The Georges in Peru

A week ago, Allen and I were passing through the La Punta plaza on our way home after a nice run and we noticed an elderly Quechua lady smashing bottles and putting them into a bag.  Though she was obviously suffering from poverty, my attention was drawn to her two extremely happy dogs.  Many poor people in Peru use recycling to cover basic living needs.  I immediately thought of our small collection of plastic bottles at home and managed to convince her we were safe enough to accompany home (we only lived a block away) to pick them up.  One of our neighbours encouraged us in this, saying the lady could really use the help and that she lived on the beach.  The lady herself was smiley and cheerful despite her many rotted out and missing teeth and difficult life, especially when Allen addressed her in Quechua!  She explained that life had been difficult for her since husband passed away and told us she’d maybe come to church on Sunday.

Mondays are our day off and often-times we like to go on a little picnic to the beach to relax.  Today we ran into her again, bringing a whole flock of sheep home and she showed us where she lived!  Later Allen noticed her carrying two 5 gallon pails to a nearby canal to collect water and he went to help her out.  She was super thankful.  Apparently while we were in the States a number of massive waves hit the coast by La Punta and flooded out her house.  Now her well no longer works.  We are hoping maybe Allen and Elvis can help her get it flowing again sometime this week and maybe Rosita can have a good chat with her in their shared native tongue.

Mary Beth is not in much pain, and getting by with a naproxen tablet every 8 hours or so.   She is supposed to go for four walks per day, so we're glad there is a walking trail behind the house.  

I am personally thrilled they let us take home her old bars and everyone who sees them finds them fascinating!  One of the bars was broken when they tried to straighten it a bit to remove it.  

Thanks for praying for us!

Tuesday night is game night at our house.  It's a time that people from our church to get together for ping pong or Settlers of Catan and to invite friends.  Last week we had no one come!  This week we had 19 people come!  La Punta is a flat coastal town great for biking, so our garage was full of bikes by the end of the night.  For snack time we had home-made oreo-style cookies.  During our devotional time we talked about hipocrites, since just earlier in the day someone that Mary Beth met on the street said that he didn't want to go to church because there were so many hipocrites in the church (at least in the churches he's experienced).   We certainly don't want that to be our reputation here!

Sunday we had a new couple, J & C, visit our church.  They are elderly but smiley.  "How did you come to hear about our church?" I asked after the service.  "We saw the sign hanging outside the church."  I'm not sure if it is a cultural thing or maybe they have something to hide, but when I tried asking them more information about themselves they answered very vaguely.  And shortly thereafter their answers started to conflict with previous answers.  I chalked it up to me being a scary gringo.  I asked them where they lived and they gave a vague, "On the last street near the Jesus statue on the hill."  What's that even mean?  After a few minutes, Pastor Elvis came up and talked to them a bit and I laughed inside as he got frustrated by their vague, evasive answers to the exact same questions I had asked.  Okay.  It wasn't fear of the gregarious foreigner after all.  

Today, I had about 40 minutes before our music lessons in the afternoon (Mary Beth is teaching guitar and I am teaching piano to some kids that attend our church) with nothing to do, so I decided to try to go visit J & C.  This was a completely unrealistic plan considering the time.   My first step was to ask the first person I saw in their neighborhood if they knew who J & C were and where they lived.  When I arrived at the Jesus statue on my bike 15 minutes later, I realized I was in a ghost town.  There was no one in sight anywhere.  I decided to inquire about J & C in a little corner store, but when I entered I was suprised to see a 10-year-old boy attending an 8-year-old boy obviously sent my his mother to buy mangoes. He was trying to calculate how he could include a chocolate bar in the purchase without it being too noticeable.  "Uh, do you know an older couple named J & C," I asked.  The 10-year-old looked pensive and shook his head. "Their last name is Roca," I added, not expecting my prospects to improve with that added detail.  "Hmm.  HIS last name is 'Roca'," he said, pointing to the 8-year-old.  "Do you know J & C?  Are they your grandparents?"  I asked redirecting my questions to the 8-year-old who quietly replied, "I don't know."  I realized that many 8-year-olds here don't know their grandparents actual names.  "Are they from Azángaro?"  "Don't know."  The 10-year-old called for his mom who came and after I explained why I was looking for them, she encouraged the 8-year-old to show me his home where I met his mother, J & C's daughter-in-law!  Unfortunately, J & C weren't home (or maybe they were, one never knows!), but I left greetings and thanked them for visiting our church and invited the daughter-in-law to visit too.

Searching in Alto La Punta on my bike

As we finish this year 2022, we want to wish you a (belated) Merry Christmas and Blessed New Year! 

We had the joy of having 3 of our 4 kids with us in La Punta de Bombón for Christmas!  Ben had to return to the States already as he is gainfully employed in Illinois now, but Mia and Paul will remain with us until their universities resume classes.  Peru is still in a State of Emergency, so pray that all of our planned travel is uncomplicated, especially with all the canceled flights on the US end of things.