I would like to start out the monthly letter with a conversation I had with two women from Alto Salaverry. We were discussing where to put the water pipe in their city. I mentioned to them that they had enough water to possibly take a shower. They looked up at me with utter amazement and said wouldn’t that be just wonderful! That really hit me. When have I ever thought that a shower would be one of the most wonderful events in my life. Wow! Then I thought, who is really rich and who is poor.

I thought I had learned to drive in Trujillo. The first rule you learn is that there are no rules and every time you get in the car you should be right with God and have your life insurance fully paid up. The second rule is that the police are here for the benefit of their families and friends. I had a friend come from Minneapolis to visit the orphanage. We went out several times in the truck and noticed he was getting a little nervous in the Trujillo traffic. After going out with me about four times he mentioned that he didn’t see how it was possible not to see a lot of accidents in the city. Well five minutes after he said that I had my first accident with a truck. There were three lanes of traffic, and I was in the far right lane and a truck took up the other two left lanes. I observed that he was making a right turn right in front of me. So I applied my brakes and the truck kept turning right into my car. There was not much damage, but we had to call the police. When the police arrived they took our license and registration. The sergeant saw that I was an American and had a U.S. drivers license. He wanted to know if I had my passport because in Peru a U.S. license is valid for 90 days if the Passport is stamped. I told him that I did not have my passport on me, and he said that is a violation of the law. He said that he wanted money for my violation. There was hardly any time spent on the accident. The resolution was that I had to send someone back to the orphanage for my passport and the truck driver had to take two sacks of flour from his truck as a deposit for fixing my front door. The body shop took one day to fix the door and charged 90 dollars to the truck driver. Another interesting experience in Peru.

In late July, the children were off from school due to a National holiday. During these two weeks, we try to give them special events. Christ Community Church from the Boston area came to the orphanage and put on a vacation Bible School. The children really enjoy the games, special events and Bible stores. The church also went to Alto Salaverry (the place where we just installed a water system) to put on VBS. The first day they had over 300 children come. It sure was a special time for the children.

Manchu Picchu was declared one of the seven wonders of the world in July. Vickie and I would like to invite you to come to this wonderful country and enjoy some of the great sites and then stop by the orphanage and stay a few days. I will assure you that you will have a great time.

Chau,

Vickie and David