Update on Apartment Life in Huaraz -

Not long after we moved into our apartment, we posted some photos on the blog of the apartment and the furnishings. Since then we have added a few items.

Our laundry arrangements are a combination of U.S. and Peruvian methods and Sister O. uses both to optimum advantage.  However, this little patio really doesn't get any direct sunshine.

This is our open air patio and laundry area. Most homes that we have visited have washers but we have never seen a dryer. A dryer does use a lot of electricity and it is just too expensive for these people.  All clothes are hung on lines, either in open patios or on the roofs. During the dry season this is very convenient and effective. In the rainy season, clothes must be brought inside by noon to avoid the regular afternoon rains.

On the roof of our four story apartment building there are sinks for laundry and lines for drying.

Since we are apartment A, you can see our designated sink with the letter A on the wall next to it. We have never used this sink and it does not appear that the other tenants have used theirs either. The sinks only have cold water piped to them. The other tenants have washing machines--at least we think we can hear them from time to time when we are outside on our patio.

Each apartment also has a designated clothes line. The letters can be seen on the black metal pipe to which they are attached. Ours is to the far left.

We also each have a separate water tank with our letter on it into which the city water flows by pressure and then down to our apartments by gravity. You can see the black filter on the incoming line that we had installed on tank A to clean up the incoming city water. It has helped considerably.  We also had new faucets installed in the kitchen and so our water is no longer rusty.

Here is the laundry from one of the other apartments hung out to dry on a sunny Saturday morning.

Marilyn uses the clothes lines for the sheets and pillowcases which dry very fast up here in the sun and breezes.  However, the dryer is much appreciated as it would be hard to lung all our laundry up the five flights of stairs.  The rainy season is just starting again and the sky looks like this every afternoon and like the sky in the picture below every morning.

Before we leave the roof, here is the view toward the north with Mount Huascarán in the distance. It remains snow-capped the year-around. The building in front is the hostal owned by our landlord. He had many rooms rented during the holidays but it is empty now. He and his wife live on the ground floor.

We have added some wall hangings to the front room, office and spare room.

We added a coffee table and an alpaca wall hanging to the front room.  The bouquet of flowers cost one sol, or about 36 cents.  We should always have fresh flowers in our house, right?

 

This alpaca rug or wall hanging was purchased here in Huaraz for 100 soles or about US$ 36.00.

We had this table made here as we couldn't find any that we liked in the furniture stores.  We really like the table but will probably have to leave it here when we go home.

In the other corner of the front room we added these typical Peruvian wall hangings.  We have had several people comment on how pretty these things are and where did we get them.  They were all purchased here in Huaraz but the locals just don't hang typical things on their walls.  Most of them really don't hang much of anything or just posters of various things.

These are made here in Huaraz.

A woven cloth piece.  This is made out of thick pieces of yarn-like cotton strips.  We have seen them in various sizes and designs.  Very unusual.

We had the OxFest picture framed and it proudly hangs in the front room.  And of course everyone has to comment on what an amazing family we have--we have to agree.  And I have shared the calendar you made Jill (thanks again) with lots of visitors.

Here is the Nativity collection in the living room so far. We later moved the OxFest picture to a different wall.

A closeup of the all wood Nativity scene Marilyn purchased in Lima.  This is really an interesting set, all hand made by a couple in Lima.  It also has a tree and an archway that goes with it but the space isn't big enough.

A quick look at our now fully equipped office. 

An office is not complete without maps.  Again, people are surprised at the idea of hanging maps on the wall.  These were about 40 cents each.  But the store didn't have any world maps--guess South America is their world.  The left one is of Ancash, the equivalent of a state and the region where all the records that we are filming are from.

Map of Peru with the different provinces in colors. Ancash, gold or mustard, is the province on the left, just above Lima on the coast.

The third bedroom is now the music conservatory, ironing room and general catch-all room.  Don't you love the ironing board cover? 

The piano teaching area. We bought the keyboard locally. Marilyn now has 3 semi-serious students, 2 wannabes, and a new student. The chart has the note names in Do, Re Mi and the letter names.  As in all countries south of the boarder from the US, students are taught in Do, Re Mi but I think the alphabet letters are much easier so this is a combination--the students refer to it often.

At the suggestion of a student, she has added "Amigos Comen En Grupos" (Friends Eat In Groups) to replace the English "All Cows Eat Grass". "FACE" they all seem to understand as they all use Facebook.

Elder Oxborrow didn't feel that his 2002 SLC Olympics cap (thanks again Matt) was appropriate for Sunday wear, but needed something to protect his balding pate from the intense sunshine at 10,500 feet. He found this derby in a local hat shop but it had to be steam-stretched at the laundry to fit his big head. Such a handsome elder, no?

Marc: Could he audition for the Haymarket Squares?

News and Views from the Neighborhood -

There are always interesting things going on around our apartment. Here are a few that we want to remember.

This is Zoe, our friendly 8 year old neighbor who lives in the third floor apartment above us. When she is home from school, which is after 1:30 every day, she usually greets all who come and go in the patio below from her third story window. You can see her father Richard behind the window to the right keeping an eye on her. The landlord calls her the "cuckoo" since she pops out of this window to greet everyone. We think she is the "social committee" for the building. Marilyn is teaching piano to her older sister Tracy, who is 15, and Zoe sometimes brings us pastries or something else from her mother, who is very appreciative that she does not have to pay for the piano lessons.

This is Mitzy, our landlord's cat, perched on her owner's truck. Every few months she has boyfriends who appear on the adobe wall in the background and often wake us up with their howling since our bedroom is the corner window in the back corner. Otherwise, she mostly stays in the landlord's apartment and ignores the rest of us. 

The park in front of our apartment is the staging ground for all kinds of parades and large group activities. This was a formation and inspection of some kind by the students of a military school.

 

Here is the same group in formation.

This small movie hall opened up next to our apartment about 3 months ago. It was a house that they remodeled and put large screen TV's in 6 or 7 rooms. You rent a video and show it in one of the rooms with your family or group. The charge is US$ 1.80 for the video and 35 cents for each person. They sell soft drinks and chips. They said it has been going well since there are no movie theaters in Huaraz. We keep thinking we will try it out one evening--they do have some movies in English.  Anyone seen a movie worth seeing lately?

They installed these two high tension power poles recently at the corner of our street and as we left for the archives one morning we noticed the two lineman hanging in the top of the poles.

Upon closer inspection we could see that they did have safety harnesses to hold them to the poles.  They said this should improve the electrical service in the neighborhood although we really can't complain too much.

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Since the archives where we work are on our side of town, therefore part of our "neighborhood", we'll include a few items of events there. The archives get many visitors looking for legal documents such as deeds, wills, probate settlements, court documents, etc. Some also come looking for information on ancestors. Recently we received some four legged visitors.

They appeared on the sidewalk across from the archives.

They didn't stay long. I guess they didn't find the information they were looking for and soon departed to the open pasture behind our building.

A new food service has been added to the archives. About three weeks ago a lady and her daughter showed up at 9:00 a.m. across from our entrance with a table and various food items for breakfast. She has developed a thriving business serving mostly hot food items and sandwiches to the office workers in the complex. She stays about an hour and then puts the tables under the back of the truck in the background, picks up her remaining food and containers and leaves.

The owner is in the red jacket behind the table. Here are five customers enjoying their breakfast. They can even sit on the sidewalk behind her since she has no chairs in her "restaurant".

As we are photographing the old birth records, we run across interesting Spanish first names for their children. Most make sense in Spanish but their English translation often sounds a bit odd. Here are a few examples.

Visitación - Visitation

Incarnación - Incarnation

Segundo/a - Second

Fortunato - Fortunate or Lucky

Espíritu - Spirit

Peregrino/a - Pilgrim

Nieves - Snows

Asunción - Assumption

Apifanio - ???

Amable - Friendly, lovable

Lucha - Fight

Dolores - Pains

Justo Pastor - Just or Fair Pastor

Oyster - ???

Natividad Alicia - Nativity (she was born in Sept.)

Digna - Worthy

Modesta - Modest

Inocencia  - Innocence

Albino - Albino

Primitiva - Primitive

Ledy - Lady

Amable is the first name of our new secretary at the archives and she is very friendly.  

Our records preservation bosses were in town this past week--one from Salt Lake and the other lives in Lima.  They came to assess the project and try and decide how much longer it will take to finish here.  We doubt we can finish before we leave.  They are pleased with our work--we have taken almost 130,000 images now.  All those names, plus the millions more that other camera crews around the world are taking, have to be indexed (digitized) before they are available as searchable databases on FamilySearch.org.  It is really an huge project the church has undertaken.

As a part of their visit, we went out to lunch with them and the director of the archives.  We ate at a restaurant that specializes in cuy (guinea pig).  We talked about this in our earlier blogs, that cuy is considered a delicious delicacy here and we have been asked many times if we have tried it.  They ordered a grill with lots of different meats on it, including cuy.  So we finally split off a very small piece, about one bite each.  It tastes like dark chicken meat (doesn't everything taste like chicken?)  We keep telling everyone that eating cuy is like eating a pet cat or dog for us and one bite was more than enough.

Trip to Lima Temple and Family History -

On Thursday, September 4, we joined with Elder and Sister Dickson and left Huaraz on the 11:00 a.m. bus to Lima. The Dicksons were recently transferred from Changay, a small city on the Pacific coast, to Caraz the northern-most ward in our stake and about 1 1/2  hours down the Huaylas valley from Huaraz. They  are serving as member-leadership missionaries and are from Vernal, UT. This is their second mission, having served in a similar mission in Concepcion, Chile. They are a year younger than us but have been married a year longer.

The stake has about three temple excursions per year. The last one was in May and we flew to Lima to our dermatologist appointment and did a temple session while we were there. They charter a bus and take about 60 - 80 members to do temple work. The bus leaves Huaraz around 9:00 p.m. on Friday and arrives in Lima between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m. Saturday morning. They attend temple sessions all day Saturday and return that evening, arriving in Huaraz at 5:00 a.m. Sunday morning. Needless to say, some of the members from our ward don't make it to the 8:00 a.m. Sacrament meeting.

We decided we wanted to support the temple effort but not with two all-night bus rides. We took one of the best, non-stop, bus lines down on Thursday (8 hours) and stayed that night at the guest house at the temple. This was a first class bus and served us lunch on the way. With a good night's sleep in a nice bed, we felt rested and refreshed for the temple sessions on Friday.

The highlight for Tony was to do the work for the deceased father of one of the sisters in the ward.  She was very emotional and exited about finding his name and getting his work done.

We returned to Huaraz on Friday night, arriving in Huaraz at 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning. Elder O. took a motion sickness pill before leaving Lima and was able to sleep a few hours on the nice, reclining bus seat. Sis. O. didn't sleep much at all.  We both felt pretty "crocky" all day Sat.  We are thinking we will stick to flying next time.

This was our bus for the trip down to Lima. We chose the second deck in order to see the scenery along the way. Due to the switchbacks in the descent from Huaraz, Elder O. got a little carsick and did not enjoy the remainder of the bus trip down to Lima. 

This is the guest house at the temple. The bookstore and laundry facilities are in the basement and the cafeteria on the main floor. The guest rooms are on the second floor and the third floor houses the apartments for the missionary couples who serve in the temple. Our room was very clean and modern with a great hot shower and beds that were softer than our own bed here in Huaraz. The cost for the room was US$ 15.00 per couple.  We ate lunch in the cafeteria and a full meal was under $2.00--and tasty too.

The Lima Temple under a typical overcast Lima sky.  We were surprised how cold it felt in Lima.  It didn't rain but was so humid it felt cold.

A view of the temple from the porch of the guest house.

The Dicksons and Oxborrows at the temple.  They are a very nice couple and great to work with.  She taught elementary school for 20+ years and he worked for the government trapping wild animals that were killing farmer's animals.  They have seven children and many grandchildren and great grandchildren as well so we have lots in common--well not the great grands and the animal hunting.

Travel mates, Sister Dickson and Sister Oxborrow, in the bus terminal in Lima at 11pm waiting for an exciting all night bus trip home.

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In addition to our mission assignment as records preservation specialists, we  have also been called as Stake Family History Director and Stake Indexing Director. Our records preservation assignment in the archives is a Monday to Friday, 8:30 - 5:00 schedule, leaving us free in the evenings and weekends to serve in our stake callings. 

Marilyn, who has indexed over 15,000 names in the past six years, is the indexing specialist. Together we have trained well over 50 members in the stake on indexing, the process of digitizing the photos of civil records in order to make them into searchable databases. As we explained in an earlier blog posting, the images that we, and 250 other records preservation missionaries in the world, are taking must be put into a digital format to be more useful. 

Here in Peru a copy of all the images is given to the government so that they will have a searchable database of all the birth, marriage and death records in the country. In addition, the Church receives a copy to be processed through indexing and made available on the Church website, FamilySearch.org, for anyone in the world to search for their ancestors. It is a win-win arrangement for Peru, and each country, and for the Church, and for the world as a whole.

We are also teaching family history to the members and training family history consultants, and ward and stake leaders, how to research their ancestors and prepare that information for temple work. This has been a rewarding experience and we have found lost fathers and grandparents for several families.

To assist us in this effort, Marilyn has made two charts to use in our training

This shows the process from a photo of ancestors in the upper left corner, through image capture in the archives, indexing those images, researching the data in FamilySearch.org, and finally doing the ordinance work for those ancestors in the temple.

This chart shows our family tree with photos and fan charts of each of our families on the side panels. This has drawn much interest and comment from the members and non-members alike.

A close up of the photo tree.

On a Saturday, 30 young single adults came to this internet store and we trained them on indexing and they indexed records for two hours.

These are called "cabinas" or booths and there were 30 in this store, each with its own computer with internet access, and we used all of them for the training. We arrived 30 minutes before and downloaded the indexing program on all the computers.

"Oh no, I can't do this!" Candid photo of two students and the master trainer guiding them. 

Sunday evening we spoke with the Dicksons at a stake fireside for all married couples. The Dicksons have been married 53 year, so between us we have 105 years of married experience. We shared some of our counsel with the stake members in such a way that it will be helpful and adaptable to their culture and traditions.  (The fireside went very well--so well that the Stake President has asked the four of us to do another one in a month.)