Power On - Power Off

Sunday was a busy day, we attended our first Sacrament meeting here and Julie ended up playing the piano. It doesn’t take long to use your talents here. The Ttio (Quechua name, pronounced T’io) Ward was very friendly and welcoming. Our friend Cesar Rodriquez, who was the mission secretary when we lived here before, sat down next to us. It was funny because he didn’t have his glasses on and didn’t recognize us at first; afterwards there were lots of hugs and remembering our time together.

Later Sunday evening there was a stake fireside for all the new members (2 years or less), all the missionaries in the stake, stake president and mission president. We were asked to explain our mission assignment and bear our testimonies. Nothing like jumping right in! Afterwards the stake president said he should have us speak at the Young Single Adult Conference this weekend. Julie’s hoping he forgets about that! She is not sure her Spanish is ready yet.

We wish we had spent more time in the Family History Library with Sister Kraus. Everyone thinks we’re experts on how to index and use Family Search! Sadly, we are not, in fact the Peruvians will have to teach us!

Monday we had a true “Mission Miracle.” We went to the central market to buy fruits and vegetables, as we were leaving Rich realized that he didn’t have his Peruvian cell phone.  At first we thought he had been pick-pocketed, but realized that couldn’t have happened, so the phone had been dropped somewhere or left in the taxi we took. We were frantic because all of our contact numbers in Peru were in the phone.  Fortunately, Rich had written down the cell number in a notebook so he tried to call several times with no answer. We made our way home, said a fervent prayer, and Rich went to look for the current mission secretary who lives below us. Out on the street he found a public phone and tried the cell number one more time. This time a woman answered and said her son had found the phone. She was just getting ready to board a bus and told Rich to hurry to meet her before the bus left. He grabbed a taxi, described himself to her as the “bald gringo missionary” and went flying through the streets of Cusco to meet her. She had the phone and all is well. We were truly blessed!



Our Route to Work

Our trainer, Alan Lopez, arrived from Lima to help us get our equipment set up in the archives where we will be working. Happily, the birth, marriage and death records for Cusco and its districts have been moved from the Cusco University Offices to some rooms in the basement of the Cusco Government Offices off campus. We’re really happy because the University is always having a “huelga” (strike) of some type and everything is locked down. They actually had a strike on Wednesday, our first day of real work, but we were able to get into our offices and start to work. 

Alan, our Trainer

Julie at work



We were all ready to begin when the lights and power went off in the whole building! Sometimes things can get pretty frustrating here! The power eventually came on and we were able to get our first book digitized. We are in the basement of this building; they have a good room set up for us with nice bathrooms across the hall. The walls are cement but painted white and it’s very nice except that it is FREEZING!!  Naturally there is no heat, after lunch we brought a little space heater from home and when Rich plugged it in, it blew nearly all the electrical outlets in the whole building!!  We found an outlet outside the office that works and on Thursday we bought an extension cord and finally started to get some work done. We’re still freezing because we’re nervous about plugging in the heater and who knows when an electrician will come. Monday and Tuesday are “días feriados” (holidays) for Peru’s “Fiestas Patrias” (their independence day) so we probably won’t see an electrician for some timeL we suspect that the place wasn’t wired correctly in the first place… no surprise!  We hear big firecrackers going off at all times of the day and night in preparation for the big Fiesta tomorrow!

We had a fun birthday dinner with Brother & Sister Agüeros’ family. Marisol, their daughter, turned eight and is getting baptized on Saturday. They invited us downstairs to have lasagna and cake with them at 9pm. It was fun and we enjoyed our visit with them. Peruvians like to party, they pretty well always start late and usually don’t provide any advanced warning!

Friday began well, we were able to get three books digitized, went for lunch, came back ready to work until 6pm or so and… surprise! No electricity again!! We wonder how anything ever gets done here!

We spent the afternoon getting old camera equipment boxed up and out of the apartment and down to the bus station to send it to Lima. What an adventure that was! There were a bazillion people coming and going for Fiestas Patrias, it was a zoo!  The bus company would not take the old computer (too much responsibility) so Alan has to take it on the plane with him. We came home so grateful for our little, quiet apartment. We hunkered down, watched a movie on the computer and relaxed. It was great!

On Saturday, Rich was the tour guide for Alan our trainer. They visited some of the major sites around Cusco, Qorikancha, Saqsayhuaman, Puka Pukara, Q’enko (for the linguists out there, these apostrophes mark either very guttural consonants q’, a k, deep in the back of the throat. A t’ is almost like a d) and Tambo Machay. Julie has been to those places many times so she stayed home and organized and cleaned our apartment. It was fun and peacefulJ Saturday evening we attended the baptism of Marisol Agüero and had an enjoyable time. Alan went to Machu Picchu for his first time on Saturday night. He was excited to see and learn about his own country.

When Rich and Alan were at Saccsayhuaman, this little girl came up and asked if they would give her a tip for this picture of her. Typically this is the small change in one’s pocket. When Rich gave her 30 centimos, she whined and said, “that won’t cover it.” Alan asked her what she meant and she said she could not buy candy with so little money. They both laughed and gave her a few more centimos…



Qoricancha

Sacsayhuaman



Tambo Machay



The little hijacking girl

Before Rich left for the sights, we got a call from the mission president. He has been trying to figure out how to best use us in our “free time.” There are many struggling branches of the church and we had told him we don’t want to be bored. He told us that he wants us to attend the Curahuasi branch, two hours west of Cusco. When Rich called the branch president there, he told Rich that they have such strong local traditions for Fiestas Patrias that they have suspended their meetings for Sunday… We see that we  have our work cut out for us. Espinar’s early days all over again!!!

We have a brand new, fancy, LG Washing machineJ Brother Agüeros’ original plan was to put it on the roof of the apartment building where there are spaces to do laundry. One of the many problems putting it up there is the lack of electricity! We would need to run a 50+ foot extension cord across the roof, down a hole two floors down through a vent in our shower and across the top of the shower to plug it in. We both got the giggles just thinking about it; the alternative is a little easier, the machine is in our apartment and we’ll have to run hoses to the bathroom for water and draining. Fingers crossed that it doesn't leak on the parquet floors! We’re just happy to have a washing machine and we have no problem taking clothes up to the roof to hang for drying.

The Agüeros at Marisol's baptism

We’re getting used to our little apartment. We always have our coats on, even with the space heaters we have. Thank goodness for the “Little Hotties” hand a foot warmers we brought.  We will survive!

We found a restaurant with good cebiche!