Coyunde Special Meetings - Day 1

May 27

◦                Up early to sing Happy Birthday & Las Mañanitas to Patti at 5:50 over in the sisters' quarters above the dining room for her 61st birthday

◦                Back to "bed" for a little more quiet time before 7:00 breakfast

◦                Two lovely meetings with yummy soup in between

◦                Walked up to the cemetery after the second meeting. I met Flor and Elvia who had gone up there for a picnic of cuy. They offered to share, but I declined. I found a tombstone upon which I could sit and look out over the beautiful Andes panorama and sat there until it started to sprinkle. I thought about waiting to see if it would pass but then decided to just head back to the grounds. I got back just in time to join in the tea time.

In 1996, one of the visiting workers, Eric Moore from Ireland, passed away while on Special Meeting rounds in Peru.  He is buried in the cemetery in Coyunde.  The flat stone low to the ground is his grave.

With their cuy between them

The view from my sitting spot

The path back home

The back of the dining room, where dish towels are hung to dry

◦                I asked Jairo for help marking my map of Peru, and we ended up talking until supper time. He was in the middle of telling his testimony when they rang the supper bell, so hopefully one day I'll get to hear the rest of the story.

◦                Lots of people are on the speaking list for tomorrow, so our clean up crew was reduced in number. We still managed to finish up shortly after 7:00.

◦                I can hardly believe that tomorrow is our last day of meetings! The time has flown by, like I knew it would, but I've enjoyed every minute of it. This trip to Peru will forever be among my most treasured memories. It has, in many ways, changed my life.