It's the People

Not a  lot to report this week.  It was a pretty slow week at the Self-Reliance center.  This allowed us to get a good jump on our calls this month, with 10 already completed.  

We do have one success story to report.  Below is Silvia.  She is in her 40's but wanted to find a part-time job she could do while her son was in school.  She has a lot of abilities.  She knows how to cook, sew and is good with numbers.  She came to the center and I worked through the Career Workshop with her individually over a period of weeks.  At one point, we were contacted by an employer that was looking for someone with sewing skills.  We sent Silvia to interview and she got the job.  She is very excited because it is a business that makes children's party dresses and she is going to learn some additional skills with this job.  She says it is exactly the type of job she was looking for.  Congratulations to Silvia!

Wednesday was a national holiday so the center was closed.  The holiday was in honor of General Miguel Grua Seminario.  His death was on October 8, 1879 and they have declared it a national holiday.  I had to look him up to learn what was so special about him.  He is one of Peru's national heroes, who died during the Battle of the Pacific against Chile.  He was the Admiral of their Navy and has the nickname, the Gentleman of the Seas. He was from Piura, which is up north so they may have made a bigger deal up there, but here it was just a day off of work and we made the mistake of going to the mall and it was packed.  I have never see such a long line to get into a movie theater.  I should have taken a photo but didn't think about it.

We spent the holiday at Gladys Machado's house in the early afternoon.  Gladys is one of our volunteers at the center and she is mostly responsible for us getting the graduation surveys done. She lives up on one of the hills overlooking Cusco.  Her view from her kitchen window was magnificent. 

 View from Glady's kitchen overlooking Cusco. Can you make out the snow on the peaks in the top left of the photo?

Renzo, Glady's 11 year old son

 She has a good view of the entire airport so she can see the planes come in and go out, but she doesn't have the sound effects to go with it.  She also has a good view of the mountains outside of Cusco.  The night before we had had a major rainstorm and there was actually snow on the peaks of the mountains to the east of Cusco.  Gladys spent two hours preparing us lunch.  I helped a little, but she did most of the work.  She fixed us the Peruvian version of spaghetti, which included chicken and everything was from scratch (except the pasta).  We brought a cake in honor of the holiday (which I did not make from scratch but bought).

Our English classes this week were really fun.  The lesson was on the supermarket and so it involved a lot of food vocabulary.  We decided we needed to bring some visual aids and snacks so we brought them peanut butter and jam sandwiches and peanut butter and honey sandwiches which were a hit.  We have a couple more weeks to go and we will have completed the first level of the course.  We've decided we need to have a party to celebrate.

We are finding out about other families that are struggling financially.  I am working on translating the church's Family Finance Workshop, which I have in English so we can hold a workshop.  The target date is October 26th and we will be working with the members from the Ttio ward.  Our family, the Cuadros, worked with our visitors from the US this past week so we didn't have any contact with them.

Here is photo of Dave with Kent Smith, our visitor from California, a former missionary in Chile.  He brought down brown paper shopping sacks that will be such a help to us for making our carmel corn.  He also brought a big container of Jelly Bellies from Costco which we have been sharing with our English class students and those that come in to the center.

The two seemed to hit it off pretty well.  Kent Smith helped Dave with the roof project and him and his friend helped the Cuadros family.  They talked to them about keeping records for their business and bought them some ledgers to start using.  We will have to provide follow up or that will not bear fruit.

Kent Smith also brought down supplies for making bubbles.  Here Renzo is playing with one of the toys Kent brought.  Renzo thought it was pretty fun so I think the bubbles are going to be a big hit.

The newlywed couple, Austin & Rachel, finished up their stay in Cusco so we invited them over for a Sunday dinner.  They were so kind to help us out with our English class at 7 pm while they've been here.  It has gotten quite large and often I am still involved with the Planning for Success workshop that starts at 6 pm so Dave many times is on his own with this class.  It was such a big help to have them there.  We were able to provide more individual attention to the students and do more role playing.  We will miss them.  Their plan is to travel around the world for 8 months, combining study and a work project along with an extended honeymoon.  What a romantic way to start off married life!

Probably the funniest part of our week was Saturday when we went to a new Saturday market we had heard about, Bariotio.  Apparently, a lot of the vendors sell used products from the United States, along with artesanian vendors that sell in bulk to the street vendors so you can get souvenir items at a much cheaper price.  Our purpose for going there was to hopefully find Dave a pair of boots he can use during the up coming rainy season.  His feet are much larger than these tiny Peruvian, Inca descendants and none of the regular shoe vendors have anything in his size, which down here is a 46.  We had to look long and hard but we finally found him a pair that was his size and hopefully will function well in the rain.

But after that was when the fun began.  We then walked down street after street filled with vendors selling anything and everything.  That is where we found these cute dolls dressed in typical costumes.  We think Kent Smith will be able to bring them back with him so Sadie, Sierra and Cosette can have them for Christmas. 

We saw a lot of other souvenir items, but we can't buy everything all at once!  Dave was going ga-ga over all the old antique items being sold.  He managed to not buy anything until he made a discovery that he could not pass up.  These silver coins below.  They are pure silver (we believe) and one is dated 1706.  Dave looked it up on the internet and he believes they are worth a lot more than what we paid for them.

We've learned that October is the best month to visit Cusco as far as weather goes and amount of tourists around.  So here, Kayla, is my plug for visitors, just so you won't be disappointed.  Plan on October, anyone who wants to visit, and let us know in advance so we can plan some free time in our schedule to visit with you.

Spiritural Thought of the Week:  "It is God's will that we be free men and women enabled to rise to our full potential both temporally and spiritually, that we be free from the humiliating limitations of poverty and the bondage of sin, that we enjoy self-respect and independence, that we be prepared in all things to join Him in His celestial kingdom."  Todd C Christofferson  "Free Frever, to Act for Themselves"  Oct. 2014 General Conference