A Baptism Of Thunder
So, a lots happened since I last blogged, sorry about that!
First of, there´s been Christmas and New Years.
We spent sometime, just the four of us, in the morning, opening presents and having a fry-up (a rare treat!)! We went round our supervisors house and had Christmas lunch with his family, as well as some friends from church. We had a regular sort of Western Christmas, as most of the people we were with were from the West. Our supervisor managed to fit 30 pieces of carrot into his mouth! It was like a veggie version of ´Chuby Bunnies´! It was nice to be made to feel at home, but it would have been exciting to have experienced a truly Peruvian Christmas.
New Year´s, on the other hand, was very Peruvian. We went out to the centre of Cusco, where it all happens!!!
The Plaza was FULL, over FULL, of people, fireworks were being let off amongst the crowd, even before midnight came, people were screaming, either out of excitment or out of fear as a firework exploded at thier feet. As the clock struck 12, everyone went mad! They all hugged one another, throwing me into the person in front and start an enourmous conga line!
One New Year’s Day, someone from the church got baptised. We all stood out in the garden of the pastor’s home, whilst the strom clouds gathered and thunder roared to wittness a man proclaiming his belife in Jesus!
We’ve also been working solidly for most of January, planning a holiday club for kids and teenagers, since they’re on summer hols here! Working in an office really isn’t my sort of thing and it’s been a challenge most days to stick it out, but we’ve fianlly got it done…and as a reward, we’re going to Arequipa (another large city in Peru), for a mid-term break!
Christmasy Times
Sorry for it being so long between posts.
So, what’s been going on in deepest darkest Peru?
Well, we’ve been painting the church for a start. The church has recently moved into a new building, and we were charged with decorating the kids rooms. So, we doned our painting gear, grabbed a brush and some paint and got to work. It wasn’t as straight forward as you would have thought.
On our second day of painting, Jess and I hoped to get some work done whilst Liz and Amy where in Huambotio, doing an English lesson, only, Liz and Amy didn’t realise, they still had they keys to the church. So, Jess and I got all our stuff ready and were about to head round to the church, when we found that we had no way of getting in. We rang round and we though that we had located another set of keys, we went round to the house of the owner of the keys…but they weren’t home. We waited…and waited…and waited…for about 40 minutes, and still no-one should up. Eventually, the others returned from Huambotio and we were able to get into the church and paint…two hours after Jess and I origanlly set out.
But that’s not all. Later that day, when we were back at the church, painting…we got locked out of one of the rooms. Because kids where in the church at the same time, and we didn’t want them runnning into the rooms we where working in, we started closing the door behind us, if we had to leave, and one time, the door was closed, with the lock pushed in. Consequently, we were locked out. It wasn’t until three hours later, that someone was able to come out and break into the room, which also housed most of our belongings.
However, despite the difficulties, we got the job done, and now, there is a fantastic rainbow in the sunday school room and a beautiful Noah’s Ark incthe creche room.
The Rainbow in the sunday school room.
What else has been happening?
We’ve went to Macchu Picchu!
It was really awesome to get away for a couple of days, and the scenary was incredable!
One day, we went to Huambotio and gave out hot chocolate, bread, clothes and toys (for the kids), all in the spirit of Christmas. They all seemed to really enjoy recieving these gifts, and it felt like we were genuinly blessing this community. It was also fantastic to see most of the church come out and join us in this.
The Game We Play 