It's beginning to look something like Christmas!

Our Zone

Ticketed for ... mattresses???

Our dear friend Sthefania Aguero sent these to us in honor of Thanksgiving!

Luncheon

Yet another protest

Eat your heart out Evelyn Wood, just try digesting all of that marching by

Fifteen to pour one slab

Glad to NOT be on that one!

Just happy to be here

     It’s beginning to look ever so remotely like Christmas here in Cusco. The stores are getting decorated and there are Christmas trees and nativities around. There is also Paneton (Christmas Bread) stacked nearly to the ceilings in the stores. The mall even has a huge nativity and a christmas tree. They play Christmas music but the Peruvian villansicos make ours seem kind of pale. They are pretty salsa/merengue beat-based, to say the least!

We have had some amazing rain storms and it is starting to green up and look like summer. The mornings are usually sunny and warm but the afternoons and evenings are wet and cold. We always carry a sweater and an umbrella, we just never know.

The week was eventful as most are. Tuesday was a national holiday celebrating the Immaculate Conception. The churches were busy with many children participating in their first communions. We stayed away from the plaza and enjoyed a quiet relaxing day at home. Rich did a little painting and we even watched a Star Wars movie, because Rich wanted to hear Greedo speak Quechua again. 

We met our district Wednesday morning to take a group picture. Changes are coming up and many sisters and elders are returning home this next week. We really enjoy working and visiting with the young missionaries, they are great young men and women.

After the picture taking, Rich had to get some papers signed to renew his carnet. He then returned to work and finished out the afternoon and left for his mission presidency meeting. While he was crossing the pedestrian bridge to go to the church he was texting our daughter, not even driving. When he started down the steps on the other side he slipped on the wet stairs and landed flat on his back. Miraculously, he didn’t break anything and his suit looks like new after a visit to the dry cleaners. He is still sore but not too bruised.

Thursday Julie taught her English classes and we took lots of pictures. We are able to take two pages at a time with the books we have this week. Those are always fun and, at least satisfying because we can fly through them. 

Rich finished the two page books, turned off the computer and turned the camera back to take the photos for the one page at a time books. When he turned the computer back on, the dreaded blue screen appeared saying something was messed up with the program and he was unable to fix it.

We talked to our supervisor Friday morning and tried all sorts of things with the computer to no avail. Happily we had a lunch with the church employees and service missionaries. We have never thought of ourselves as service missionaries, but we guess we are. It was a fun lunch with good friends. We did feel like it was all a bit random since it was building maintenance, church education system and us…

After lunch we returned to our office, unplugged the computer and brought it home to send to Lima. We are hoping it will get repaired quickly, we want to finish the work here and our weeks remaining are passing rapidly.

Rich left for Andahuaylas early Saturday morning and Julie sent the computer on the bus and caught up on things around the apartment. Rich arrived in Andahuaylas in the late afternoon and had meetings until nearly midnight. 

Sunday, Julie attended the 8:00 am church meetings and was asked to play the piano. She was also asked to speak since they were short a speaker. Thank goodness for her iPad. It was a busy sacrament meeting.

Rich arrived home from Andahuaylas in the afternoon and his back was feeling pretty uncomfortable from his fall and the long, plus seven hour ride. He released a missionary in the evening.

We love the Christmas season and all it represents. The wonderful music and thoughts of family and loved ones brings us great joy and peace at this time. It is so unusual to have it feeling like summer at Christmas time. Still, this is far from the first such experiences. The cloud massifs that build each day are breathtaking and Rich takes many a useless photo of them. We continue  to be fascinated by the beauty and majesty of the Andes.

Karaoke boda!

Yeny Matilde and Alexander's wedding photos

Acted like we where her grandparents...

Saria, Julie, Rebecca and Gloria

flower lady

Homemade jerky started last blog

Overheated fiat

Keeping Cusco GREEN

whoops

Another busy week gone. We attended the civil marriage of our friend Yeny Matilde Yauli and her new husband Alexander. It is the law in most of the world that one has to have a civil marriage before a religious marriage. Yeny and her mom were some of the first baptisms after we moved to Espinar. The wedding was lovely, our friends from Sicuani did all the decorating and the catering. The invitations said 5:30pm, we showed up about 6pm and were told that we were very early. 

Things finally got under way about 6:40pm. There were lots of speeches, dances and the bride and groom singing karaoke to each other. Then we heard that the couple would take the traditional drive around the city while we watched some videos about the couple and some other church videos about families etc. TWO HOURS later, the newlyweds finally showed up at the church again, their car battery died and they spent the whole time trying to replace it at 9pm on a Friday night. 

Fortunately for us our friend Gloria, who we knew from Espinar and her three daughters, Raquel, Rebecca and Sariah arrived and we were able to catch up with her and her children. Her husband Grimaldo had to work and was unable to come. Grimaldo was Rich’s counselor while he served as branch president in Espinar. They’re a wonderful family and it was fun visiting and passing the time with them. The caterers served pretty little hors d’oeuvres while we waited, we’re not sure what they were but they were pretty tasty.

When Matilde and Alexander finally showed up there were toasts and the drink for that was fascinating. It was a mix of Ecco (like Postum or Pero) with sugar, milk and ice all blended to s froth then Sprite added at the last minute. It was actually quite good! We were totally surprised by that one. Dinner was served at 10:30pm, chicken, pastel de fideos, (baked spaghetti layered with veggies and cheese) and a type of Waldorf salad. It was all delicious and very welcome. 

While we ate the couple came to each table for group pictures, a very big tradition with weddings here. The gifts that were brought were given to Matilde’s sisters who were her bridesmaids, who put them on a table. 

About 11:00pm they announced that the party would begin and the music was turned up to an unbearable volume, well to be fair, the volume had been unbearable the whole time… This just went from motorcycle in your ear to jet plane revving decibels.  Mercifully, their taste in music did not lean to the reggaeton or teknocumbia stuff that makes rap seem positively elegant!That’s when we said our goodbye’s and headed for home, we were beat! We are getting old and cranky!

Matilde and Alexander flew to Trujillo on Thursday to be sealed in the new LDS Temple there. Matilde served her mission in Trujillo and she was excited to get back to see friends…

Our supervisor David Tirado came from Lima to do some work in Abancay and to meet with us here in Cusco. Carlos Gonzales also came, he is the new negotiator for Family Search for this area. They and Rich had a meeting with the archive director here in Cusco and Thursday night we had a nice dinner together with David and Carlos. Just as we left the apartment big rain drops began to fall so Julie convinced Rich to run back upstairs and get the umbrellas. Thank goodness he did! We grabbed a taxi and by the time we reached the hotel to pick up David and Carlos it was an absolute flood of rain and hail. What a storm!! We managed to all pile in a taxi and ate at a good pizza place we found.  We got soaked even with the umbrellas.

When we tried to get a taxi home, all the drivers wanted S/10.00 (about $3.00) to take us home. It’s not much in the scheme of things but it normally costs S/4-5 soles. Everyone takes advantage of the rain. We walked to a bus stop and paid S/ .70/each and had a fun adventure in the process. 

Rich had a meeting on Saturday with the Stake Presidents, District Presidents and the mission presidency with Elder Costa an area authority.

We were in town again this weekend and enjoyed our Sabbath with good friends.