Earthquake, Strike and Cebiche!

Sunday in Curahuasi was warm and lovely. Julie ended up not teaching her Relief Society lesson she had prepared because they had a meeting with everyone on a lesson from the Ensign. She was pretty relaxed as we moved into another room for Sacrament Meeting. She was preparing the electric keyboard to play the hymns for the meeting when the Branch President asked if she would give a 10 minute talk! She had an opening hymn and Sacrament hymn to panic through, her mind racing furiously, what to speak about in Spanish for 10 min?!! As the Sacrament hymn finished she remembered that she had her I Pad with her. As she quickly opened it, HALLEUJAH! There were some talks in Spanish! A HUGE THANK YOU TO OUR DAUGHTER MARIA AND HER SPANISH EXPERTISE! She had translated some of Julie’s talks into Spanish so another foreign language disaster was averted. We just have to always be prepared with a lesson, and now obviously, a talk, every time we attend a church meeting in Peru! Julie is hoping her sanity will survive the never ending unknown factor that occurs every Sunday.

A few weeks ago, we mentioned that Liliana Sullasi was going on a mission and we heard back from her. She is a young woman from Espinar whose mother named a baby after our two sons. So there is a young man today in Arequipa with the reasonably cumbersome name, even for Peru of, Glen William Sullasi Huisa… Anyway, Liliana is going to the Lima Norte mission. This is news more directly aimed at family who knew the Sullasi Huisa family.

We had a pretty calm week until Wednesday. Julie was at home working on the computer about 11:40am when she suddenly felt dizzy. She couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her, but it passed quickly and then seconds later it happened again. She noticed the tall, red gladiolas swaying in the vase, and the clotheslines in the hallway swinging back and forth and realized …Earthquake! She jumped up ready to dash out the door when it stopped.  The 7.0 quake hit due west of Cusco, on the coast of Peru near a town called Acari. There was damage there and to some adobe homes in the Arequipa area. Fortunately, it appears that it wasn’t totally devastating.  It was felt as far north as Lima and south in to Chile. Rich was working in the basement of the government building and didn’t feel a thing! He felt left out of all the “excitement.”

On Thursday, a country-wide strike against the cost of living, the airport here in Cusco, the price of coca leaves, the weather….and anything else that was bothering people, stopped things up in Cusco. The schools were closed; there were no buses and just a few brave taxi drivers working. Most of the businesses were closed or semi-closed. The semi-closed businesses only had their little doorway open. You have to bend over to get inside. They had their big metal doors/gates shut in case things got nasty on the streets. There were some streets with big boulders and garbage strewn across them and the police had their big bus out ready to haul the riot police where ever needed. The government building where we work was semi-opened, so could continue our project. While we worked we could hear the drums pounding and people chanting as group after group marched past our building. It appears that things remained relatively calm this time. When we arrived here in July, the government building had broken windows, and dried egg had run down the windows that weren’t broken. The results of a strike that wasn’t so peaceful.  Just a few weeks ago they finally replaced the windows and cleaned up the mess. We ran across numerous little sales on the street including the ice cream vendors selling things at a reduced rate on account of the strike. Anything to make a few extra soles.

There must be some “strike rule” because at 3pm, the streets were filled with taxis again and life was back to normal more or less, with more drunks on the street than usual, and a complete party atmosphere in the air! On our way back to the office, after our lunch outing, we were accosted by drunk strikers. They shook our hands when we said New Mexico, “Ah, ya… Yo soy Mexico!” (Oh, yeah… I am Mexico… ) one of them slurred and then introduced himself as Garcia, we are not sure what he meant by any of this but, then, neither was he... They shook our hands and slapped our backs.

Many vehicles in Peru boast labels. We have included a photo of one such car that carries the mysterious slogan “Jo Fear…” Many of these carry dedications to saints “Guíame Señor de Chapi” etc. One day we saw a tiny car that bore the slogan emblazoned across its tiny rear window, “Veloz Como El Viento Y Poderoso Como El Mar!” (Fast As The Wind And Powerful As The Sea!) We could not help but smile.

Of late we have been watching the construction of a six story apartment building. We walk by it every day. It is a pretty snappy looking apartment building and the men are working on the construction at the top. They have a uniquely terrifying system of lifting timbers and rebar to the top. They have a boom with a pulley and a cable connected to two heavy steel buckets, one on each end. When they want to haul the 5 meter (15 feet) long by about 1½” thick re-bars to the top, they tie them to the bottom bucket and let the top bucket drop. Then they grab the bars at the top and drag them to where they do their work. They haul up about five each time. They have no one preventing people from passing beneath the suspended loads. No worker uses a hard hat or a safety harness on this site. Many wear tennis shoes… Suspended loads are one of the most common ways that industrial workers end their careers violently, in the world.

One little neighborhood detail that we have neglected to mention is the fruit cart. A lady and a man make the rounds several times during the morning and sometimes in the afternoon. They have a very garbled speaker system through which they announce their passing. It pretty much defies identification of any recognizable words. We recognize the voices and in a certain Pavlovian way, have come to understand that that series of sounds means fruit.

Rich got into a taxi with a young fellow who started asking about us. We always talk with the taxi drivers about our family, time in Peru, our mission and activities here. Anyway, when he told this kid we have seven grandchildren, he said, “Well, how old are you?” Then, to Rich’s response of fifty-eight, he said, “Well, you are very well conserved.” That, oh so Peruvian phrase, always makes us feel a bit like a jar of Smuckers…

It hailed like crazy on Saturday afternoon and then it poured down rain. It looks as though the rains have started and our dog pack continues to be a source of entertainment.

Cebiche Chef for the school kids



Only tried to bite Rich once



Partial Pack Stalking the Fruit Cart

Sort of closed on account of the strike

"Just in case" police bus

Marching, chanting, whistle blowing, strikers

Clarification of "the" menu... NOT! 



"Jo Fear"

 

Proto Saya Dancers

Dangling Huge Re-bar

Fruit Cart

The Bus Terminal

Wheel Barrow Fruit Cart

Ice Cream Vendor

The  Flower  Market

Julie with her flowers in front of Q'ori Cancha

Mixed Seafood

Cebiche