monicalynn

I had the opportunity to spend the night on Thursday and Friday at the two Puntos Corazon houses in Barrios Altos and Ensenada where the missionaries (from France, Honduras, U.S., Belgium, Switzerland, and Germany) live. Though only a very short time, it was beautiful to witness their community life, to be able to pray with them, and to spend time with the local people of the communities. One of my favorite moments was praying the rosary with the missionaries and kids in Barrios Altos. Though it was probably the rosary with the most interruptions and opportunities for distractions that I have ever prayer, it was amazing to see young kids (4-10 years old more or less) come to pray the rosary. One kid wanted to lead one of the mysteries but was not behaving well and ... read more

After my first month(ish), I was starting to doubt whether or not I really wanted to work in the development field, or at least whether or not I wanted to work abroad. It was kind of a strange feeling because I´ve always loved traveling to other countries and working in the communities and interacting with the local people. I wasn´t sure why I was feeling this way. During my other experiences, I never seemed to mind the material conditions, but here I was starting to get tired of the dust, the dirt, the lack of sunshine (I admit, that will always be a challenge for me if I live somewhere where it's always cloudy!), etc. It was really starting to worry me... I discovered last week that I think the main reason I was feeling this ... read more

July 28 - Peru's Independence Day! To celebrate fiestas patrias, I went with people from CL (Communion and Liberation - the Catholic Movement that I met in Denver) to a place about an hour outside of Lima called Cieneguilla. We rented this ranch/campground area and hung out all morning and afternoon - played handball, hiked to see some ruins, went to mass, sang songs. It was quite a refreshing day, not only because we got out of the city and saw the sun and blue sky, but it was also great to spend time with families and play with some kids. There was a goofy Italian guy who is visiting Peru and he sang some songs in Italian -- reminds me of my dear Italians friends in Denver :)... read more

Today, Lady and Ricardo (my current hosts) took me to a park that has 15 different fountains with lights, designs, music, etc. The main fountain has a "show" every hour with lights that make shapes and then show various traditional dances (accompanied by the music) from different areas of Peru. Quite a fun evening!... read more

Esperanza celebrates 20 years of helping low-income families to build strong communities and construct houses! We had about 35 U.S. volunteers, 30+ families from our communities, government dignitaries, and lots of friends join us for a wonderful celebration. There were videos, slideshows, kids jumping on the blow up bouncy thing, mechanical bull, speeches, delicious food, dancing. There just aren't words to describe how much this organization has done over 20 years and how much is has grown in the process. As always, I invite anyone who wants to experience it to come down and visit :) ... read more