Almost buying a car

Since coming back to Peru I've been seriously tackling the job of buying a car.  And - joy of joys - I've found one!  It hits the spot in the delicate of balance of "is it too new and flashy?" versus "is it so old it won't make it down the street?", it's comfortable, has plenty of seats and is nicely within my price range.

Simple, right?

Or perhaps not.

The car is in Lima, I am in Abancay, and the owner lives in the jungle.  His brother-in-law has a legal document enabling him to sell the car.  I employed a mechanic to go and check the car over and send me the details - all good, he says.

So I arranged to go to Lima and make the purchase.  First I had to get a banker's cheque to make the payment.  Cue 3 days of waiting for the money to arrive in my account so that I could get the cheque... and eventually we discovered the bank transfer had failed.  No problem - I went with our mission bank account holder, and got the cheque from our mission bank account.

That afternoon, I meet with the seller and we go to the notary to do the sale.  "Oh, she's a foreigner" says the notary - "you'll need an additional witness".  So the seller phones a friend and we wait for him to arrive, meanwhile filling out all the forms.

When everything is ready, we go to the counter, and discover: the owner's wife's name is spelled incorrectly on the ownership document.  This means that the legal document the seller has, allowing him to sell it, does not match. 

So no sale.

I'm back in Abancay, waiting for a phone call to tell me it's sorted out and I can get the bus to Lima again.

I'm certainly learning a lot about how to buy a car in Peru. 

Or perhaps how not to?

The translator returns...

I was asked once again to don my translator's hat, for a visit to Mariscal Gamarra with a visiting medical team from the USA.  This was a longer trip the usual - 5 days.  I am always a bit wound up and nervous the night before and I identified my main concerns:

• not getting enough sleep (pretty likely)
• getting bitten by flies and fleas (fairly certain)
• offending people by not being able to finish the huge portions they serve me (although I know some of them well enough to ask for less food these days)
• having to preach (it's an amazing privilege and I can never work out if I love it or dread it more)

I at least started off well by sleeping through til 4am, whereas usually I wake up every half hour wondering if I'm missed my alarm.

We hired a car and driver for the week, so it was easier than catching the public bus... until we heard a strange bumping noise from the front wheel an hour into our journey.  So Vicente drove back to Abancay to get it fixed, leaving us all in Lambrama to wait.  5 of us did continue the journey in said public bus... The main disadvantage is it drops us at the bottom of the hill rather than the top - but it's a beautiful walk up to the first village!

We arrived and set up as much as we could, bearing in mind we hadn't brought the medicines along with us.  We still managed to see a good number of patients before the rest of the team arrived several hours later. 

The following morning in the second village I awoke to find this little bird at eye-level as I climbed down the ladder from my room.  I have never seen such a tame bird!  After poring over some books we decided he might be a juvenile white-winged black tyrant.

I brought a water filter with me in an attempt to drum up some interest.  Here I am making a hole in the bucket using the drill piece included in the kit.  It's harder work than it looks like it should be!  We used the filtered water all week in our clinics, and drank it ourselves - and the demonstrations went well, particularly when I threw some mud in the bucket and the water still came out of the filter crystal clear!

 We were staying with a family in the village - with various animals all enjoyed by the boys who came too.  Even going to the toilet was an adventure - up the ladder and over the wall, turn right and walk between the pigs and the sheep pen...

After 2 days here we travelled on to the capital of the district - a 3 hour drive away!  It was very remote with stunning scenery.

Here we had use of the municipal building and could get ourselves a lot more organised.  Nurses took blood pressure and registered the patients, then our dentists and doctors could call their patients.  Our pharmacy even had chairs and shelves - a far cry the first day of scrabbling about on the floor!

While the patients were waiting, we gave training on various subjects - dental care, water hygiene and treatment, and a message from the pastor.  My water teaching seemed to go down well - and one of the dentists said it was the most dynamic teaching he'd seen!

 Meanwhile others were out in the field... even our driver was doing some work as well

 In the evenings we met in the local churches, sharing stories from the Bible, songs, and a film of the book of Luke - in the Quechua language of course!  It was great to have those times with the local believers.

There were incredible views on the way home - even some flamingos at 4200m.

A story... for Sunday School

Last week, I went to visit the village of Cafiamarka.  It's a long way from where I live in Abancay.  I got up at 5 o'clock to catch the bus (there is just one bus every day) and we travelled for 6 hours, up and down steep and narrow mountain tracks.  Some of the roads had nearly been washed away in the rain and once we had to get out and wait while a tractor came and cleared all the rubble out of the way.

I didn't know exactly where to get off the bus, but there were lots of friendly people who knew the way, and they showed me the right path.  When I started walking, I had to cross a river - there are stepping stones but they were underwater so I had to take my shoes off to get across.  It was lovely and sunny so my feet dried again very quickly.  I walked up the steep hill in the sunshine, and met a man taking his 2 horses the other way.
After about half an hour's walk, I arrived at the village and went to the pastor's house.  They were very happy to see me and gave me some chicken soup for lunch.  I went into their garden and helped to pick peaches and prickly pears.  Later on we had a church service in a new church they have only just built - before that they used to have their church services in the pastor's house.  The church is made of mud bricks and it doesn't have any windows yet - just square holes in the walls, and it doesn't have any electricity yet either.  The floor is mud and we all sat round the edges on wooden planks and leaned against the wall.
Last time I visited Cafiamarca, I met an old lady called Anastasia and her husband Sebastian.  He had fallen when he was out working on the steep hillside and had hurt his back so he couldn't walk. I prayed for him, but after that I didn't see him again.  This time I found out he got better and was even able to walk to the river and be baptised!  God has not only healed his body but he has also saved him!

In the church, people haven't been taught very much about the Bible, and some of them can't read.  I taught them about Jesus washing the disciples' feet, and how being saved by him is like having a power shower and being clean for the first time in your life!  But when we walk around all day little bits of dirt stick to us again... and Jesus wants us to keep coming back to him to be cleaned of the little things we do wrong each day.
When I lived in Cambridge I used to do projects about water, so now I like to speak about water in the churches as well.  In Cafiamarca, most people only have one water tap, and it's outside in the garden.  And the water is not clean enough to drink.  Some poeple drink it anyway and it makes them ill.  Other people spend a lot of time fetching wood to make a fire so they can boil the water and make it safe.  So I am thinking about how I can help them to improve the water that comes to their taps.
When I got home to Abancay, I realised the bed I had been sleeping in had fleas in it, and they had bitten me all over.  But it was worth it!  I really enjoy visiting people to encourage them and teach them about the living water that Jesus promises us.

More filters

The filters are in use and well appreciated.  Nothing's broken yet!

...and here's the latest installation

...and because it's Peru...

 

Ancobamba village meeting

After months of discouragement in Ancobamba (in which I have been trying to find the positive), I got invited by the water board and the local government representative to help them plan their budget for 2017, and to help train the whole village about pathogens in water so that they would agree to the necessary expenditure!

We worked out what I think was a fairly conclusive budget, and presented it to the village.

I did an activity about how we decide whether water is clean, then took a giant drop of water (ok, newspaper sheets stuck together) and some giant parasites (measuring tape, buttons and lentils) to show the kinds of pathogens that can live in it but are too small to see, and talked about how we can get rid of them.

The village agreed to pay about 60% of the planned budget - which is a lot better than I thought it might be!

Meanwhile, the engineers of the future...

Beautiful feet!

Isaiah 52:7 - How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, the good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns!

I've really enjoyed helping this group to form and meet together - they are young professionals from the church who didn't really receive any targeted teaching and often can't attend on Sundays because of work.  We've been meeting for about a year now, and it's been wonderful to see them grow.

One of the group suggested we do a Christmas event - with traditional presents, hot chocolate and paneton - it was a big job and none of them had ever done it before, but several meetings and a lot of fundraising later, we were off!

The journey begins... we chartered a bus to take us 3 hours to Marjuni, picking up people from the church in Lambrama on the way.  Some bits of the road were so sandy we had to get out and dig / push / walk.

 

Haf of the group stayed at Marjuni to do an event there - the rest of us walked up the valley to Pallancca - we had asked them to send horses but none arrived, so we carried:

20 tins of milk

3kg of sugar

800g of chocolate

a speaker

a sack of panetones

a guitar

a bag of presents

So we prayed together and then set off.

 

I was so glad to have recovered sufficiently from tendonitis so be able to walk here.  When my legs were aching, I realised "it's ok - this is the reason I have legs - to take the good news to those who haven't heard!"

2 hours later we saw the first house... it was quite a relief! 

In Pallancca, the people gathered round - first children, then women, then men.  They helped us prepare the hot chocolate and listened while Bernabé taught from God's word.  The church in Lambrama has been planning to visit Pallancca for a long time - this is the first time many people had heard the gospel.

I also taught about the two ways to live and taught some simple songs.

 

Then it was time to serve the hot chocolate and paneton...

... and give out presents.

Back in Marjuni we were reunited with the rest of the team... all very encouraged.  For some this was the first time they had explaned the gospel, and they came home keen to do more!