MOPS

Bueno, I don't know where to start for this. I don't have anything fancy to share like them there pictures with the photo camera, but I shall try my best to paint a picture with my palabras.

My name is Kevin. I hail from Casselton, ND. It's a small farm town near Fargo, as every other town in North Dakota essentially is. I go to school at Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana. It's near Chicago and South Bend, where Notre Dame is. I am here with a friend from Goshen as well, Max, you will hopefully meet him at a later post.

We are here with our college on a program that is required by each student at Goshen to complete sometime before graduating. Besides our group of 17, who are scattered around Peru right now, there is a group also in Cambodia. Our group is split up into Huaraz, Ayacucho, Cuzco, and La Merced for service. We are in the middle of our 6 weeks of service that follows our 6 weeks of studying in Lima. Anywho, enough about me.

Chimbote is sweet. I thoroughly enjoy it more than Lima because Lima is no different than any other big city in the states. There is an overload of things to do, and they all cost way too much money. Even in soles. Chimbote is a simpler way of life. There are less distracions and you can spend more time actually talking to people. Also, the people in Chimbote are bar none more friendly to strangers than in Lima. This allows you time to actually practice your spanish, which is much easier when you are put in a situation where you literally cannot ask anything in English. My spanish has excelled in leaps and bounds simply because of this fact. I went out in Lima and have gone out here in Chimbote and just talking with my host families has been where I learned the most.

As far as conveniences go, I mean if you are attached with an umbilical cord to your cell phone or laptop, then Chimbote is a pretty extreme way of cutting that cord. I can attest to the healing power of cutting that cord. As an admitted textaholic, not being able to keep tabs on my friends via a random text or phone call has been difficult yet liberating. I came to Peru looking forward to being cut off my 24 hour access to the internet, cable, and cell phone. Welp, I succeeded in surviving this endeavor. I'm still alive and I'm happier. We always joke that coming to Peru is like going back to elementary school. Before facebook, messenger, cell phones for each and every kid, and texting. Now we have to rely on each other to be at a certain point at a certain time to do a certain thing. You can buy 'pay-as-you-go' cells here, but I'd only recommend it if you are staying for a few months.

What do we need? Just today I went to a library to help out and we ended up sweeping and mopping the place up to find more rat poop, spider webs, spider eggs, and rats than I care to ever remember. Ok it was only 1 rat, but it was 1 BIG RAT. I want to issue a plea for dontations of money for, or donations of MOPS. The whole deal, Mop with bucket and the thing you ring it out with. MOPS MOPS MOPS. You'd be saving people here a lot of trouble and it would better living conditions and learning conditions tenfold.

Ok I have a habit of rambling and I sense that is where I'm headed so I will stop for now and save the rest for another post another day. Please come help out in Chimbote. The food, the girls, the guys, the people in general are amazing. Don't be afraid of not finding something to do, you can't imagine how smart, clever, and resourceful you can be when forced to. It's worth every second and cent you have to offer. For now, nos vemos, hasta luego, buena suerte. We'll see each other again, see you later, and good luck. Gracias para leyendo. Kevin