Adjusting - March 7 - 10

The weekend and housing update:

We are making progress in our housing situation, but it is slow.  Since there are no queen size beds here in Huaraz, O&M went to a larger city on the coast (Chimbote) to buy our bed (a queen bed is actually on the suggested list for seniors) and some other things.  We requested a heater and expected a small one like in our hotel room, but they brought us a large heater/AC floor model which should be great if not too expensive to operate.

Friday evening we went shopping for couches and finally selected a three piece set--couch, love-seat, and chair.  They are nice (not our favorites) but now we are wondering if they will go through the front door :(  We also found a nice gas stove.  So, everything is supposed to be delivered tomorrow (but we know that "mañana"/tomorrow really means some time in the future, so we will see. 

Saturday morning we spent shopping in the central market area which is always an adventure.  We finally found a kitchen table and chairs, a large table we will use in the office to work on and a small work table for the kitchen since there is about 3 feet of counter space next to the sink.  We stopped at a large store and got some cleaning things and some Pyrex glass pieces.  There certainly are a lot of little things to buy to set up an apartment from scratch.

It is really nice to be getting all new furniture and appliances, but it is taking a lot longer than we had hoped.  To clarify about these expenses, the mission is buying all the basic furniture and we will be paying $100 a month "furniture rental" in addition to our rent and utilities.  It is still less than we expected to pay so that is good.  We think they will probably just keep this apartment for the next couple that comes since it will be all furnished.

Saturday we attended the Stake Conference evening meeting where we were asked to introduce ourselves.  Then Sunday we attended Stake Conference.  We have to say that the Peruvian members like to sing the hymns.  Again we were asked to introduce ourselves and explain what our mission is all about.  They had a family history hands-on meeting Sunday evening, with about 12 laptop computers, where we tried to help.  They think we are expert family history trainers but we are not expert anything.  Hopefully we will learn along with them.

Monday our trainer Juan was out of town so we went to the apartment and yes! the couches were delivered.  The main things holding us back now are connecting the hot water, blinds on the windows (which won't be ready for a week or more), and putting the bed together.  They sent 6 wheels and some weird connectors to hook the two box springs together and no one can figure out how they work.  So we are getting closer! 

Here are a few pictures of the marketplace -

Live ducks and rabbits for sale for food not for pets.

Live guinea pigs (cuy) for sale.

This one reminded Marilyn of Fluffy in a first grade story book.

Here we have live chickens in the bags and a street vendor with a mango/yogurt treat.

This cart had whole fish. Look carefully and you can see their tail fins sticking out from the red basket on his cart.

 

Buying housewares inside the two story public market place.

Inside the market building. Visual overload.

We love the hats the ladies wear.

 

More hats. Note the ladies along the curb with different type hats.

Note the design on the side of the hat. These vary in color and pattern and we haven't figured out the significance yet. Perhaps from different regions.

Carnival in Huaraz - Mar. 2

Sunday after church we walked down to the main plaza to watch the parade of floats. We were behind several rows of people and across from the judges and announcers.  Most of the photos were taken over the heads of people in front of us. Each suburb or town and some outlying areas entered floats in the parade. Some were pretty creative. Most were pulled by, or were mounted on, 18 wheel trucks. A number of the trucks backed the entire route so that the float on the truck came into view before the cab and driver. 

In general there would be a group of dancers carrying flags, some groups much more organized than others, then a large banner carried by more people and then the float.  Many of the groups had men playing drums and Peruvian flutes.

It was all very noisy and crowded but we felt we got a real taste of Carnival or Mardi Gras as it is called in the U.S, and other places around the world.

The judges stand and a parade entering the area.

 

The empty parade street before the next float arrived. The unfinished cathedral is in the background.

Parade watchers across the street from us. Note the lady in pink with the hat and the girls in the yellow native costumes.

Two ladies in hats in front of us.

This truck is backing down the street with the float on the back. Note the political campaign sign on the cab. Ing. Pozo is running for mayor.

Stilt walkers. They were bouncing around on these.  They were some of the pre-float groups for one of the nicer floats.

Che is apparently popular still with truck drivers.

Many of the traffic police are women. Here are two watching the parade and trying to control the crowd.

The Peruvian flag with the Andes Mountains in the background.

Each float had a queen. This was definitely the youngest.

This float was titled "Mother Earth" and all the materials on it were recycled.

A cute girl on her dad's back watching the parade.

Many floats used egg cartons, painted different colors, in many creative ways.

We stayed in our hotel on Tuesday since it was Fat Tuesday or here they call it War Tuesday because people throw all kinds of things--like buckets of water or paint or dirty oil or talcum powder-- at people on the street or at cars. All the missionaries spent the day at the chapel.  Interesting customs.  I think Lent starts on Wednesday.

Some photos of Huaraz - Mar. 1

Some interesting pictures taken from the hotel and on the streets of Huaraz.

The plaza near the hotel.

The Andes Mountains east of Huaraz.

 

The mountains west of town.

Marilyn by a lifelike mannequin.

A colorful mini-cab.

 

These mini-cabs mounted on motorcycles or scooters are everywhere. They cost about half what the regular taxis charge, with twice the danger.

Going home after selling her wares in the market place. Notice the hat. Many of the native women wear men's hats. We will have more pictures soon.

Selling fresh juices to drink. (I don't think so)

Pay phone. Notice the padlocks.

Anyone care for a fresh chicken?

Let's finish with a nice photo. This is Stake President Roger Favaleta, his wife Maria Louisa, with their daughter Rochelle and son Helaman. We had lunch at their home. They have a daughter on a mission in Bolivia. 

A comment on the lunch menu.  The appetizer was a small dish of plain jello followed by a large bowl of soup made of rice, potatoes, a few carrots and a piece of chicken in the middle.  The main dish was a plate half covered with very soft mashed potatoes, the other half with white rice with a piece of chicken on top--no gravy or sauce.  That about summarizes their basic food groups--lots of rice, potatoes and chicken with a few other things added from time to time.  Dessert was a pancake rolled up with cajeta/dulce de leche/manjar (all names used in Latin America for boiled, sweetened condensed milk) inside.  Every thing was very tasty and we enjoyed getting to know this great family.

We've arrived in Huaraz - Feb. 22

We finished our training in Lima on Friday and left at 10:15 that evening on the bus for Huaraz. We were in first class with reclinable seats and the bathroom nearby. Very nice double decker bus. Since it was dark we could not see anything (probably better) but we knew we were climbing on a switchback highway. I slept some but Marilyn got very little rest. We arrived in Huaraz at 6:30 Saturday morning as the sun was coming up.

Four missionary elders met us at the bus terminal with big smiles. They are from Kansas, Venezuela, Guatemala, and El Salvador and there are a total of ten elders and one set of sisters in the Huaraz area. Each elder grabbed a 50 lb. suitcase and carried it to the taxi. We checked into the Hotel El Tumi, the best one in town. Nice room with a small plug-in heater. Gets cold here at night and there is no central heating.

Our hotel in Huaraz

After a short nap, we went apartment hunting with the elders and Brother Bejarano, the local church employee in charge of operations and maintenance of church buildings and apartment rentals for missionaries in the area. We looked at three but liked the first one the best. It has two bedrooms with a small room that could be an office, a full bath and a tiny 1/2 bath, kitchen, and small living room. It is on the ground floor and is one year old. The only drawback is that the washer and drawer connections are in the open patio with no roof. We joked that we could shower and do laundry at the same time when it rains. Bro. Bejarano said he could install a corrugated roof over the washer area and was sure the landlord would agree to it.

The street entrance. Not very impressive. The entire black door opens to allow cars to enter the inside patio/parking area.

 However, once you enter the front patio/parking area, our apartment building sets at the back of the lot.

 Here is a closer shot of the front door of our ground floor apartment and yes, it is a lovely purple color.

 

The park across the street where the local skateboarders practice their tricks.

Brother Bejarano's group will go to work purchasing the furnishings, some local and some brought up from Lima. He expects to have that done by Wednesday. The Church will provide stove, frig, microwave, washer, dryer, sofa, chairs, table, bed. We will purchase the linens, dishes, cooking ware, cleaning items, etc. The rent will be about $325 per month and includes Internet access. We will pay water, gas and electricity separately.. We were expecting to pay over $800 per month for rent alone so this is a good deal for us. The other apartments we looked at had some used furniture and looking pretty crummy so we are happy that we will be getting new stuff. We asked for a queen bed and Bro. Bejarano said they could get it in Lima with the corresponding linens and ship it up.

We are feeling some effects from the altitude. We started taking the recommended pills the day before we left Lima and will continue for a few more days if needed. We have had modest headaches and have felt tired so we took two naps on Saturday. We have been drinking lots of bottled water and eating lightly.

On Sunday, we attended the Central Ward, which is the one President Archibald, Lima West Mission President, suggested we attend. Three wards meet in the building and ours begins at 8:00, the second at 10:00 and the last at 2:00. The power was off for the whole city until 5:00 p.m.(apparently this is common on Sundays) so there were no lights and the electric piano could not be used. Marilyn was ready to play and they were excited to have a pianist, but to no avail. We sang a capella and they sounded good. About 90 in Sacrament meeting.

We have already been asked by a young couple that are getting married civily in April to speak at their wedding, and several members from the 10:00 ward asked us to attend their ward. It is nice to be needed.

In the city we saw a number of ladies in typical native dress with their bowler hats. Also saw an alpaca, on a leash, at the park so we are sure we are in Peru. It was sunny all the time we were walking around looking at apartments and then rained in the evening.