A week closer to non-stop Little Einsteins

Clear winner in any ugly dog competition but somebody loves it enough to put a sweater on it...

Church goers

3+ years road construction, it's beyond a slow process

Rich and his cuy

Pig on a stick potato chips, man they are good!

A little pattern study

Bottle cap boys

Sicuani bus stop

Construction practices

The Huallpar cuy shack

A helping hand

Political activists

The Andahuaylas gang

Out for a little chicken

Corn Stalks

Valle Sagrado approach

Valle Sagrado approach

Valle Sagrado approach

Valle Sagrado approach 

The competition to our district conference

The competition to our district conference

Left to Right: President Reátegui, President Harbertson, President Hasler

Left to Right: Sister Hasler, Sister Harbertson, Sister Reátegui

With President Apaza from Calca

Our mission presidency, wives and the family of President Quispe from the Valle Sagrado district

The competition to our district conference

Valle Sagrado approach

Valle Sagrado approach

Valle Sagrado approach

This week we learned that our three year old grandson asked his mom if Papa Rich could watch Little Einsteins with him every day… We are unsure of the implications but happy to give it a whirl.

We are in a whirlwind of activity as these weeks wind down. Rich had some running to do this week starting on Tuesday. He and the other counselor, Segundo Reatégui took off at 6:30am for Ayaviri, in the direction of Puno. They went there for an urgent thirty minute meeting. He enjoys the road trips with Segundo. Not a lot in common but enough to make the conversations interesting. When the meeting was done, they turned around and made for Cusco but made time to stop for a plate of Kankacho before they left. They bought extra To-Go portions for Julie and Sister Reatégui. They got in with all of it done by 2pm. It always amazes us that the process of riding in a car/bus around the Altiplano takes so much out of us.

On Wednesday, we went for our usual walk and took several items by the mission office that we returned since we will not use them. We also went with Elder Thacker, the mission executive secretary to sign powers of attorney to be able to take care of the final work of getting out of the country. We have to get seals of final departure in our passports. This will be Rich’s fourth time that he has left Peru “For good.” He tells everybody that this is just a separation, not a divorce. Likely as not, we will be back here on another mission.

After the Notary, we went home and Rich got ready to leave for Abancay. He took off at 1:30pm and traveled by car. Once there, he got installed in his hotel and then went to do interviews in the church. 

The next day, he went on to Andahuaylas where he dined on guinea pig and charcoal broiled chicken. He invited the district leaders who came to their meeting to dinner. The pollo a la brasa was delicious as usual but the cuy was divine! He has come to love these people in so many ways. From Andahuaylas he returned home on Friday. In all, it was pretty exhausting. 

Julie wasn’t lounging around at home while Rich was running all over the altiplano. She was getting things packed and organized and preparing for our last few weeks here. We’re trying to come home with less than we brought, at least clothes wise. 

The week wasn’t finished yet since Saturday was the Sacred Valley district conference. Rich travelled again with Segundo since the morning training was practically all their baby. The sacred Valley is only an hour and a half from Cusco. Julie and Sister Reategui came down on a bus, a little later and arrived just in time for lunch. Sunday too was taken up by the conference. 

When we got out to go to the conference we discovered masses of people in fancy dance costumes. This turns out to be one of the biggest fiestas in Urubamba. No one gets in and out of town with this fiesta. Not to mention, our meeting was completely disrupted by the bands and other racket. We all just talked louder and the Peruvians seemed quite oblivious to the noise which is something they experience every day, practically. We enjoyed our two days with the members there and were so sad to know this was our last time visiting, at least for now.