Hitting the Wall

One of the cool walkways you can find in Cusco with original Inca stone work

Both Dave and I hit the wall this week.  We've been working so hard and just going, going, going, that we each took a turn having a day where we just ran out of steam.  Mine was Wednesday and his was Thursday.  Those days we just stayed at home during the afternoon and took it easy, doing a bit of housework or studying.  We're going to have to do a better job of pacing ourselves.

We've been having great weather.  All week was very warm, sunny and dry!  Unusual for this time of year.

Monday morning was my second piano class.  This time instead of one student I ended up with 5 students.  Holy cow!  I wasn't expecting that.  The stake Primary president has visions of a child from each ward learning to play.  She wants to include 2-3 more children.  The ages ranged from 7 to 11 and the abilities were varied as well.  Some caught on quickly while others struggled.  I had received the church's keyboard course material and was able to use that but trying to juggle 5 kids with one keyboard was tricky.  Luckily the church material came with a cardboard keyboard so that came in handy a bit, but I'm going to have to try to round up a few more keyboards or divide the class up and schedule more time for piano lessons.  Like I have more time to spare!

Monday we had to say goodbye to Carlos Hale and his family.  It was the last day he was going to be in Cusco except for occasional visits to oversee the work.  We were sad to say goodbye.  We love working with Carlos and he has a great family.  Below we are with him and his wife, Veronica just before they leave.  We have an open invitation to visit them in Arequipa, Peru anytime.  We will probably include Arequipa in our end-of-the-mission travel plans.

Dave somehow thought Monday was a P-day.  He was actually doing some physical labor in the center that day.

Monday we also went to lunch with the Haslers and the Johnsons again.  This time to a typical seafood restaurant, el Paisa, which features cuisine from northern Peru.  Northern Peru is warmer and has more beaches so the food includes a lot of fish and seafood.    But first we had to decipher the menu.  Since the Johnsons don't speak a lot of Spanish we asked for the English menu.  It was the oddest translation.  We think they used Google translate, which is not a very accurate method of translation.

 Anyone interested in eating Cheetah sweat listed above, 6th item down?  Plenty of sweating going on back in the kitchen it appears.  We believe they are trying to say steamed.

Many of the menu items included bush Creole.  We figured out that bush meant salad.  Mixed Jelly is the translation for Jalea Mixta.  Jalea has nothing to do with jelly, although jalea can be translated as jelly but not in this situation.

We avoided the typical fish dish called ceviche and went with something more traditional.  We also noticed the prices listed on the English menu were higher than the Spanish menu.  So if you come and visit, let us do the ordering, we can get you a better price for your meal.  But most places you will pay half of what you would in the states to dine out.  Dave and I can both order a nice meal (but most of the time we split a plate) and it will cost us about $15 total.

Monday, February 2, was also some kind of holiday here in Peru.  We walked by our local park near our house on the way home from lunch and it was full of people dressed in typical costumes, complete with a band and everything.  We asked them what was going on and discovered it was related to some Catholic saint.  Here are some photos Dave took.  Very picturesque.

 The band is gathering to start to play.  Women were trying to shade themselves from the sun.  It was quite a warm day for Cusco and the sun can be quite strong.

 Kids were having a great time playing.  Below is the shortest gorilla I think I have ever seen.

The women dress was similar but with different colors.  All wearing the same typical derby type hat.

Monday was probably our most eventful day of the week.  The rest of the week, we had our nose to the grindstone and worked a lot in the center and taught a lot of English.  Here are some photos from one of our English classes with the full-time missionaries of the Cusco zone.

 Elder Powell, from Utah, uses the head of a latino elder, Elder Garcia, as an arm rest.  Elder Powell did a great job helping us review the lessons with the missionaries this week.

 Hna. Valenzuela helps teach.  She is latino, but has a great command of the English language.

Elder Jensen, on the left, teaches Elder Urrutia, Hna. Ponce and Hna. Borja.  He has been in the Cusco zone since before we started teaching these English classes.  I think he has a good 6-7 months here.  He's due to get a change this next transfer at the end of the month I think.  He's been a good sport about helping us teach English.

We saw Esaias again at one of our classes.  He had gone MIA.  We found out why.  He had gotten some work as a tour guide assistant and had been traveling around.  It was good to see him and he said he had missed coming to church and would plan on being there this Sunday.  Rolando, another student from English was supposed to have been baptized this Saturday but things have been delayed as he has not been progressing and was not ready to make that commitment.

We got hooked back up with the Cuadros family.  We have been so busy working on other projects and they had stood us up so many times, we sort of let them slide.  But on Friday we went back down to do a follow up inventory.  We didn't get too far and will have to finish the project on Monday.  It seems as if they have even more inventory then the last time.  We plan on teaching them to cut back and be more wise in how they handle their inventory.  Not sure they will listen, but we've got to give it a try.

This week we've been well aware we are living in a third world country.  Our bathroom in our apartment has had a leaking problem, but from the ceiling through the light fixture, which just happens to be directly above where the toilet sits.  We have had a number of mornings where we wake up to quite a bit of water on the toilet seat and on the floor of the bathroom.  Luckily there is a drain in the middle of the floor but we usually have a small bathroom rug covering the floor, which gets soaking wet.  A couple of times we've even experienced a small shower while using the toilet from the drips.  Quite annoying.

So this week, Dave went into McGyver mode  (for those too young to remember that television show, it was about a guy named McGyver who was a genius had solving problems by thinking outside of the box and using varioius odds and ends to solve the problem) and this is what he came up with. (this photo shows it being propped up while it sets.

He removed the light fixture and moved it over to a different spot in the ceiling and then went out and got a funnel to cover the hole from the light fixture and inserted plastic tubing into the funnel and ran it into the shower area so the drip now drains into the shower rather than on our heads or onto the floor.

His first attempted wasn't quite successful as the bathroom gets rather steamy while we shower and it caused the glue to soften up and release the funnel.  So his next attempt looks like this.

This seems to be working better and hopefully will be a long-term solution.  A permanent solution would be to tear up the cement ceiling and fix the actual leak, but as it is not our home, nor do we have time for such a project, this will just have to do.  

We've been asked to speak next Saturday night during the adult session of stake conference for the Inti Raymi stake.  They are only giving us 10 minutes to talk on Self-Reliance.  I could talk for hours on it.  Going need some inspiration as to what to focus on.  

Today, Sunday, we visited the Villa Maria branch.  It was our first time out there, but we knew a number of the members.  The Izcuchaca family group is now part of this branch and there were a number of people there we had met before.  Also a family from the Picchu ward had built a house and are now living in the branch's boundaries.  They are a strong solid LDS family and are already serving in leadership positions even though they only have lived there for a month.  We were asked to speak during sacrament meeting, with no warning, about self-reliance.  Dave did quite well.  He has really come a long ways in his ability to speak Spanish.  He still doesn't conjugate verbs right most of the time *which drives me crazy, and his vocabulary is lacking at times, but to give a meaningful message in Spanish without any preparation and for the most part to have it make sense is something he could not have done just a few months ago.

Tomorrow, we hit the eight month mark from when we entered the MTC back in Provo for training.  That seems so long ago.  So much has happened and we've had so many experiences, both trying and wonderful.  There are days when we miss home, our family and friends.  But how we love serving the Lord!  The people are so grateful to have us here and want us to stay long-term.  There is so much that needs to be done.  No wonder we are going, going, going.  I think we are experiencing first hand the prophetic call of "hastening the work".  We wouldn't have it any other way.

Spiritual Thought of the Week: God loves you as He loves each and every one of His children, and His desire and purpose and glory is to have you return to Him....Your Father in heaven is mindful of you.  Satan is also mindful of you.  He is committed to your destruction.  Satan's program is "play now and pay later."  The Lord's program is happiness now and joy forever through gospel living.

The biggest business of any life is making decisions.  We put our own lives in the direction of success or failure.  Our decisions have made us what we are.  Our eternal destiny will be determined by the decisions we yet will make.        --Ezra Taft Benson from Teachings of Presidents of the Church  Chapter 3  Freedom of Choice, an Eternal Principle.