We arrived in Chiclayo, a coastal city about 12 hours north of Lima, on a Friday, after an overnight bus trip. We stopped at a hotel only long enough to drop off our bags and then headed out on the dusty highway that leads west to Pimentel, a beach resort town.
About halfway between Chiclayo and Pimentel, we found Colegio Harvest, a Baptist mission school for the deaf that Lee and Eva Johnson started in 1995.
Students from the Harvest School for the Deaf take a break from game playing to pose for a group photo.
Lee and Eva warmly welcomed us to the school in the late morning. Adriene, Armando and Jessica, who are majoring in American Sign Language at the college, are serving as teaching assistants. Eva is the administrator at the school, which currently enrolls 32 deaf students.
We arrived just in time to watch the transition from classroom study to recreation. By tradition, on Fridays the students have a chance to play volleyball and soccer together. As in all schools, some students appeared to enjoy this more than others! The Johnsons were generous with their time, giving us a tour of the school and sharing their vision for the future development of the facility, which happens little by little here in Peru.
Jessica and her Santa Rosa host family pose by her dad’s fishing boat.
In the afternoon, we began our visits to each host family home, starting with Jessica in the city of Santa Rosa, an hour’s run down the beach from Pimentel. Jessica’s sister, Jhomira, 18, is a student at Harvest. We shared a meal of aji de gallina with Jhomira and her parents, Juan Carlos and Gloria, and her brother Benjamin, 15. A fisherman, Juan Carlos led us up to the roof, where he stores a narrow, reed boat, called a caballito de totora, or “little horse,” made of the totora reed. It’s the traditional fishing boat for this region.
Later that evening, we joined Armando’s family in the city of Chiclayo, for a meal of chicken and rice in a peanut sauce. His parents, Guzman and Mary Ramos Mendoza, are both deaf and teach at the Harvest school. Their baby, Rosa, not quite 1, is hearing. Armando spends much of his free time at the house, including many weekend hours helping to install a tile floor in a downstairs apartment.
Armando and his host family in Chiclayo.
Our third stop was in the apartment of Jamie Rowe, an American missionary and teacher at Colegio Harvest. Adriene is living with Jamie and a 13-year-old Peruvian girl named Marleny. The three of them live in an apartment in Pimentel, right along the edge of the ocean. Jamie, who is from Tennessee, and partially deaf, began work at the school in April.
Adriene poses by the ocean with Duane on the walk to her host family home.
Nearing the end of our visit, we had the chance to attend a worship service for the deaf and the hearing on the Harvest campus. Lee Johnson, who serves as pastor, warmly welcomed us to the first of two services that morning. He preached from I Corinthians 11. He spoke without notes, simultaneously signing, urging us to be imitators of Christ, in the spirit of Paul. In the gathered group of worshipers, we recognized many of the children and teachers we had seen in the classrooms at school when we arrived on Friday.
A steady breeze came through the open windows; we were seated, about 40 of us, in rows on white plastic chairs. The subtext of the morning was unity. On the wall behind the lectern a banner read: Sordos and oyentes unidos para Cristo (Deaf and hearing united in Christ). On an adjoining wall were flags from Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Uruguay. The second preacher that day was a guest from Uruguay.
A view of the shore and a boater from the pier in Pimentel.
The Goshen group spent the afternoon together in Pimentel. We walked along the boardwalk (malecón) by the ocean — and even took one long walk into the ocean — courtesy of the longest pier in South America, where shippers once loaded sugar and cotton, and where tourists now angle for the best photo-ops.
Photos and editing by Karen Stoltzfus
Adriene, Armando and Jessica at the Cruz del Sur station preparing to board the bus to Chiclayo.Duane and Karen pose with Adriene and her host mother, Elizabeth, and a friend who came to see Adriene off to her Chiclayo service location.Jessica with her host mother, Vicky, who brought her to the bus station.Students from the Harvest School for the Deaf take a break from game playing to pose for a group photo. Students at Harvest school playing soccer.Adriene talks with a teacher during Friday fitness time.Adriene talks with a teacher during Friday fitness time.Karen and Jessica talk with the Eva and Lee Johnson in the school courtyard.Jessica and Adriene pose in the courtyard of the Harvest school.Duane and Karen pose with Jessica, Adriene and Armando in the Harvest school courtyard.Armando poses with his class at the Harvest school.Adriene poses with her class at the Harvest school.Armando joins the students for a game of volleyball.Armando plays volleyball with students at Harvest school.Jessica talks with students during their Friday fitness time.Jessica and and Adriene track down students reluctant to play volleyball during Harvest fitness time.Armando plays volleyball with students at Harvest school.Jessica poses with her Santa Rosa host family by her dad’s fishing boat, a caballito de totora, or reed boat.Duane and Karen pose with Jessica and her Santa Rosa host family by her dad’s fishing boat, a caballito de totora, or reed boat.Jessica poses with her host family in their Santa Rosa living room.Jessica poses with her host family on the beach in Santa Rosa.Karen and Duane pose with Jessica and her host parents on the beach in Santa Rosa.Posing for pictures by a mural at a new plaza, or plazoleta, near the beach in Santa Rosa.Jessica’s host dad, Juan Carlos, and Duane pose for a picture by a mural at a plaza in Santa Rosa.Jessica’s host mom, and Karen pose for a picture by a mural at a plaza in Santa Rosa.Jessica and her host sister, Jhomira, pose for a picture by a mural at a plaza in Santa Rosa.A view of the beach in Santa Rosa, with many fishing boats.Armando and his host family in Chiclayo.The main plaza in Chiclayo.The cathedral that grounds the main plaza in Chicalayo.A view of the municipal building from the cathedral in Chiclayo.A view from the front of the cathedral on All Saint’s Day in Chiclayo.The Cruz Del Sur bus station in Chiclayo, which the students use to travel to and from Lima.Adriene sits in the main plaza in her host town of Pimentel.The menu restaurant along the plaza where Adriene and her host family often eat.The beach in Pimentel.A view of the beach in Pimentel near Adriene’s host home.Adriene poses near her host apartment home in Pimentel.Adriene poses with her host ‘aunt’ – Jamie – and her host sister, Marleny, in their living room.Adriene poses with her host ‘aunt’ – Jamie – and her host sister, Marleny, in their living room.Adriene and Karen enjoy the ocean breeze on a bench in Pimentel.Adriene poses by the ocean with Duane on the walk to her host family home.Adriene poses by the ocean in Pimentel.A mural near the beach in the town of Pimentel.A historic painting at our hotel in Chiclayo shows one of the reed boats that the Chiclayo coastal area is famous for.Sunday morning breakfast in Chiclayo. Peruvians LOVE their sugar, demonstrated by the size of this sugar bowl.A view of groups lining up for the parade on Sunday morning, from a cafe in Chiclayo.Most Sunday mornings in Chiclayo, The entrance to Harvest School for the Deaf in ChiclayoA young woman poses for photos on the pier in Pimentel during the celebration of her quinceanera.A view of the beach in Pimentel from the pier.A picture of fishermen heading out to see with their reed boats in Pimentel.Fishing boats and gulls from the pier in Pimentel.A view of the shore and a boater from the pier in Pimentel.A view of the beach from the pier in Pimentel.On the right is one of many pelicans we saw near the beach in Pimentel.Adriene and Jessica pose on the pier in Pimentel.Armando, Adriene and Jessica pose at the end of the (very long) pier in Pimentel.The pier in Pimentel still has the train track used to load sugar and cotton in days gone by.A view of the beach in Pimentel from a pavillionAdriene, Jessica and Armando enjoy lunch along the boardwalk, or malecon, in Pimentel.Jessica, Armando, Duane and Adriene pose at a restaurant along the boardwalk, or malecon, in Pimentel.Armando digs into his arroz con mariscos at a restaurant in Pimentel.Many fishing boats on the beach in Pimentel.A poster at a cafe in Chiclayo reminded us that it was Hallween weekend, though most Christians in Peru do not celebrate the holiday.
