I wrote in a journal during my time away so as not to forget the events that transpired over the Peru trip. That doesn't mean that I don't have more to say, just that my memory might be triggered by the few events I remembered to record. The kids mocked me for writing each night and morning. I often didn't get much written due to interruptions, and I was quite tired. That could have something to do with getting up at strange times.
The insanity began when we met at our house to leave for the Edmonton airport at 3:30 am on a Tuesday morning. We passed through US Homeland Security before boarding our 7 am flight to San Francisco which took just around 2 ½ hours in the air. From there we navigated the airport, got a bite to eat, and hopped a 9 ½ hour flight to Lima that included 2 miniature meals and viewings of Thor, Limitless, Vantage Point, and half of The Fast and Furious. I tried sleeping, but it was useless. When we landed in Lima, we had a few hours to kill before boarding our plane to Cusco, and it was already the next day. Through customs with our luggage we went once more. We tried to eat some McDonald's, but to no avail - they were out of reg meat so there was no possibility of eating a cheeseburger ("hamburguesa con quesa") or Big Mac. I settled for the 15 sole 10 nugget meal. This should have been the first indication that we were no longer in beef country. And when you're tired, everything feels like its a big deal. It's weird when the 10 nugget meal costs the same as a Big Mac.
We got on our plane in the dark and flew into the morning light. No airline flies into Cusco except during daylight hours because it is surrounded by mountains. It is one of the highest large cities in the Andes mountain range at 3,300 metres and a population of 300,000. The flight felt funny going from sea level upwards for a fair distance to just briefly descending before our landing in Cusco. We knew we were in another world as the instructions and announcements on the airlines went from English only to Spanish and English to Spanish only. We emerged from the airport with all of our luggage, bewildered looks, and tired eyes. What a welcome. Two vans arrived shortly after our arrival to pick us up and usher us to a hotel somewhere in town. We dropped our stuff off, had a short breakfast of bread and jam, and took a few moments to settle in.
One of the first things you learn is not to throw your toilet paper into the toilet, but into a garbage can. One room of girls quickly discovered this the hard way. Plumbing is not American Standard. And don't drink the tap water. The locals might at room temperature or warmer, but there could be almost any bacteria in it. Filtration? Nope. And cold water might give you the Gripe (a cold) according to locals. Coke is not chilled or on ice most of the time. Many drinks are lukewarm or hot.
We began realizing at this point what people had forgotten. Two had not brought their altitude medication. One was missing her asthma puffer and ankle brace. Two were missing sleeping mats. A Bible and altitude meds sat on a girl's bed at home, a girl who was discovering that she really needed them. She quickly became a prayer priority for us. It didn't help that Carlissa had no sleep on the plane or in the airport. I caught about 1 hour in Lima airport myself and had 15 minutes here and there on the planes. She slept for a few hours while we tried to make arrangements, and woke her before leaving to eat at a restaurant for lunch.
Ben took us to a decent restaurant that served us pollo a la brassa (rotisserie-style chicken) and trucha frita (fried river trout) with papa fritas, beginning with a caldo (soup) appetizer. The kids mostly enjoyed the soup, and were sold on the chicken. I had the trout with Steph. It was fantastic. It wouldn't be the only time. After eating, we checked out a local supermarket nearby and then went back to the hotel. Some napped. Others of us were counting on an early bedtime since the next morning we had to be on a transport by 3 am (again) out to a small village that was at least 5 hours into the Andes from Cusco. So, a few of the youth asked if I'd like to go for a walk. So we walked around the block and beyond. We repacked our carry-on for the village and sent the rest of our things to ATEK where a ladies conference was being held. And then went for supper. I had the chicken then. Others had some interesting 'Hawaiian pizza' san pizza sauce con cinnamon, sugar, peaches, etc. Apparently very good to some. To others, not so much.
The sights, sounds, and smells of Cusco. Cusco is built into a bowl in the surrounding mountains, and creeps up the sides of them until there is nowhere else to go. As you look out over the city, everywhere there are incomplete buildings, many or most built from adobe bricks. This same brick makes up perimeter walls, and occasionally solid rock foundations and concrete support these on the hillsides. Other times, you see 4 foot doors as the whole house has sunk into the ground through the weathering winds and rains of time. Most people here can easily duck into these doors, however. The average height of the people was around 5 feet. I'm not sure I recall a Peruvian man that I couldn't see eye to eye or above his hairline. And there were dogs everywhere. Inside yards, inside doorways, roaming the streets - unkempt, mangy, flea-bitten, forlorn, skittish - and most belonged to someone somewhere if you considered following them home. It was a sad sight.
We were being looked at as well.The first comment I got from a Peruvian was, "Aren't you a little young to be a pastor?" I wasn't sure how to take that. I tried to get online the first night at the hotel, and eventually did. The desk clerk made the foreigner wait infinitely before she let him know that he could use the lobby computer. Her companion sat there for the better part of to hours on Facebook chatting. I urgently needed to get word home that we were okay. Most of the people we met had never watched The Amazing Race or flown halfway across the world, so they thought we were being weak because we were so exhausted from our journey. You try traveling for 27 hours or more in one leg and then functioning normally.
Carlissa slept from the time we returned from lunch until we left the next morning at 3 am. Talk about messing up somebody's internal clock! She only slept maybe 3 hours the night before we left, which added to her sleep deprivation. We gave her some oxygen at one point and some food from our supper out (because she stayed back to sleep more), and we prayed over her. Her stomach was not feeling well either. The girls in her room just ignored her and were laughing in the room still at 10 pm until I knocked on the door. I could hear them through my earplugs. Apparently I scared Jill badly enough that she ran her arm into a dresser and skidded across the floor on the same elbow. We needed to get her some first aid. Add that to her injured hand that happened at camp just before she left and she was a regular Nancy. It's a good thing her mom is a nurse. However, she wasn't there. It was just us.
We didn't really know what was even expected of us at this camp we were about to help at. We stopped at a town along the way named Coyobamba, and this was on our itinerary as the location, but things were not as we had hoped. At this point it began to rain. Being dry season (winter), it rains maybe three times in the season. Were we lucky or what. None of the kids brought their raincoats to the village. I did. We began to pray that the rain would end so we could actually hold the camp. But this was not the location. It had been moved before it even began to Arikipa.
Two more hours down the road we arrived in the village where word of mouth had sent the kids for the camp. It was held at a local school compound, but only two rooms were available for use since all but two of the the teachers were all on holidays for the next 15 days along with the children. The boys slept in one, girls in another. We were loaned tents by Walter who is Stephanie's friend and tour agent, guide, and outfitter. We were so glad. We set them up and prayed again for sunshine. And the sun finally came. We tossed our coats and sweaters aside and were sent to join the kids for game time.
Two of our youth each went from station to station in their newly assigned groups. The language barrier made us just that much more silly to the kids there, and made it difficult for us to understand what was supposed to be happening. I recognized a few of the games, so I caught on faster than some. But we were still fairly disconnected. It wasn't until after we ate our first foot potato soup lunch that we began to find common ground. We joined in some relay races and made fools of ourselves - and that tipped the scales. David fed a girl while blindfolded (Nelly) a banana and a drink and some other odd food (I think it was lunch again), and I took some pictures. All the kids gathered around to see the "fotos". Then we did an egg and spoon relay. Yup. Each of us put the spoon in our mouths, and then each kid followed suit. We became a part of their world.
After we shared supper together, the kids kept asking us, "Cantos?" I had no idea what they were talking about. I finally replied, "Musica?" to which their eyes widened and they heartily agreed. We would share a song, then they would, and we traded songs back and forth for quite a while. Finally it was time for their evening teaching. Each group chose to sing a song or act a play for us in our honour. Remember - what time did we wake up this morning? Oh yeah. They went until about 9:30 pm. Most of us could only hold our heads up until 9 pm. We graciously moved into our beds and zonked out.
I was so tired at 8 pm every day and almost always up by 6 am. Being near the equator and having regular sunrises and sunsets really throws a person. That and their winter seems as warm as our summer during the day and as cold at night. None of the buildings were in had any kind of heating and had even less insulation; I was glad I brought a -5⁰C sleeping bag and a self-inflating mattress. It was an incredible experience. One last photo of the bathroom facilities before I sign off tonight...
- Mark
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