Pitumarca Easter

The  nice  bus to Checacupe

On our way to the Plaza de Armas to take our microbus to Pitumarca

Guinea pigs on their way to  market, or hey, wait, this is the market...

Pitumarca Plaza de Armas

Child laborers in Pitumarca

Pitumarca fruit market

Flashy skirt in Pitumarca

More flashy duds

 

Pitumarca chapel

Pitumarca  chapel



Pitumarca Patio



Pitumarca priesthood class



Julie with one of the Pitumarca sisters

Waiting  for the bus in Checacupe

Well, Rich too...

Knitting club in Cusco

Practicing for the police march

At work

We tried out a French restaurant

Siete  Culebras artsy shot

Habas seller

March Practicers

March Practicers

March Practicers/Flag raisers

March judges

 

March Practicers

March Practicers

Just look

Worker transport

 

We left our apartment early Easter Sunday to travel to Pitumarca. A taxi and two busses later we arrived in time to enjoy talks about the Savior, his atonement and resurrection.  We had a wonderful Sunday with the humble members there and enjoyed the quiet pastoral setting and the spirit that spoke to us. We normally make our way back to Checacupe and stand on the side of the highway and flag down any big travel bus going by to get back to Cusco.  Because it was Easter Sunday and the end of Semana Santa all of the busses were jammed without even standing room only. We tried for 30 minutes to get a ride and decided it was futile.  The next bus that stopped was nearly empty and going the opposite direction but we dashed across the highway and jumped on. We made it to Sicuani, another 45 min. up the road and to the bus station where we managed to buy tickets to return to Cusco. We finally made it home; it was a long 12 hour day! Our friends downstairs, the Agüeros had invited us to dinner to celebrate Easter and Brother Agüeros birthday, lasagna and birthday cake never tasted better!

Since there were no strikes or holidays, we were able to work our 8 hours every day this week! That is a first in a long time. We were able to take nearly 7000 images, a lot, considering how difficult some of the books were.

We had 25 students out for the Book of Mormon Institute class that Rich teaches on Thursday nights. They are enthusiastic and eager to learn. It was a fun evening.

One of our friends happened to mention that their home had a spring of water in the center of it. She mentioned that springs could be dangerous and that this one was essentially full of evil spirits. Her father is something of a shaman himself, she told us, had to bring in a better shaman to get it to dry up. Her brother had gotten into this spring and had become quite sick so her father had healed her brother using a guinea pig. The shaman around here rub the sick person all over with a live guinea pig and then dissect the little guy and find out which organs were affected by the ailment. Don’t ask me how they discern this but most claims that they got better from the guinea pig rub…

Though free from strike interference, we did have a fair bit of marching about. School kids marched in support of the police force and on Saturday, one of the tech. schools, SENATI, had a march to promote workplace safety. It was a pretty positive thing to see.