Extreme Makeover: Peruvian Home Edition

(This is a simulpost with the Good Deeds Blog...I will post another
blog with my thoughts ASAP)
Ok...so we're not exactly Tye and his crew, but we try. After
visiting some of the most devastated regions of Pisco, we quickly
figured out that we were not equipped to go into those areas and just
start building. We were pretty sure that we would have either been
mobbed or had our tools stolen.

We did, however, meet Jimmy. Jimmy was the man who sold us our tour to
the islands. He lived with his wife and 3 daughters in a single room.
One of the things that stuck out to us about Jimmy was that he was an
extremely hard worker. He would get up at 5am and drive his toot-toot
(a motorcycle-ish taxi vehicle). He would work in the tour company
from 10am to 5pm and then after eating dinner and putting the girls to
bed, he would go out and drive the toot toot again.

Thanks to the help of many donors, we were able to build them a
bathroom, a new kitchen, and renovate their back room so that for the
first time Jimmy and his wife had a room separate from their 3 girls.
We also built bunk beds (and bought mattresses and pillows) for the
girls. (The bunk bed had more wood than their entire house. The family
joked that if there was another earthquake, they were all getting in
the bunk bed!).

The opportunity to see the looks on the girls faces as they went into
their (still unpainted) room was absolutely priceless. They climbed
all over the beds and seemed so joyful to have a place that they could
call their own. We bought the girls pink paint so they could paint
everything. They will be sending pictures in a week or so.

It didn't seem right to build a kitchen and not fill it with food, so
we went to the grocery store and got all the food that the four of us
could carry. It was very cool. We bought everything from big
quantities of staples like rice and beans and milk and chicken to
luxuries such as cereal and cookies. Of all the gifts that were given
to this family, it was the food that made them cry.

The icing on the cake was meeting the people from Pisco sin Fronteras
(Pisco without Borders). It's an organization where 20 and 30
somethings from around the world come and donate their time and skills
to take on projects in the community. It was an amazing place. I wish
we could have done more with them. They have done so many cool things
with so few resources. We were able to donate the drill, circular
saw, jig saw, hammers, and all the hardware and other miscellaneous
tools that we had leftover from the project to them.

As a town, Pisco was far from our favorite, but the relationships we
built and the things that were accomplished in just a few short days
will stick with us forever. We also want to thank Jen, Amanda, the
Mackeys, Debby, Annie, Ruth, Rebecca, Sandy, Courtnay, Mary, and some
other people who gave anonymously for contributing towards this
project. Your donations had a huge impact on this family.