Regular visits to Ancobamba

For my first visit last year see  "Dental work in Ancobamba"

Last year I met with the guy in the Chapimarca district government who is responsible for water and sanitation... we were involved with various villages in the district so I wanted to let the government know what I might be able to offer.  He was REALLY KEEN!  Partly from a technical perspective, but also because he had seen the difference it made in other communities (particularly a reduction in alcoholism and domestic abuse) when the church did a long-term programme there.  What an encouragement that non-Christians are seeing the transformation God can make!

Pampallacta (where sadly the church didn't have the resources to continue), Santa Rosa and Ancobamba are all in this district, so I've been trying to visit more regularly with the rest of the AIDIA team and get my face known, to then offer some more specific support.

We go every 2 weeks, on a bus that leaves around 3.30am.  We usually get there around 8 and have a room with a bed that we rent, so can have a little nap when we arrive! But this week the bus broke down on the way, so we waited while they fetched a different one and were on the road 8 hours!  That was a tiring visit...

Our home in Ancobamba - it's less full of boxes now than it was
when I took the photo, and has another mattress.

Then Dina teaches Quechua in the primary school, and I help out partly just because, but partly because I might be teaching them about water later so it'll be helpful to know the class.

 

The government programme "Qali Warma" gives food to primary schools which the mums come and prepare on a rota basis.  One day we visited they hadn't turned up, so I peeled potatoes and chopped onions and generally helped prepare (then Dina finished her class and took the credit in the photo...)  We always get invited to stay and eat the lunch too.

On our first visit to the school they were doing a brief walk around the community, looking at problems with the water supply and the area that's becoming the rubbish dump.  I was pleased they were raising awareness, although slightly bemused by the teaching: "when we leave rubbish out the sun is sad so it shines all the time and we don't have rain, and then we and all our animals die".  I suppose it sort of makes sense...

The kids are already pretty good at washing their hands.

 

Then we visit around different believers in the village.  Lots of them find it hard to continue as their neighbours and sometimes their own family are quite hostile.  The lady we visited this week said she would be able to come to church that night only if her husband came home sober - but if he was drunk she wouldn't attempt it.

In the afternoon Dina and Viviana (a volunteer from one of the Abancay churches) lead a kids club and then a literacy class. 

I sometimes don't know how to help in the literacy class, but this was a great day - I helped this girl to learn to form loops as a preparation to forming letters, and by the end she actually could!

Then I've been trying to meet with the lady who runs the health post.  She was the contact given me by the guy in the government.  She has been amazing, and this week set up for me to meet some of the water committee.  They agreed enthusiastically to receiving some training - about their official responsibilities (which thanks to all the training I went to last year, I know about), as well as about water and health and sanitation in general.  This was hugely encouraging!  So the first event is in 2 weeks.  The government representative will come too, and then I'll present a list of suggested topics.

One (or more) of the church members usually invites us for dinner.  Here's where we had delicious maize soup with goat's cheese, and I managed to participate in the Quechua conversation - a little bit.  I'm so grateful to have Dina along - as we were leaving our hostess said "don't go saying bad things about me now" and I was horrified, thinking "what have I done so she thinks I will criticise her" - but Dina explained to me it's just something people say as you leave.

In the evening we have a church service.  I take my guitar and have been practising the Quechua songs and working out the chords so that now I have a slightly more extensive repertoire - the first 2 times I led with the same 2 songs!  Dina preaches from the orality books produced by AIDIA - they are a wonderful tool, and many of the parables are so relevant to Quechua farming life (the sower, the lost sheep, etc.)  It's COLD!

In the morning sometimes we visit more people - with so many things planned in it can be hard not to just come for events, but we want to be relational and particularly Dina has been visiting for a year and helping this new church and its members through their difficulties.

It can be difficult to get the right amount of food - but we are usually offered too much rather than too little.  This week after breakfast Dina and I went to return some blankets we'd borrowed - and were invited for second breakfast!  It can be very rude to say no... fortunately we both had some room.  Viviana, who had struggled to finish the first breakfast, came to find us but as soon as she poked her head round the door and saw we were eating, she quickly left before she could be invited too!  It's good to be overwhelmed by generosity rather than going hungry.

The bus *usually* leaves in the mid-morning, but the journey home is not without drama.  Once we had to stop to help a driver who'd fallen asleep and driven his car off the road.  And once the bus came at 6am and we missed it - so got a lift down in the rain with the district governor who was distributing blankets to Ancobamba and the village halfway down. 

 

I'm vaguely considering buying a car - it would give us a lot more flexibility on these visits (there's just one bus a day) and mean we could have more sleep at the right times, and generally be more effective.  It would mean learning to drive on roads like these...

Cream Tea

I've recently learned how to make clotted cream, and 5 litres of milk (£2) just about gives enough clotted cream for one batch of scones.  So I took them in to work and asked the Peruvians for comments in English (and the North Americans for their best British accents) - here are their responses!

Oh and they all promised not to tell that I had mine with coffee instead of tea...

Dental visit to Marjoni

The Connallys are back!  So that means: dental clinics.

I am trying to prioritise my work, focusing on a few villages and not visiting any new places.  but the work in Marjoni is done by the Lambrama church, who I've been getting to know through Project Mochila in February and their anniversary in May.  So I decided to go, then travel back with them to Lambrama and visit their church.

Seeing these guys do the dental clinics is amazing.  More so now that our main dentist is 5 months pregnant.  All the equipment (3 chairs, stools, tools, drill, air compressor, lights, tables, portable x-ray machine, autoclave and stove) are packed into the Connallys' truck, still leaving room for the driver and 4 passengers.  And so we drive along the Lambrama valley and over the ridge into a hidden valley I've never seen - and arrive at Marjoni.

We set up all the equipment in the village hall then head outside to the lane where we are served breakfast - thin porridge and bread rolls.  Boiled potatoes and cheese comes round later.  As we're tidying up someone comes along carrying a sheep. "Oh how sweet" we think - then we realise it's going to be our lunch and go round the corner in times to see the final parts of the butchering.

Later we perform a drama we have rehearsed - the parable of the lost sheep.  I am an un-lost sheep who wants the shepherd to stay and look after me.  I am wearing a fluffy white knitted jacket and have carefully practised how to say "don't search for that sheep, just let her die - look after us" in Quechua.  In the end of course the lost sheep is found and there is much rejoicing (which in Quechua culture means coca-cola is shared round, perhaps not very appropriate for a dental clinic).  I'm not sure if the message of repentance is helped or hindered by the recent presence of a real, temporarily live, sheep.

Chuño: potatoes are taken high into the mountains to freeze
then brought down to thaw and dry.

The Connallys' 2-year-old son used to be very comfortable in Spanish and in rural villages, but understandably after 6 months away has forgotten a little of both and has not been speaking any Spanish.  He did very well, was intrigued and not in the least upset by the sheep, happily chased chickens, and by the end of the afternoon was happily chatting in Spanish again with the other children.

Cesilio (amazing 60-something man who works for AIDIA, supports the Baptist churches and spends his life pretty much walking the mountains and preaching the gospel) had asked me to preach in the evening.  I had had a very busy week and he gave me a day's notice... so I said no... then rang up an hour later and said yes - it will be good to preach in the Lambrama church.  I like preaching with Cesilio to translate - I have to speak in short phrases which helps me to keep me train of thought and not ramble.  And we have done this before so he obviously thinks I will have something worth saying.  So I spend quite a lot of the day sitting in the village hall preparing what I'm going to say.  I also sit and chat a bit to the people waiting for treatment (and blow up dental gloves as balloons to keep the children occupied) - we have a lot of volunteers today so they don't need me inside.

When it's time to pack up the equipment and the team are leaving, I realise the visitors from Lambrama are staying to lead a church service here - and this is where I am to preach!  A slight change of audience from what I had expected - from an established church to a few recent believers and any others who might come.  I explain this to Cesilio and the Lambrama pastor and they say just go ahead...

I talk about repentance and how it is different from confession - not just words but an action, a turning away from our sin and towards God.  Fortunately I can now understand enough of the Quechua Bible, which translates some of the imagery differently from the Spanish, so we don't get too confused. Cesilio does a great job of translating and helpfully I can now understand enough to check he's getting my point across too.  I do a lot of marching across the room and changing direction to show that repentance is an active change, and talk about how it's something that produces results.  I finish feeling like I have not done very well.  Cesilio does a bit of wrapping up and then I thank him for his help and he says it was excellent.  The Lambrama pastor asks if anyone wants to respond and make this change of direction in their life - and 3 do!  I am astonished and overwhelmed and realise that I have done a very tiny thing of saying yes to something difficult, and somehow God has used it.  We pray for these women and I trust that the church in Lambrama will keep providing the support they need to grow as Christians.

I ask the little girl I was chatting to earlier what she learned.  She said "some people are like snakes!".  True, it was mentioned...


We pile into the car back to Lambrama - there are now a few extra passengers so I am perched on the very front of the seat trying to keep my balance round the haripin bends.  I am learning to remember that I did not come here to be comfortable!

In Lambrama I am invited by one of the couples I've spent the day with and sleep very comfortably on the kitchen floor.

Teaching in Santa Rosa

I went along last week to Santa Rosa just to keep Noemí company while she gave some training on prevention of sexual abuse.  I ended up getting asked to teach the secondary school kids and the primary school kids about water - and then to give training to their parents about environmental contamination.

 Teaching in the secondary school - it went very well and I'm keen to do more - they came up with good suggestions and some will presumably be the future leaders of their community...

 Explaining to me which kinds of rubbish are most commonly seen in their village

Each group talked about the dangers we can face from poorly disposed-of rubbish