Family Reunion

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Thursday, July 14

We boarded our bus (El Dorado) in downtown Mancora- it was pretty full from the previous stop in Tumbes) around 11pm, and let me tell you that as soon as I got on, I wanted to turn around and get off! The air in that bus was hot and stale, and I felt instanly clautrophobic. I honestly thought I was going to have a panic attack and all I could think was ¨There is NO WAY I am going to last 6 hours on HERE!!!!!¨ As I looked around and saw most people sleeping, wearing jackets and coats, I knew there were would be NO AC and there was no other way to get out of town. Anthony and Amanda sat in front of me, I sat with Alex, and William sat behind us, next to some lady who at first thought William was pulling her pants before she discovered they were stuck in between the seats. At that point it was too late t rescind her dirty looks, so she leaned against the window and promplty began to snore. I did try to be a good example to my kids and not let them know how freaked I was with my near panic attack, but before long Anthony turned around and said, ¨Moooooommmm, I don´t feel sooo good!¨ Of course I still remember his many bouts of car sickness in my brand new van years ago, so I knew this was serious. I felt helpless and everyone else was sleeping, and perfectly content. I tried to be positive, even when he tried yanking the window open for air, but I just had this dreaded feeling....at last, he shouts back to me with GLEE; ¨Mom, I got the window open!!!!!¨ I wonder if my response sounded as relieved as he had. I was afraid someone would complain about the air coming in, since it´s winter, you know, but luckily no one said a thing. After the window was opened, and there was a nice fresh breeze coming in, everything was perfectly wonderful! Everyone fell asleep pretty quickly, and I did try to doze, but I was thrilled when we pulled into Chiclayo at 4am, instead of our anticipated 5am arrival time.

We unloaded and it took 2 taxis to take us and all our luggage to our hostal. We stayed at a place called El Mochica on Torres Paz in the center of town- it is a house that they´ve turned into a hostal. My sister in law had booked it for us, and I worried a bit when our taxi driver asked if maybe we would rather go to a nice place around the town square. We decided to stick to this place, and when we arrived I was just glad it was clean, and there were beds....oh, and hot water!!! We all went to bed by 6am until around 9am when my sister in law, Elena, arrived with my inlaws (Papa Lencho and Mama Doris), her kids (Jesus, 2, and Pablito, 7 months), and her helper, Rosa. At that point the kids, William, and I took showers and got ready for our day. The hot water was nice, but the shower was more like a hall closet that they covered in tile, and added a shower head and drain to. It was tiny, but it was better than nothing. Oh, and our rooms were super cheap (like $10 a night per room) which is good since we took over almost all the rooms they had in the hostal.

We headed over to William´s Grandma´s house.......well, let me explain.....there are 3 houses all in a row, and the middle one is where Mama Julia lives. All of the property was hers but she gave the lot on the left to her daughter, Justa, and the lot on the right to her son, Santiago (who died in 1980), and his wife. These houses are located in what used to be an invasion or shanty town. These are common here- people just plop down and say,¨This is my land here.¨ and before you know it there are these make shift house made of straw, corrugated metal, whatever can be found to make a shelter. Of course these invasions have no plumbing or water or anything at all, until finally there are so many people the govt´has to recognize it.....anyway, there are MANY of these types of towns- in fact that is how Lima has gotten so big....anyway, that´s how these house came to be and these 3 in a row are special to us. They all have power, water, and toilets now! (Yahoo!)

The rest of our day will probably sound boring to most of you, but to us it was very emotional. We had breakfast as a family (around 30 of us in Justa´s house) and then we headed to the cemetary to honor deceased family members. It was especially sad to us because since the last time we visited, William´s aunt Antonia passed away. She was my mother in law´s sister, and was a wonderful woman. Her story is a very sad one, and she was in her 40´s when she passed away last year from overian cancer. She was the one who took care of a very frail and elderly Mama Julia, and now there´s no one to really take her place. She was like a second Mom to all of her nephews and nieces. She also left behind a daughter who is now only 18. Well, let me not bore you with family details, but sufice it to say we spent several hours between various graves, and it was sad, but nice to know these people are not forgotten.

The rest of the day we spent with family, and we had a big lunch where we invited all the family to gather around with us (aROUND 65 OF US???) until the evening when William and I took all of our Godchildren (Sherbi, Vicky, Arnold, Loiss) and oud own kids out for a special treat. I know we left behind many broken hearts because we could not possibly take ALL the kids but I was glad we were able to take these few kids out. We went to a place called Hebron where they have grilled dishes (steak, chicken, gizzards, guinea oig, beef heart.....I will take the chicken please) and a nice play area. We had a great time and did not feel too guilty sending these kids to home at midnight on a school night....hey it was a special ocassion!

Here are just a few photos since I don´t have all of them available on this computer yet.

Visiting Tia Antonia´s grave....Alex and Tia Elena arrange flowers for her.

Amanda (don´t know why she does not look so happy), me, and Tia Margarita.

Jesus and me.
Papa Lencho, Tia Margarita, and Amanda.

Me and my godson, Arnold (after California´s governor, or course).

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