Cusco Girls

Well, I am back "home" in Lima after a great week in Cusco working with the kiddos there. We arrived Tuesday and spent the afternoon at the boys' home there. Unfortunately, only 13 of the 50 boys were able to play with us because most of them were recovering from colds/flu. They wanted so badly to get out of bed and play though..grinning at us as we stood in the doorways and passing our soccer ball from bed to bed.

We spent the rest of the week working with the girls' home, which was a special treat because usually teams only spend an afternoon there. The girls gave us a celebrity welcome, complete with traditional Peruvian dances and refreshments at our own special "queen's" table.The girls at this home are just beautiful...many are from the highlands and have this rich, creamy skin..a lot of them speak a local language, Quechua, as well. This week was really my first opportunity to get to truly know these girls..and it was a joy.

We spent the mornings telling the story of Esther, making masterpieces out of foam and glitter glue (ha) and playing a thousand games of Red Rover. The afternoons were my favorite part, though, as we had free time to play and truly get to know these precious girls. They fixed my hair (I'll spare you the pictures..cosmetology is not in their future job descriptions), took off with my camera for impromtou photo sessions and shared their hearts and a lot of laughter.

One of the most special parts of the week for me was getting to talk with Vaneza (above), who helped us translate. Vaneza lived in the girls' home for three years, and now she is part of Buckner's new transitional home in Cusco. This is a house where five girls live with a "mother" after they have aged out of the home (at 18). Buckner provides all their needs, from clothing to schooling (all the girls are studying at university). Vaneza truly is an inspiration to me...she has had an unimaginably rough life, but she is not bitter. She has such a bright future ahead of her..she wants to be a teacher..and she has fully yielded her life to wherever God wants her. AND I found out that she is the sister of a a girl I fell in love with last year. I was really sad in June when I came to visit and Sofia, Vaneza's sister, wasn't there. I had no idea though that she was Vaneza's sister until this week! They are both precious girls.

Here is a "summary" of our week!