July Chiclayo (Monsefu) Expedition
The July expedition participants had the opportunity of working with the members of the Monsefu Branch. The majority of our time was spent improving the homes of six families within the branch. Each of the six homes received a bathroom which consisted of a toilet, sink and shower. We taught sewing and cooking classes to the Relief Society sisters, painted curbs in the plaza, painted and delivered hygiene kits to a Monsefu public school. We were also able to deliver and set up two libraries. One set of books was for the Monsefu Public Library and the other for the Kirtland School in Chiclayo.
The Daniel Llontop Fernandez Family:
Daniel is a single father of four daughters. His mother is 72 years old and assists him in raising the children. She also lives in the home with Daniel and the girls. In their home, Ed Braithwaite was able to build a bathroom and replace the old leaky roof. The bathroom was placed in the gront of the home, making it easy to hook into the city sewer system. The roof however, was a huge problem and took several days to complete. The back wall had to be built up three feet and the middle and front walls had to be lowered to create a slpe for the roof. When we left, the bricklayer was still working on the walls for the bathroom. We also have a civil engineering student working with us, his name is Gustavo. He would oversee the setting of the toilet once the cement was dry.
The Andrea Huayama Family:
Andrea is the Relief Society President. Her home is one room and very samll. She lives with her husband and daughter. She has one son living in Lima and the other is currently serving a mission. In her home, Blaine Webber built a bathroom in the back corner. After the brick walls were installed, we then began construction of a loft. The loft rested mainly on the walls of the bathroom and had support beams in the front. The loft will be used as a bedroom for all three family members. It was well constructed and Blaine ended up making it bigger than originally planned, which gave walking space between the beds. Blaine did a beautiful job!
The Consuelo Rodriguez Family:
Consuelo is a wido and lives with her handicapped son. Consuelo is not sure she can afford the water for a bathroom, but we chose to install one, so the family has it available to them when they have the money for the water. We placed the bathroom in the back of the home. It was a very long distance to the city sewer system. The pipe is in place, the footings poured, the walls still need to be constructed and Gustavo will set the toilet when the cement is dry. As a footnote, the son is a very talented artist. Several of us bought pencil sketches from him!
Berta Effio Family:
Berth is a widow. She lives with her 17 year old daughter, 15 year old son and her two grandchildren. We installed a bathroom in the back of the home. The walls were in the beginning stages when we left and Gustavo will set the toilet when the cement is ready. Berta washes clothing for a living, so we also poured a cement pad and placed a sink in the back yard to help make her work easier. Her daughter is a very hard worker and helped us dig the trenches for the drainage pipes.
Cesar Cachay Barrantes Family:
Cesar lives with his wife and four children. He is a builder and was very helpful on all the job sites. He was at every project assisting with the trenches and installation of the bathrooms. We built a bathroom in the back of his home and replaced the leaky old roof. His home had the trenches already dug and the old roof removed when we arrived. The walls for the bathroom were nearly done when we left and Gustavo is planning to help Cesar set the toiloet when the cement is dry.
Jose Chaname Family:
Jose lives in a small home with his wife and five children. We built a bathroom in the back of their home. Jose lost his right hand in a car accident sometime in the last year. In spite of that, he had his trenches dug before we arrived. The walls were nearly done by the time we left and as always, Gustavo will deal with the toilet!
Sewing and Cooking Classes
Every afternoon throughout the week, we had arranged for the Relief Society sisters to come to the church house and participate in sewing, cooking and cake decorating classes. Diane Duncan taught the sewing classes every afternoon. We feel that they were very successful. Every day more and more women would show up. They learned how to sew skirts, book bags, shorts, and little toys for the kids. Susan taught the cooking class. The women expressed an interest in making zucchini bread and banana nut bread. We had taken several bread and muffin pans with us and they were left with the branch president. The women enjoyed learning how to make the bread. They commented that they didn't know what to do with zucchini and they were happy to have a recipe to use. The cake decorating was extremely fun. Susan taught five women the basics of cake decorating. Each woman recieved four bags and five tips along with a butter cream frosting recipe. The women loved this class! We laughed and had a great time. They decorated three cakes using the basic techniques that they learned. Very successful!!!
Community Projects:
Oswaldo had arranged for our group to do a community service project. He arranged with the city to have us paint the curbs of the plaza in the area where people first enter the city. We looked like a chain gang of inmates out there painting on the side of the road! We also had the opportunity to paint a section of a Monsefu public school. There we also replaced old burned out lights and later returned to teach hygiene classes to the children. We were able to give each child a hygiene kit, thanks to an Eagle Scout project that was sent down with us. We gave out about 160 kits to the kids.
Libraries:
Phyllis Hall sent two libraries with us. She had arranged one for the Kirtland School in Chiclayo. The school was very happy to have the books and gave a wonderful tour of the school. It is very clean and well organized. We were very impressed! The second set of books was given to the Monsefu Public Library. The Mayor of Monsefu had a suprisingly formal ceremony when we dropped off the books. She came to the library with an entrouage that included a small band, the Monsefu beauty queen and her attendants, and the local priest!! The media was also on hand to document the occasion. We accepted the praises of the mayor and of course we represented the Foundation well as we were dressed to the nines in our work clothes, down to sporting a new fashion of cement covered legs and shoes! Had we known it was going to be a formal occasion, we would have cleaned up a bit!
Thank You Ceremony:
At the end of our expedition, the Mayor of Monsefu invited us to join her in the main plaza for a thank you ceremony. (This time we were appropriately dressed in our church clothes.) She came once again with the same entourage and was also joined by the military in dress uniform. The city gave Eagle Condor Humanitarian a parchment to thank us for all of the work we had accomplished in their city. We, in turn, gave the mayor the same thank you gift that was given to our expedition members. The gift was a wooden plaque with the Eagle Condor name and logo. It also states the scripture, Matthew 25:40, "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me". She was very surprised and expressed her gratitude for all that we had done.
Susan's thoughts:
"The people of Monsefu are wonderful saints. They opened their homes and hearts to us. They accepted us unconditionally and we are honored to have been able to work with such wonderful people. We shared love, laughter, sweat and tears as the week progressed, and in the end experienced one of the most difficult moments of the trip, not wanting to leave the people we had grown to love so much. What a humbling experience. Thank you for the opportunity to learn from this amazing community." More News...
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