Our nephews and their 42 new friends...

In writing a letter to his cousin, Jonah remarked, "I have 42 new friends..." in Peru. Here are just a few of them.

Darrel

Darrel came to us from Texas and was here while Joel's brother's family was here. He came as a stranger and left as one of our dear friends! Even though he didn't speak much spanish, he had a way of communicating and making everyone feel appreciated and special. He told great stories, was always at work and ready to fix anything! Darrel became great friends with our own maintenance guru, Elias and made all the kids smile by fixing all of our bicycles! Darrel has a passion to serve and left fired-up and ready to tell everyone about Hogar de Esperanza and the work going on down here. Some of his last words blessed us - "I want to come back next year and bring my grand-daughter with me." We look forward to it!

The 'other' Hansons & friends...

Joel's brother's family came to volunteer and visit us at the end of May and brought along two awesome guys from their church, Ben and Bryson. We were also blessed to have two of our closest friends, Travis and Bonnie, come and volunteer as well. Bonnie was the friend who traveled with me the first time I came to Peru in 2006. Having everyone here was a HUGE blessing and a blast!! Joel and I are overwhelmed by the people who traveled all the way to Peru to see us and share this experience first hand with us.

A few volunteer highlights: painting the casitas, setting up horseshoes, teaching in the school, playing soccer, reading books with the kids, helping in kinder program, fixing soccer goals, playing soccer, entering data into our library database, giving out new clothes to the kids, playing soccer, new crocs for all the kids, covering books, cutting down trees, making spinners with the kids and playing soccer




Fun times: Huanchaco beach (our nephew's and Bryson's first time to see the ocean,) Huaca de la Luna ruins, eating chorihuevos, visiting our church, dancing with Lurdes and her uncles - the Los Caimanes, crabs at Delicias beach, surviving the hike at Machu Picchu, singing during morning devotions, long talks and playing games before bed

Art Class

I still get to teach art in Escuela de Miller. One week we designed picture frames and drew a picture of someone important to us. The kids drew great pictures of their moms, favorite volunteers, madre tutoras and tias. They were so proud of their work and excited to take the pictures into their casitas and put them up.