Drive Through Canyon Del Pato

We made this drive from Caraz to Trujillo a few weeks ago; it was gorgeous but terrifying.  I was too busy "helping" Scott drive to take pictures :D but this woman showed it really well--see her 8th August entry:

http://latinamericaroadtrip.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/peru-12-leaving-the-cordillera-blanca-for-trujillo-and-the-north-and-on-to-the-border-with-ecuador/

Back in Yungay

We have returned to our little house in the mountains and are very happy to be settling back in.  We had an enjoyable couple days with Kate and Billy, and also got to meet up with Angel and Rosa (the Kusi house parents) who were getting a few things done in Lima and were accompanied by their daughter Alexia and three of the boys; Johnny, Nando, and Martin.

We walked to lunch, and then went across the street to the Parque de la Amistad, where Billy and Kate had their civil wedding.  It is a beautiful park, so it was fun to walk around.  Peru often does public spaces very well, with beautiful green areas and fun activities to do with children.  This one, for example, had paddle boats in a pond, and a train you can ride all around the park.  You can also do things like feed the ducks and fish.

When we got back to Yungay yesterday morning the boys were excited to see us, but mostly excited to show us a "pool" that they have built.  It is seriously ingenious; they essentially build a temporary dam with wood, rocks, and plastic tarps into part of a stream that flows nearby.  It takes them a good half hour to put it up every time, (and to take it down), but it fills up to be quite deep and wide.  Scott took some pictures with his phone; I will try to post them soon.  These kids impress us all the time with the creative ways that they have fun.

The progress that the workers made on the cafe while we were gone is very exciting!  I will also get more pictures of that up here soon.

Happy New Year!

Back in Peru; rededicating myself to maintaining this blog!

We are currently in Lima for a few days and staying at Billy and Kate Greenman's apartment (thank you Billy and Kate!) in Surco, one of the forty-three districts in the province of Lima. According to Wikipedia, only thirty of the districts compose the urban area of Lima, the remaining thirteen are mostly rural and sparsely populated desert and mountainous areas.

Last night we had dinner at their favorite chicken place, Don Tito for pollo a la brasa.  It was definitely a popular restaurant in the neighborhood, and is thought to have been there since the '70s.

Pollo a la brasa is an extremely popular dish in Peru; if you have ever visited the country you have almost definitely had it.  It is a delicious style of rotisserie chicken, usually accompanied by french fries and a salad of lettuce and tomato.  This is one of the most standard dishes to find, and in many restaurants, is actually the only meal they serve.

We are currently getting the rest of the paperwork in place for our work visas and are going back to Yungay on a night bus Saturday night. We are eager to get back to Yungay and see how things are progressing with the Kawaq Yaku Cafe build!!

It was great getting the opportunity to spend the holidays in the U.S. with all of you friends and family.  Love you all and Happy New Year!

Why We Are Here & How We Are

Scott and I have now been in Kusi (which is the name of the Scripture Union boys home near Yungay, Peru) for a little more than a week now, take a couple days when we went back to Lima to meet up with the church team that was bringing the majority of our possessions with them.  Thank you New Life in Christ Church team for lugging all our bins and suitcases with you!!  I would say that 99% of the things made it in great shape, which is pretty terrific.

We have been slowly gathering furniture and appliances, making this building a home. (Pictures coming soon!)  We are blessed at the moment to be able to live in a little house in Kusi, so even as I write this I can hear the boys playing outside.  It has been wonderful having a built-in community of people that we already know and love right here, making this move to a different country a lot less dramatic.

The New Life team that is here this week has been hard at work in Kusi on building and maintenance projects, as well as a VBS for the Kusi kids and the local mountain kids.  These kinds of work teams are what brought both Scott and I here initially.

There are many wonderful groups doing different work in Peru, including Scripture Union.  When Scott was living here for about a year around 2008 though, he saw the global economic downturn hit this area pretty hard.  Some groups that were doing excellent work, like soup kitchens and missions were suddenly without backup resources when financial support from the US/Europe began to withdraw.  When he came back to the US, he started talking about this issue with different people, trying to determine alternate solutions.

After several years of meetings and talks, Five and Two Investment LLC was born.

Our official purpose statement is: 

"Five and Two Investment LLC is a for profit organization focusing on starting and operating Kingdom businesses, our primary means will be through creating small businesses in partnership with churches, non-profit and non-governmental organizations.

We are currently developing these partnerships in Peru and plan to expand to other countries as the Lord leads and in his timing. We believe that by investing what may seem to be the equivalent of five loaves and two fish God can do amazing things."

Our first project is to start a cafe in Yungay, Peru in cooperation with Peruvian owners that will promise at least 10% of its profits to a church or ministry, (the first one being Scripture Union of Peru).  You can check out the website http://www.5and2invest.com/ to see more about it as well.

So that is why I am in Peru!  Scott and I are here to open this cafe, and we will be here for at least the five years we believe this will take, if not longer to help launch other businesses in Peru.

In the meantime, Kusi is a crowded place right now because the house parents, Angel and Rosa are having a 25th wedding anniversary party, so there are tons of people here.  On top of the normal 40 boys, there is the 24-member New Life team, lots of Angel and Rosa's family (more coming), and numerous other assorted people, including Scott and myself.  A few people are bunking up at our house, including Billy and Kate Greenman, who are employees of Scripture Union.

The last few days I have had a bad cold, and spent the days in bed, which has been disappointing to not spend as much time with the New Life group while they are here.  I think I am on the up and up now though.  It might possibly have to do with a treatment that the Peruvians insisted on yesterday.... Billy has been sick as well, so the Peruvians wanted to cleanse our house of germs.  So I got out of bed and grabbed a sweater to sit on the patio while the Peruvians burned eucalyptus leaves around the house.  I would be lying if I said I was not highly skeptical, if not a little worried that my house was going to smell like lingering smoke (not preferable while lying sick in your bed).  But, they opened all of the windows so that the mountain winds blew through, and the smoky/eucalyptus scent actually dissipated quite quickly.  It didn't hurt anything, and I feel a little better after, so I will leave the determination of its success up to you.

It is beautiful, no Gorgeous here, which makes the desire to know this place and all its differences a lot easier.  Scott took this picture out our back door the other day:

• When I eat breakfast cereal, I now add pourable yogurt (I prefer vanilla for now) since this is what Peruvians do instead of milk.  In fact, milk is not really available; they use canned evaporated milk as cream for their coffee
• Speaking of coffee, if you ask for it at a restaurant, they will give you Nescafe instant by default.  Unless you are in a nicer coffee shop, they rarely brew coffee (even though Peruvian coffee often is ranked among the best in the world).  I don't remember the name for it, but Scott will often ask for a type of coffee concentrate, which is a liquid you add hot water to.  It's pretty good.
• They sell lots of appliances in combos, big and small.  So for example if you want a rice cooker, blender, and an electric kettle, the cheapest way is to find a store that is selling them together.  When buying a larger appliance, they also will often throw in an extra bonus gift.  That is how I ended up with two blenders.

So, we are good currently, and I will write more soon!  Love and miss you all in the States!

Walking Lima

My husband and I arrived in Lima Tuesday night. Since then, we have walked miles around Lima doing banking, research, and setting up many details of our new life. My feet hurt every night, but I hardly notice because this is so exciting!

I have been in Lima before, but never spent this much time here, so it has been really interesting seeing different neighborhoods, absorbing language, observing cultural ways, and generally just trying to take a little bit away with me in learning my new home. 

The 28th of July is basically the Peruvian Independence Day, and everything is already decked out with flags. Many people are wearing flag pins, so we bought some to wear too. A couple people have thanked us for wearing the pins and celebrating with them.

There is much more to write, but we need to get going now to pack for leaving for Kusi tonight!

Moving Time!

We are leaving tomorrow for Peru!  Love, prayers, and thanks to all of you who have helped us out immensely.

Funny Empty House

We are almost finished packing!  This has been a wild week; packing all our possessions that made the cut, then leaving behind some of them that are too heavy.  It is strange packing boxes that have enough space, but just weigh too much to bring with us on the plane.  We also returned a lot of borrowed furniture today, so I am writing this post on my living room floor.

Entertaining things that have happened this week:

1) Packing high heels inside my husband's hiking boots and tennis shoes because that was the best fit

2) Out of  habit, washing all the plasticware we bought to save us from doing dishes

3) Almost breaking a friend's DVD trying to kill a mosquito...a DVD I have been putting in my purse every time I go to any event in hopes that I will finally be able to return it to the friend before we leave

Thank you to everyone who has already loved us, loaned us stuff, provided places to sleep, and so much more.  We are more appreciative than you all can imagine, and we praise the Lord for His own provision.

Why are we doing all of this to move to Peru?  I am delaying that explanation again, hopefully just until the next post.