Feverishly Waiting

Pre-cabinets

Voilá

Hotel de Turistas, Sicuani

Hotel de Turistas, Sicuani

Hotel de Turistas, Sicuani

Hotel de Turistas, Sicuani dog

Hotel de Turistas, Sicuani dog... very old dog

Photo with Elder Uceda

Our presidency

Missing manhole cover

Spit-roasting pork

Restaurant  view of Cusco

Unfinished

We received a call Monday morning that the cupboards for the kitchen were ready and the workers would be arriving at 10:00am. We were completely surprised, almost nothing happens ahead of schedule. We quickly pulled out everything that we had in the way, including the range and made heaps on the dining table. Julie went to work and Rich stayed home to be there while the work was taking place. Just after Julie arrived at work, Rich called to say that there had been a mistake and the cupboards wouldn’t be coming until Tuesday morning. The old saying “if it sounds too good to be true…” rang in our ears.

Rich had interviews Monday evening and while we were at the mission office the Lindblom family arrived to pick up their son from his mission. Brother Lindblom is the brother of Julie’s cousins’ wife. We were able to visit with them and took the older brothers and their wives to dinner while the parents were at the mission home to have dinner and pick up Elder Lindblom.  While visiting we learned that the older Lindblom son served his mission in Campinas, Brazil with our son William. What a small world! We had great experiences working with Elder Lindblom in Curahuasi, he was a great missionary.

 On Tuesday, Julie stayed home because the cupboards were arriving and Rich went to work. Julie waited and waited and waited some more and finally about 3pm, she was told the cupboards wouldn’t be coming until Wednesday. The boss had to approve them before they left the shop and he was out of town. Ah, such fun!  This felt much more  like we are living Latin  America.

Finally, at 10am on Wednesday morning the cupboards showed up.  Julie was pretty excited and stayed to supervise. The workers stayed until 7pm, they were very meticulous and careful. Rich went to the mission office for interviews and meetings. He also ran the gauntlet to pay for airline tickets for our daughter Megan and her husband Charles who will be visiting next week. This entailed going across town to one place to pay for the tickets and another place back across town with proof of the paid tickets, to pay the travel agent fee. Nothing is consolidated and easy!

The cupboards weren’t quite finished so the workers came again on Thursday and worked from 8am – 1pm. Rich stayed home to supervise while Julie worked. The cabinet maker owner came as the workers were finishing up to check on their work. There were a couple of things he thought needed to be done, so Friday morning we had a worker again. He spent about 45 minutes, carefully painting the corners where some pieces of wood met. They look great and we feel like we are back in “operational mode” again.

We spent a wonderful weekend attending the Sicuani Stake Conference. Elder Juan Uceda the South America Northwest Area President and Elder Alarcon the area Seventy attended.  We were able to see many of our dear friends from Espinar, Tarcuyoc and Pitumarca. What love we have for these wonderful people. 

During the evening session on Saturday, it began raining with a vengeance! The sound was deafening and by the time the meeting was out, the parking lot and roads were literal rivers. It was something to behold! We went with the Harbertson’s while someone else drove Elders Uceda and Alarcon. 

We all met at the hotel, which was a place that we had stayed with our children years ago. The grounds were completely flooded but we managed to not soak our feet completely. They have updated a section so the rooms were very nice but FREEZING and no heat of any kind. 

President Harbertson is getting over pneumonia so he and his wife went right to bed. The hotel owner had prepared some hot water for “mate” (herb tea) in the dining room so we drank hot herb tea and ate bread and jam with Elders Uceda and Alarcon. What great and inspiring men they are, we shared stories, laughed a lot and finally when we were warmed up we all headed for bed. Thank goodness for the super heavy wool blankets they make in Peru. It took a while but we finally warmed up enough to fall asleep. 

We woke up Sunday morning to no electricity in all of Sicuani. The church, obviously accustomed to this, had generators running so we were able to continue with the conference. There were no lights, but the microphone was working and we had a great meeting.  After the conference we said our good-bye’s to all our friends and rode back to Cusco with the Harbertson’s.  It was a wonderful weekend.

Rich still had a meetings from 5pm to 10pm with the visiting authorities. It was a very long Sunday, but exciting to feel the enthusiasm of the members here and their testimonies.  We love our mission!