Monday, August 29, 2016

A Fun Week




Trying some new food.  Curt ordered a caigua relleno at a restaurant this week and enjoyed it so, he bought some at the faire and made it for lunch today.  He stuffed the caigua with chicken and veggies - not bad at all!


While we were at church, Meko came and trimmed back our grapevines in the front and back of the house.  We can now see the sun from our porch.  All those leaves and branches disturbed means the spiders aren't happy - but spiders are a story for another day!  Meko came back later in the week to treat them because there is a fungus that has been infesting the plants.

I think Curt was happy that these are the last leaves he was going to clean up from this arbor for awhile but he didn't realize the mess that would be there when the vine was treated!  

Crossing an unfinished bridge to go out hiking.  I don't know if they are planning on finishing it.

When in Rome?!?  NO!!  People are stealing the planks of wood from the walkway on the bridge.


Pretty interesting big tree out by the town's cemetery.

Yep, selfie time.

Behind me is Nasca and the hill with the cross.  That hill has lots of pottery pieces lying around.

Have you ever tried to hike with a Billy Goat?  I had to remind Curt I was trying to follow him and I was NOT enjoying the steep crumbly path we were on!


Curt says he snapped this picture after I broke his legs and walked away.

Just to have proof he was still walking:  Here he found some feathers and was playing around with some very interesting air currents up there.

Curt had to wash his hand in the dirt after playing with a nasty sappy cactus he'd found.

Erick stopped by for some help with his English homework.  Does my face seem red?  Why, yes I believe it's sunburned after  being drug all over the mountains around Nasca! (We really did have a wonderful day - but I don't know that I want to admit that out loud)

My Sweetie didn't have the best of days.  He was finally able to meet up with a landlord's mom to return keys.  She came ready to battle.  She wanted to charge 2000 soles (above the deposit and extra rent money) to repaint the house.  Finally, Curt called our friend Nestor and he came and helped get things smoothed out and the keys returned.



It's almost midnight and we were at the bus station saying good bye to Ninet as she leaves on her mission. 




Her bags packed and she's ready to go!  Now we just have to wait for the bus to come through.

Damaris (Sister), Ninet and Laura (Mom).  Her mom is not a member of our church.  How strong Laura is to support her daughter in doing what she believes is right.

Huge laughs!  Some in our English class were struggling with the pronounciation on a song we were trying to learn so Curt wrote the English words "in Spanish",  They didn't always work but it seemed to help.  I think all my "best teaching practices" might not have flown out the window but hobbled quietly out the door after being battered and beated like they were.

This week's English class in Nasca.  Some of those words are just not easy to say!

The Tarqui Family leaving after class.  It's fun to see how many people and things that can get stacked on those bikes as they zip around town.

The Vista Alegre English class is practicing singing too.  Females only on this verse.

Primary party in Nasca!

Hermana Fernandina once again does a great job!

Puppy piddle wasn't supposed to be part of the entertainment.

Nasca primary children and lots of yummy treats so they want us to hurry up and finish taking pictures!

Erick's spiritual thought this week was something like this: there were two buckets inside wells.  One bucket was always upset because no matter how many times he came up full, he always went down empty.  The other bucket was always happy because no matter how many times he went down empty, he always came up full.  In life we all have "stuff" but the trick is in how we face it. Loved the thought - and his artwork!

Agusto's birthday!  Damaris fed us all and then we had birthday cake. A fun afternoon with new friends.

We took some pictures to send to Ninet and I thought I'd post them here too.  

Ninet's family and Agusto after they'd had a birthday dinner for him.



Monday, August 22, 2016

A little bit of everything


This is our cistern. As you can see it is super low.  We are hoping we don't run out of water this week. The supply from the city usually runs for a couple of hours a day. I noticed today it only ran for about 40 minutes. We learned from our neighbor that the main city pump went out for three days so no water ran during that time and now they are trying to play catch up.  We noticed a big water tanker truck parked in front of some businesses this morning.  They must already be out.  

Lets hope we get a longer flow tomorrow. 

The maintenance crew mowing the grass at the church. There are several big lawns here and it all gets done with a weed whacker.




Yes it is the middle of winter here but if you water it, it will grow!

These are some very vivacious young boys here in the primary.

This is Agusto, He and I got to hang out together during primary today.

The young lady on the left is Ninet. She gets on the bus at 11:15 tonight to go to Lima. She catches a flight out of Lima tomorrow afternoon at 5:30 pm to go to the Bogota Colombia missionary training center.  Then she's off to Guayaquil Ecuador to serve.  She started her paperwork about a year ago but it got lost in the system for almost 6 months. This young lady has the patience of Job.  The young lady on the right is Mirella.  She is currently waiting for her mission call. 

Hermana Herrera and Onate helping Luis who is 15, start on his family history.

The family history center just like we like it, BUSY!  It's always so rewarding to help our friends  here organize their family tree. Then see the smiles on their faces as they can actually how they are all related.

We met David Alarcon the first day we were here. He and his wife own a home and several souvenir shops here in Nasca. Their 15 year old daughter wants to pursue a career in International Business Administration. The only school for that is in Lima. So they have rented an apartment from family in Lima and mom stays with daughter during the week while dad comes here to run the business and take care of the home. They understand the importance of a good education and are willing to sacrifice a lot to get one.

Thursday night English class. The man on the left (Erick) travels to Lima every weekend to take English and an international business class.  He comes by the house for help with his homework too.The young man in the middle (Manuel) spent three years in Argentina getting his commercial pilots license. He is now flying for a tour operator here showing tourists the Nazca Lines. 

On the right is a mother Marleni (Magi) and daughter Kendy. Magi knows a lot of English and is practicing speaking and hearing it. We met a man today on the street who asked us if we would help him with his English so we invited him to the class also. He was super excited when we told him it was free!



P-day this week was consumed with working on 3 missionary applications with the mission office. Elder Whitaker worked tirelessly getting them completed so they could be submitted to Salt Lake for assignment. The process is a little different here than in the States.  Here because we are in a district not a stake.  The missionary applicants submit to their branch president, who reviews then submits to the Mission president, who reviews then submits to the Area office, who reviews all applications from the stake or mission, who then submits to Salt Lake. So we  help as much as possible. We keep track of the applications until they are submitted by the Area office. We really don't want another one like Ninets'. So, back to my story,  one morning when we had a little time and even though it is mid winter we went for a nice walk where we sat on the bank of the river and just took in the sights of Nasca. 

Hermana Ninet Quilca, 

Monday, August 15, 2016

Cleaned Up




Monday morning the Marcona Elders gave up part of their p-day to come down and help us move everything out of the Nasca apartment. They were lifesavers!

The Zone Leaders had lots of pamplets that needed to be hauled out.  We didn't have boxes so the Elders just balanced them carefully as they hauled them down the stairs and loaded them in the truck.

Now it's time to unload it all at our place.

Curt worked hard to get most of it to fit in that extra bedroom with the Vista Alegre furniture.


Sisters came by and helped us rewash all those extra kitchen items before we stored them.

Since it was their p-day, they also got to spend some time on the internet.  I think you can tell by Hna Onate's face - they love hearing from their families and friends!

Wait - this is p-day, it's time for some fun !  We're heading to the Cahuachi ruins again.  The driver gave me some newspaper to put over my arm so I didn't get a sunburn during the drive there.

It was a little windy!  This little guy is Pres. Compana's grandson and his other grandpa was our driver that day. 

This little scamp has lots of energy!  He was determined I wasn't going to get a picture with him looking at the camera.

He was almost falling out of the truck and I caught him! Such a cutie!


Elders Rosario and Gutierrez posing in front of one of the larger pyramids.  The caretaker was telling me that they thought Cahuachi had been about 24 kilometers wide and included about 36 pyramids.  

A pretty small group now but we still kind of like them!

When we got back to Nasca we headed over to Vista Alegre to clean out that apartment.  I had been worried about how we were going to clean it without much water.  When we got there, the towns pump had been fixed and we had water to clean the apartment! What a sweet reminder that the Lord knows what we need and want.


Some pretty fantastic members from Vista Alegre came and helped us with the cleaning. We were grateful, it was starting to feel like it had been a very long day!

We went back the next day to finish up and double check things.


The kind of buses they have that we are grateful we don't have to always ride!  These buses run everyday from Vista Alegre to Cahuachi.  Those that live out near Cahuachi take these back and forth for school, work, shopping etc. 

Thursday it was time to scrub down the Nasca apartment.  I married a hard worker! 

The Sisters came to help us for a couple of hours.  I didn't have to crack the whip.  They really were a big help, we got a lot done and had fun.

Hna Herrera was very committed to doing a good job and even cleaned an old ball that had gotten left there.  As we were finishing up, she gave it to a little girl walking by on the street, which made the little girl and her mom very happy!




Back in Vista Alegre, Jenny had a suprise birthday party for Hna Nieves but suprise - they couldn't find her! This is our picture for her so she could know we celebrated for her. 

We had to leave early but Hna Nieves is very faithful about coming to English Class and she wasn't there so hopefully they found her and she got to celebrate her birthday with friends.  The rest of the class was going to head over when we finished up.  We still aren't completely use to the flexible timeline they have here.  When something starts at 7, it  means you can still get there at 9 and it will be fine.

A good example is a ward party Nasca had on Friday.  Curt had a skype meeting that also started at 7 so we didn't go over to the church until he was finished.  We were almost 2 hours late and the party was just getting started.  People were showing up after us.

Curt and Cesar enjoying a visit.  I don't know how they were doing much chatting with all the music and noise but they were!

Young and old alike were enjoying time dancing.

A random old broke down car that has been parked on the street since we got here. There are quite a few of these around and no one seems to be bothered that they are there.

Curt snapped a picture of the District Presidency after a meeting on Sat. Pres. Otsuka, Camacho and Avalos.  Curt is enjoying working with these good men.