Food, fun and fireworks

It wasn't quite my first Christmas away from home, as I was in Ecuador 5 years ago.  But certainly a very different Christmas celebration.  The "season" is a lot shorter here, with banks and so on putting up decorations about a week before, and just the one public holiday (25th), which is generally all people take off work.  It's a very family-focused day with lots of people travelling back to where their parents live, for a Christmas dinner at midnight. And there's plentiful paneton and hot chocolate over the week.

So with all of the family-focus, it was great to be a skype guest at 2 of my sisters' houses over the days around Christmas as well and so see all of my family.  Also as Psalm 68 says "God sets the lonely in families" and I never really had a chance to be lonely because he has given me so many families to be part of here. 

Christmas Day: Erin and Brendan (the other SIM missionaries here) came with Oliver for Christmas dinner.  Oliver was entralled by my juggling skills.  I was far more impressed by my Christmas cake complete with homemade marzipan.

 

and New Year: the church I've been visiting had an indoor barbeque (yes the weather's warm but there was a thunderstorm) and then at midnight we all got down on our knees and prayed for Abancay.  What a wonderful way to start the year!

 

Lots of people let of fireworks in their gardens, in the streets... though sometimes this is slightly worrying it does make for a beautiful display from the 3rd floor.  I thought the fireworks made a good metaphor for us in our lives - we are small and boring and insignificant until the flame comes - then we are lit up and become so much bigger and noisier and brighter than we could ever imagine being on our own - and the light and the joy spreads through us to so many people!  It's great to know that God transforms us like this - and that this is what we are made for.

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!

Prison visits

I’ve been in to visit the women’s prison twice now, as part of a group that offers a Bible study to English-speakers.  These are mostly non-Peruvians who were knowingly taking drugs out of the country, but were deliberately set up to be caught in order to divert attention from larger shipments.

Sorry, no photos allowed, so instead this is one of blankets made by women in the prison and sold to support their families

On my first visit, I met “Lucy” - she was friendly but quite quiet.  The second time she remembered me and asked how I was doing, and how my Spanish studies and projects were going. As well as attending the weekly group, she had a personal Bible study booklet, which she explained that she works through, and God is teaching her a lot.

So I asked, “What has he taught you?”

Here’s her response.

She used to think Christianity was about being good - Christians had to be perfect people.  Now she realises that we all make mistakes in many ways.  She told me that in that situation you need to talk to God one-on-one and confess what you’ve done - then let him lead you forward.

She came through Peru on a bus from Ecuador and was going to fly out when she got caught.  She had ‘done a deal’ with God - praying that if he let her get away with this ‘just one time’ she would essentially be good for the rest of her life.  When she was caught she couldn’t understand how he could let her down like that - they had a deal!  (She later acknowledged that she probably would have gone on and to worse things - so actually had little likelihood or intention of keeping her end of said deal either.)

Now she thinks it is a good thing that God let her be caught.  He has saved her from the downward spiral she was in and sent her for a ‘long vacation’ where he has been teaching her so many things. She hasn’t yet received her sentence, but has been in prison 9 months. The minimum she will get will be just under 7 years, but after 1/3 of that she can apply for early release.  So she is praying for this.  She’s aware she needs to not to make this another ‘deal’ - but to ask for it while also committing to serve God longer in jail if required.

It’s hard to know in prison whether the stories people tell you of their lives are true, and how sincere their faith in God is. And I don’t really need to have an opinion on it as I am there to help and support them not put them on trial - that’s been done. But it was so lovely to have Lucy explaining the gospel to me with her face shining. 

There are so many ways in which this time is preparing her for her eventual release.  Here there are many structures that remove her from larger temptations and on her release those will be removed - but there are lots of small ways she can practise obedience now, which will stand her in good stead later. But her life is not just being about when she gets out, but how her life now is here.  She said that she has joy every day, and there is so much here for her to learn.

I had chatted with a few of the other girls before, but more polite chit-chat, to encourage them that visitors from outside cared about them. But I was craving a deeper conversation, and God provided it.  I prayed with Lucy before I left - a thank you for his not keeping the ‘deal’, and for teaching her so much - and a commitment of her future to him, because we trust him to do what is good.

Some work!

Most of my work at the moment is Spanish study and cultural orientation. There's not much to show you or to describe about Spanish, unless you want to hear about the different uses of the subjunctive mood, and the different tangles I get into.  It's been an up-and-down process, as I veer between increasing confidence (and complacency), and desperation that I will never understand.  I am doing more study than I originally intended, as in order to register my degree with the university here, I need to take a general Spanish exam.

But I have also been doing some other work - visiting existing projects here in Lima, and setting up contacts for water projects.

This is a small water treatment system that's been installed at the local Bible Seminary.  They were very excited about it and keen to show me - and it was useful to see some small-scale technologies that are used here.  It's a new system and will need regular maintenance, so I will be aiming to come back on my next Lima visit to see how that has been going.

I've also set up contacts with a few other charities that do water projects in Peru, and hope to meet some of their representatives or visit their projects over the next year.

In 2003, when I was a student, I came to Peru for 2 months and worked on water projects in Moyobamba, in the jungle area in the north.  I met Liliana and Josue - Peruvian civil engineers, who taught me a lot, both about engineering and about spanish, and peruvian life.

They came to Lima a couple of weeks ago.  It was great to catch up with them but also to talk about how the engineering system works here in Peru. Josue works with government funding systems and putting together project proposals, which is the kind of thing I'm likely to want to do in the future.

(They also introduced me to their friend Gabriela, who I will be going to church with for the next few weeks while I'm in Lima for longer than originally planned.)

Some of the SIM missionaries here in Lima have started up a patchwork project.  It employs and trains women from the shanty towns, giving them work which they can do mostly at home whilst caring for their children, but also earn a fair wage. The ultimate aim is for them to learn business skills as well as quilt-making, so that they can become independent and set up their own mini-businesses.

It was useful for me to talk to the organisers about this - they haven't yet reached this stage of small independent businesses, but I will want to look at similar issues if I want my water projects to eventually be financially sustainable in-country.