Tuesday, 7/29 text and email

We had a great day! Kels and I dug a trench today and Steph made homemade cement.
The kids were so cute and fun!

I can't remember how to check email after a hard day at work, which by the way I have never worked so hard in my life. We got to raft down the river it was way fun. Pray for Kels, she is getting a cold. Miss you tons. Love you.

The Not So Friendly Skies

Soooo...this trip certainly didn't get off on the right foot, to say the least. I drop the ladies off at the airport on Thursday about noon for their 1:40pm flight to Atlanta where they were anxious to enjoy a relaxing 5 hour layover prior to their 6 1/2 hour flight to Lima.

Well the internet is an amazing tool, so about 2:00 I though I'd spool up the flight tracking system on Delta's website and watch their progress across the country. They still hadn't taken off yet! About 3:00 I get a call from Marie saying they weren't even on the plane yet because the de-icing equipment was bad and it had to be replaced. They didn't get out of SL until 4:00pm. That was fun.

With that bit of bad luck behind them (good that the ground crew figured out before they were at 37,000 in a spiral), what else could go wrong? 10:15 rolls around and I boot up Delta's tracking system again to see if their 10:00pm flight was enroute. Again, they were on the ground. No news from Marie, no news on the web, no news...is NOT good news. Marie calls again at some point. They indeed had taken off but had to come back because a fuel pump was bad. She-ma-neesh...as Marie would say!

Again, way to go flight crew for properly reading the instruments...I guess. They finally take off 3 hours late, miss their connecting flight in Lima to Cusco, spend 12 hours in the Lima airport before they figure out they can't get a flight to Cusco for another 50 hours! Fortunately the group leader from AYS was able to book some rooms for the next couple of nights.

Saturday, 7/26 email

no time to chat right now. There is a huge line for the computer. Ill try later. We had a great day at the temple today. we now know why we missed our flight yesterday. if we would of made it we wouldnt have got to go to the temple because they close on the 4th for cleaning. it was great then we had lunch at the temple we ate peruvian food and actually liked most of it. then we shopped at the indian market. it is like shopping in mexico. well ill try and get on later i love you thanks for letting us come it is going to be great

Friday, 7/25 email

After two defective planes we ended up missing our flight to cusco. we sat in the airport (in Lima) ALL DAY! allison tried getting us on flights all day but they were all booked so by afternoon she started working on hotel arrangements and getting us a flight on sunday at 2:30 in the morning. sheesh. so tomorrow we're are going to the temple and tour lima and then hopefully we will be back on schedule to see machu piccu. hope all is going well at home. give everyone hugs and kisses i love you tons and bunches

Salt Lake City Airport 7/24

Peru Adventure 7/24 - 8/9/2008

This past fall (2007) Marie was perusing the internet and came across a humanitarian service trip that caught her attention. Probably so because some kids in area had ventured into distant and/or third world countries on similar excursions. Each them said only good things about their experiences. Marie decided to float the idea by Stephanie and Kelsie to see if they had any interest in the idea. She sold it to them as a 'senior trip'.

The idea caught hold of their attention and the plans started to come together, i.e. dad made the first of a series of large cash deposits to reserve a place on their chosen adventure which was this: Alta Chinca Peru to help reconstruct homes that were demolished in a massive earthquake in August of 2007. Their assignment was subsequently changed and relocated to Cusco Peru for sight seeing and then Ollantaytambo to assist at an orphanage.