Off The Plateau; Rich and Julie’s Peruvian Chronicles Part Two

Thursday, August 21, 2014

More Fun with Leah and Kayla and we are off to the Amazon!

Pitumarca Boda

Pitumarca

Advance on school roof Cusco

Kayla with her guinea pig

Leah and Kayla en Qorikancha

Julie, Leah and Kayla en Qorikancha

Qorikancha Chiaroscuro

Leah and Kayla en Qorikancha

Qorikancha

Just above where all of the trash gets dumped...

Saqsaywaman

Puka Pukara

Pikillaqta

Tipon

We had a great Sunday in Pitumarca with Leah and Kayla. The branch members were happy to meet the girls and we enjoyed our time together.

On Monday we did some site seeing around Cusco, and ate cuy(guinea pig), trout and lamb for lunch. It was all delicious. On Tuesday, Leah and Kayla went to Machu Picchu and Rich and Julie buckled down and went to work in the archives. We were able to take over 3000 images. Julie taught her little students, Marvid and Yahir English and then we went to the church for Rich’s Isaiah class. Seven came out for it. After the class, we met Leah and Kayla and walked home together. The girls had a great time at Machu Picchu, they talked nonstop about their day.

Rich's Quechua teacher told him of a story in the local news. Seems a lady with her kindergarten class went to the circus. The lion tamer asked for a volunteer and then decided that she should be the one. He asked her to join him and that she would be just fine. Well, the lion went nuts and dragged her around the ring in the Big Top in front of her whole class. It seems that she suffered no lasting damage but those kids have to be scarred for life. The take-aways from this story are absolutely vast whether you are a primary school teacher or the lion tamer!

Wednesday morning Rich went to work and we all met up at noon to meet our driver, Wilbert, who took us to see more ruins around Cusco. We visited Sacsayhuaman, Tambo Machay, Puca Pucara and Q’enqo. It was a wonderful afternoon together and we topped it off with a late lunch/early dinner of “Pollo a la brasa”(Rotisserie chicken cooked over wood with delicious French fries)

The next morning we got up early, walked together and met another driver, Justino, who took us to some beautiful ruins outside of Cusco. We visited Tipon, Pikillaqta and part of the aqueduct that fed water to Pikillaqta. We stopped in Saylla for some wonderful chicharron. We’re having way too much fun with them here!

On Thursday night, Rich went to Institute all alone, further evidence that the fun never truly subsides... Still, twenty kids came to class and that has to be a new record.

Friday morning we leave for Puerto Maldonado and the jungle.

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Leah and Kayla Are Here!!!

Leah and Kayla with Julie at Qorikancha

Marvid and Yahir learning English with Julie

Birthday Celebration for President Harbertson

Ice cream girl

Steps in Cusco

Santa Catalina

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Newspaper Lady

Watercolor hawkers

More Watercolor hawkers

Dance practicers

More implements of destruction

Rich's favorite mural

Detail of the mural

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Apparent school assignment laid out in the rain...

Julie and Kayla speaking with the spinning lady

Dance practicers

A cool door

Barbie bag...

Scissors Dancer

Dogs for Pauline

We had an easy, relaxing Sunday. We were supposed to go to Izcuchaca but it was Stake Conference so we attended that meeting. Elder Calderon, an area 70 from Ecuador was the visiting authority. He was an absolutely delightful speaker and we loved every minute of his talk. His best expression for us was that he and his wife are of “economic size, “short little folks. That evening we had a surprise birthday cake and food for President Harbertson, the mission president. His counselors, secretary and their wives, the other senior missionary couple and we were invited. We took Thai chicken wings which were a big hit and everyone had a great time.

Julie had her English class with Marvid and Yahir. They are so cute and excited to learn. They love coming and are proud to say that they are learning English.

On Tuesday, Rich started teaching the Isaiah class. It was supposed to begin at 7:30 and by 7:50 we doubted that anyone would come. Rich had said he would happily teach one person and by 7:52, there were two students. It was a great class; the students asked lots of questions and were really excited about it. They promised that next week there will be more…we shall see.

We worked extra hard and long this week and managed to take nearly 12,000 images. The books are in pretty good shape, but they have so many attachments. Attachments are addendums to the birth record, i.e. a marriage record, making the child legitimate, other information about the parents etc. Each one is glued in and has to be carefully removed so we can take a photo of the original document and then we take photos of each of the attachment pages, front and back. We then need to carefully glue it back in place and do it all over again when another attachment shows up. In one of the 500 page birth record books, we took over a hundred attachment pages. It slows things down but it has to be done.

We were trying to get ahead because our daughter Leah and her friend Kayla Adams arrived Thursday afternoon! We are so excited to have them here and have had a great time together. However, Friday night Leah woke up sick and isn’t feeling well at all. Even the best laid plans get thwarted, especially at high altitude. We need her to feel well soon, there is a lot to do and see!