THE BACKPACKS ARE READY!

Friday, February 19, 2010

WOW! That is all I can say! We had 10 people filling the backpacks this morning beginning about 9:45 AM and we were finished by 11:15 AM. Then we packed 200 into big Peruvian sacks and two boxes for shipment by bus to Chincha.

Marco, Manuel and JC took them by taxi – imagine that – to the bus station and after some discussion with the manager got a tremendous price for the 320 kg of total weight (for you North Americans – better for you US Citizens that is 705 pounds!) What was the price? Okay I’ll tell you. It was .7 soles/kg - which is about $70. That was a bargain!

Marco and the boys returned about 2:30 with the mission accomplished and we breathed a sigh of relief and just sat around for a while. Then we loaded into two taxis and made our way down to the tourist center of Lima - La Marina where we gave Manuel and JC (Jon Carlos) the privilege to select the place to sit down and eat a meal. They chose Chili’s and we accepted the challenge and ate the food.

The car we had been given to use developed some potential problems with the transmission and so we had to rent a car. Agustin Ciccia, pastor of New Strength, came to our rescue and we were able to rent his for the next even days for $125. He even delivered it to us at La Marina.

Because we were so tired from the past three days, we returned to our apartment and have spent the evening just relaxing and getting our heads together for tomorrow and having the privilege of passing out the backpacks. That will be special as we watch the excitement on the faces of the children.

I’ll bet you wish you were here! Right? Well, plan now and we could do another one next year.

Since it is now 10:15 PM and I need to rest, I will stop this fabulous blog and allow you to continue your activities.

As you were!

Dr D with Mark and Rachel