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| Andahuaylas L-RPresidents: Mamani, Huayapa and Duque |
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| Juli-President Albarracin with his family |
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| Exquisite beauty |
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| bus line-up for Desaguadero Sunday |
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| Yunguyo interviewees |
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| Towards Andahuaylas |
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| Studies |
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| Clowns on stilts peddling Zika flyers, see below... |
During the past year or so, Rich has travelled to the extremes of the mission once every month, at least. On these trips he has worked with the district presidents of the Juli and Andahuaylas districts. He considers them to be among the finest and most noble men he has known or worked with and has come to love them both. These are men who hold down the fort and carry on the work with little reward other than the spiritual reinforcement and satisfaction that one obtains on the Lord’s errand. Only those who have served like this can appreciate it.
The trips to either extreme take an average of between eight and twelve hours in a combination of busses, mini-busses, and taxis with a component of just plain hoofing. The road to Andahuaylas is the very definition of windy and crosses valleys and mountain passes while the route to Juli is just up to the Altiplano at nearly 14,000 feet above sea level. He gets to stay in a hotel on either end and rest up before meetings and then travels back.
On Saturday, these men came to a meeting that had been called by the Area leadership from Lima. When Rich got to the meeting Presidente Huayapa was absent. When he called, he woke him up. When President Huayapa arrived at the meeting he told Rich that he had left Andahuaylas after a meeting at school and could not get away until 5pm. Andahuaylas is in the drug trafficking corridor and so, his bus was pulled over by the police who were checking everybody’s luggage for cocaine.
As a result he arrived at 5am in Cusco and went to the hotel where he dozed off. The meeting lasted for four hours, and from there he went to catch his bus back to Andahuaylas. What a man!
It is not a lot different for President Albarracin from Juli. In a brief conversation he told us about some of his challenges in his district. It is made up of three branches, widely spread out between Puno and the Bolivian border. He gets around on the system of microbuses, takes taxis or moto taxis to get around. Sometimes, he rents a motel room when it gets late but often he has spent nights, sleeping on the benches of the chapel rather than get a less than comfortable hotel in these little places. He told us that he is worried for our young people who must get around in Ilave at night because of its high degree of delinquency. It is a very dangerous city. He receives a good deal of flak from members who don’t approve of his style, but lo the six years he has served as district president, he has sent twenty young people on missions and pretty well held the district together single-handedly.
It is abundantly clear that the leaders who call these types of meetings from Lima, simply do not understand the reality of these travels. No one, with the possible exception of Rich, can really comprehend the inherent difficulty, danger and exhaustion that results from these trips. They deal with very different but equally challenging circumstances. Considering these challenges and the conditions under which these brethren work, Rich can only say, “What noble men!”
