Phew, The Party's Over... But Not All The Fun!

Church Pig in Izcuchaca

Cusco Sunrise

Mirror Dogs

Painting in progress

 

The Breakfast Club



Storm in Sepia

La Familia Yagua

We took 7424 photos this week and we received one of the discs of our work to deliver to the archives as part of our commitment to them when a disc is finished. That is exciting for us. We have begun work in birth records of Sicuani and these begin in 1900. They are awesome and in pretty good condition!

After all the partying, fireworks and parades of the last month, this week was extra calm and quiet. We had a wonderful Sunday in Izcuchaca and even met a family from California who is visiting family in Peru for a month. The husband served his mission here forty years ago, then returned and married a Peruvian woman. They are a lovely family.

Monday night we had Family Home Evening with Elder and Sister Rhoades. We watched some videos of success stories with the Perpetual Education Fund. They are getting settled into life in Cusco and are very anxious to get to work. Their supervisor’s daughter had her baby in Idaho and they are visiting for two weeks.

We had to get new Carnet/Visa photos, power of attorney papers and several other papers signed with a fingerprint and notarized. All of this will facilitate moving our Carnet information here to Cusco so that we can get the year sticker on it without having to go to Lima. We hold no high hopes for this, but we shall see.

We are on vacation from Institute for the month of July so our Thursday nights are free for a bit. The two stakes here are preparing for a Family History Fair next Saturday. We will speak in the evening about our work here and why we chose to serve a mission. We have lots of “My Family” booklets to explain to people and hopefully get them excited about their genealogy. We are never here in any of the wards in Cusco on Sunday so we have no idea how well this has been publicized. We’re hoping for a good attendance.

In the mornings we read together from Rich’s grandfather’s journal from his mission to Germany 116 years ago. Many things have definitely changed but it is fascinating to see how much has not and of course, the changes are equally interesting. We have definitely lived in an amazing time where so much has altered in the world and of necessity, in missionary work.

Friday afternoon we met with the Rhoades again and walked around Cusco showing them where to buy some of the things they need for their apartment. Cusco has an amazing “plastic store.” It is called the Plastiqueria but there is so much more. Practically any type of kitchen, bathroom or office supply necessity can be filled here. The array of plastic storage containers is overwhelming. They call them all “Tappers,” taken from Tupperware. Likewise the cooking/baking section with every type, size and shape of pot you can think of is impressive. It’s quite the adventure to walk through it.

We also showed them the Mercado Central “San Pedro.” One can buy almost any kind of fresh fruit, vegetables, potatoes, cheese, nuts, dried fruits, meats, poultry, even fresh frogs legs (as in still kicking), pigs heads and cow snouts there. It is always an experience to wander through; the sights and smells are powerful.

We were thinking of family and celebrating the 4th of July and feeling a little sad that we had to work, and then we laughed and thought of the whole month of parades and fireworks, we have had our fill of those for a while. Rich figures he has spent over ten July 4th’s out of the country. It has always made him feel so blessed to have been born and raised in the USA and it has made us both wish that more who speak disparagingly of the United States could at least see how the other half lives. We are truly blessed to have the rights and privileges that we do as Americans and an even greater responsibility to preserve those things.

On Friday, Rich walked into the little shop downstairs from us to buy a liter of whole milk. He wanted to make some flan. Another customer, a young man of about 25 walked in with him. While Rich looked at the shelves, the owner, about a 40 year old woman and the younger man visited. When Rich turned to pay, she commented, “We were just wondering, what doyou do with the milk?” Then to Rich’s puzzled expression, she said, “You know, do you drink it?”

“Well, yeah…”

“So do you drink it cold or hot?”

“Well, that depends and we like it both ways.”

“Do you drink it straight or do you add water?”

“Well, I am making some flan and this works better but we normally drink the nonfat milk.”
They both just nodded and went away, better understanding the strange milk-drinking gringos from the third floor. We are just guessing that we made the front page of dinner conversations in two different homes that night.

We did just realize why, when Julie offered milk to her English student, Orlando, he took a sip and made a face and did not drink any more. This opened our eyes too.

Many years ago, our maid came to Rich and asked if it were true that North Americans took all of their food in capsules… Despite countless meals together, she had rather believe her uneducated father who heard it in a bar in Arequipa than believe her own eyes…

We went for our usual walk Saturday morning and in a most obscure walk way we ran into some old friends from Tintaya, the mine where we used to live. This man, Jaime Yagua, had worked for Rich when we first arrived there. He and his whole family had come to Cusco to attend their granddaughter’s gymnastics competition. What a fun reunion!

Julie wants to learn some Quechua and is attempting to learn to offer her testimony in it. This is more challenging than one might think. Since Rich has been taking classes he has realized how complex a language it is and how absolutely different from Indo-European languages in so many aspects: Thoughts nearly always end with the main verb conjugation. Whole, lengthy thoughts are often made up of what the teachers call, “Suffixes,” but strictly speaking, they get all hooked together in a compound word that can be made up of a noun and four or five of the “suffixes,” forcing you to keep your ears and eyes peeled. Wasimasiywanchu ch’usashani means, “Will I be travelling with my neighbor?” Since there is no real way to say “The most correct” the compound word, manachusaqniyuq means something more like, not the least correct but by inference… While short words like kan=is and kay=that abound, the language is peppered with these long compounds, manayachasqanninchista and so on. Julie will just stick with her testimony for now!