Tags
chiclayo, children, childrens missions, cindy nickell, hunger, kids, lima, ministry, missions, peru, pucallpa, south america, stephanie mclaughlin, Trinitys Angels
It seems every other day we go into town to buy fruit and produce. The local stores don’t have refrigerators so everything tends to wilt and dry out quickly. Not much is really fresh looking so people buy enough to last for a just day or two or hoping that when they go back a “fresh” shipment will have arrived. You should see the carrots here. We have never seen carrots that could bend into a perfect “U-shape” without breaking! No really !!!
Since the stores specialize in what they sell; produce, fruit, bread, drinks, or meat – we stop at 2 or 3 along the way to pick up what we need. The meat store – yeah – we don’t go there. It’s open air, the flies are plentiful and the smell is unbearable – so that is one stop we never have to make!
Meet Gregoria…… 
We think she is in her late 70’s. Moving here about 54 years ago from another Peruvian town, she says “No one lived here then. It was a nice town!”
Sitting on a small wooden stool on a busy street corner all day long, she sells fruit and some vegetables. Nothing else. That is how she makes her living. She doesn’t have the overhead of a store. No store front! Just a couple of steps and the door of an abandoned building to display her items for sale. 7 days a week from 7 am to about 8 pm or a little later you will find her here. Nothing keeps her away, not the blazing heat or the Amazon thunderstorms. Last time we went to buy fruit it was raining really hard and … she was there…sitting on her wooden stool with a plastic tarp covering her – waiting for customers! We were soaked – she was dry!
Her smile lights up everything around her. We love, love, love stopping and talking with her. And sometimes we end up with more fruit that we intended. She is a GREAT salesperson!!! We always leave her filled with enthusiasm and a great feeling. She IS a blessing.
Gregoria is one of those “fixtures” in a city that everyone knows. As long as she is there … on her stool … at that corner … all is right with the world.
Taking Gregoria along with us Into His Mighty Grip,
Stephanie
Trinity's Angels Ministries 