All we need is Love

Yesterday and today have been really meaningful and encouraging. Right before we sat down to have lunch yesterday, our day security guard, Cesar, brought the mail in. What do you know, but it's a letter addressed to me! How pleasantly surprised I was to see my friend Sarah's name on it. She told me she sent a letter, but I thought it might take a month or two to arrive. I ran upstairs to read it and when I opened it up and saw that it was from my whole small group, joyful tears welled up in my eyes. It was just what I needed and it brightened my whole day. Prayers and encouraging words from home were just what the doctor ordered! The joyful ambiance seemed to fill the house the entire day as we went about our Tuesday routine. The only thing that was different this week was that our friend and roommate, Connie, was leaving that night. We went out for fruit salad, cake, and icecream (yup, we do love our sweets here--cheap and yummy!), and then we returned to the house and gave her a card and said our goodbyes. Shortly after she left, I passed out the individual notes she had written earlier in the day. She even made everyone little envelopes to go with their personalized note--so thoughtful! Her note was so kind and straight from the heart, she gave the nicest compliments. To be honest, she reminded me a little of me. Sometimes I have difficulty expressing myself verbally about how much someone truly means to me. But I really enjoy writing it down and explaining it that way. She did just that and by the end of the day, I felt like a million bucks. I was so sad to see her go.

Today, we got started bright and early in order to travel to another shanty town (Villa El Salvador) to volunteer. This time we weren't doing our normal thing, teaching, instead we were going to spend time with the elderly. Our director, Lara, volunteered with this program that placed people in various areas of Lima to serve. She spent part of her time at a center for elderly folks that is opened for their enjoyment three times per week. The best way to describe it is a day camp for the elderly. They come early in the morning to have breakfast, and then stay the rest of the time before noon for various activities. Today's activities consisted of literacy class, crafts & jewelry, and March birthday celebrations. At the end of every month, they celebrate all the birthdays of the month and have cake and dancing. We arrived just in time to sing "happy birthday" and pass out cake. Then we joined a few of the real lively "abuelos" (as they were called) on the dance floor. I found myself smiling and laughing that entire time. It wasn't even just because I was having such a good time, but whenever I looked over at another housemate, they too had a huge smile on their face, and that made me so happy. I just love volunteering as a team, and I think it was such a good experience for us to undertake together. We can get so caught up in our own separate classes during our weekly routine, that many times it hardly feels like we're a cohesive group who work for the same organization. Today was special and spending it together was really meaningful. We agreed that we want to make monthly trips out to visit the old folks and "shake a leg" with them again.

Volunteers with the lady in the hat--she was a dancin' fool!