Day 2 - Lima to Cusco

Yesterday, the advance team was well taken care of by the kind folk at the New Life Childrens Home.  Along with touring the existing orphanage and church facilities, we got to see some of the ongoing construction that they are working on to be able to house more kids.

Here is one of the existing dorm rooms.  I am certainly not an expert on orphanages, but it seemed to be well laid out where each group of 6 kids or so would have a "nanny"  that would live on site with them.  The kids were in separate rooms for gender and age bracket.








At this point, I believe that the facility could house 25 kids.  Once the expansion is complete, they will be able to house up to 50!

Here is one of the classrooms where the kids attend during the day.








The ministry prepared meals for us at the orphanage, and I was so excited to see one of my favorite memories of Peru on the table.  The rest of the team didn't quite know whether to believe me or not when I told them that they HAVE to try Inca Kola.  They don't know me very well yet, so they all agreed to try some.  I think their reaction was pretty much what every adult thinks...  Hmmm, very sweet bubble gum flavored pop.  And then move on to more familiar things like water for drinking.

Here we are standing on the second floor of one of the dormitories.  The Ministry is currently seeking funding to complete this dorm, but asked if eMi could come to the site and see if things are generally headed in the right direction.

 Yesterday afternoon, we had some extra time so we drove a few minutes out of town where there were some Inca ruins that we could see.  It was kind of surreal to stand there looking at this extremely arid and harsh land thinking about how 500 - 1,000 years ago, people had carved a living out of this dirt.

At 2 am this morning, we left for the airport to meet up with the rest of the team.  It was great to begin the process of connecting as a team.

As we flew from Lima to Cusco, the sun welcomed us to a new day, and then as we were approaching Cusco, we flew over some absolutely magnificent mountains.

And here are a couple pictures as we were driving through the streets of Cusco on our way to the house where we are being hosted for our time in Cusco.

And yes, there were kids at the orphanage.  Here is one of our eMi interns Su Hwan being attacked by a couple of the boys.

Praises - 

• Whole team is here, safe, sound, and with all our luggage!
• Good work was completed in Lima, and the beginnings of some ongoing relationships.

Prayer Request

• Health as the team gets used to the altitude.
• Clear understanding of the schools vision for growth.   This will require clear communication between the ministry leaders and the architects.
• Patience for the team as we are all tired and still don't really know one another's names.