Shopping Adventure

One of the best days in Peru! To start off we finished our project and did our presentation today. So it is finally done and it went extremely well! But that doesn’t even begin to compare to this evening.  We had the best evening  with the girl, Stephanie, that I talked about in an earlier post about her clothes. Two nights ago we were at church with Stephanie who now sits with us at every mass. She was telling us how she had a presentation on Friday and was suppose to wear black pants and a nice top, but was very worried about this presentation because she did not have clothes like this to wear. We wanted to go out yesterday and buy her an outfit to wear, to surprise her but we had no idea what size she was. But luckily last night at church she told us that her instructor moved her presentation until Monday. So we told her that we were going  to take her shopping today for black pants and a white shirt. She instantly said “No, no she wouldn’t let us do that.” But after we were very persistent she agreed and started crying and hugged and kissed us all. We sat with her at mass  and right after communion she started crying and I asked her what was wrong. She said ,“I am just so happy.” This brought tears to my eyes to see a young girl cry because we offered to just buy her an outfit. We take gifts so for granted, and expect presents on our birthdays and holidays. The people down here are filled with the gratitude for us taking the time to even visit them, yet buy them a gift.

We were all so excited to take her shopping and at 5:30 she met us outside the church and we set off for the center. We walked into a clothes store here, which was nice, comparable to like a Target but with just clothes. We played stylist for her and she was in the dressing room and we found her the perfect outfit that she loved for her presentation.  We also got her another pair of pants that looked so cute on her. She thanked us a thousand times in the store and hugged us multiple times. When we were walking back to the church she was smiling and saying, “I went from one pair of pants, to three pairs of pants in one day.” That really was difficult to hear, that this 17 year old was wearing the same pants everyday. Yet this is the only girl that I truly know who understands the importance of inner beauty.

Seeing the excitedment and joy on Stephanie’s day today made for one of my best days here! Stephanie is a beautiful girl inside and out and I am so blessed that she has become a part of my life here in Peru.