On 24th May we flew to Lima, arriving in the evening, and then took an onward flight to the tourist city of Cusco early the next morning Saturday 25th May. We took a “taxi” to take us on to Abancay which involved 5 hour drive up into the mountains. We climbed out of Cusco at 3500m, down to 1800m before a climb to 3800m, from where Abancay could be seen a dizzying way below at 2400m. We lost count of the number of bends, but it was a tarmaced road with safety barriers in most places you’d want them.
We met Lizzie at 4pm and we went for tea and cake, before we headed for an early night after 48 hours of travel to get there.
Abancay has a population around the size of Shrewsbury, but is not a tourist town – in fact we saw no other westerners apart from Lizzie and one of the two SIM families. SIM = Serving in Mission and is a mission agency that helps place people in the field and provides back up to them. “Shops” are generally a single unit opening straight onto the street and it can take time finding everything that you need. Lizzie explained there are no Garages as we would understand, you have to find the right person for brakes, another for lights etc. Also much housing is behind locked gates/doors so it is difficult to just call round.
Lizzie’s church was a 5 minute walk away so we joined her there. She leads worship at her church, twice a day, most Sundays. Time keeping is a relaxed affair – we were early despite arriving 20 minutes after the official start time. It is an evangelical church and most of the congregation had gone to a village to support an anniversary celebration. This is done to help keep the church in the villagers' consciousness and also as an outreach . The service was in Spanish and Cathie found it hard to follow because it was fast and quite different to European Spanish. Reuben and I didn’t try! We did recognise a couple of chorus tunes though. After church we went with Lizzie to a local zoo and “mirador” for lunch. Lizzie explained that Sunday lunch for Peruvians is always for family and they would not think to invite her which we found sad. We realised that Facebook etc. is such a lifeline for Lizzie.
Most of Peru is nominally Catholic, but we found this seems to be something of a veneer over the deeper animistic beliefs of the Incas and their predecessors – gods to be appeased. Lizzie is working through an agency made up of three evangelical church groupings in the Apurimac district called AIDIA (pronounced idea). The main work is evangelism and Wycliffe has supported a bible translation into one of the Quechua languages (spoken by 450k). A dedicated team has worked on this for 10 years and it’s in the final years. AIDA decided to expand social action in 2014 with water as the focus, hence Lizzie’s role as a Water Engineer.
On Monday we were up at 5.30am and Lizzie collected us at just after 6am in her 4 by 4, she had to wait at the bakers for bread which we had for our breakfast! We were accompanied by one of AIDIA’s evangelists Cesilio and another lady called Natividad. We aimed to get to a village called Marjuni where Lizzie wanted to check on the use of water filters she had previously distributed at an affordable cost. In addition, she was due to speak to children at the primary school about the importance of clean water and good hygiene. The first hour of the journey was on tarmac and involved many bends as we headed up a gorge. The second half was not for the faint hearted and involved climbing 5,000 feet on a dirt road cut into the mountainside. Imagine the Burway without tarmac and with sheer drops of 2,000 feet. On our return down the mountain at the end of the day we had a close encounter with a small lorry. We still do not know how we managed to pass only that the angels must have been with us. After this experience we promised that we would pray for Lizzie’s safety daily!
The people in the high mountain villages are subsistence farmers growing many varieties of potatoes, maize and cereal crops. Although it was their winter they were harvesting when we visited. The “fields” are terraces well above the village (cultivation takes place up to 4000m) and it is very hard work. This means that people often look older than they are and certainly suffer from ill health. Lizzie is trying to introduce the use of water filters (which are the size of a bucket) so that people can drink safe water. She makes her visits when the evangelists go out to the villages because these people are known and trusted. The whole process of getting to know people and trying to persuade them to use the filters is a long process. The government provides chlorination to the water, but the local town mayor had decided to install a new system at Marjuni, but it was incomplete and his term of office over!
At the school Lizzie gave a public health talk with some very good visual aids – teaching is in Spanish though the locals speak Quechua. The children were very engaged. Lizzie then visited the houses where she had sold water filters, but no one was in. It is very painstaking for her, she can have up to 8 villages on the go at one time, visiting up to two a week, as the journeys are demanding and this was one of the close ones. Lizzie really would like to train up Peruvian Christians to help with the work and eventually take over from her.
We were pleased to get a shower on our return to Abancay – not something easily available to the villagers, and Lizzie does not have a hot water supply – she has to boil up what she needs, and cold water cannot be drunk from the tap – Lizzie uses one of her own filters. Toilet paper cannot be put down the toilet as it will block the system, it goes in a bin – we got the hang of this after 3 weeks!
In the evening we went out for a simple meal with Lizzie and one of the other families – Brendan and Erin and their 2 young boys. They have been in Abancay for 10 years, but still look about 25. Brendan is helping prepare bible stories and aids for bible teaching , whilst his wife Erin runs mobile dental clinics – even X rays, the kit all just fits in a 4 by 4. This is a popular service.
On Tuesday morning Lizzie took us to AIDA HQ where we joined the morning prayers and then met the Bible translators – five pastors spend week mornings. It is all on computer which tracks all changes and they have external consultants in the US and UK, but final decisions are by Quechua born speakers. We met the linguists who are preparing teaching material, and the AIDIA director Luis, a very energetic man. He started a Christian school in 2015, which has 93 pupils of which 80% not from Christian families. We shared in mid morning break – tea and a snack (rice!), after which it was time to say goodbye and take a taxi back to Cusco.
