, she finds time to be funny, amazing, and talks to us missionaries often to make sure that we have a fulfilling experience. Ginet's the key that makes the whole missionary program run, and without her expertise, I'm sure that the parish would go into some kind of chaos!

I'm very grateful for all the work that these people have put into the parish! Without them, this trip would definitely not have been the same, and their hard work ensures that everyone has a good time and that the parish runs smoothly! I haven't covered all the people at the parish yet; I just haven't gotten their pictures! I'll update this post when I have their pictures later! (Missing: Alcira, Victor, and a whole bunch of people!)

Broken Glasses and More Deliveries to La Legua and La Piedra

Today, my glasses broke. However, I was extremely lucky that the 'Eye Mission' from Oklahoma was present, because one of them, Jim, managed to fix the screw of my glasses. Unfortunately, that soon popped out when we fixed the next segment of my glasses, so I had to wait for either super glue or a wire that I could tie tight around the screw hole. Thanks Jim! I would have definitely been visually impaired for the next couple of days had I not gotten amazing advice from you.

Luckily, Johnny had spare ethernet cable that I could use. I stripped one of the wires, pulled a copper section out, and then finally wound the strip tightly around the screw hole. Fortunately, it was tight enough that it fit, and hasn't caused my glasses to spontaneously fall apart since!

The ethernet cable and me holding a part that I separated out

The wire, pliers, screwdrivers, and FIXED glasses!

Jim's most insightful advice didn't come from his knowledge of how to fix glasses though. He reminded me of Saul's inspiration that he gained while he was blind. This bit of knowledge really got me thinking about my purpose here in Peru. If I really had no way to fix my glasses again, what would I have done for the next few days? Doing every day's work here in Peru really need glasses.  If I needed to fix a couple more computers for the missionaries here, I definitely could just hold the screen closer to my face or just close one eye. Having broken glasses is a huge handicapped and I learned that having perfect sight is a privilege. This experience also made me extremely thankful for the doctors and nurses on the eye mission. They decided to make other people's lives better by improving their vision.

After I resolved the broken glasses incident and gained some valuable insight on life, I went to deliver food packages to families in La Legua with Megan and Isabel! I felt that this trip of delivering food packages was even more meaningful because we added a prayer with each family, which made each family visit extremely special. Some of the families we visited were near the school Madre del buen Consejo, and the parents were attending the church nearby so only the kids were present. Their maturity was definitely amazing and I loved talking to the kids.

Pictures with the family (no parents!)

During this trip, I got a better glimpse of the family's life than I did before. Those that live closer to town opened stores to make extra income to support their family. The children stated that they helped to run the stores and watched the house in general when the parents are away. Again, all of them expressed that they loved receiving food and that the food really helps them both financially and emotionally (LESS WORRIES).

Bringing food into a family's house

Another picture with everyone!

Delivering food to villagers at San Jacinto village!

Other than working at the schools and parish, I have the opportunity to interact with the Peruvian family by delivering food to villagers. It is an amazing experience and is extremely fun! Each Peruvian family that is sponsored by a United States family will receive food monthly.  To ensure that everything is correct, the mother of the Peruvian family had to provide a picture ID and acknowledged through her signature that she had in fact received the food. One of the social worker from Santisimo Sacramento will always that photos of us making the delivery.

Typical ration: two bottles of oil,  2 lbs of beans, one bag of floor and two packages of noodles, and six packets of oat meal.

12 bowls of rice and 12 cans of milk

Delivering supplies to one of the Peruvian family with "Math teacher" , from St. Anne's, Texas.

I absolutely loved delivering supplies to all of the families. They were extremely grateful, fun loving and kind. Each of them gave us a tour of their home and expounded on how they loved having us here and how much they were grateful for having us deliver food to their houses. They also explained that because we give them food (which is worth $25 USD), they can use the money to buy other materials and improve the quality of their life!!

Unloading the supplies

Three packages of supply per family.

The packages are color coded: Blue, Orange and White

Photo op with the Peruvian family.

We were given a tour of the house and they share their stories with us.

Giving Manuel some Math hints on how to do multiplication quickly.

Bringing Technology to Madre del buen Consejo

 Today, I visited the school to analyze the the teachers' technological needs. I also visited one of their English classrooms to find out the dimensions and see if it would be compatible with the two projectors that I brought down. The English teacher was amazing and kind, and offered me a chance to help teach their English class for the day after I had gathered all of the details concerning the classroom. I really enjoyed this opportunity as the students were willing to learn and extremely bright. I'm sure that the technology that Ms. Burson will be bringing down later will be put to good use.

I manage to pick up  some courage and introduce the phonetic method in teaching ABCs.

Thanks to my preschool teachers who drilled all the sounds through singing.

I held meetings with the teachers from elementary, middle, and high school while the students were at recess. These meetings helped me to assess the status of the school and the teacher's requests for items. Most of the problems the teachers encounter occurred because of lack of supplies. For example, although the teachers needed to print out worksheets every day, printing them out was a problem because of the lack of ink in the printers.

They explained that because of the lack of wifi in the schools, they could not readily create lessons or show videos to their students without previously preparing it at home, which is a hassle.They further explained that having Internet access would definitely be an asset since they could access textbook recommended resources to enrich their students' learning experience. 

Finally, the Internet would ease their teaching because it would eliminate a virus problem. Since the teachers have to transfer files from their home computers to the school computers, their USB's occasionally get infected. To prevent this, having school issued USB's and laptops for the teachers would work.

Interviewing some of the teachers at the school with Pedro from St. John Baptist, Oklahoma as my translator.
Thank goodness, Pedro is there. He is awesome.

Interviewing Elementary Teachers

Interviewing Middle School Teachers

Interviewing High School Teachers

I'm really glad that the teachers' needs align with the supplies that we brought down and the future supplies that Ms. Burson is bringing down. Both the students and teachers have tons of school pride, and to put it in the English teacher's words, "we'll improve step by step, and we'll be great in no time!"

The students are very interested and curious in what I am doing; particularly one middle school girl. 

I manage to teach and show her different ways of using words; simple functions like copy, choosing a different fond and other fun stuff....

Then, more students wanted to experiment with the computers. I really wanted to show the students there, how computers can enhance their learning skills and make a better persentation than normal writing using pen or pencil on papers.

Teaching and showing Mr. Julio how to set up and use the projector with the laptop. Now, he can project his worksheets, powerpoint and other materials on the wall. This definitely safe tons of paper and tons of trees......

Demonstrating and teaching the teachers how to back up and restore hard disk.

Both of the teachers will then use their knowledge to restore and maintain the laptop that they have at their school.

 Fun facts about the school, Madre del buen Consejo.

 It is a school from Kindergartner to High school (All in one compound). The school is surrounded by high walls.  Inside the school looks amazing but just outside, you will see piles of  sand/soil everywhere. I don't really know whether there is a construction going on. The place that caught my interest me is the door. It has a hugh door and within is a smaller door  for people to move in and out.

I just like to go in and out of this door. It's just like a play house.

High walls surrounding the school for security?

Looks like there is a construction going on. But where... ?

Drop -off area for the students. It really bring back old memories.....It's just like when I was at Elementary school.

Delivering computers and investigating wi-fi connectivity at Madre del buen Consejo

Today, I travelled to Madre del buen Consejo to deliver all the computers, mices, projectors and computer speakers. The school students looks like the private elementary school that I have attended. All of them wears a uniform (teachers as well as students). Most of the students are from the poor family that could not afford an education. Some of the students are sponsored by the parish, Santisimo Sacramento. The school is about 1.6KM from the parish.

The school trip was tons of fun, and I really enjoyed seeing all the schoolchildren as they invited me into the school! The entire school came out to welcome us and it was very exciting. They performed several songs and dances as well that added to the fun.

The school students performing Peruvian folk dance.

The first time ever in my life that the entire school: students, teachers and principal welcoming us to their school. They even made a huge banner with all of our names on it.

I felt like a VIP (very important person)

Posing with some of the school students who are interested in learning American football. All the equipments are donated to the school.

Here we are ....doing the Tango with the students.......

We join in the Peruvian welcoming dance.

Last photo session with the entire school before we head off to start our mission.

After the introduction, I got to know several of the kids and took pictures with them. They were all very excited to see us as well!

The grandmother of this student ask for a photography session. I am so happy to have a snapshot with them.

My main objective is to bring technology to the school at Piura, Peru. It would be great if the school teachers can facilitate better teaching pedagogy through the usage of computers. It would make the lessons more fun and interesting. Hopefully the students will be more engaged and will continue their education to higher institution.

I am fortunate to have Michael, Rustin and Thomas helping me to unload all the equipments that we brought for the school.

Setting up the computers at the computer lab under the watchful eye from the director of the school.

The Physical Education teachers is very interested in computers. I  am showing him all the  softwares that are in the computers that we just brought in. I am using Google Translate to communicate with everyone. The wonder of technology..........

I am checking and trying to see whether there is any wi-fi connection at the school. I realised that the wi-fi is only for 5 computers at the school.  4 are at the administration building and 1 is with the Physics teacher.

Time to go back to the parish. All of us jump to the back of the truck. That's our transportation in Piura, Peru.