Back to Work and On the Road Again

a painting  Rich did  "Looking West from Choquehuanca"

Topical application of coca

Topical application of coca 2

High rains make the Vilcanota River look like a  chocolate  shake

Altiplano clouds

Greening up

More greening up

Guinea pig ranchers

Burning off the old grass

Altiplano clouds

We’re back to work and it feels great! We’re so happy to be over our colds. When we went to work on Monday there was no internet again. We also noticed that the security guards were the only ones working. Apparently, after an election and a new party takes control, everything shuts down for the transition. There hasn’t been anyone working in the local government offices since after Christmas. This is not to imply that anyone in government here actually works at other times but at least they are on site. So, there has been no internet and there will be new people taking over. We are still dumbfounded at times. This is Socialism, in our face.

There is now a new director of the archives and we initiated a meeting with him on Wednesday. He seems very likeable and interested in what we are doing. We presented him with two 1 terabyte discs full of names that we have taken, he was very happy to receive them. We mentioned that we really need the internet connection in our office to do our work and we were told they would check into it. We know what that means, sometime…..maybe…..

 Peru never ceases to surprise us. Julie went in to work first thing Thursday morning, and miracle of miracles, the internet was working! We just shake our head in wonder and amazement. Our naïve optimism has become somewhat jaded in the swirling miasma of collectivist bureaucracy, so we immediately doubted the source of initiative in getting it hooked up. Still, it is there. We had a productive week and learned that we took nearly 290,000 images last year. We wish we’d known that, we might have stepped up our game a bit to make it an even 300,000, just our anal retentive need for round numbers. That’s our goal for this year and we’re going to personally keep track of our own numbers.

There are some things that we are so used to that we don’t think them odd anymore. For instance, Avenida Huayruropata, one of the main drags in Cusco, has a section that is nothing but tire shops. None of the tire shops have space to actually change tires inside, so across the road in front of all these shops, along the side of this busy street, there are dozens of cars and trucks on jacks, tree stumps, bricks and occasionally we see a jack stand. There, workers change tires practically around the clock. The employees roll tires across the road, between the cars flying along, to work on these vehicles. 

When we lived here before we knew a great family in the Espinar Branch. With the birth of a new son, the mother asked if they could name him after our sons, Glenn and William. Naturally, feeling honored, we said “yes,” and these past thirteen years we have shared this story that in the Altiplano of Peru there is a boy named “Glenn-William Sullasi Huisa.”  Rich became friends with him on Facebook this week and we learned that “Glenn William” is actually “Glen Wuillians.” He said how much he loves his name and what a great honor it is for him to have the names of our sons. We had a chuckle and thought, “close enough!” Indeed, Rich worked with a guy named Walter however the Peruvian rendition was Wualthier…

Rich and Brother Agüero traveled to Ayiviri on Sunday to have a meeting with the leaders there. Julie had zero responsibility in this so she stayed home and went to church in the local ward. We love traveling on the weekends, but it sure is nice to have some down time too. The men went in a mission car, a rare luxury, and it wound up being a 9 hour trip instead of twelve or more. Still, it was pretty exhausting.

We are sorry for the lack of photos in this one. We just did not take any shots of the piles of sweatshirts, shawls, Kleenexes, and bottles of potions during our convalescence.