A Happy Heart makes a Cheerful Face

(Pro 15:13)  A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.

Well we lived the first part of this verse yesterday :)

What a busy day! As usual with peruvian style scheduling where 1 o'clock means 4 o'clock and where yes means "we will see how things go" we left for our adventure only two hours late. Arrangements had been made with a huge agricultural/crop farm just over an hour north of us to, to go for a tour. I had driven by their many times and wondered about the line of trees along the road which you couldn't see past and the many buses parked in front of them. They took our ID cards as we drove in and from there we were escorted from spot to spot by one of the workers, our first stop was their avocado patch where the man in charge explained the process of growing avocados, it was acres of perfectly uniformed trees, they were in blooming season and he explained about the pollination process, we where later given a jar of honey that looked much too dark to be a regular honey, but the man explained that honey from avocado trees comes out looking a kind of dirty brown.

Avocado trees to the right.

Next we stopped by the vineyard, and it truly was something I had never seen before, not only were the plants in perfect uniform in space between each other, but every plant was shaped and molded to grow exactly the same way, the vines which lay stretched out on top of bail wire acted like a beautiful ceiling with leafy green and sparkles of sunlight peeking through here and there. even the bundles of grape did not grow randomly, they grew in a perfect straight line almost as though they were hung like a decoration, this was done for easy harvesting explained the man in charge and was done by careful pruning. 

After this we went for another drive and reached a spot where the van could no longer go further because of the loose sand, and after pushing and shoving to get the van back to where it again had traction, we all jumped on the back of a pickup truck, with the wind in our hair and a cloud of dust trailing behind us we anticipated our arrival, with every bump in the road getting us closer and closer. Finally after wizing past fields and huge piles of sheeps wool we saw them, 20 beautiful horses each in its own pen, except one little baby following its mother around. The men in charge picked three of the more calmer ones and started giving everyone a ride, some of us were more nervous than others but we all had our turn.

For anyone who has never seen this before, this is not fake,
this is how a pineapple grows.

At the end of the day we went to their meeting room were they gave us a snack and introduced us to all their head employees, each one explaining their role as person in charge, in total they  employ 1000 people in their slow season to 1500 in their busy season. before we left they presented us with six bins of avocado and three huge tubs of other food goodies. What a day, what an opportunity to see something more than sand blowing in a sun scorched dry land, there is something fight for, with hard work and dedication the opportunities are endless. Energy drained and on the road back home, laziness set in, with the son pressing in sleep would come easy, if this would have concluded the day there would have been no complaint, but wait, we live in Peru after all do we not.....

As the door to the orphanage came into view, in pulls a huge bus full of young teens just a few metres in front of us to beat us to the gate. A school from Lima had showed up to throw us a party. (This was planned but you see what I mean with Peruvian style planning) We had arrived home three hours late but this didn't seem to bother anyone, everyone quickly grabbed a bite to eat (in the kids houses this time) and gather up in the dining hall where the teens were waiting with boxes and boxes of gently used toys, books, crafts and games. Because of the now short time frame, they simply put the boxes in the center of the room and let the kids loose, free for all each to their own, what a riot! I started talking to the leader of the team and after stumbling through my spanish for about twenty minutes, he asked me where I was from, the stunned look on my face was not because of the perfectly normal question but rather because he asked it in perfect english! "I just like to see how good your spanish is" he says. After playing with the toys some and playing volleyball as usual, they packed back into the bus to leave. 

At this time I was running behind in my preparations for bible study, a small group that gathers in the church, we sing songs, read a little lesson and discuss it, we pray a lot and talk about our lives. I can't think of a better way to end the day. by the time I made it back in everyone was in bed, except of course my little Tahlia who was wide awake on my pillow waiting for daddy to put here down, she will have it no other way, tired as she may be, she will resist sleep without making a fuss until daddy can put her down, and gentle kiss and "night night" is not returned with "night night daddy" but rather with the most beautiful little grin and "chau, daddy chau" this cracks me up every time, Her pinky may be tinny but I'm wrapped around it completely. 

God bless you in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.