Our story
Once upon a time there was a boy and a girl.
The boy was born in Lima, Peru on October 13, 1985 where he lived with his Mom and Dad in San Juan de Lurigancho. His first months of life were a struggle as he got a severe infection shortly after birth and was hospitalized for some time. But as he has always been a fighter and he struggled through.
As a young boy he was a bit mischievous. He used to accompany his aunt to work, and legend has it that she had to tie him to a tree to keep him from running off and getting into trouble while she sold from her stand outside the church.
At the age of 7 he moved to the jungle town of Iquitos where he loved to be outdoors, climbing trees, playing with bugs and running around barefoot. When he was 10 years old he was joined in the world by his sister, Karla, who then , much to his dismay, began to steal attention from him. He continued swimming with the piranhas and swinging with the monkeys until he finished high school.
His parents sent him to Lima at the age of 16 to stay with relative and continue his studies. He tried out various things, studied graphic design, before switching to IT and then back to graphic design.
He started coming to Centro Mujer Teresa de Jesus, an NGO in San Juan de Lurigancho. His rebellious spirit and questioning of the system lead him and some other youth to form a group called Carpe Diem, a youth leadership group. It was there n 2006, that his path crossed with the girl.
The girl was born in the frigid land of Edmonton, Canada on October 21, 1983. But due to the fact that she could not get used to the cold, her parents lovingly decided to take her to her heartland of Peru when she was just 2 weeks old, where they had been living prior to her birth.
Her first five years were spent playing with her older sisters Sheona and Ruth in Cuzco and Arequipa at which time Peru clearly left a mark in her heart. Having been wanderlust since birth, she spent the next years learning highland dance in Scotland, watching volcanoes erupt in Ecuador and trying to stay warm in Canada. She was a shy, sensitive child, who was exceptionally good at getting her sister Sheona in trouble for almost everything while she acted very innocent. She loved music and was very studious, a bit of an overachiever, as seems to run in the family.
She decided to stay in Calgary to get her Bachelors of Social Work and create some amazing friendships. She was blessed to have opportunities to travel the world and experience different cultures, friendships and struggles worldwide. She came to Lima, somewhat unwillingly in 2005, where she was doing an internship at Centro Mujer Teresa de Jesus. It was there her path crossed with the boy.
The girl and the boy became friends and worked and played alongside one another on and off for the next 5 years. The girl came and went from the Centre, as an intern, a volunteer, and then while completing her Masters of Social Work. There were times when the girl would go to Canada for months, but she always came back. The boy was a youth leader, student, and designer. He too came and went, leaving for a year to work in Bolivia and travel around South America. He returned and got a job working with the municipality in the office of City Image.
They had many engaging and heated debates about poverty, marginalization, oppression and how to change the world, many of which lasted into the wee hours of the morning. One thing led to another and soon the boy asked the girl out. At which point she swiftly rejected him as she was leaving once again to return to Canada and was unsure if or when she would be back to Peru.
But, she then quickly thought of how to return, with little hope of getting a paying job she got on a plane. She decided to move to Peru permanently. She was lucky enough to be hired by the Centre and then recruited by Oxfam to work as a gender adviser. He continued working for the city and they began to spend much of their free time together. He then began studying Visual Communication. Thankfully, he has always been a fighter and had not given up on the girl. This time when he asked her out, she said yes.
There was a year full of struggles and joys, full of new experiences, changes and challenges. Full of love and laughter and occasionally tears. And that is the story of how they fell in love, when their paths crossed and their journey together began.…
