Monday, February 22, 2010

Life in Peru

We have been teaching our taxi driver (finally caught up with him) and he and his wife are very interested in the gospel.  They are the family Martinez.


Every time we go out to see them, we see this Quechua woman sitting in the sun on her doorstep.


We have a herd of sheep and goats that wander through the field across from our house.

Prep Day!

Mondays are our Prep Day.  We recover from Sunday and get ready for the rest of the week. 

This is our washing machine!


When visitors see our toaster, we have to make toast so they can see what it is!



We have plenty of seating for our visitors.  Members are very kind and drop by with fruit or food or  helpful information on how to do things here, like cooking or washing clothes or cleaning.
We were told to always wear our flip flops in the shower.  Right now our showers are cold but it feels good because it's so hot here.  We have to brush our teeth with bottled water and be careful to not get shower water on our mouths because of the bacteria.  None of the Peruvians can understand why we can't drink their water because it is clorinated, but the pipes the water travels in are so old and have lots of bacteria. 

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Feb 9 - On Our Own

We left the hotel, the Mannings, and our"security blanket" for our new "real" home.
Our "Casa Azul" has #1-hot shower water, a frig and stove.  We are lucky to have a water storage tank on our roof.

On Sunday(Fast Sunday) we attended 3 branches for Sacrament Mtg and then went "home."  After 2 hours we got our ventiladores together and working.  We have 2 big floor fans so far.  We had a visit with Christian, a taxi driver set up.  First attempt - no one home - left note.  Second attempt - no one home - left note, but found out we were at the wrong house the first time!  We will meet Sat.  at 8 AM.  We 'll see.
For supper we had mac and cheese - no utensils or dishes.  I had a TBS measure spoon we shared.  I didn't work very well and also didn't taste very good.

Feb 5 - Trip to Nasca

Pres Manning and family picked us up and we stuffed our 6 suitcases into the car along with their 5 bags and 7 of us set off for Nasca.  I had my first reminder of the "squat " toilets.  These old knees are really creaking!

Feb 4-Lima CCM

Wow!  What a whirlwind of studying and praying.  At the CCM we kneel in prayer almost hourly with opening and closing each class.  The maestros were magnifico and we crammed in a lot of Spanish grammar.  Friday before we left Elder and Sister Schellenburg took us AWOL and we walked to the corner service station for batteries since our battery charger is dead.   
President and Sister Whetten(CCM Pres)were honored while were were at lunch.  Several of the area authorities came to eat with them and the dish was cuy.  The authorities had theirs served with the heads on.  Pres and Sis Whetten did not have to look their cuy(guinea pig) in the face as they ate.   We were glad not to be honored.

Jan 30-On Our Way

This morning we arrived at the SLC Airport a little before 6.  Of course, we didn't know how to check in and the lady at the Delta desk had to come help us.  Our luggage checked in at 59,48,49,49-50.  Awe only had to take out the peanut butter jar at security.  However, when we were sitting, waiting to board the plane, we discovered we had no laptop.  We forgot to pick it back up after we passed security!  So, Elder Jones hurried back-of course, we were at the end of the last tunnel- and retreived it.  Luckily, Lost and Found had taken care of it for us.  So we do still have a computer!

Arrived in Lima about midnight-spent 2 hours in line for immigration-and were picked up by President and Sister Manning and spent the night at their home. 
We attended Stake Conference which was very touching as we arrived and could hear the choir singing as it was piped out to the overflow.  Their overflow consists of tarps over folding chairs.  The choir was awesome, men in pink ties and women with homemade pink corsages.  I know there is where we are supposed to be at this time.

Provo MTC

They could make a movie about our journey so far.  Elder Jones was very tired and his sprained ankle was paining him terribly.  About our only free minute we found a couch by the front entrance to the Provo MTC.  Of course, it was necessary to put his bad leg on the low table in front of us...just the leg-not the shoe!  I remarked how relaxed we looked with no scriptures, study materials, etc.  I leaned my head on the back of the sofa.  I did mentionhe probably shouldn't have his foot up.  Of course, the head of security thought the same thing.  He wandered by several times, then came over and sad down.  He mentioned that as he had to sometimes tell the Elders not to put their feet on the table, it really didn't look good for Elder Jones to be setting a different example.  He was trying very hard not to offend us into going home.  He sat and visited for half and hour.
Training here was helpful as they prepared us to teach.  We continued our language tutor sessions in the evenings.