Day 11 - From Lima to Canete - Hygiene Kits delivered

Today we got up to head 2 and 1/2 hours south to a small rural city called Canete. We left the hostel by 9:00. Canete is definitely a different part of Peru than Lima. In Lima, we have been staying in a section of the city called Miraflores, which is pretty upscale. So going from the best area to one of the poorest is definitely a change of scenery.

We arrived around noon and got checked in. In the afternoon, we went out to the middle of the farming section of this part of Peru to deliver hygiene kits put together as a LDS Young Women's project by Kasha and McKinley.

We made three stops and handed out approximately 100 kits, plus additional toothbrushes if the family had more than 4 in their family (which is the quantity in each kit). The first place we stopped looked abandoned with only a Nacho Libre motorcycle cart and the old man riding it through the town in sight. You could barely call it a town. Many of the buildings were being rebuilt slowly since they were damaged from a recent earthquake. Once we got off the bus with a local Dentist and staff, people started appearing from nowhere and gathering in the middle of one of the dirt streets of the town. Before long they had formed 3 sides of a square with their own chairs and waited to receive what we had for them. It was both a humbling and wonderful experience. At each stop we explained what we were doing in Peru, and also performed a single number in order to entertain them and inform them of our performance the next day.

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We were done by about 4:00 and back at the hotel for an afternoon of relaxation. This place was our first hotel to have a pool. Of course, the swimming pool beckoned. Some of the boys were the first to venture in, followed by Matt and myself. Since it is winter time down here, needless to say the pool temperature was barely bearable. But that didn't hinder the kids from eventually getting into the pool, some against their will. After an hour or so of play time around the pool, we had dinner and then talked the hotel into turning on the discotec floor and karaoke machine. No karaoke was sung, but the kids had a very good time dancing and interacting.