Hello to all of my family and friends!

I can´t wait to get home! This has been an amazing trip. From the camp for the teens from the barrio to the ending of today! We spent the day at one of the New Wonders of the World. I don´t know how many of you have had a chance to watch the Travel Channel 1000 Places to See Before You Die. I saw the Machu Picchu segment before the trip. While it is an awe inspiring view from the show....nothing could match stepping foot on the ground of this ancient civilization.

Our group got on the train this morning at 7 a.m local time and made the trek up into the mountains and back down. Cuzco sits at about 11,000 feet....Machu Picchu is at about 8,000 feet. The sites going in where equally awesome....but not more than viewing this ancient Incan civilization first hand.

While we bused to the top...it wasn´t quite the top. I have never climbed and hiked so much. I had to have stopped four times on the way up just to catch my breath. We made it to the very top and then hiked up and down into the big grassy court yard and into where they say they royals were likely to live. The preciseness of the workmanship of buildings and walls is amazing and in the mountains non the less.

Tomorrow....back into the Sacred Valley...including a stop in Pisac. It is known for it´s large market and the trading of products.

Love to all!

Mitch

We had a day full of sight seeing today. I thought we were going into the Scared Valley. That will come on Wednesday. Today we spent some time around Cuzco visiting the various Inca ruins. Amazing how they were able to move such large blocks of rock and move them into place.
This is in a place above Cuzco called Sacsayhuaman. It is actually pronounced Sexy Woman.


Also amazing is how the Conquistadors came into this culture and nearly completely buried an ancient civilization. Any place you see a Catholic Church is where a royal palace once stood.

The Incas were so intelligent. They had an aqua duct system to move water from high in the hills all the way into Cuzco.

Tonight we went to one of the cultural centers and were treated to an hour long show. We got to see a number of various Peruvian dances. Their outfits are so colorful and the dances so full of expression.

Tuesday is an early day. We will get on the train for a four hour ride to Machu Picchu. This is what we have all been waiting for. It is even more exciting now that is considered one of the 7 Wonders of the World.

Mitch

The Incan Capital

We made it to Cuzco. What a beautiful city, just nestled in the mountains. The toughest thing is to get use to is the altitude. I think out tour guide said 11,000 feet. I had some altitude sickness yesterday. Many of us had severe headaches and dizziness. One of our group had to sit and drink water for about 20 minutes after nearly passing out. This picture is of a cup of coca tea.....you got it. It is suppose to help with altitude sickness. It seems as though everyone is acclimated today. Still lots of water is required.

Yesterday, our guides gave us a tour around the city center. The architecture in this city is very beautiful. As you might imagine the Catholic faith is the most predominant, with two beautiful cathedrals in the Plaza De Armas. You can see the hand of the Inca´s all over this community. They quarried large stones to build the foundations of their communities.


What is sad is to see the numerous children and elderly on the streets peddling crafts. We were told not to buy from them. It is simply another form of slavery that families are putting their kin in. They are expected to bring home a certain amount of money when the day is done.

That is all for now.
Mitch

Good Sunday morning from Lima!

We left Trujillo early last night. Five of our group is will be on their way back to Phoenix....mid morning Lima time. The rest of us are catching a flight to Cuzco and then on to Machu Picchu.

We had quite the day on Saturday. We spend the morning treating nearly 300 kids team with fluoride treatments. Amazing at how bad their teeth are. We are leaving some money behind to get a dentist out to get some help to some children who are having some major dental problems.

The first part of our afternoon was spent painting the concrete soccer field. That is where the majority of our activities happened last year. Of course, we had the community center this year.

The second half of the afternoon was spent watching a special program that all of the youth had put together. This was where a lot of tears began to flow. It was an awesome send off. I can't wait to put some pictures up when I get home to share some more of the memories. Carolina...the young lady that I baptized....well, her mother told me I had to come back next year....she had two other children she wanted me to baptize. I will be adding the picture of my family in Peru when I get back as well.

We are set to head to the airport. Keep these people in your prayers. There are a lot of obstacles that are tossed in their paths!

Love to all!
Mitch

One more day left. I can´t believe how fast our visit to Villa Hermosa went.

Today we finished another house and then dedicated it to Jennette. What was so awesome was that as we gathered in a circle and blessed the house, Jennette was that last one to pray! She really loves the Lord! Another group of men worked on a house for Junior. They may get close to finishing it tomorrow.

The rest of the afternoon was spent loving on the elderly. We are told that they are another part of the forgotten in this country. We gave out rice and sugar to nearly every one of the 30 that attended. We raffled off big baskets of food and blankets. Then we played bingo with them.

Tonight, the traditional bonfire next to the Pacific Ocean in Huanchaco. We had hamburgers and french fries.

That is it for tonight. Tomorrow is the final day in the barrio. It is sure to be an emotional day. We will be painting the soccer/basketball court and applying floride to the children´s teeth.

God Bless,
Mitch

Thursday, July 5th.

To my family and friends....

I am sorry about not posting a lot of pictures lately. It takes a lot of time on the computers and people are waiting for use of them. I will post more once I return to the good ole USA.

It is amazing to think that we have just two days left in the barrio in Trujillo. As most of you know nearly all of our group will be going to Machu Picchu next week. However our true mountain top experiences are happening with the hard work and play in the barrio of Villa Hermosa.

The whole day was spent in the barrio again today. Everyone is mentally and physically being tested. We are amost done with the painting. Today our group of men continued building adobe houses. We have one fully complete with another to be completed tomorrow. One of the young men who took part in the camp earlier in the week, is the other house we are building. There was some trouble with the foundation of his house, so they just got started on the building itself today. It is possible that they will have the walls all up by the end of the day Saturday.

The women were treated to a seminar on marriage and partners this afternoon. That was also a big hit. The women of our group have found it a bit hard to keep the womens attention from time to time. You might imagine this would be the case since each of the women have small kids and no one to watch them.

We also saw our women take on the women of the barrio in a game of volleyball this afternoon. That didn´t turn out so well for the gringo´s. We were soundly beaten. They love volleyball here in Peru and are really good.

Tomorrow.....we will complete a house and are putting on a day for the elderly in the barrio. Then our evening will be capped off with a BBQ on the beach here in Huanchaco.

My final thought for the day. Don´t forget to tell your kids and the people that are important to you that you ¨love them.¨ The kids here definately don´t hear it enought. They seem almost shocked when we tell them that here. It is a shame!


Good night and my love to all!

Mitch

House and relationship building

Hello family and Friends!

I hope you all are having a good and safe 4th of July. We had a quiet evening. The day on the other hand was very busy.


We had such a great day working side by side with the Peruvians in the barrio. Took the day off from the Medical Center and did some work building some mud brick houses. These houses are built for the people that are involved in Project New Hope. Many of them are being built for people that are involved with volunteering time for the project. The house you see here is for a young girl by the name of Carlita. 1000 mud bricks and the materials need to build one 12 X 18 foot module costs about $100 U.S.....or 300 soles. Their mortar is very simple dirt and water. We spent time working on three different houses. Another group of guys worked on the brick wall that is going around the Community Center.

12 members of our group spent the day with paint brushes and paint. As you can see we are trying our best to make this a brighter place for these people to live. We have probably painted the fronts of at least 15 homes in two days.


The women of the group did a program for the women of the barrio in the afternoon. Our group discussed purity and having a pure heart for God. They also did a craft with them after the talk. The put together a salvation bracelet.




Oh...that all important time of the day came about 30 minutes before we boarded the bus to head back into Haunchaco. The little kids were hanging around and just wanted to play. As tired as we all were by the end of the afternoon, there was still enough energy to play.


That´s all for today!

Mitch

Start of work in the barrio!

Hello to all!

Wow, what an exhausting day. Before the worked started, we were introduced to a group of people that are support for Loys. He has done an amazing job of assembling support staff that live in the barrio. The do everything from reading bible stories to the children, to organizing sports activities, to just being the eyes and ears of the barrio.

I was also whisked away very quickly by Annita this morning. She took me directly to her house to show me the picture that Caroline proudly displays on the wall. It is the picture that she took to school for a craft. Caroline came home from school and she did the same. Grabbed me by the hand to show me the picture. She is such a sweatheart.

Well...to the work........
We moved a lot of dirt and rocks....no pebbles but big river rock from an area near the commuity center. By the way.......the community center(the one we built last year) is amazing! I´ll get a picture tomorrow and post it here! We are working on a medical center near the community center. We poured two of four footings inside the building area for walls. We ended that around 3 p.m. or so.

The rest of the afternoon was spend with a group of 6 or 7 women. Melanie Barta, who is in our group, did such a great job of explaining the process of applying flouride treatements. We will be applying flouride to any child, whose mother will allow the treatment. We will be applying the flouride to kids from 3 years to around 10 years old. Tooth decay is also a real problem in this culture. We are hoping to show them how important the treatments are, so they keep them up after we leave.

We didn´t leave the barrio when we have in the past. We stayed and had some more fun with the teens who are involved in the program with Project New Hope. We had a ball with some games and bingo. Then we had a cookout with hotdogs, chips, cookies and soda. It was exciting to see the teens who were at the camp over the weekend bring friends. It was great exposure for those not involved.

That leads me to the present time. It is time to finally clean up.....hit the sack and get ready for another awesome, rewarding day!

We love you all and appreciate the support that you have given each of us. Please keep us all in your prayers! Most of all keep the people in the barrio in your thoughtst and prayers!

Until tomorrow night......Chau!
Mitch

Day 4.....A day off!

Not much to report back today. We made a trip into Trujillo to the Mercado! Lots and lots of stuff being sold there. Chickens, pigs etc....skinned and hanging for purchase. I bought an avocado the size of softball. Mmmmmm. Good stuff.
We spent some time in the city center as well. We visited a number of places that we went last year. There are 6 new members on the team and it was fun to go back and kind of show them around a bit.
The rest of the afternoon, many on the team went to buy some souvenirs around Haunchaco. Francisco and I spent some time together this afternoon. Francisco is from Mexico, but now lives in Arizona and is a physician. We took about a 15 minute walk up a hill to a Catholic Church that was established by the Spanish Conquistadors. They built the church over the alter of the native Indians. I really enjoy my time with Franciso. We have really seen our friendship grow. He has an awesome impact on the teen males in barrio. What an amazing servant!

We are hitting the sack early for a long day in the barrio tomorrow morning. We will be doing a lot of construction projects. There are a couple of houses that have been started. We are going to try and complete them. We are also going to work on a medical clinic. A lot to be done in the barrio over the next 4 or 5 days.

Good night!
Mitch

First Days Back in Peru

Hello to all back home. I am sorry that it has taken me so long to get my first entry in from Trujillo, Peru. Last years 25 hour trip into the country was treat compared to this year. We had an uneventful flight from Phoenix to Houston. It was getting out of Houston that was interesting. Houston had a big thunderstorm come through on Thursday, June 28th. We ended up leaving Houston about 2 hours late. That was ok because we were going to have to sleep in the airport in Lima for 8 hours. The bottom line, outside of some minor delays, our group of 17 and all of our bags made it safely. We made it through customs and immigration without any trouble and an amazing three days with 20 amazing teens started.

Much of the last three days have been spent exclusively with these 20 teens in meetings talking about their faith and a personal relationship with God. What a great day Friday was. We arrived late morning, had some lunch, and a much needed nap before the teens arrived around dinner time. That night we did some ice breaking games and made crosses with the teens.

After some quiet time and devotions the entire group sat down to view a video about peer pressure and sex. Then the tough part....they discussed the abortion. The teens were shown graphic pictures of the termination of pregnancies. It is a big problem here. The think that Loys, the local missionary, was trying to get across was accountability, not only to themselves but to God. The men had time to be with the young men and the women time with the young ladies. We sat down to discuss and answer any questions they had. It was a real blessing!

Saturday, breakfast at 8 a.m. local time. We had some downtime right away, so that meant a chance to catch up on devotions. Late in the morning, we started to mix the solutions need to do some tie-dye t-shirts. Boy, did they enjoy that activity. And what a mess. The shirts turned out awesome! Saturday afternoon was spend doing some more activities with teens. The girls made purses and the guys made bracelets with hemp rope. The kids are so good with their hands. We though we might have to teach them some of the braiding, but they taught us a few we hadn´t practiced. That evening, Loys taught a lesson. After the lesson each of the teens was given a piece of paper to write their sins down on. They each went off privately and wrote them down. We then gathered for a bonfire and they where reminded of the lesson and that their sins would be forgiven if they would only confess them to God. They confess their sins by writing them down and then throwing them into the fire! What an awesome moment to see these twenty realized what they were doing symbolized! The evening was capped off by a movie.

Now to Sunday morning! Breakfast at 9 a.m......church at 10 a.m. I can´t tell you how awesome the music worship was. If you ever have a chance to go to a Spanish service....you must go! It was so uplifting! There was dancing in the isles and a beautiful chorus! This is were the emotions start to get to me. Sometime between Saturday night and Sunday after the service 12 kids gave their live to Christ! Amazing! Seven of those twelve were baptized this morning! I was double blessed Sunday morning! I sent two pictures to some of you last year! You will remember that I asked each of you to keep these kids in your thoughts and prayers! One of the pictures that I sent to you was of a young girl 14 years old, that I became close with last year. She was one of those that was baptized and I got to help baptize her! I am an emotional wreck!!!!!

If that wasn´t enough! The first night that we were at the camp, I was pulled aside by Loys and Francisco, another of the men from our group that translates a lot for us. They wanted to share a story with me. The young girl, Carolina(Galy), that I got close to, doesn´t have a father. I sent her a picture of the two of us last year after we returned. Well, when Fathers Day came around and they did a project on Fathers Day at school, she didn´t have a picture to take with! She took the one I sent and did the project and has it framed and hanging on the wall in her house!

I could take nothing else from this week and feel totally content! I have received all of my blessings in 3 days! However, I know there is more to come!

There is more to come....tomorrow is an off day. We are going into Trujillo to do some shopping. We are told that some of the women from the barrio have a micro-business sewing sweaters and ponchos from Alpaca.

Until tomorrow!
God Bless from Peru!

PS. I have to figure out if I can upload pictures from this internet cafe! Keep checking back.

Peru 2007

A quick note to thank you for being so faithful and to let you know we will be leaving in just over a week. We will be leaving Arizona on June 28th and returning on July 13th. Once again God has provided as we head to Peru to continue the work we started. I think it also God’s way of continuing to work on me. It will be awesome to see everyone again and see how God is working in Villa Hermosa.

You will remember that we were a group of eleven last year. There are now 17 of us and a lot of work to do. We'll be going from wheels down, directly to a camp, where a group of teens will be waiting for us. We have a three day bible camp with these young people before getting our hands dirty and our souls filled with the joy of the kids in the barrio.

Once the camp is over we will spend the rest of the time doing some hard labor in the barrio. We are planning on building a home or two. These won’t be 2000 square foot homes but homes that may be a couple hundred square feet. While, we don’t know the materials yet, my guess is mud brick and sweat! I am in charge of leading the construction for our group this year(not sure how I got qualified…but I’ll take the do it). We will also be digging a hole for a latrine, painting some homes again and aiding in the construction of a kitchen for the Community Center we build last year. It may sound a little ambitious for 7 days, with some divine intervention and help from the locals….we’ll get it done.

Of course, the trip wouldn’t be complete with out some programs for the kids and women. We will be applying fluoride treatments this year and we are being told to expect to get involved with the elderly. They are kind of the lost people of this society. We are told they are just kind of tucked away and forgotten about.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers. I will try to update this blog daily. There is a chance the first three days will be missed. If you happen to have stumbled upon this blog and would like to get involved with our cause in Peru by contributing to next years trip, please e-mail me at mitch.otto@gmail.com. I will contact you with further information.