A Second Day Of Building & Distributing Wheelchairs

Lack of sleep and going until we fell asleep, means that today as I'm trying to remember what we did each day is kind of a blur. Thank goodness for pictures!

One of the things I forgot to tell you about is the van having issues with the back hatch. I think it was the morning we delivered food to the hospital. Again, the days blend together and I don't remember. The back door of the van has what I call "compression arm". It helps when the door comes down so it doesn't just slam closed. Well, one of them broke. Toby tried fixing it, and then the guys tried helping.  At one point, he figured if the arm just stayed tucked inside, the door could close and it would be fine until it was opened again.

You know what's coming right?

This huge door came slamming down on his hand. He doesn't drive a minivan. It's a van/bus so the door was pretty big, and very heavy. He cried out, but that was it. The door was lifted off his hand and we all stood there completely helpless. We just let the door stay unlatched, and headed to Casa Alcance. I think the thought was, once we got there someone would be able to help him. They could get him to a doctor or something. Maressa got in touch with Stalin to start trying to figure it all out. We all figured at least one or two of his fingers were broken.

Toby is so amazing. He continued to drive us around to all of the locations for the entire day! Never a complaint. Not one whine or whimper. I think we all were in awe of him. I want to be Toby when I grow up. Well, "like" Toby...not actually Toby because that would just be weird.

Friday was a rather mellow day. We built two more wheelchairs that we then distributed to two more people. Both the people we delivered these to were in their 80s! Remember how yesterday I told you that for the second people we delivered to found us on a random street at a random time? You'll love how we found one of these houses. I'll tell you about it after our visit with Geraldo.

I can't remember who we visited first, but I think it was Geraldo. We pulled up to a building and the moment we got out, I heard it...puppies! It sounded like 20 of them. Maressa saw me and she blocked me from moving toward the sound. hahahaha She had her hands full with me. We really broke her in being that we were her first group.

So, we walked into this building and walked along an open hall. I'm not even sure how to explain it. Before we got to Geraldo's section, I realized that we weren't going to be able to get through the doorway into their space. It was patched together along the side with a variety of things, making the doorway smaller than it "should've" been. Thankfully, the Gen 3 model of the wheelchair collapses and we were able to squeeze it through. Right before we walked into their main door, I saw this large cage to the left of us. It was filled with guinea pigs. lol Oh my word...it's their food hopping around inside that cage. Then I saw below it baby guinea pigs. I had to tell myself NOT to play with their food.

We met Geraldo, and a lady who I don't think we ever figured out who she was, and a girl who they said was their daughter. Not sure how that was possible because she was 14 or 15. I think she must've been his granddaughter. Geraldo shuffled out to sit down and listen to Moises tell him about how the chair worked, his workout he needed to do, and filled out the paperwork. He was a super sweet little old fella.

We left there and piled into the van again. I don't remember what we did for lunch.

Driving...lots of driving. I think Moises and Toby knew the general direction to go in the city, but you don't find addresses like you do here in the States. Picture this...what's the biggest city near you? You pull over and ask some stranger where Johnson Avenue is. The person points in a general direction. You follow that direction for a couple of blocks. Then you stop and ask someone else and they point in a somewhat different direction, so you keep driving. You keep doing this for about half an hour until you start to get closer and you start mentioning the person's name. Do you know Jane Smith? Ah, yea, Jane Smith, she's a few streets over. You go a few streets. Do you know Jane Smith? Go over another block. Drive back and forth on the block until you somehow figure out which house is Jane Smith's.

That is a much simpler version of what we experienced. It was really cool. I mean, it took a while, but we got there, and I loved that people knew who someone was. If a stranger came up and asked me where a street was in my little town or asked the name of someone in the neighborhood, I wouldn't have been able to help at all. We just don't know people like we used to or they do in Peru.

As you walk through the main door to Victoria's home with her son, there's a pile of dirt between one of their walls and the "house" next to theirs. The dirt was creeping in under their wall which was about 1" off the ground. We walked into the main room, and Victoria was sitting there on a chair. This little wisp of a woman. She was absolutely adorable and seemed to have fun messing with Moises.

We went through the paces of getting her settled into her chair, talked to her about Jesus, and took care of the paperwork. Knowing that this lovely lady was going to have mobility again was an absolute delight! As we got ready to pray, two ladies walked in from a couple doors down. They were a mom & daughter duo who were caregivers for Victoria when her son was gone during the day. They joined us in prayer and then we headed off.

I keep thinking over the day as much as I remember it, and feel like we must've done more than just delivered 2 chairs, but apparently not. All I remember doing was heading back to the mission house and ordering Pizza Hut pizza. Yes, Pizza Hut. They had the best meat pizza! The meat lovers pizza here has nothing on that pizza! lol

It was so hard to believe that it was our last sleep at the mission house. Saturday we were planning to go to the children's home, back to the mission house to pack, and then off to the airport. How does a week go by so quickly. I wanted it to last another week!

I can't wait to share our last day with you! We had an amazing time at Hogar de Niños.