Visit to Los Ángeles

...and before you ask, no it's not in the USA.  This is a small village about an hour from Abancay.  The AIDIA team has recently started working there as the village has no church and they are trying to focus on establishing new churches.  I went along for an afternoon. 
The government has recently built a road passing through the village which brings lots of changes, including a new water project.  This means I'm not likely to work there long term, but it was great to visit and learn about the village.
With so much green, and the clover and the bees it reminded me very much of England!

 

This girl was terrified to come and talk to us - her mother had told her the white lady would kidnap her and steal her organs (partly urban legend and partly old superstition).  It was lovely that 2 hours later she was hanging onto my sleeve - but I did manage to leave her behind.

We were teaching the children about when Jesus miraculously fed 5000 people with 5 loves of bread and 2 fish.  We talked about times when they have been hungry and when there has not been enough food.  It was wonderful to be able to teach them that, in this situation, they also can pray and ask God to provide. 

 

Afterwards Dina taught several of them a traditional dance ready for a local festival - and my task was to take charge of the music to avoid the hyperactive non-participants from turning it on and off all the time.  And as their attention wore thin, lots were beginning to fight each other - Dina who knows more of the families explained that this is behaviour they have learned from watching their parents.  It's very sad to see this effect, but we also have a lot of hope that as the good news of Christ comes into this village that people can be changed.

Curahuasi Christmas Club

So there haven't been that many opportunities yet to get out to the villages but I managed to sneak in a couple of visits before Christmas.  One was a weekend visit with a local church youth group to Curahuasi, a town about 90 minutes journey from here. 

 They had planned a Christmas kids' club, and the way it's done here is to turn up, set up, then dress up in a silly costume and go recruiting kids... so we did. 

 

There were songs... games... prayers... and general fun.

 I chatted to a few of the girls who didn't join in the activities because they were looking after their younger siblings, or talked to a few of the mums.  It was great to be able to explain to some that Christmas was a celebration of Jesus' birthday, and to find out generally a bit more about what life is like here.
We gave out chocolatada (hot chocolate) and paneton (fruit bread), both very traditional at Christmas.  We had more than double the expected number of people with parents as well, but after a loooong time of counting the queue and counting the paneton and praying there was enough for all the kids and parents and even the helpers.

La vida Abanquina - Life in Abancay

You’ve been requesting photos of Abancay, and it’s about time I did another update, so here they are.

Abancay is on the main route from Lima to Cusco so has paved roads (also some unpaved), regular buses, but not many tourists or foreigners who stay.  The nearest airport is in Cusco (5 hours away) and Lima is 16 hours away.  I came from Lima by overnight bus, and was woken up by violent and frequent hairpin bends at around 3am, but wedged myself in, pretended I was on a boat, managed not to be sick and went back to sleep.  The views at breakfast were stunning but I didn’t see the highest part. Having survived it I expect I’ll do it again.  It’s a bit slower than the bus-to-the-airport route but a lot less complicated.

Abancay is beautiful, at about 2400m above sea level and yet deep down in a valley surrounded by mountains. It’s about the size of Shrewsbury, everywhere I need to go is within about a mile, and it’s all on a very steep hill! The rainy season is just starting (late) so everything is about as dry as it gets, and will soon be much greener.  

The flat I’m staying in is part way up the hill, and I’m on the 4^th floor (UK translation, 3rd floor) so have lovely views of the town and the mountains. I’ll be here about 6 months until the girl who rents it comes back and I have to find my own place. There’s mains electricity (one power cut so far), internet (generally slow for everybody, but better at 5am), and mains plumbing but cold water only.  I cook using gas which I need to get delivered when it runs out, and yes I do have an electric water-heating system for the shower, but not one with loose wires hanging all over the place!

From the 5am reference you may guess I’ve been waking up early - because of the sunrise, the dogs barking and the cockerels crowing.  My Saturday lie-in consisted of getting up around 8…

Yesterday I took some photos of my walk to work:

Steep streets!

Across the river to the office

Outside the office - building new classrooms

 our morning meeting room - all those boxes in the corner are full of Quechua New Testaments!

local church leaders on a church planting workshop - breaktime

   

Outside the stadium - "Apurímac: soon... free of illiteracy"

It's election time so of course the roads are being dug up (just like home)

 

 More photos coming soon!