Mundanity and the Campaign of Terror

Waiting Woman

Waiting Man

A painting of Camelids that Rich has started 

The Toilet Paper Dispenser (no plural)

The Soap Dispenser (no plural)

And the Christmas decorations are still up!

BohemianTourists ala Markus Brody...

The Bingo Game at  the Birthday Party

The Mom's  at  the Birthday Party

All of the kids  at  the Birthday Party

Blue

Read with careful phonetic pronunciation

We don't know, you tell us...

The Flip side called CNN liars, well Duh!

Cool Invasive Roots

We have no idea how we missed this little gem that reads "The Delicious Cholesterol" and they are  purveyors of pork, deep fried in its own fat and yes, it is that good!

Julie was sick on Sunday with a miserable cold so Rich met Dave and Cindy Rhoades (the new missionary couple here) and took them to visit the Izcuchaca group. The only bus available was a city transit bus “Especial” that stopped at every possible bus stop, corner or intersection all the way there. Because of that, Rich and crew arrived late to church at 10:15 for the meeting that was supposed to begin at 10:00am. Since the Stake President was visiting, the meeting didn’t start until 10:30am anyway, so all was well. We had a good chuckle about that.

Julie stayed in bed Monday too and had to cancel her English lesson with Orlando. She was finally back on her feet on Tuesday, and managed to work and teach Orlando in the afternoon. He is a cute thirteen year-old, only child, very polite, sweet and smart. Julie had a fun hour working with him and helping him with his pronunciation. It is definitely one of the hardest things for Spanish speakers to learn, especially the “th” and the impure “s” s followed by a consonant. Orlando and Julie had some good laughs during their lesson.

When we got back from Lima and went into work we discovered that we had no internet. This causes us some problems, though no insurmountable, but difficulties nevertheless. Rich began to investigate the problem and went to the maintenance guy in the building. About an hour passed when a knock came at our door. In came a young fellow from the internet provider and asked where the problem was. When Rich told him that we had a line from three stories above, he told Rich that he had to know where that was to solve the problem… We don’t have a clue where we are hooked in.

We went upstairs to the Technical Secretary’s office and asked what the problem was. She said that they have not had internet or telephones in the building since Friday…Have you called anyone to find out what is the problem??? Well, that would be a good idea.

 

She called the main office…We thought this was the main office… they told her that there were problems and that all of the offices of the whole Department of Cusco were without communication because the bill had not been paid since 2012!!!

 

As the week has worn on, and no one seems to have resolved anything, we have heard that the debt is between s. /70,000 and s./300,000, upwards of $100,000US. Apparently, they are also in arears where the electricity and the water are concerned.

 

Before we went to Lima, Rich ordered a headboard for our bed. About time! He went in to buy one but the bright young woman said that they only sold complete beds but she could have one made for s. /220, about $60US. Rich put s. /100 down and left it for pick up on Monday. He did not make it there until Tuesday but when he got there, there was a different woman running the shop. He showed her his work order, she blanched and said of the woman who took the order, “She quit and never told anyone about the order.” The new shop operator now had no problem selling Rich a headboard that went to another bed but would fit ours…

 

One of the church’s issues in the South America North West Area, it turns out, is the formation of unofficial church units, especially family groups. While  in Lima we  met with a couple of the folks in the office building to find out the  status of  those we are visiting and what we can do to help make them regular units. We came home, armed with information and papers to get filled out. Two of the units, Pitumarca and Tarcuyoc are, indeed unofficial and so we planned to go to Sicuani to meet with the stake presidency there. However, when Tuesday arrived, Julie was still recovering but we wanted to strike while the iron was hot. Rich went alone.

 

Every time we have gone to Sicuani, we have frozen. Rich took hand warmers and a heavy coat for the trip. Can you believe it; they turned the heat on in the bus? You could not see out of the bus windows for the rivulets in the steam that coated the windows. By the time he reached town, he needed another shower from sweating in the sauna/Bus “Especial.”

 

He made it just in time for the stake presidency’s meeting and met with an old friend there who is one of the bishops now. The bishop had stepped out of his ward council meeting but went back in and told them that Rich was there. When their meeting ended, a pretty steady stream of people came by the office where they were working and peered around the corner, curious to see the bald gringo. One of the visitors was another old friend, Marco Peña’s wife; Rosalía came in and gave Rich a big hug. It was a great couple of hours.

 

Following the meeting, Rich barely made it to the station to catch the last bus, back seat and now, the refrigeration was back on. He had to wear his overcoat, stocking cap and gloves all the way home. He walked back into our apartment at 11:45pm.

 

Friday night the Agüeros invited us downstairs to celebrate Marisol’s birthday. She is nine years old and we had fun reminiscing about her baptism last year. She had a lot of friends over along with their mothers and some fathers, so it was a noisy, chaotic, fun evening. Birthday parties here are very different from our typical child’s birthday party in the states. Instead of our 1-2 hour maximum, parties where the kids get dropped off and then picked up, here, the parents usually come too and the parties can go on for hours. We were told that Marisol’s party would begin at 6pm, so we showed up at 6:15 and all the kids were already there with their moms. Over the course of the evening we were served popcorn, chicha (the purple corn drink), chicken salad on rolls, “Colombian pot stickers” (fried wontons with a cheese filler) with guacamole, various candies and cupcakes. We finally left about 8:30 with the party still going strong.

 

Some weeks ago we posted that a yellow dog that had previously shown us not antipathy whatsoever, began to menace Julie. He and a not-so-little, black and tan cur would bark and snarl at her and the yellow dog wound up nipping her on the back of her leg. Now, we are dog-lovers as any who know us will attest, however, we will not be bullied by dogs.

 

So we began to practice our own version of psychological warfare with these dogs. At first Rich scolded and looked meaningfully at both dogs, but this did not solve it for Julie when she walked through. Though a little more respectful, they still barked and harassed. So, in vinegar, Rich soaked some habanero powder we brought with us to put into little squirt bottles that we carry on our walks through these guys area of operations, a little make-shift pepper spray.

 

They are not always out but patience paid off. In different moments we have nailed both dogs. Now, we can walk very near to them. Since we are the only Anglo people who walk in this path, they recognize us and we only have to pull a bottle of hand sanitizer out of our pockets and they whimper, whine, dart back and forth and then scramble for the hills. We could not inspire more fear if we were Beelzebub himself. We should probably not laugh at their discomposure but it is a little hard…