The Georges in Peru

It used to be when Peruvians asked us where we were from and we said, "Nebraska", they would reply, "It's really cold there, right?" mistaking Nebraska for Alaska. That all changed about 2 weeks ago. Now they say, "Like Peru, Nebraska?!" This should strike you as odd, as Peru, Nebraska has 569 inhabitants, and is one of only about 3 towns in Nebraska that I haven't personally visited. But a month ago, Marca Perú, a promotional company decided to send a group of big name celebrities to Peru, Nebraska to make a video of them teaching the Peru locals how to act more Peruvian. It's quite entertaining, at least to us. While visiting a fellow missionary's church in Lima on Sunday, I was even introduced as being from Nebraska to give me some automatic cachet.

Friday, while I was in the States, Dámaris, our secretary, had gone to the bus station to pick up a package. In it were the passports and official Peruvian ID cards for one of our families that is going on home assignment soon. In a rough part of town, 4 young men reached into the taxi and grabbed the parcel. "Oh no! The passports!" she thought, and got out of the taxi and chased after them yelling, "Please! In the name of God, give me back the passports!" She followed them around a city block enclosing a market full of stalls, which they ducked into. Another woman started running after them as well, and they gave her back the package, including Dámaris' camera, about $150 in cash and the passports! She only lost her coin purse that contained about $10. If she hadn't gotten the passports back, the missionaries would probably have missed their flight getting their paperwork all in order. We agreed that she will always keep passports in a special case hidden under her clothes from now on, and not chase down thugs!

Actually, this is true. Don Wunderink was our mission bookkeeper, but he and his family are going to the States for home-assignment next month, so Amy has graciously agreed to take on his duties until he returns in January. It has been a challenge to learn a new system, and to use a Windows-based computer, but it has been a good challenge for her, as it is the first big project she's tackled where she has had to learn a lot of new things since her brain tumor in 2004.