Zapatos

Shoes, shoes and more shoes...or zapatos in Spanish. Pink ones, black ones, light-up ones, itty bitty ones and clown shoes. Every shape, size, and color. Just like the children we have been putting them on. Today concluded our adventure with the Shoes for Orphan Souls group, a great group of individuals from all over the country. Just like the shoes, they were varied in age, personality and life stage, from teenagers to a 76-year old. But they were united in one purpose-to share God's love with the children of Peru. I really enjoyed getting to know them and hearing their stories and learning from them.

We spent the last few days visiting a variety of homes....a private-run girls' home who received us with so much love. They were so grateful for our visit/the shoes and even sang multiple songs to thank us. This was Buckner's first connection with the home and they hope it will continue (we had to find a lot of new homes to distribute shoes b/c the govt. won't allow foreigners in to public ones right now-b/c apparently we have the swine flu :) Our other visits included a home for boys who previously lived on the street. They danced/played instruments for us. That afternoon, we took shoes to a small home run by American missionaries..it was so nice. And the sweet lady who gave us a tour told us, with tears in her eyes, how they have room for 60 kids but only have the budget for 30 right now, so they are waiting on God's timing.

Here are the girls serenading us...

This is the American missionary home..it is in the mountains in a beautiful area..the kids here are very well cared for.

Our last "shoe drop" was in Cusco, where we spent the weekend (it is about an hour by plane) The children in these homes (one is all for boys and one for girls) LOVE to perform traditional Peruvian dances for us, so we spent a lot of the time being entertained and served refreshments...though we came to serve them, they showered so much attention on us. I will post some more pictures of our weekend and Machu Picchu later!