A few days before Christmas, Dina and I set off for Chinchinya with A LOT of stuff.
We had:
- 18 Samaritan's Purse shoebox gifts for the children
- other miscellansous gifts
- about 100 small paneton breads
- my guitar
- our rucksacks
- teaching materials- 2 very large birthday cakes, with easily damaged cream icing! (ooh good, said the twins' mum, you'll be driving from Abancay, please pick up 2 cakes for me)
Halfway there we got a phone call from the village telling us there had been a lot of rain and the river was uncrossable - "hah" we thought, "maybe for a car, but we have a 4x4..."
It really was uncrossable... a lot of sinking sand to get stuck in, followed by large boulders to break the suspension over. We didn't make the attempt.
Instead we found a convenient place to leave the car, unloaded all the stuff, and waylaid every child we found on their way home from school in the larger village down the hill!
We made a strange procession as we carried everything up the hill - but it was really great for getting to know them more, and helping them to overcome some of their nervousness of us!
In Chinchinya, Dina and I had a meeting with the church leaders to think back on 2018 and plan for 2019. They said that said that my work with the filters, as well as giving visible improvements in water quality, has helped change attitudes towards the church. There has been a lot of opposition since a few of them became Christians and started the church, but now people are starting to see that the church wants to help the community. What an encouragement!Next day, after an evening of Christmas (and birthday) celebrations, we were ready to walk back to the car and drive home. I ended up taking about 14 passengers and 3 huge sacks of grain down to the next village!
