We set off at 8am on Saturday morning arriving in Maca at 1pm. For me it was a very horrible bus ride as I get travel sick and the roads to Maca were very very bumpy. I have done this route three times before but this time was the worst, must have been the bus or the driver!! I was glad to reach the end.
When we got to Maca, with loads of luggage we had to trail everything through the village to get the church and the place we were staying, this was funny and I felt like a cart horse!
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| Lidia, Rocio, Marilla and me with the luggage |
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| The Cart Horse! |
We got the luggage safely to the church, had lunch (fish with heads on and all), and then proceeded to set up for the evening. We had to clean the place, unpack the clothes we had brought to give to the children, set up the chairs, make the chocolate, practice the drama and set up the tent in which we would be sleeping. We were staying in a little house but we put the tent up inside so as Lidia would not have to sleep with the mice!!. I can you tell it was very cosy in that tent with the five of us, and poor Rocio never got any sleep due to being between Daniel and me who snored very loudly.
We had told the kids to come at 6pm for the evening activities, but they turned up at 5pm - we were not totally ready for them, but let them in anyway as it was cold outside. Maca is high up in altitude. Roico, Marilla and I painted the nails for the girls while Lidia cut the boys nails for them. The Mum's soon came looking for their nails to be painted as well.
We started the evening about 6.30pm with Marilla, Lidia, Daniel and I all dressed as clowns. It is the first time I have ever dressed as a clown, and am still not sure what clowns have to do with Christmas, but the kids enjoyed it, so that was alright.
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| The Clowns -Lidia, Daniel and me |
We sang some songs and then did a drama about the importance of Christmas.Lidia was the kid at Christmas, and Marilla, Daniel and I represented things that Christmas was about - presents, food and the Christmas Tree - but then Rocio came in saying no Christmas is not about these things, yes these things happen, but really Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus. It was a good wee drama and the kids all listened, well most of them!
After the drama and the singing, we gave them hot chocolate and Paneton and gave out the clothes as well. For me watching this was heart breaking as they were all clambouring over each other to get clothes and we had told them one item each but some took more and at the end some kids were left with nothing.
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| Rocio pouring the hot chocolate |
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| Looking for clothes |
After that they all went home and we went to bed exhausted at 9.30pm. However we discovered a problem...we had closed the church doors but could not find the keys - they were in the church! So next morning, we had to break a window of the church to get the keys in order to clean the church up and hold a service for the kids as well.
We had told the kids to come back at 10am on the Sunday morning for the service, but at 7am when we were still in bed, we heard these little voices saying 'senoritas, its 10am'.... Lidia and I both looked at our watches and went 'what?' and back to sleep!!
It was actually 11am before we were able to do the service for the kids. At this there was more singing and another drama... this time telling the story of the birth of Jesus. Lidia again was the little kid asking the questions and Marilla was Mary and Daniel was Joseph, and they together told the story. Afterwards we all got on our knees to pray.
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| Telling the story from Matthew 1 vs 18-25 |
We needed to go and get our bus but the kids did not want to go home so Rocio played a couple of games with them while the rest of us tidied up.
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| Playing Games |
After about 20 mins of games and a goodbye prayer, we said goodbye to them, finished tidying up and left to get our bus back to Arequipa at 1pm.
It was a great weekend for me, good to spend time with the others and also to work with the kids and see the smiles on their faces and have chats with them. It is a weekend I will remember for a long time. I came here to Peru to work with disabled young adults but have been able to have different experiences as well, and this was one of them, it has been a great and varied experience.
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