Off The Plateau; Rich and Julie’s Peruvian Chronicles Part Two: Izcuchaca On Our Own...

Last Sunday was an adventurous day for us. We left our apartment about 7am and took a taxi to the “Arco Pata Terminal” in the Santiago district of Cusco. “Terminal” is used very loosely since it was a side street with some small station wagons parked along it. We found our ride to Izucuchaca there. There was someone already in the front seat of the car and a campesino women sitting in the middle of the back seat. Rich sat on one side of her and Julie on the other. Then the driver opened the back of the car and two more people climbed in, sitting, facing out the back of the wagon. We were off in less than 5 minutes. Of course the seatbelts didn’t work, so we hung on and were grateful for our prayers we said before we left. We climbed over the mountains out of Cusco and down the other side to Izcuchaca, about 30 minutes away. The driver dropped us off at the plaza and had about 30 minutes to enjoy the activities going on around us and to feel the luscious Cusqueño sun on us. It was great!

We were in Izcuchaca for a leadership training session before Sacrament Meeting. We were supposed to begin at 9am, but finally got started at 9:15am with the missionaries assigned there, the Primary President and two newly baptized women who didn’t have a calling yet. About 9:30am the Relief Society President arrived and at 9:45 the Family Group President showed up. In the end we had a great meeting but it sure is frustrating to get people where they need to be on time! The regular Sunday meetings were wonderful and we enjoyed our time with the members.

To get home we had to walk to the third streetlight on the main street and somewhere along there we would hear drivers calling out “Cusco!” We never did hear anyone shouting anything and finally Rich asked a man inside a garage where to find the cars back to Cusco. The man said, “Right here, but there are no more cars!” His car was full so he took off. Happily, seconds later, another car pulled in and we jumped in to claim our seats! Four more people joined us and we arrived back in Cusco at the “terminal” safe, and somewhat sound, in a downpour. Just another Sunday here!
Tuesday while Julie was working in the Government Building she heard continuous whistles and shouting. The big metal gates were all closed and locked to prevent anyone from entering and as she watched from behind the safety of the gates, the guard told her that the medical workers were marching and protesting again. They want better pay and working conditions. They have been on strike off and on since we arrived in July.
On Thursday, there was another march with shouting, whistles and locked gates. This time, it was the illegal miners protesting that the government wants them to pay taxes! The NGO efforts to limit mining have succeeded in driving out many of the “Evil Foreign Companies.” Previously these companies have paid a huge bond to reclaim disturbed lands that they mined off of, should they fail to do it themselves. They paid large royalties, under Peruvian and international laws. They paid for the land they mined from either in outright purchases or with royalties to the land owners and hired most of their labor from the local people paying legal taxes all supervised by the Peruvian government.
Their ouster has opened the way for local miners to get out there and mine the easy to get to mineral, mostly in the Amazon Basin where they use hydraulic mining methods to wash gold from the muds. This destabilizes the banks and washes huge volumes of the jungle away. They also use mercury to get at the gold contaminating these waters. They are completely uncontrolled and, they protest the government’s efforts to tax their ill-gotten gains. Sorry for the soapbox..
We saw one fail this week. The windshield of a taxi bore the words “Jesus Diving.” We suspect that it meant, “Driving,” but it still lacked sense unless the driver’s name was Jesus, but then, who cares? Speaking of drivers, we were in a taxi that got rear ended at a complete stop on our way to the opening session of General Conference. We felt badly for the driver, a nice kid with a nice new car filled with stuffed Shar Pei doggies. He was obviously dismayed and we had to get out and find another taxi while he did battle with the truck driver.

Julie has begun walking up to work with me and then goes home to get ready for work in the mornings. We are finally really adjusted to the altitude and manage our six or seven miles a day and feel better for it. One of the cool things is wandering around the streets with the array of strange Quechua names. There is Wayrurupata (Quechua for "the place where they grew wayruru potatoes.") There is a lane called Qhoña (meaning mucus) but our favorite this week is Amargura (Bitterness), just look at the stairs we climbed!

Since we realized it is autumn at home and we are missing the green chili crop, we began reflecting upon some of the things we miss. Huge jars of peanut butter and chewing gum are among the chief absences. Oh, and we miss New Mexican cuisine and barbecue. However, we fully realize that when we were in the states we missed the fruit (granadilla,(passion fruit), chirimoya, sauco, aywamanto, figs, papaya, etc.) and vegetables that we have come to love here. We missed Peruvain Yogurt, the best in the world. We missed the huge brazil nuts and the choclo con queso. In all, it is a pretty straight trade.
We make new friends and meet old ones and we are thrilled to be in the capital of the Inca Empire, every day. We are blessed to have plenty to do and we are having more fun than we think we ought to. We get to feeling a little bit guilty from time to time. If you are wondering whether or not you should go on a mission, just do it!