Stone Grilled Steaks

Wall Dog

Rasta Dog

Altiplano Anvil

Machu Puente Breakfast Club

Dapper

Random Dogs

Waiting for the bus

Planter Dog

Couple

Random Dog

Flowers etc.

Random Dog

Dapper #2

Ruins from the other side

Ruins from the other side

Ruins from the other side

Ruins from the other side

Schnauzer buddy

Random Dogs

Random Dog

Peru Rail

Not Eliza Doolittle

Patas

Electric Girl

Sleeping  it off

One of the Usual Suspects baying

Painting comptetion

Painting comptetion

Painting comptetion

Painting comptetion

Painting comptetion

Moms

OSHA nightmare #1

OSHA nightmare #2

OSHA nightmare #3

OSHA nightmare #4

Gladys, Diego y Julie

Martin Chambi's Photo of 1950 earthquake damage

The same building from Martin Chambi's Photo of 1950 earthquake damage

Martin Chambi's Photo of the Siete Culebras complex

The same building from Martin Chambi's Photo of the Siete Culebras complex

Restaurant girl

Art aficionado at  the painting competion

Art competition nearly final results

Art competition nearly final results

Art competition nearly final results

Art competition nearly final results

Art competition nearly final results

Art competition nearly final results

The Slant

Buffalo Stone

Art competition final results

Art competition final results

Art competition final results

Art competition final results

Art competition final results

Art competition final results

Art competition final results

Art competition final results

Art competition final results

Saturday morning shoppers

Acronym abuse; there is nowhere on the front this building that tells us what purpose it serves.

Chicken feet in the market

We were exhausted when we got up at 3:00am Sunday morning for our trip to Tarcuyoc. Fortunately we were able to sleep most of the way to Sicuani, and then dragged ourselves onto the bus for Espinar. We dozed on and off again and arrived in Espinar in time to cram into a packed combi and make our way to Tarcuyoc. As always, the members warmly welcomed us and we feel so grateful to be able to spend time with these people, in spite of our fatigue. Rich taught a two hour temple preparation class and Julie had primary out in the grass. The Hatun Mama fixed a delicious lunch of soup and stir fried rice with chicken. We were starving since our bottle of water and little package of wafer cookies had long worn off. We will miss not being able to go there as often as we have been. With Rich’s new calling we will be going in different directions.

On Tuesday, Julie taught Orlando and a new young woman named Lisbet , English. It was an enjoyable time and they seem to be eager to learn. After they left, we hustled off to Rich’s Isaiah class where Giovanni, the young man who is struggling with questions about the church, showed up.  We were happy to see him and he really seemed to enjoy the class. He said he will be back and seems sincere in wanting to learn more. 

Julie taught English to Marvid and Yahir on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. They love coming and Yahir’s mom said that they spend their recess time teaching their friends “Head, Shoulder’s, Knees and Toes,” and “Five Little Monkeys.” They are so cute and eager to learn. Marvid was reading a worksheet and read the word “banana,” he slapped his forehead and said, “Como lo sabia?” (How did I know that?) He was really proud of himself.  Because Julie doesn’t charge anything for these lessons, she gets paid “in kind.” She has been given big blocks of cheese, delicious honey and big bunches of bananas from the jungle. A pretty good deal we think.

We found a really good restaurant named “Uchu” that serves various meats and seafood on a blazing hot stone. We love the alpaca, lamb and beef combo. It’s a fun place to go and we always get a chuckle because from 6:30pm to about 8:30pm, the place is just about all gringos. About 8:30pm, the Peruvians and other Latinos start coming in. We definitely like to eat earlier rather than later.

All this week there has been another painting competition in the Tupac Amaru Plaza in Wanchaq. It’s fun to walk by every day and see the progress on the paintings. The weird thing is, there is never a show of all the finished paintings or who won! It’s one of the many things we still don’t understand about living here.

While we walked up some steps Friday morning Julie suddenly felt a hand slip into her hand. She looked down and there was a little boy, slightly crippled and stone deaf, holding her hand. We learned that his name is Diego, he’s nine years old and he was walking to the school for the deaf with his sister Gladys. He was so sweet and had the biggest smile as he held Julie’s hand. As we reached the top of the stairs, Gladys showed us where they had come from, clear across that part of Cusco and up the stairs on the mountain opposite us! What a trek! Gladys is in high school and brings her little brother every day to this special school. What sweet kids. We took their photo per Diego’s request.

Our progress in the archives slowed down this week since we are working with huge, heavy books that have to be taken one side, at a time equaling twice as long. They are far too big and wide to take both sides at the same time and they weigh a ton! We’re getting a workout moving these beasts around.

We had some questions from last week’s photos of the ridiculous number of political posters. We cannot help but agree and wonder at the objective but at least we see school kids practicing their art, painting moustaches and blacking out teeth on them. Rich watched a group of boys act as though they were defacing public property for their act of vandalism…

Many years ago we had a wonderful maid here in Peru. Her name is Maria Quispe and she worked for us for seven years. We just learned that her daughter, Lisbeth who was a very little girl then, has just received her mission call to serve in Antofagasta, Chile. We are so happy for her. She will have a wonderful experience.