The Saturday prior, we took a trip with Hilda and Augusto to Cusco to purchase gifts for the girls at the convent with the money donated from generous friends, family, and friends of friends back home in the States. We also got the chance to visit with their son and his family, Cliff, Yesenia, and Danna.
We purchased diaries, USB drives, basketballs, soccer balls and volleyballs. Augusto also placed an order for two new basketball goals since the ones at the church were damaged. Weeks prior, we purchased notebooks and pencils, and we set aside a large sum of the donations to go towards food. The sisters expressed this as the greatest need for the girls.
We also wanted to do something for the girls that came from the heart. So we baked them one of our favorite desserts that my mom makes for special occasions – a jello cake. It was quite an adventure since we had never made it before, and its difficult to get all of the ingredients in a small Peruvian town. For example, you cannot buy Cool Whip in Peru. After a failed attempt at creating fake cool whip, we settled on a Chantilly mix that we could buy in town.
We arranged some time with the sisters to meet with the girls this Sunday to give the gifts from all those that donated, share some cake and then play volleyball (the girls get a real kick at our attempts to play volleyball with them). But when we arrived, we quickly realized that we were not the only ones prepared to make a presentation, as some of the girls scurried around the courtyard in traditional attire. The had the lunch room cleared of tables and the chairs were lined along the walls, with several chairs specifically assigned to us and the sisters at one end. They sat us down and one of the girls stood up to give a short speech on their appreciation and that they prepared some dances and songs.
The first to start were two young and very shy girls in traditional dress walked to the center of the room, and after a few minutes of trepidation and deciding on how to start, sang a beautiful song. Then some of the older girls came in with bright blue skirts and danced a more modern dance for us. After that another group of girls entered, half dressed as women and the other half dressed as men, and danced a group dance of foot stomping and waving of arms to express love from the heart. We received another speech on their appreciation, and then a very comical duet dance of love and affection. The two girls in the previous dance then came over to us and took our hands to lead us to the center of the room to dance with them – all the girls got a big kick out of this. After two songs, we got all the girls to dance a song together, and even two of the sisters joined the girls in the dance.
After all the fun and laughing, it was time for cake and drinks. Then we spoke to the girls about all the people back in the States that care for them and gave donations to better their lives. The girls got real excited, and as we handed out the gifts, they all had huge grins and thanked us over and over.
And the only way to top off such a wonderful event was to play a little volleyball. At the end, every girls gave us big hugs and thanked us again, holding their diaries and USBs close to their hearts.
A huge thanks to the donors! You have a special gift from the girls coming soon.
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