Day 8 - A Day with Lima Elite's Kids

We woke up early and headed to a very, very nice private school. They had multiple, modern, 3-story buildings, a cafeteria, nice fields and recreation areas. We were taken down stairs UNDERNEATH the fields where we found a huge underground auditorium where we were performing.

I was not feeling well. I woke up feeling like I wanted to stay near my bathroom all day. After getting an anti-nausea pill from Nurse Erin, a couple Excedrins, and a diet coke, Jim Stark and I started setting up tech immediately. The school had prepared for us very well, We had everything we needed from changing rooms to a wonderful stage.

An hour later, the auditorium was flooded with nearly 800 students ranging from 4th graders up through high schoolers. They were excited to see this group from America. Many of them were trying to sneak peeks at the performers before they got on stage and some even came and talked with the tech crew to make some connection.

The Morningstar performers loved this show because they were shining for their peers. The crowd was very responsive and cheered for every number. The crowd sang along to most of the modern country and Broadway songs. Following our show, they put on their own presentation of regional Peruvian dance numbers with amazing costumes.

After both performances, the school provided our group with a great lunch and an opportunity to interact with the students on the fields - nothing too organized, but our kids loved it. They now have "fans" in Peru. Some of these fans had huge crushes.

After lunch, the school gave the students a tour of the school and then divided the group into three smaller groups to do cultural exchanges with the students in the areas of art, dance, and music. Once again, our group loved their time with peers learning about their lives and comparing it to their own - another example why tour is so amazing for these kids.

Normally at 3:30pm, the students of Altair race to leave the school campus. Today no one wanted to go home until Morningstar cleared out. We said goodbye to our new friends, Dagny took one last longing look at a manifestation of her school dream, the kids separated from their new fans and we hopped into 2 waiting buses. I make this point about the buses only because it is so important to Kieri to have the Morningstar crew all together. When they are together she can talk with them, control their mood, get them to express things to each other, especially after a performance. She had made it very clear that this logistical detail was important, so she made sure our tour directors didn't repeat the oversight. We found later the bus company the local touring company FAF contracted with were out of buses, but because Kieri was so insistent, that company had to sub-contract with another for the big bus we had for the rest of our trip.

Our next stop was the Lima LDS Temple. We had already changed into our church clothes at the school. We spent about 30-45 minutes at the temple just walking the grounds and appreciating the feeling that site offered. The Lima Temple structure was similar to many built in its time - a larger and more refined version of what I have heard called a Codi (sp?) Stake Center. This model is seen in many smaller temples across the world and is represented in many stake centers built during the same period (1984-1994). Adrian came up to me and asked why we were not going inside. A valid question, but one hard to answer in the way Adrian expected. I explained that the Temple is a place that people do not come to for a service or a sermon similar to the ones he was used to. It as a place to perform work or meditate. I continued by explaining we were neither prepared nor did we have the time to do either, and we instead were just enjoying the peaceful feeling of the dedicated property before heading onto a chapel later to perform our fireside. He accepted that and we started to gather.

We loaded back onto the smaller buses and headed to a large stake center complex which was adjacent to both the Church regional headquarters for Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Columbia, and the regional Mission Training Center which all missionaries that serve in those countries have to spend time in including those that start their training in the Provo location. Once we arrived inside, we were not sure what to do and where to go. There were chairs set up on the cultural hall/gym area facing one direction and a chapel that had pews facing another direction with the large accordion doors open so it created one large room.

The people present to greet us were told we were performing in the cultural hall. But the space did not really work for us as there was no piano. The son of the stake president seemed reluctant to letting us use the chapel, as it had not been approved. There seemed to be some confusion what type of group we were. Once we made our needs clear and we assured everyone that we would not be dancing in the chapel, we settled into the chapel and delivered a great fireside. Every performance affects different people in our group each time as it does those watching. The Stake Presidency all approached me afterwards and expressed how grateful they were they attended and though they would have enjoyed the music review, they were glad to have seen the fireside chorus as it touched their heart. It has been mentioned before that one of our chaperones, Jim Stark, served his mission here in Peru. A husband of a missionary couple that was present at this fireside served as a companion with Jim. Small world.