After his 2-week trip got extended by a 6-week quarantine, Jason is home! It took one dizzying bus ride to a Peruvian air force base flanked by police cars and military helicopters, a jam-packed flight to Miami, and a total of 25 hours door to door. 

Jason and the 3 other volunteers who returned on the same flight were surrounded by coughing passengers and many pets (including an aisle-roaming Basset Hound). Despite the fact that it’s been 2 months since he’s seen our kids, Jason is patiently waiting 2 more weeks while the four returning volunteers quarantine together in Gwen and Ronald’s home. 

The crew has been home for a week and they are decompressing more and more each day. Jason and I have been enjoying the pleasant Atlanta spring days “together.”  But all of our thoughts and hearts are with the ones in Lima. Even though the group is home, the work continues.

If you’ve seen any of the beautiful photos we’ve posted of our family in Lima, there’s a great chance Brayan, our Digital Media Producer, was the one behind the camera capturing the moment!

Brayan is a refugee from Venezuela who worked as a cameraman for a TV news station in Caracus until it got too dangerous to continue. Now, he uses his talent and love for telling stories to capture life in our community in Lima.

Brayan is much more than simply a behind-the-camera man. He is a loyal and dependable friend who can make anyone find hope on their hardest day. He lights up every room he enters with his contagious smile and love for life. That is something worth capturing and sharing!

Two. More. Weeks.

Martin Vizcarra, the President of Peru, announced today that the mandatory quarantine would be extended an additional 2 weeks, until May 10th. That makes 8 weeks of lockdown with no work and no means of income for a country that lives paycheck to paycheck.

While it may be beneficial to quell the spread of COVID-19 – there have been 20,914 cases confirmed and 572 dead – it will take a strong toll on refugees and others who are not able to work in the quarantine.

Can you help us? www.somethingnew.org/give

Here’s a few pictures of what and who you are supporting.

A great way to spend Earth Day!

Our volunteers in Georgia are hard at work in gardens this week – we are doing what we can to provide food for our family in Lima, part of that plan is to conserve funds on our own food to send money to Peru for them to buy what they need.

In Lima our Venezuelan families and volunteers live in the city with no option to provide food for themselves. We’re doing our part to provide for the volunteers here and maybe raise a little money in the summer to send their way.

Can you help us? We are totally reliant on donations in Lima to feed, clothe, and house our 19 volunteers and 70 Venezuelans while everyone is under mandatory quarantine. www.somethingnew.org/give

Earlier today, four of our volunteers boarded a flight to Miami. They are scheduled to land at 10:30 pm tonight and arrive back in Atlanta tomorrow morning. It was a tough and quick decision – both for the ones who left and the ones who stayed behind. Most of our volunteers were never offered a repatriation flight and yesterday it was announced that today’s charter flight — costing $2,100 one way to Miami per person — would be the last flight out until the Lima airport re-opens and no one knows when that will be.

Jason, Gwen, Ronald and a young college student volunteer, Malachi, all made it on the flight today. They sent me reports from the U.S. Embassy and if you follow us on social media you got to see them today too. They passed on many, many stories of people who were waiting for a repatriation flight sponsored by the U.S. Embassy because the cost of the charter flights was just too much. But with today’s announcement of this being the last flight out, people had to do whatever they could to get out. Today’s charter flight by Eastern Airlines was very full and we are not sure if everyone who was there was able to get out. We hope that the U.S. Embassy will continue to do what is needed to help people get home.  

Here’s what Gwen said earlier today, “Of course part of us would rather stay, just as part of each of the ones we leave behind would like to go home. Uncertain times try us all and our human nature loves any little comfort we can find. I have learned more than ever that comfort is an internal work.  It feels like a sacrifice to leave, but understand the ones staying are making the real sacrifice. We will have a lot to share in the coming days now that we’ll have some down time. We are excited to see and hug our kids. It’s time. They are the real champs and our supporting friends back home should be sainted.”

Nineteen other volunteers are still planning to stay with our community in Lima for the duration of the quarantine there. While the timing is uncertain on when they will be able to return home, they are all choosing to stay in order to continue serving the people they came to serve over a month ago. The truth is that times are always uncertain. I think we are all just more aware of it as we are having to face it more right now. 

I am looking forward to welcoming Jason and the others home. I believe they are coming home changed for the better and will have much to add to our ongoing efforts to raise funds and support for the people in Peru.  

Please consider donating to help cover the costs of the charter flights today. We are certain it was the right time for these four to come home. We are also certain that this time is uncertain so we will continue to take it day by day. Thank you all for being on the journey with us.

If you have already donated please spread the word and ask your friends to help us.  We are so thankful for ALL of the support during this time.  It is changing lives no doubt — and I believe that is true for both the recipient and the giver. Let’s keep going.

This is Kelvin. He lives in one of our buildings and we recently asked him to join our volunteer staff team. He loves freedom and justice. Today is an important day in the history of Venezuela, this is what Kelvin had to say about it —

“A day like today April 19, 1810 was the beginning of a fight to achieve independence in Venezuela under the yoke of the Spanish empire.

A fight that continues into the middle of the 21st century, for Venezuelans who continue to fight in and out of the country to achieve their independence from usurpers of institutional power. They have not stolen our freedom, our dreams, or our opportunity to be close to our families and beloved.

Today, we don’t fight against the Spanish empire, but against the drug trafficking and injustices of a failed government. We also fight against a pandemic that places us in confinement in our homes, but that will not stop the fight to, and dream of, being free.

The battle of 200 years ago is still alive today and we will continue fighting for all people to be free.”