We are on our way back to Los Estados Unidos!

We are in Lima today, as we begin our trek back to Kansas. After such an eventful six days in Piura, we found it hard to say goodbye to our new friends; not only the wonderful and gracious people of Piura, but also the caring, funny and energetic staff at Santissimo Sacramento, as well as the other missionaries we worked with and befriended over the past few days.
Over all, my fondest and strongest memory of our time in Piura will be of our evening Masses, when many of the local people, whose homes we had visited during the day, would be in attendance at these spirited church celebrations. At the end of the service, the people of Piura would come to the missionaries to talk with and thank us again. They wanted to express their love and gratitude to us; many times they would bring additional family members that were unable to be there during our home visit. The young girls we met from the local orphanage were at all the evening Masses after our visit. The American missionaries ( as we are called) were always surrounded by people after Mass, and there were many, many hugs and kisses! They asked many questions about our families and our lives. I hope I won't forget the happy and spiritually strong manner in which they greeted each day, as well as their deep devotion to God and their family!
I plan to return to Piura, and I am so thankful to have been given this opportunity!



This picture was taken as we said goodbye to some of the wonderful social workers from Santissimo Sacramento

Kel

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Final Post

It's hard to believe we are actually heading back to the US today.
When we planned this trip I had no idea how well organized the mission experience was in Piura. The church has an entire campus surrounded by four large brick walls with night guards patrolling to ensure everyone's safety. The campus is located in the heart of Piura, a town about the size of Wichita, near the city's square. When you leave the campus someone comes with you to ensure your safety as well. It amazing to me the number of high school and college students from the US who are here on mission trips alone and not part of any youth group.
The church campus has apartments that house up to 50 people on mission trips. Like most churches in Peru it's Catholic but many of the people doing mission trips were not Catholic but seemed completely at home at nightly Mass. Eddy was a high school kid from LA that quickly became good friends with our boys. He was here by himself but had been here twice before with his Methodist youth group.
Mass is the main social event for the people here. They said it is the equivalent of people at home going out to a movie or a football game. Speaking of football, Jim Harbaugh Stanford's football coach and former NFL quarterback was here last month staying at the same church where we were and doing the same daily mission activities. Colt McCoy was also at a town near here last summer doing the same thing.
The day is organized with breakfast at 8am. At nine you leave for your mission work. Activities are posted by morning and afternoon activities along with the number of mission workers needed. The social workers here do a tremendous job of matching people on mission trips with the needs of the people here. There are things for any age or ability to do. You can visit orphanages or hospice patients for support. Yesterday Reese said he shaved the face of an 80 year old man with dementia in a hospice. There are construction projects like building or remodeling homes going on daily. You can deliver or arrange food packets. The jobs are limitless. Everyone leaves at nine to go out to the villages to work. You come back for lunch and siesta then leave for work again at 3. Everyone comes back for 7pm mass followed by dinner. All of the meals are prepared for you.
I had times where they had clinics arranged with patients to be seen and other times I could work construction or choose any activity. An internist was here for a month and scheduled a ton of patients for me. The patients were unbelievably appreciative


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The clinic built here is part of the church campus and is attached to the church. It's amazing it's here surrounded by neighborhoods with bamboo huts.












The boys all said this was the best vacation ever. As we leave they are begging to come back next year. Tomorrow a medical mission with 28 doctors,nurses,and others arrives. They have general surgeons and primary care docs. It would be fun to organize a group for next year.

Thanks for following along!
JR

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Sponsoring a Family

There are over 1400 families here sponored by Americans. It only cost $25 dollars a month and that feeds a family of four for a month. A couple hundred bucks will build a family a new house. It's a great program because they do a wonderful job of sending photos and emails showing people exactly where their money is going. When we build a house we take a picture with the family and a sign thanking the American family that paid for the home.
For us we had the wonderful opportunity to actually meet the family we will sponsor as they were being told by the social workers here that they had a sponsor. There is a long waiting list of families hoping to be sponsored. When we went to the door and the young single mother answered and was told by the social worker she was being sponsored she broke down and cried. The scene


reminded me of a Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes commercial yet this young family was only getting $25 of food a month but they reacted like winning a sweepstakes.
The young mother is 26 years old and has three kids 7,3, and three months. She works and her sister watches her kids while she works. She has been abused for years and the social workers here have helped her start a new life own her own.
I'm posting a picture of her kitchen and then one of Reese with her 3 yo daughter in their home



"KITCHEN"


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Last post by Reese

Obviously that last post about the store was from Reese


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Going to the store

The store was crazy there was a trampoline and like a park indoors and cops and random things. We bought a bag of chocolate milk. thats right a bag?!?! it was very good though. there is a picture of it. also there was a two in one package of mento's and peaches. I mean when are you ever like " I need some peaches" and then your also like "I need some mento's" HOW CONVeNIENT ITS THE NOTORIOUS PERUVIAN 2 IN 1 PACKAGE !!

Building a Chapel

Today we started to build a Chapel which will be finished tomorrow. I will see patients in clinic after construction. The last photo posted shows the people waving to us as they stand on the site of the new Chapel.
Everywhere we go the people recognize us as Americans and give us thumbs up and yell "gracias". Their view of Americans is these are the people that travel here to help us. Back home I turn on the news and I hear about how the world hates us and that we need to change. Thats definitely not the view of this part of the world The people of Peru couldn't love Americans more. They cheer Americans in the streets. It's so inspiring to know this affection shown towards us has nothing to do with us but rather the generations of good people that have come here before.


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People of the Chapel

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Neighborhood of the Chapel to be built

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Picking out bamboo to construct a neighborhood chapel

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Walls are up. Now the bed

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Added a bedroom to this home

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Dad getting some work done

Buenos Dias!

Hi Everyone! We are just beginning our third full day in Piura, and we are having a truly memorable time! On Sunday afternoon, we visited an orphanage with about 100 girls living there, ranging in age from 6 to 18. The girls are brought there if there is a dangerous situation where they live, or if they lose a parent(s). The girls were delightful, and seemed so happy to have visitors! Unfortunately, this place has just been robbed in the past few months, so there are several German Shepherds patrolling the premises. One was named "Jeffrey", and we got a chuckle out of that! The girls performed native dances for us, and then asked us to join in...what a sight -- my boys trying to keep from tripping, as they danced with these young girls. We were able to get Preston to do his Russian Dance,(picture squatting with low kicks...that's the one) and that was a crowd favorite.
Earlier in the day, we went to Mass at San Jacinto Church, where they have a relic of Saint Jacinto, who lived not far from the church we attended. The story of Saint Jacinto is a moving one, based on having faith during trying times. After the Mass, the congregation scurries to the back to the back of the church to receive their final blessing of holy water by the preist. They hold up their bibles (and their babies!)as well as holding their arms in the air for a blessing. We were served lunch by some of the parishioners in a lovely spot close to the church. Our lunch was delicious, consisting of goat, rice and beans, fried plantains, and a vegetable that was a cross between a sweet potato and beet.
We then travelled to an open air market, where "Grande Martin" followed us closely, making sure that no one took advantage of us. We bought a few lovely items, and had a great time looking at all of it. Many times, a child would approach us, asking for money. Finally, at the end, several small boys came up to us, carrying wooden boxes and offering to shine our shoes. If any of you have ever seen my Preston's disgusting Adidas, this was worth a try! We were so thrilled to get a few pictures of these darling boys earnestly brushing and polishing those sneakers, probably the most disgusting shoes a tourist has ever asked him to shine!
Better get going now! I love waking up each morning, and being able to hear Padre Jose saying 7 a.m. Mass, along with multiple horns and the occasional rooster! It is such a unique place, to put it mildly. I have so much more I could write, but can't now. We are going to build a house today, so I'll have lots more to tell!
Talk to you soon!
Kel

Orphanage

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Surrounding homes

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Orphanage

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Orphanage

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Monday at an orphanage

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Monday

Today was the first day of clinic. For the first time I got to see the operating room that was recently built onto the church by a group of ophthalmalogists from OKC. It was shocking. It was like a palace with gorgeous tile on the walls. There was a prep holding room and a recovery room. There was a spacious OR with a nice OR table and an anesthesia machine. There was also equipment for cataract surgery. They did their first operative trip here last month. They did 80 cataract cases in four days. It's amazing to see a state of the art surgery center attached to a church in an area where the surrounding homes have four walls and dirt floors without plumbing or electricity. Kelly and the boys delivered food to area families. She was stunned by the level of poverty the people live in. The poorest Americans would be considered wealthy here.
Today in clinic I saw a range of patients from a paralyzed lady with a spinal cord tumor to a little boy that two years ago had a completely displaced elbow fracture that was never treated because his mother could not afford the pins that a surgeon recommended. She said the surgeon offered to do the surgery for free in a nearby city but the mother had to pay for the pins and she couldn't afford them.
It's definitely a different world.
I did a lot of cortisone injections today on horribly arthritic knees and shoulders. Word got around the waiting room that the shots were "magic". Several patients literally cried with joy after they felt the relief of the injections. One blind elderly lady said she wanted me to go dancing with her after having both knees injected.
The young people here amaze me. These high school and college kids down here on mission trips make me optimistic for the future of our world. The sincere love these young people show for the people here is amazing. The children and adults just hug and kiss these young adults when they approach them as they are so grateful. I watched these young people interact with the children at another orphanage we visited today and thought how proud their parents back home would be if they could see their teenager now.
I had tremendous help in clinic today. Laura a Creighton accounting student from Kansas City volunteered to help interpret. She ended up lifting patients from wheelchairs onto tables to help me give injections. Daphne is a premed student from Cal Berkeley who has been here three times. She shadows physicians here and has ended up practicing more medicine than most med students will see in school. All the people from the area know her now. Shehugs and kisses all of the patients as they arrive. I've learned a lot from her as well such as the proper meds for the various parasites and the symptoms associated with them.
More college and high school kids arrived today to do mission work. I'm just amazed.

Girls orphanage

Today we visited an orphanage for girls The girls come from all over Peru and stay until they are 18. When we arrived they all immediately ran over and held our hands. They wouldn't let go. Everywhere you walked both of your hands were held at all times.
The girls live in a compound surrounded by four large brick walls topped with barbed wire to keep others out. I felt like the poor girls were in prison but they were all so happy. They had dorms , a church, and a school all inside the four walls.
They performed various dances for us and had made all of their own costumes. In between the dance numbers the girls not performing would pull all of us on the dance floor and we all danced. We all had a blast.
We gave the girls all of the gear KUAC donated. Soccer shirts and sweats. I would love to go back and see all of the girls in KU blue. One of the girls asked me why blue is the favorite color of all Americans. I told her because it's the color of la Universidad de Kansas and everyone wants to be a JayHawk. She just smiled like she did whenever I spoke the rest of my crummy Spanish she didn't understand.
Tomorrow the clinic will open and I'll start seeing patients. There will be a student from OU who will interpret and two Marquette University nursing students working with me. Next week some general surgeons are coming and they have cases scheduled. The clinic the church built here two years ago actually has an OR that i will get to see tomorrow .My goal is to figure out how to set up surgery down here.

They also don't have any physical therapists here. The course director from Marquette's nursing school said there are so many stroke patients that need PT. I told her maybe I could convince some PTs to come down.


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Children receiving Holy water at Mass

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Arriving at Mass in a small village

San Jacinta


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Girls from the orphanage perform a dance for us

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Riding to a rural village in the back of a truck

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Motor/cars

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Streets of Piura

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An Amazing Soda: Inca Kola By Reese

I introduce you to my new favorite drink; inca kola. It all started in the airport when Hogan exclaimed he had seen this foreign drink in a local store in Lawrence and said he had to try it. The ingredients were basically carbonated water, sugar, and caffine. Sounds amazing right, Hogan said he hated it and let Preston and I try it. We loved it, I compared it to Jones soda! So in the airplane we requested inca kola from the flight attendent. and when we got to Piura we were happy to find the bottles waiting for us for dinner. in the picture you can see the stash in the laundry room. Inca kola stole my heart. - Reese

Good Morning from Piura! We have already had such an unforgettable time here! Yesterday, as the plane made it's descent into Piura, I looked out the window, and all that I saw was desert. After a few minutes, small buildings and mostly dirt roads came into view. I must admit, that at that moment, I got a pit in the center of my stomach! That feeling, however, only lasted for a few minutes, for as we walked off the plane, there was a group of people waiting for us; all smiling and holding brightly colored signs with our names as well as carrying balloons! They were actually jumping up and down a little, too! The "welcoming committee" took my worries away! They were all so happy and gracious! As soon as we loaded all of our luggage into the church van (skillfully driven through these tiny and crowded streets by Ginet, the Director of the Parish staff) we were given a quick tour of Piura. We arrived at the church, which is in the center of town, and Padre Joe was preparing to say Mass for a parishioner, who just turned 90. I think over the next week we will attend many Masses! Last night, we attended a very festive Mass (couldn't understand a word of it) and today we will attend Mass in a smaller village, followed by a trip to an orphanage and some shopping in a local artist's market! I have so much more to share, like the cold shower I took this morning, but I'll stop for now! Take Care!
Kel

part of our group in the courtyard after breakfast

The boys room and their amazing dresser

The boy's room

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Reese and Brian

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a message from Reese

my camera ran out of battery (its chraging now) so i dont have pictures of the parish we are staying in but I'll take some tommorrow and upload them. I'll upload some more of Lima tomorrow and of the orphange. -Reese

our welcoming family in Peura.

the view from our hotel window in Lima.

the beautiful sky out side the plane

Me enjoying myself on the plane.

On the 757 on the way to Lima from Houston. It was a huge plane lots of movies to watch which kept us busy on the 7 hour flight.

One the plane heading to Houston from KCI!!

Kelly and Hogan packing up clothes to donate to the kids!

Piura

We arrived In Piura and are settled in to our room at Santissimo Sacremento Parrish where we are staying. We met Padre Joe and other Americans here doing mission trips. There is a premed student from California who will interpret for me in clinic. She said that they have a lot of interesting patients to be seen. An internist just left here and designated patients with Orthoopedic problems for me to see.
Tomorrow we will go to an orphanage and a small village thirty miles from here. The Parrish now has a clinic and a full time nurse. In addition to the Marquette University nursing students there is a couple from Oklahoma City that are friends with Dr Cupps in-laws in Oklahoma City. There is also college student here from Creighton that went to the same high school as Kelly. Her parents are friends of Kellys sister. It's a small world here in northern Peru. There is another college student from OU here and her sister was on our flight as well. She hurt her hip last week prior to arriving here and was seen by Dr Pascale in OKC who I trained under and is OSU's team physician.
In addition to working in the clinic here Padre Jose has a day lined up where I will build a house with Kelly and the boys. I'm excited about that. It will be a unique experience for our family to have the privaledge to construct another familie's home

Tomorrow we should be able to post pictures

Lawrence vs Lima: the roads by Reese

One of the first things the randall family did in Peru was get in the car and head to our hotel. It was late, about midnight and the thirty minute drive was a bit scary. The situation on the roads is a lot different then in Lawence everyone is always cutting each other off randomly stopping to turn. People love their horns, in Kansas we have turning signals and signs in Lima they have horns, loud horns. Some sound like sirens and will turn a tourists head some are normal horns and some sound more like an angry metallica songs then horns. At stop lights people jump out in front of you and start to perform. They dance and throw fire and try to sell you things. It's madness. There is like a three foot wide median In the middle of most busy streets. Tons of people are lined up and talking. Some are preparing to preform some are waiting for a bus and some are selling things to stopped traffic. If anyone in Lawrence started to preform In the middle pf the street I think the Lawrence police would take them away and everyone would be pretty dang confused. Today while walking to Starbucks my colorblind dad jumped outing the middle of the road thinking the pedestrian signal said green instead of red and I yelled dad and he looked up and jumped back before a car hit him. And I thought massstreet was busy... I miss the roads in Lawrence but I'm having a great time hopefully the much lesser populated peura is less busy. We,ll keep you updated
-Reese

Waiting at the Airport

We arrived back at the airport with time to spare so I thought I would share some Peruvian observations.
They offered as a juice selection at breakfast jugo de melon, which is cantelope in a glass, literally! It was really good! I made an effort to read the newspaper to help my very weak vocabulary. The headline needed no translator; "La Nina Terrible" over a big picture of Lindsey Lohan.
The boys and Jeff and I have been so surprised by all of the American stores and restaurants here in Lima. Just like in the US, there seems to be a Starbucks, McDonald's or KFC on every corner. They even have Chili's. Tony Romas, and TGIFriday's here! It will be interesting to see if any of these places have made it to Piura. Kel

Our First Day in Peru

Jeff and I woke up this morning and went for a run on the beach! What a pleasant surprise for us to look out our hotel room window and see many runners and people walking on a wonderful paved path above the water. We are all anxious to fly to Piura later this afternoon. Since we are staying at a Marriott, the entire staff speaks flawless English, which is very convenient for us. The boys are ready to try their Spanish skills, and I think they will have plenty of opportunities when we are in a smaller city . Lima, by the way, is a city of nine million people! Coming from an American's standpoint, it feels slot like Miami. Better get going! Time for desayuno! Kelly

Just arrived in Lima. Customs finally cleared the medical supplies and everything seemed to make it okay. We are currently in a taxi to the hotel. We will fly to Piura tomorrow. The nursing students on our flight are flying out at 3am.

We tried to post a picture from the airport on the iPhone but it didn't work. We will get it figured out

Marquette nursing students

There are ten nursing students from Marquette University that will be doing a clinical rotation along with us in Piura. Three are on our flight to Lima. The other seven and their instructor will come on a different flight. I learned a lot about this mission from reading their previous blogs.
I'm excited to have a larger medical team. There's no replacing " the Amy's" but having nursing students with us should allow us to reach more people. We will all be staying at the Parrish together. They will be there until August 6th.

Off to Lima

Off to Lima from Houston

Travel Day

We are packng up the final medical supplies and getting excited. We fly from Kansas
City to Houston then on to Lima today. We will arrive in Lima around midnight. We will spend the night in Lima, then tomorrow we fly to Piura.

Piura is in northern Peru near the border of Ecuador.

More later....