Trujillo :)

After the quick tour of Cuzco with Valerie, we parted ways. She continued to travel in southern Peru and on to Chile and Argentina (I'm not sure where she is now...), while I traveled north to Trujillo, Peru. Being back in Trujillo, feels good. The construction projects have moved along, the full-time Inca Link staff has grown in numbers, and the day care kids have grown taller and have bigger teeth.

So far, I've mostly been getting reacquainted with the ministries and the city, as well as getting to know the new Inca Link staff. I'm still learning the city, but I feel like I've known my fellow Inca Linkers for much longer than a week and a half. In addition to Wendy and Violeta, who I met the last time I was here, there are six new Inca Link Peru staff members: Brenda, Yackorry, Denise, Claudia, Stephanie, and Joca. They're all young and fun and passionate about what God is doing through Inca Link.

Currently, I'm living at Inca Link's children's-home-in-progress in the house built for missionaries. I share the house with another intern, Jordan (we interned together in 2010), the director of the daycare Eli and his wife and baby, an Ecuadorian volunteer named David, and another volunteer from Pennsylvania named Brent. This past week, we had Sam Gale, another former intern, with us for a week and Jordan's girlfriend Amanda who were volunteering over their spring break. Full house!

We've been working on construction projects here at the children's home as well as helping out at the various children's programs in different neighborhoods and at the daycare. I've been scheming up a project to focus on thoughout my time here. I'll be here for about 100 days (153, actually) and there are about 100 kids at the daycare, so my goal is to spend one-on-one time with each child at the daycare to give them some individual attention, learn more about their family life, and update their sponsors with pictures and letters. I'm still figuring out exactly what my time with the kids will look like, but I'm excited about the concept and I hope to start meeting with the kids soon.

The bad news is Machu Picchu broke my camera. Luckily, it didn't break until I was leaving the park, but it's still broken. I think it's fixable... or would be for someone who knew how to fix cameras. Until it's fixed or I find a spare to use for awhile, I'll just have to practice my descriptive writing skills, and you will have to use your imagination.