Barbecue Bathing, Combis, Laundry and Tim's 1st Violin Recital

Barbecue Bathing

Above is a picture of the hot water heater and propane tank in our bathroom. Any time we take a bath or shower, the flames fire up and for the first few minutes the bathroom smells like a barbecue. Another unique aspect of this type of water heating is that you never know exactly when the propane tank will run out...until the water turns REALLY cold (instantly). Thankfully we've never had shampoo in our hair at that point.

Combis
The dominant form of local transportation here in Cuzco is the "combi" (pronounced "comb-bee"). They're 10-15 passenger vans that race all around town for 60 centimos per ride, which is basically 20 US cents. You often find yourself sitting next to a farmer with his or her bundles of produce or people with their various animals. Last week we rode next to a woman who had three bags of live chickens that were clucking and moving around.

Laundry "Old School" Style

We now think twice before throwing our clothes in the "dirty clothes hamper," because we have to wash everything by hand. Below is a picture of our laundry drying in our outdoor washroom. We are really going to appreciate the luxury of a washer & dryer upon our return to the U.S. (not to mention a dishwasher, kitchen appliances, an oven that indicates the temperature, hot water in our kitchen sink, a vacuum, etc.). Though we live in an urban home, we sometimes feel like we are enjoying life in "The Little House on the Prairie." It's actually a lot of fun.

The Inaugural Performance of Timothy "Itzhak Perlman" Mayes

Tim performed in his first violin recital last night. The way the recital was organized, the older and more experienced violinists played first and then with each subsequent song more kids joined in (whomever had reached that level of playing). Tim started his lessons two months ago and is still at the one-note rhythm point. He and his cohort were to play last in the concert keeping rhythm to "Estrellitas" ("Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"), repeating the one musical note that they have learned. Well, Tim was so eager to get up and play that when he heard mention of this song--which was for kids who could actually play it--he jumped onto the stage. His teacher was way at the back of the group and could not see him to tell him to wait. I (Jen) frantically tried to get his attention by calling his name and waving, which he interpreted as excitement and support on my part and waved back to me. I could not get there in time to get him off the stage. Below is a 13-second video clip of his memorable performance. My apologies for the shaking of the camera; I was laughing so hard it kept moving.

Love to all of you and Feliz Navidad!

Isaiah 9:6
"For to us a child is born and to us a son is given...And He will be called 'Wonderful Counselor', 'Mighty God', 'Everlasting Father', 'Prince of Peace'."

Tim's 8th Birthday and Weekend in Pisac

We spent this past weekend in the nearby village of Pisac to celebrate Tim's 8th birthday. Here are some pictures from our trip...

Family shot over Cusco on our way out of the city.

Lupe's son, Farik, joined us on our trip. Ben and Farik at the hotel bar.
Ben's not sure what to get. Hmmm...apple juice or Sprite?

The boys at the hotel pool. Farik had never seen a pool, let alone been in one. It took him a while to build up the courage to put his feet in, but once he did, he loved it. The rest of the day he kept asking, "Podemos volver a la piscina por favor?" ("Can we please go back to the pool?").

Lunch at the hotel restaurant.

Walking into town from our hotel.

Tim and Ben in the market with Quechua women in traditional garb.

Rick and Ben looking at the Incan (Pisac) ruins.

The ruins.

Tim, Ben and Rick with Pisac in the background on our way out of town.

Back home for birthday cake and ice cream.

We'll never forget Tim's 8th birthday!

Promesa, Neighbors, Adoption Update, & Zucchini Bread

Hi Everyone! Just some random updates...

The Boys' School: Promesa

The boys are attending a bilingual, Christian school here. They love it. Ben is going 5 days a week and Tim is going for 3 (the other 2 we're home-schooling him -- come December, when the academic year ends here, they will both be home). The picture above is of them playing soccer, which they do every day. They are two of the only non-Peruvian, English speakers, so they are learning a lot of Spanish. Ben actually hasn't figured out that most people don't understand him and just talks to them in English. He has two close friends there, Reynaldo and Sofia, and the three of them play together constantly (photo below). It's really cute. Tim has learned the expression "no entiendo" ("I don't understand") and tells us he has to use it frequently. He has also explained that he never gets in trouble in class because he can't speak the language. That's good...I guess. Anyway, they are both enjoying school and making a lot of friends.

Our Neighbors:

There is a cute, older couple who live in the home across the street (or passage, as they call it here, since it's a sidewalk that separates us). They are probably in their 80's. The husband wears a three piece suit all day, and on days when the sun is out he sits on a chair outside their house or walks up and down the sidewalk. He cannot see or hear very well, so when we greet him, we need to get up very close and speak loudly. Ben blows them kisses every time we see them, which I guess translates in every language. Last week the woman dropped off some sort of fruit (???still not sure what it was) from a tree outside their house. Tim and I went to the market later that day and got them breakfast rolls and fruit for the next morning. Two days later, on Saturday, our doorbell rang at 6:30am (thankfully we're early risers!), and our neighbor was at our door with some pears in juice and some yummy bread. So, now we're in an all out "I can't understand what you're saying, but I'm going to try to give you lots of great treats and show you what a nice neighbor I am" exchange.

Adoption Update:

For those of you who are interested in an update about our adoption, we are in the final stages of having our dossier approved. This means that our agency in the States and MIMDES, the government agency here in Peru that oversees adoptions, will begin to look for a "match" for us. This can often take several months, but we feel encouraged that we're getting closer. The process has been long and tedious at times, but we trust that God has the whole thing figured out already, so we are not getting stressed about the details or timing. We talk and pray about the little girl or sibling pair that will one day be part of our family. We're all really excited.

Zucchini Bread:
Lastly, Ben and I were very proud of our first baking effort in Peru: zucchini bread. It was no small thing given that 1) the oven doesn't have a thermometer or any way to gauge the temperature; 2) when we went to the store, I didn't know the names of many of the ingredients in Spanish; 3) all measurements are different here; 4) we have no measuring cups or spoons anyway, and, 5) the high altitude totally throws baking off. Oh the adventures of living -- and baking! -- abroad.

(Tim and Ben helping Lupe clean the patio)
(Tim is learning to play the violin.)

"Poverty Parenting," Ice Cream and Ben's 5th Birthday

Often, the person you least want to be around is someone who has just returned from working with very poor people in an impoverished and desolate area. He or she can be very impatient with and downright judgmental about the relative ease and comfort to which they have returned and in which you have been living (comfortably they assume) while he or she was away. This is the scenario into which our older son, Tim, inadvertently fell the night I returned from working with Dr. Bill Allen and two colleagues in the isolated and remote village of Santo Tomas about 120 miles south of Cusco. Just driving there took 7 hours over mountains and across rivers. The village lies around 12,000+ feet above sea level, so the nights are frigid and you can easily get sunburned during the day. We had traveled to Santo Tomas to assess what the town's health needs and infrastructure are and how a team of clinicians from the University of Georgia could best help when they visit in February. We also made a point of meeting the town's pillars (its mayor, pastor, doctor and hostal owners).


Like so many towns and villages in developing countries, the ratio of local residents-to-doctor is enormous. In Santo Tomas there is one (very young) doctor who has just finished his training and has been posted to the town for 1 year to pay back his medical education debt to the government. He is supposed to provide care to the town's approximately 8,000 residents and the 10,000-15,000 residents that live in the surrounding areas. He has to be the ultimate generalist: pediatrician, OBGYN, internist, geriatrician, infectious disease specialist, you name it. He has a few nurses to help him, but he is otherwise completely on his own with decent but limited facilities. Even some of the high-tech equipment he has, which was donated from somewhere else, he can't use because some part has broken or he simply does not know how to use it yet. There is no one to train him. For example, the week before we arrived a young baby died just after delivery because the mother had complications the doctor could not handle and she was sent on the 7-hour drive to Cusco. She made it, but her baby did not. Such is life's "lottery of birth." Some babies are born to loving parents with extensive resources and access to the best of modern medicine. Many, many babies are born with so much less or nothing at all...

So, back to our son and poor parenting on my part. When Tim told me that he did not like the ice cream I had brought home the night I returned and wanted something else (which, given, is obnoxious), I reacted more emotionally than thoughtfully. I told him he was spoiled and that most of the children with whom I had been interacting the last 3 days had probably never tasted ice cream. They lived literally in 1-room dirt-floor homes with minimal schooling and virtually non-existent opportunities for betterment in the future. In short, they had next to nothing and were grateful for anything that came their way. Tim stepped back from me wide-eyed, sensing that I was in something of a rarified mode. My response to Tim's comment reminded me of how my dad sometimes responded to me on those days when he would come home from work at the hospital and had had to do radiological work on young children with terminal conditions. On those occasions, the first thing I wanted to discuss with him was the horrible unfairness being visited upon me because mom would not give me the keys to the car or, when I was younger, the injustice of having to eat meatloaf. I think my dad actually handled those occasions better, because he would basically just tune me out and retreat to the quiet of his study. He knew I was utterly clueless about the world and behaving very poorly with a bloated sense of entitlement. But he also knew that he was not in an emotional state to explain that well to me. So he would wait until a more opportune time. Here's a link to a video of our trip: ( http://web.mac.com/allensinperu/Hinterland_Health_Ministry/Movies/Pages/Road_to_Santo_Tomas.html ).

The next day was Ben's 5th birthday, which we celebrated in fine fashion with a slumber party with his friends that included pizza, cake, ice cream, and a showing of "Peter Pan" in Spanish, which we did primarily for Farik (the little 4-year old boy who comes most days with his mom who helps in our home). He speaks no English. We had a blast!

Clean Water Anytime and "No Lettuce Please"

I, (Rick), had the honor of attending a special ceremony in a local neighborhood where one of Bill Allen's colleagues, Rich Wagner, built and donated two massive water tanks with a solar-powered purification system (with help from "Water for the World": http://www.purewaterfortheworld.org/). This was a huge deal. Prior to this, the local residents had to cue up around 4pm every day for local water spigots to turn on for only two hours at a time with a supply of very dirty water. It was bad enough that they only had two hours of each day to get water, which is extremely heavy to carry; it was made even worse by the fact that the water was the source of so much illness and suffering in this village. This is true throughout much of rural Peru. All this to say that it was special to witness and be part of this ceremony.
At the end of the ceremony, a slightly awkward situation arose for me. Bill Allen pulled me aside and whispered, "You probably don't want to eat the lettuce." As it turns out, the local residents were so grateful for the new water system that they prepared a special meal for us with local produce. In these areas, any produce not thoroughly cooked or washed with clean water (which again, is hard to obtain here) is often a recipe for mild to serious gastrointestinal problems. But perhaps even worse, on a social level, is to refuse the food. So, hence, a diplomatic dilemma. It is amazing how quickly one can deploy "food hiding skills" from an early age. I did my best...

First Week in Cusco

Hi Everyone! Greetings from Cusco. We are feeling settled here, thankfully. The transition has been fairly smooth, particularly, we think, because we were here last summer for a month, both in this city and home. So we all knew what to expect of our surroundings. It's a great place.

Here are a few highlights from our first week:

1.) Tim has developed a passion for Monopoly. We ended up buying the game in the “mercado” (market) on Saturday (in Spanish, mind you) and he will often choose to play by himself, against himself, if he can’t find a willing opponent. “I won!” we will hear him yell from the other room.

2.) On Sunday we attended church with our special friends from last year, the Allens. They are missionaries through MTW (“Mission to the World”) and Bill Allen is a doctor who has established a clinic to treat the poor on the outskirts of Cusco. We’ll probably mention this family a lot, as they are amazing. This is a picture of Tim and Ben with their three girls, Noelle, Sarah, and Kate (recently adopted).

3.) The woman who helps take care of our home, Lupe, will be bringing her little boy, Farik, with her every afternoon. He’s adorable and he and Ben have hit it off (both 4, going on 5). This is a picture of them coloring together.

More posts to come later....

Airport Fun

Well, we're in Peru after our overnight flight, though we missed our connection to Cusco and are spending several hours in the Lima airport today. Not the seamless arrival for which we hoped. Oh well. I wouldn't say any of us are at the "top of our game" (whatever that is) after our long, delayed flight last night, but it is good to be here.

Rick and I have both had the experience already when we started talking to someone in Spanish, they cringed and started speaking back to us in English, so clearly we have a ways to go in our linguistic ability. Here's a picture of the boys playing cards in the airport terminal. Think we "Gringos" stand out a bit here? Greetings to all from Peru!

Sept. 2008 -- Maine

Here we are in Maine having dinner at the Jordan Pond House, with the beautiful Jordan Pond and Bubble Mountains in the background. What you don't know in looking in the picture is that 1) we got lost in finding it (yes I, Jen, have been to this place every summer of my life); 2) it was starting to get cold and windy as we finished our meal; 3) having biked several hours already, Ben was beginning to find the adventure "not so much fun anymore" and was starting to melt-down; and, 4) we only had 45 minutes to get back to our car before sunset (at least a 45 minute bike ride, esp. with young kids and a huge uphill ahead of us). All this to say that pictures can be deceiving. Keep this in mind as you see our pictures and read our posts in the future.

We leave for Peru on Wednesday and are very excited about the adventure that lies ahead. We are eager to return to Cusco. We thank God for this opportunity.