During the annual staff retreat, the staff from Lima and Pucallpa put together a cultural night where several typical Peruvian dances were performed with typical Peruvian clothing. In this dance, the girls are performing a dance from the highlands of Peru. Claire and Mesha, two other hunger core staff pictured here, participated in the dance.

This picture is another dance performed by the staff and is common in the highlands of Peru.

This dance is commonly performed in Cuzco or better known as the town near Machu Pichu where the ancient Incan ruins lie. The chullo (stocking cap) is commonly worn in the highlands and is typically made with several bright colors and patterns.

At the annual FH Peru staff retreat, the American hunger core organized a bonfire where marshmallows were roasted, smores were eaten, and live praise music was provided. We had a lot of fun helping some of the Peruvian staff who had never roasted marshmallows or made smores. The women loved it...with chocolate included how could they not love it! In this particular picture Luis (regional director in Pucallpa) got a hold of the guitar and livened up the party with some Peruvian style praise music.

Paul and I are pictured in our team jerseys. I am playing for the Pucallpa volleyball team and Paul is playing for the Pucallpa soccer team. Let the games begin!

During the retreat, a competition between the Lima office and the Pucallpa office in volleyball (for the women) and soccer (for the men) was provided. This is a major competition where each team has their own jerseys and all the teams are fighting to take home the yearly trophy and the title of champion for the year. In this picture is the Pucallpa team with Rachel (from Florida), Kelsey (from Oregon) and me.

The Pucallpa team provided live music during their cultural demonstration. The flute, guitar, and hand drum were used during all the songs. The focus was on the Shipibu culture, which are the native people who live in most of the river communities along the river in and around Pucallpa.

At the end of the tournament, the Pucallpa women came out on top. In this picture we are receiving the trophy for a successful game against Lima. I am sorry to say that the Pucallpa men did not have the same success. All in all we had a lot of fun at the retreat and were able to get to know several of the staff that we will be working with over the next three years. We also had many opportunities to practice our Spanish and for this reason it was an exhausting four days.

This picture was taken at the end of the retreat. One of the Pucallpa staff members who works in the communities located along the river, wanted a picture taken with Paul to show the height difference.

Here is a picture of the Pucallpa men’s soccer team. Paul has just a few inches on most of the guys on the team! Neil (from Oregon) is also pictured in the front. He and Paul represented the hunger core on the team.

This is Tanque (Tank) the Turtle. Tanque belongs to Donald (our host brother who is 9) and here in the picture, Paul is feeding him a Mango for breakfast. He was really hungry!

Here is just a different angle of Paul feeding Tanque.

Here is a picture taken from inside the stadium where the race finished. As you can see there were a lot of people. The guy who won the race finished the 10k (6.2 miles) in 30 minutes....wow, that is not bad!

On November 12th there was a 10K road race in Lima (and all the other capitols in South America) sponsoring children with Down Syndrome put on by Nike...of course! I enjoy running so I signed up to run. This picture was taken just before the race outside the stadium where it began with our host sister Joany...who came to chear me on.

This picture was also taken before the race at the starting line. Neil and Kelsey Cantrall also ran. Joany and our host brother Daniel, who just returned from New York came as well.

Neil, Kelsey, and I are posing with the medals we recieved following the race. Every person who participated recieved a metal...there were approximately 8,000 people who ran.