New Life

It is hard for me to put into words all that I have experienced the last week..it has been quite a whirlwhind! This was the last week with my June interns...they left Friday night, and I already miss them so much! It is funny how close you become in a month when you live, eat and breath together...kind of like college roomates!Now, I am living with our staff (my friend) Giuli. I am getting a taste of the"real" Peru, outside of the hotel and Starbucks across the street. And my brain is getting a workout, as she is making me use only Spanish..so I talk a lot less! ha.
But anyways, I am getting off track...so we spent last Sat-Fri working with a church group from Indiana in two different homes..one for pregnant teenage mothers and an orphanage. I am going to do a separate post on each one.
It was a joy to get to work alongside this church...they have been coming for years (I worked w/ them last year too) and they love these kids. They buy the children Christmas presents, pass out their pictures for prayer at church, etc. And they are soo organized, so we just had to show up and help, which was a nice break for us after a week of having to plan our own program.
At the teen moms' home, we tried to let them act like teens again, which is something they rarely get to do. At 12, 13,14,15,16 they are worrying about whether their baby has a fever or if he is getting enough to eat, not writing notes and going to the movies like a teenager should. But in a sense, they are still kids..they love to joke, play volleyball and laugh. We talked about the Bible with them, played soccer (not me!), made tshirts, held their babies so they could play, had a pizza party, taught them to sew (I just translated-I was the kid in home ec who sewed her pants together) and had a carnival. These girls were such an inspiration..even after the terrible situation they have experienced (they were all raped), they still have joy and they love their babies so much. Here are some pictures of the week...

Sewing class

This was her first time to eat pizza..she loved it!Boyfriend and girlfriend :)

My favorite part of the week was getting to spend time with a special mom I met last year, and meeting the new moms, especially a sweet girl I will call Sofia. She has only been at the home for a few months and is nine months pregnant. Her story is so terrible that you could not make it up if you tried (for their safety, I don't want to tell a lot of their stories over the Internet). She opened her heart to me this week, and we spent a lot of time talking. She was so scared about having her baby. Yesterday, she was admitted to the hospital for some pain, so Giuli and I went to visit her. I can harldy even describe this place to you. There are long hallways and on each side there is a huge room with four beds on each side and a number above the bed. There is no privacy, no luxuries AT ALL;this is the hospital for poor people. The more time I spend here, the more spoiled I realized I am as an American. There are people here who have no electricity, no running water, so little.
Sofia was supposed to have a C-section today..we are waiting for news!! Oh, and I almost forgot, one of the teen moms accepted Christ. Another new life has begun!