We’re back

Following an extremely long journey, we are all now back in the UK. After a few good nights’ sleep, the jet lag is going and life is returning to some kind of normality (i.e. I’ve had to do some cooking for the first time in 3 weeks and put my own children to bed!)
On behalf of the team I would like to say an enormous thank you to Scott and Anjanette, who gave up most of their time and lots of effort to ensure that we had a trip that we will remember for a long time to come. Each of us will have different ‘best bits’ and even ‘worst bits’, but we will all have taken away some real experiences that we will treasure. God has spoken to us in a variety of ways, and we hope that through this blog, you might have gained a small insight into how He is working his kingdom out in the beautiful city of Cusco, so far very away.
Clare.

Hospital Visits

Each afternoon this week, half of the team have been to visit the Burns and Trauma wards of the local hospital.  It has been both harrowing and rewarding, seeing the children, many of whom have come from the countryside and are not used to the bright lights and busy-ness of the hospital.  There are no toys on the wards, and the one ‘day room’ is stark and joyless.  Comparing it to some of the children’s wards I have seen in the UK, I wanted to cry (and that was before we met the children!).

So, it was amazing to meet Robyn, a wonderful
lady who, a few years ago, felt God call her to
bring some joy to these children during their hospital stays.  Although initially the administration did not want her to be there, they have, over time, realised the amazing work she is doing, and now have given her a room to store toys and games, and fully support her work there.  She goes in 4 afternoons each week, spending time with each child, colouring, doing craft or puzzles, playing Jenga or Connect 4.  It was a privilege to accompany her on these visits this week.  We sang, danced, juggled, played chess, Jenga, made bead bracelets and even learnt Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes in the Quechua language – which they all thought hilarious.

It was wonderful to see children’s faces turn from fear to happiness.

Poem for Robyn, by Ian O

Hard iron eyes lie on hard iron beds
The pain, too much to bare, has left faces drained of emotion.
Grubby whitewashed walls are unable to convey
That love and healing go hand in hand

Who knows these people?
Unknown faces in an unknown land
With foreign customs and a foreign tongue
Who can know their pain?
The torment of a broken body
Left abandoned in an obscure town.

Brokenness lies hidden.
Hidden beneath blankets and a wire frame
Hidden inside a concrete hospital
Hidden behind metal gates
Hidden in a world so far from home
No one need see, no one need know

Yet your eyes see it all
Your soft kind eyes running with heaven’s tears
Eyes that saw the suffering of your son
See suffering still

And yet there are some whose spirits are moved by yours
Who dare to expose what is hidden
Who dare to bring colour, toys and hope
Who dare to bring life and prayer and faith
And see vacant eyes returned to life
And health and joy and laughter.

Lord, melt my heart
That I might see those iron eyes
Now receive the gift of sight from you

Day out to the Sacred Valley – Saturday 16th

An 8.30 start gave us a more leisurely get up time for our touristy day today.  The whole team plus the Ropers, Williamsons and Abby, American Nurse from the Clinic, climbed into the bus on a magnificent drive out of Cusco.  Our first stop was at Moray Inca remains – huge terraces that stepped down in concentric circles: the idea being that the walls acted as solar panels so that more exotic food could be grown in the mountains.  It was used as an agricultural experiment, and we have seen plenty of other examples of this type of terracing in Machu Picchu and Tipon.  It was interesting that a group of other tourists seemed to find some spiritual magic about the place – after all, it was just a 15th century greenhouse!

Our next stop was the Salt Pans a little further down the mountainside.  We were shown where a small stream sprang from the hillside.  This stream, about 80% salt, was channelled and diverted into various pans which covered the hillside.  The whole area looked like a nesting site for a thousand giant seagulls.  Over the course of 2 months, this water would be evaporated by the sun, leaving a thick layer of salt.  This was then removed from the pan and taken way for cleaning and could be used for medicinal and cooking purposes.  We walked through the pans and down into the Sacred Valley, while the bus went on ahead.  The valley was truly beautiful, with peppercorn bushes, trees, geraniums and brightly coloured locals.  We then travelled on to Yucay, where we stopped for our picnic lunch (it was 2.30 by this time) and ate in the field where Scott had distributed the corn seed  after the devastating floods some months earlier.  It was good for the rest of the team who had not visited last week, to see the devastated houses and the river that had caused so much damage (see previous post on Yucay).

Our bus then headed for home, winding up the steep mountainsides.  The corn crops giving way to potatoes, broad beans and edible blue lupins.  The evening light shone on the snow-capped mountains whose summits had become nearly visible with the rising cloud.  Every so often we passed a child herding a few sheep or an old lady with traditional sombrero carrying a load wrapped in a shawl.  Once over the shoulder of the highest pass Cusco was once again laid below us like a brown uneven carpet of bustling business.  A truly glorious trip which showed off Peru at its magical best.

Pics have been added

Just added some new photos to some of the previous posts. Do take a look. We will attempt to add more very soon!
Blessings to you all,
Ian Mc and the rest of the team!

Temple of the Sun

In a free couple of hours we returned to the city centre to visit a most unusual building.  The Temple of the Sun is perhaps the best preserved of the Inca ruins in the city. This ancient building is now incorporated into a Dominican Church and Monastery. Spanish arches enclose the traditional trapezium shaped Inca Temple. But the set up gets even more strange as on the first floor of the cloister courtyard is an exhibition of highly stylised and disturbing modern art.  In another area is an exhibition of 17th Century “evangelistic” art which basically depicted the Spanish conquest of the Incas – the message being our God is clearly bigger than your God, so you had better worship him or else we will brutally slaughter you all!  I think I might have missed that bit in the gospel story!!  With such a mish mash of cultures, traditions and faiths depicted within a single impressive building would perhaps make any visitor confused and bewildered as to what to believe, and what was important.  With so much popular religion and mythology in this place it is easy to understand why many are confused about Jesus.  From this aspect alone I appreciate the important and difficult job missionaries have to do in untangling the theological mess that the city has become. I shall put a couple of photos up when I work out where to stick my card in later.

Schools visits to Huambutio – Thursday & Friday

For the last 2 days we have been spending time working in a school in Huambutio, about a 30 minute drive from Cusco. The village has very few amenities, and Scott and Anjanette feel called to get involved here. Once Anjanette has her GP licence (still not granted, for those of you following progress on that), they hope to set up a clinic there and get involved with nutrition and hygiene lessons at the school.

So, yesterday (Thurs 14th) 10 of the team plus Scott and Anjanette went along for the start of lessons at 8am.

We could see the children streaming in to school from all directions, on foot, bike and by bus, very few by car. Some had walked for up to an hour to get there! We had prepared 3 different lessons – English, Geography and PE, so each small team went to a different classroom. We were working in the secondary part of the school, 130 young people aged 11 – 17yrs. Scott, Anjanette and Steve were our translators, and we

all enjoyed getting involved. Our group (Clare, Ian, Christine and Anjanette) were doing English. We talked to the children, learning their names and ages, and how many brothers and sisters they had (families of at least 4 children were most common, although one lad had 7 sisters!) We then talked about parts of the body and taught them Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, followed by 1 Finger 1 Thumb, which they all thought very funny. A 2nd class we took outside to practice their language by playing counting games using juggling balls and teaching colours using a parachute. Before we left we were invited into the Headmaster’s office and given CocaCola and biscuits. He and the staff thanked us for our input.

Today we were back at the school, this time with 150 junior age children who were marched into the playground and split into 3 groups. So we had 55 children aged 7 – 11, out in the rough ground beyond the playground, for 1 and a half hours! Language was a bit of a difficulty (!!!) as was the fact that the sun came out very hot, but we did lots of simple English, games using numbers and finished of with the Hokey Cokey!!! The other 2 groups had had similar numbers, so as you can imagine, we were quite worn out by the end. It was, however, a good start to relationships with the school and they have already asked Scott and Anjanette to do a holiday club in August.

Pictures and scenes of the last 4 days

Hi everyone,
Sorry not much has been posted over the last few days. We’ve been rather busy travelling around, seeing this amazing country, meeting incredible people, running various activities, experiencing some difficult circumstances and trying to reflect on it all!

So whilst you wait for more blog posts to appear here are some pictures of the many things we’ve seen and done, and a few of the people we’ve met…

Friday – Boys trip to Yucay, a small town by the river where floods wiped away people’s homes over 18months ago and where the Williamsons, the church in Cusco (El Puente), and BMS have been working to restore peoples lives – this road was the place that was covered in blue tents where people were living after they lost everything. For a more detailed account search the Williamson’s in Peru blog. This story will also feature on this years BMS Harvest DVD.  http://williamsonsinperu.blogspot.com

Monday – Machu Pecchu

Tuesday – brightening the day of some children and parents in the burns unit of the hospital. This was an fun but difficult visit. Many of these children seemed well and fine on the surface, but beneath the veneer there was a sense of pain and injustice. There’s much to reflect on here. Hopefully some of this will be posted over the next few days as we spend more time there.

It’s certainly been an intense and eventful weekend, and one that is changing all of us at some level. There are so many stories to tell, things to thank God for and others to bring before God in petition, some that will make it onto this blog, but many of them will stay with us for a long time…

Kids Games on Saturday

Neil and Amanda Roper arrived in Cusco in January this year to work alongside Scott and Anjanette in El Puente Church. They are here with BMS for two years to develop the youth and children’s work. Yesterday (Saturday) was their first big event which we had the opportunity to help with. They hired the local sports court and set up lots of games and activities. Some of the team walked around the streets inviting local children to attend and about 40 turned up. The children enjoyed face painting, played football, parachute games, made juggling balls out of rice and balloons, ran relay races, played with hoops, diablos and spinning tops.

It was great to see the children having fun and despite the language barrier we managed to communicate through signing and the universal language of football! It was also good to see Neil and Amanda making initial connections with these children and we hope and pray that these relationships will grow and flourish over the coming weeks and months. From what we have already observed we know they will do a fantastic job and look forward to hearing the stories of the work they will do here.

La Fuente Clinic – Friday’s hard days work!

In contrast to the boys, we thought we’d let you know about the hard work that went on at La Fuente Clinic by all the girls!

The clinic is based about 15 minutes drive from where we are staying.  Anjanette works here 2 mornings a week, alongside 2 American Mennonite missionary doctors, 2 Peruvian nurses, an American missionary nurse, a Peruvian Health Care Assistant and a cleaner. Every Friday the team gather at 8am for prayers and we (Hannah, Elveen, Christine, Ali, Carmel, Amanda Roper and I – Clare)  were privileged to join them this morning.  Ali led us in a time of reflection on Psalm 27 and then we prayed for the work of the clinic, the medical team and the patients, many individually by name.

The hard work then began!  Hannah, Carmel and I went outside to tackle the strip of land behind the clinic.  It was very overgrown, apart from a small vegetable patch which the security guard has started.  We worked for 3 hours here, before the sun got too hot and we needed to rest – I particularly enjoyed wielding a pick axe!  While we were doing this, Chris had been counting vitamins.

Anjanette had asked each of the team to bring out 1 tub of child and 1 of adult vitamins. Due to the generosity of our church folk, many of us had been able to bring extra, and so there were literally hundreds, if not thousands, of vitamins.  These were divided into small bags of 15 and labelled (adult or child).  These would be given out to any patient for whom the doctors felt that the main issue was poor nutrition.

Amanda and Elveen spent the morning sat out the front of the clinic, sanding down some bamboo-style chairs and subsequently varnishing them.  This was a smelly job, but they were able to see the patients arrive and leave and snatch a few moments of stilted conversation with them.  The other job we were there to do that day was to paint a mural on a large wall that screened off the nurses’ station.  We had, as a group, discussed and prayed about what to put here, as it was to be bright and colourful, something children would enjoy looking at, and had to be achieved in 1 afternoon.  To this end, Ali, the most artistic one of the team, spent the morning drawing the design and lettering onto the board. No painting could be done until the clinic closed at 1pm.

So, after a picnic lunch, we went back to work – varnishing, vitamin counting and mural painting.  It was great to see the difference we made – much of the trip so far has been watching, listening or talking, so we really enjoyed our ‘physical’ day (although our arm and leg muscles certainly reminded us the next day that we’re not used to it!).

About 3pm, after wishing earlier that the boys had been able to join us, as the gardening work was too much for us to make a significant impact, it was wonderful to see them walk through the gate and get stuck in.  So by the end of the day, 1 part was completely done and the other not far off, and the clinic could now look at using the land more effectively.  The seats were also all finished and the mural looked amazing.  The hard work was worth it and we were pleased to have been able to add to the amazing work being done here.

The Sacred Valley and Yucay

Yesterday, (Friday 9th April) the guys went to the Sacred Valley to a place called Yucay. The girls went to La Fuente clinic to help out with some essential work and to paint a beautiful mural. Yucay was the place that flooded about 18 months ago. Half of the town was washed away by the river, crops, houses etc. God opened the door for BMS relief money to provide seed to grow new crops so that people could feed themselves and make a living. On the way we drove over the mountain to the valley. We stopped at Cristo Blanco which is this big statue of Jesus looking over the city of Cuzco with his arms wide open. What a powerful image! Jesus looking over the city: an image of protection and care.

We drove through a place called Pisac, which is where we eventually had lunch, and, when the floods came, the bridge was completely washed away. So the bridge we actually went on was the one the army built for them. It was so narrow that only one car could actually pass through at a time. But, according to Steve, it was a much more typical Peruvian town. The funny thing was that some of the dogs on the street (they’re everywhere in Peru!) chased the car down the road!

Some of the mountains and scenery we saw on the way to Yucay was simply unimaginable. Peru is a country of outstanding natural beauty.

So we finally got to Yucay. When we got there we met Eddie and his wife Maria at the house where he works. Eddie works in a house owned by a rich woman who rents it out to people for months at a time. Currently staying there are an English couple who Scott met a couple of years ago. The garden in this place was amazing. It was all Eddie’s handywork. Scott thought it would be good for us to see it and then contrast it with what we were about to go and see. On the doorstep of the house is a big field with a Catholic church to the right of it. Scott was telling us about how they did nothing to help the people who were stranded when the floods came. Instead what happened was that the people who had nowhere to live lived in these small tents on the field for 6-9 months. Can you imagine it? There must have been 300 people living on this small field with only one set of toilets between them. It couldn’t have been a great time.

Eddie and Maria wanted us to see where they live. They live on the left-hand side of the main road, the side with the river, which means their property was badly damaged. As we were walking to their house Eddie showed us where his tent was. We made our way down a narrow pathway to the river; this river is fast and furious. You wouldn’t want to get caught up in that! On the opposite side of the path from the river are rows and rows of “choclo” which is a bit like sweet corn but it is actually a white maize. This is one of the staples of the Peruvian diet in the campo (countryside). They dry it out and make flour and all kinds of stuff out of it. When the floods came it wiped out all the crops. So to be able to walk past the crops that the BMS Relief Fund was able to supply was really cool. Scott was pondering about how you can take this to UK and say this is what your £1 can do! Literally, food for thought!

We got to Eddie and Maria’s house and there was only a little bit of it left. They’re living in a little shack that’s not been destroyed and they’ve completely rebuilt their garden. But there is very little left of their main house. There was lots of wood that they managed to salvage but we’re not entirely sure if that’s going to be useable. These guys are so generous with their stuff. She gave us some figs to eat while we chatted to them about their land and their house and what happened in the floods. We looked around and saw so many fruit bearing plants and flowers. Towards the rear of the plot we saw some cages with chickens, rabbits and, yes, you’ve guess it, Cuy (the Peruvian word for Guinea pigs!). These Cuy were not there for looks, no, they were there to be eaten at some point. So its true, they eat the things. Eddie was saying to Scott that it would take 20,000 soles (pronounced so-les) to rebuild their house. That’s about £5000. It doesn’t seem that much to us does it? But to them it is an insurmountable amount. On our way out, Maria offers us some more figs. These figs were the tastiest things you’ve ever had.

We made our way back to the car so that we can go to visit Maria’s sister and the people whose house we were meant to be working on. We crammed into the car with Maria in the back and made our way there. As we approached the plot where her house was, we come through the gate, which all looks pretty normal, and then were faced with the remains of what may have been a doorway, but is not longer, and piles of rubble. There is no house left. I (Ian Mc) got quite upset at this. I’m not entirely sure why, but there was just something wrong with it. Maria’s sister was living in the equivalent of a garden shed out the back. But she is a resilient woman and has a big tunnel out the back with lots of plants she’s growing to sell. Just remarkable. In fact, there’s not much more I can say about this. The only other thing to mention is the doggies. She had three dogs that I could see. Steve was explaining to me that there are no pure breeds in Peru. Dogs simply reproduce on their own here! A funny thing was that when he was in Cajamarca he went to a dog show and the first prize was the dog that most resembled its own breed!
The house we were supposed to be working on was only a three doors up. We couldn’t do anything on this house because the government finally said that they would rebuild it for her so, if we touched it, they wouldn’t do anything. When we got there we could see that she was only living in a tiny space where she had a chair and a bed with the kitchen outside. For months they’ve had to live outside. I mean think about it: during the rainy season. That’s really inconvenient. But there was much hope because she was going to get her house back…eventually!

We made our way back to Pisac where we had lunch at the Blue Llama restaurant. I managed to buy some chocolate for everyone. Interesting trying to use some Spanish. I got there in the end. Everyone was grateful for it. On the way back we went round the mountain instead of over it. We stopped at a place called Huambutio. This is where Scott and Anjanette hope to set up a clinic and eventually a church. This is a small village with only around 500 people living in it. The trains used to run through it but no longer do so, it has become something of a forgotten place. People here are poor and don’t have many things but God loves them and Scott is desperate to come here to plant a church. It was great to see the house where the clinic will be and to see the possibilities that are available to them.

Just after Huambutio we were making our way to La Fuente Clinic, to meet the girls, and we stopped for a minute at a roadside bakery shop which had just baked some fresh bread. This has to be the best bread I’ve ever tasted in my life. It was warm and slightly raised but was a round flat shape. It was sweet to the taste and moist. Simply fabulous. The hard work was about to start. We were going to have to do some garden clearing. So we did this for about half an hour and took a break to see the market. What a place that was! Fresh fruit everywhere and a meat stall with all kinds of cuts. We even saw a couple of bulls heads, some pigs heads and lots of chicken bits. John asked the lady who was holding up a pig’s head what she called it to which her reply was “Antonio!” quite hilarious!
After the market tour we finished off as much as we could in the garden and made our way back to the hotel for a well earned shower, some reflection time and chicken and chips at Scott’s house.

Below is a poem that Ian O. wrote about Yucay:

There’s a twisted concrete doorway in the village of Yucay
beneath majestic mountains and a clear blue blazing sky.
It stands a forlorn monument that testifies the day
when the river flooded over and washed the house away.

Nature hides the story of the horror that was there
now flowers and the fruit trees shade the terror and despair.
Imagine everything you have, your house, its memories
collapsed into a pile of mud, nothing but debris.

But the house is only part of it, it’s your livelihood as well
the crops and your whole future have been swallowed up in hell.
Left impoverished and desolate, the numbness and defeat
as the hopes and dreams are lost its seems in the mud beneath your feet.

So why now the smiling faces and the hospitality?
The welcome of bright flowers where the kitchen used to be.
Could it be that hope has come to this corner of the earth
and the message of the gospel has been a catalyst of birth?
That an understanding of true love, faith and community
that the pearl of greatest price is here, that the Kingdom now they see?

We, partakers in this kingdom work, give God thanks today
and as bearers of the gospel we give our saviour praise
Greed and hate and selfishness, we want all this to die
and the cross brings restoration to the doorways of Yucay.