First Full Day in Piura!

Hola everybody, this is Dani Brown and I'm ecstatic to share with you all the first day of activity I have spent here in Peru! David Fox and I had volunteered last night to deliver food to local homes. Well sounds exciting right?! I thought so as well...too bad that didn't happen. We were told to join the group of people traveling to the school and apparently they didn't know we were going to deliver food. You would think that now we would just go to the school with the others. Nope. We decided to accompany a girl from Tokoyo, Japan to the hospice close by the school. Tez (the girl) had been to the hospice earlier in the week and spoke enough Spanish to help poor David and I out. (David and I speak practically none). I was impressed given she is originally from Japan. After talking with her I discovered she attends boarding school in the east coast. Explains the fluency of English! We started clearing out a room filled with a bed, night stand, radio, chair and bathroom supplies. Then we swept out all the dirt and avoided all the mosquitoes flying about, hosed down the floor and added soap to clean. This continued for the next three bedrooms, then the real excitement began! David gave the first man a hair cut, Lez moisturized his feet and I shaved the second mans face. Felix (the second man) is disabled and in a wheel chair, he can not move his arms very well and his hands tend to stay almost always balled up. The excitement off of his face made my heart swell with love. He could speak only a little and with my knowledge of Spanish not much was said to begin with. But the kitten hanging around his room made him so happy that David and I put her on his lap. it was beyond obvious how greatly Felix enjoyed this. We continued to walk throughout the bedrooms and meet the residents. Some where more sad than others to witness. A 22 year old man I saw, Luis, has a brain illness and is short of death. I met a woman who is recovering from an accident or illness I can't remember. I also danced with a blind man who sang to us and was so full of life. That was just the morning.... We came back to the parish for lunch, and went out for round two! This afternoon I joined a group of people for the construction of the bamboo houses. I personally worked with Steven Henglefelt, and people from the other group staying with us, their names are;Lauren, Grace, Ryan, Molly, and Cat. Meeting people while you are climbing on ladders and wiring bambo mats together is not something I do every day! Our house was done before I knew it and I can't remember a single moment where I wished I were any where else. The children who lived in the house were helping us and one of the younge girls (maybe 4/5) braided my hair for me. She was so adorable and I loved it, I had braided hers and she turned me around and started doing mine. She spoke no English but smiled at me. "a smile is worth a thousand words." Tonight my room attended mass and I met one of the children I had met yesterday at the orphanage. She grabbed me by the hand and I copied everything she did. She introduced me to h friend and laughed at me when I tried speaking Spanish to them. I gave her my elephant leather bracelet and she put it on with so much excitement it made my day. That's all for now I have to leave for devotional!!