Here are a few highlights from their visit:
We hosted a party for the younger boys at our house the night after our visitors arrived. They came prepared with fun games to play with the boys, and with Andrea's famous chocolate chip cookies for dessert, the night was a hit! Rohn video taped various parts of the evening and then we watched the video together before taking the boys home. It was the first time they had ever seen themselves on video, and they thought it was absolutely hilarious! Here is a picture of the boys watching themselves on the television:
We took a 2 day trip out to Colca Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world, that is just about 2 hours from Arequipa. (Okay, it was just decided that a nearby canyon is deeper by a few inches, but we figured we could dig a small hole and still call it the deepest in the world!) Here I am with a baby alpaca on our way down into the canyon. He was so soft and cuddly!
On our first day we stayed in Chivay, a small village in the canyon where many of the kids in our children's home have come from. We traveled out to an even smaller village called Tuti with Wilson, a boy who grew up at New Hope, to visit his mother that he is now in contact with. This is a view of the village from his mother's house:
This is Wilson with his mother in her home. Wilson and his brother, Jesus, were abandoned as young boys and eventually brought to Arequipa by a relative who thought they could be in better hands in a bigger city. They were placed at New Hope right away and consider that to be their home. They are now in contact with their mother and maintain a relationship with her, though they all struggle to overcome the pain of the past 12 years of separation between them.
This sweet girl lives in Tuti and was hanging around in front of Wilson's mother's house. She was bashful to start with, but eventually let me take her picture. Most children in Peru now know that most tourists use digital cameras and immediately ask to see their photo after it's been taken. This young girl didn't ask, and she seemed a bit confused when I asked her if she wanted to see her picture. I asked if she had ever seen her picture before and she said no, but she smiled when I showed her. Tuti is a very remote village and few tourists travel there, so it was special to get to spend time visiting with the people and taking in the beautiful surroundings.
We took a hike up the mountainside after visiting Wilson's mom. Small plots of land like this one were filled with rows of plants all the way up the mountain. Most families are growing enough to feed themselves and perhaps sell some extra crops to make a small income.
We stumbled upon these cute pigs as we were climbing back down the mountain after hiking to the top of a gorgeous waterfall. Their pen consisted of 4 walls made from piled up stones that you can see here in the background.
Early the next morning (as in 4:00am) we woke up and headed toward Cruz del Condor, the point in the canyon where condors soar nearly every morning between 7:00am and 9:00am. We asked about 10 people in Chivay how long it would take us to arrive at Cruz del Condor and we received a variety of answers ranging from 3 1/2 hours to 45 minutes. We didn't want to miss the condors, so we planned for a worst case scenario of 3 1/2 hours and left at 5:00am. We arrived in one hour flat and froze in the early morning chill! But it was worth it to watch the skies light up and see the clouds move through the canyon. Here are Tony and I at the lookout point. 
The condors showed up at 8:00am on the dot - and while we had started to doubt if they would come at all, it was well worth the cold, 2 hour wait!
One last photo of Tony and I looking out over the canyon as we started our drive back to Arequipa. As usual, the pictures cannot do the beauty of this canyon justice. The views were breathtaking, particularly at the points where the drop off was 3,600 feet! 
Last but not least, another missionary family here kindly gave us a little puppy for the children's home. Here is our Great Dane puppy, Davy, sleeping in her normal spot in our office with the new puppy cuddled up right behind her. Davy's glad to have a new friend, but still figuring out how to play gently with such a little guy! 
During their time in Arequipa with us, Rohn, Jeff and Andrea did so many fun things with the kids. The lavished hugs, laughter and love on the kids and made a significant impact on everyone at New Hope. The major project they undertook was the installation of a zip line, which has been so much fun for the kids. Pictures and hopefully a few videos of the kids on the zip line will be coming soon if I can expand my technological abilities this weekend...stay tuned!
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