Familiar faces

I was a bit surprised to see Robert and Ruth Spencer peering down at me from the bulletin board in my room in Cajamarca, but it was nice to see a couple of familiar faces, even if it was only in a photo.  Rob used to fly down to Peru every once in a while, and Ruth must have come with him on at least one occasion.  It's a small world!

My first Sunday in Peru

So, we must have finally arrived at the sisters' bach in Cajamarca sometime before 8:00 am on Sunday, April 16.  I had been informed that there would be a "Special Meeting" of sorts, due to the fact that another visiting worker, David Saunders from Australia, and I would be present.  There are normally two Sunday morning fellowship meetings in Cajamarca, so our first meeting was basically just a union meeting for all of the local friends.  Everyone took part, and we had the emblems.  Immediately following, was a gospel meeting in which David and I both spoke.  

After the two meetings, it had been arranged that a young engaged couple would take all four of us workers out for lunch.  The restaurant was a ways out of town, so we got to enjoy a bit of close fellowship in the car on the way there (two in front, four in back).  

The view from the restaurant was amazing.

Pachamanca is a typical dish of the region, so David and I both decided to give it a try.  The menu says that it includes pock, chicken, a sort of tamale, corn, potato, sweet potato and beans.  The price is 18 soles, which is somewhere around $6 USD.

Here's a more complete description of pachamanca, compliments of wikipedia.

Pachamanca (from Quechua pacha "earth", manka "pot") is a traditional Peruvian dish based on the baking, with the aid of hot stones (the earthen oven is known as a huatia), of lamb, mutton, pork, chicken or guinea pig, marinated in spices. Other Andean produce, such as potato, green lima beans or "habas", sweet potato, occasionally cassava or yuca, and humitas(sweet treat) as well as ears of corn, tamale and chili, is included in the baking.

Meat is wrapped in bananaleaves before being put in this kind of earthen stove.

Preparation begins with the heating of stones over a fire, and the meat is then placed on top. The fire is covered with grass and earth, and the resulting oven is opened up after around two hours.  

 Had we only known, we would have ordered one plate to share!

As it was, this was for me, for me alone.

The whole group

Back - Celmira Rojas, Pilar Pastrana, Rosemary, David

Front - Silwers, Kamela

View from the parking lot

On our way back to town

It was lovely to get a little nap after lunch and before the potluck supper arranged for all the Cajamarca friends that evening.  I SLEPT!!!!  

David Saunders labored in Peru for a year back in 2000 or so.  He hadn't been back since, so though he wasn't actually scheduled for Peru on his South American Special Meeting tour, he managed to work in a few weeks in the country before heading back to Australia for Special Meetings there.  I hadn't anticipated seeing him since we weren't scheduled for any of the same meetings in Peru.  However, due to the fact that we both arrived early, our paths did indeed end up crossing before the rounds began.  Incidentally, David had also been at Seneca, IL convention in 2007, my first year in the work, so it was quite nice to see him again.  

Here are a few shots taken at the potluck supper.

These sweet twin girls were likely the most enthusiastic singers I have heard to date.  Fortunately, they were usually on key.  

This is the typical way of carrying babies and toddlers.

I ended up spending four nights or so with this family when I returned to Cajamarca later in the rounds.

Quite a spread! 

Silwers and Rosemary

David and I with Juan Carlos and Gladys and their children

It was a lovely evening.  We had plenty to eat, and David shared his testimony.  Apparently, his father had been on his way to becoming a Methodist minister when he decided that he didn't agree with infant baptism and left the seminary after his third year there.  A few years later, the sister workers brought a gospel meeting invitation to the post office where he was working, and that was the beginning of new life for him and his family.

A number of the friends have the recording of the Spanish hymns that I made upon request when the new hymnbook came out last year.  I loved this exchange between Gladys (pictured above) and her son, GianFranco.  G is six years old or so and quite bright.  

Gladys: Who is it that sings the hymns?

GianFranco: Kamela

Gladys: (pointing to me) This is Kamela.

GianFranco: (matter-of-factly) I figured that out this morning when I heard her sing.

Can't tell him much that he doesn't already have figured out!  

My first full day in Peru was an exceptional one, and by the end of it, I was mighty ready to crawl into bed!

For whom are you waiting?

So, all I knew regarding arrangements in Cajamarca was that a certain "don Gilberto" would be meeting me.  I didn't figure that would be a problem, especially when I saw the size of the airport.  When I walked out of baggage claim, I immediately saw a man and a young boy with Down's Syndrome among the small crowd of people awaiting the arriving passengers.  However, when I passed by them, they made no indication of recognizing me, so I kept on walking.  A person doesn't have to take too many steps to get to the doors that lead to the parking lot, so I was soon there.  And nobody seemed to be waiting for me.  Approximately forty-nine taxi drivers were offering me rides all at once, so despite the limited space, there was a lot going on.  I denied all offers of taxi rides as I exited the airport to glance around the parking lot.  Seeing no one that particularly looked like a don Gilberto,  re-entered the building to wait.  He probably just hadn't arrived yet.  I waited and I waited and I waited.  And the man that I had initially spotted when I came out of baggage claim and the boy whom I supposed was his son were still waiting as well.  By this time, pretty much everyone else was gone.  "Should I go up to this man?" I wondered.  But, no, I was sure that he had seen me, both when I came out of baggage claim and another time when he had gone out into the parking lot briefly and then come back in.  After a little while longer, however, I had nearly convinced myself to go up to him and ask if he was by any chance don Gilberto.  At that point, though, a woman with very short hair came up to him and started talking to him before they just stood there in silence, apparently waiting together.  "Must be his wife," I thought.  So it's not don Gilberto after all.  Then he went up to an airport employee and began talking, indicating the doors that led back into baggage claim.  Then he got on his phone.  I had a phone too but hadn't had a chance to put in my Peruvian phone chip, meaning that I was still unable to make any calls.  I didn't have a phone number for anyone in Cajamarca anyway, but I did have a number for one of the sister workers in Lima.  I was just trying to figure out how to take my phone apart to get the chip in just in case I would need to make a phone call eventually, when the waiting man looked over in my direction.  His face lit up, and he and the boy started walking quickly in my direction.  "Kamela?" he asked me, grinning.  "Don Gilberto?" I asked him, smiling.  Turns out, that's exactly who it was.  Indeed, he had not seen me when I arrived, nor when he had passed me earlier, nor when he was looking around the main lobby of the airport to see if I had gotten through already.  The short-haired woman who had come up to him was waiting for someone else.  He had discussed with the airport employee the possibility of me being asleep on the airplane.  He had called the overseer of Peru to find out if I had missed my flight from Lima.  And all the while I had stood by thinking that eventually don Gilberto would come because that's what the plan was, and that's all I knew.  A slight fiasco but it all worked out in the end.  We hopped in his truck and headed to the sisters' bach, and as he drove, he made phone calls to all the workers that were worried about the visiting sister workers being lost somewhere in Peru before the rounds had even begun.  

Next stop: Cajamarca

Pre-dawn flight

Take-off

Lima's early morning glow

Lots of curvy roads below

(I got to travel quite a lot of roads like that during my time in Peru.)

Coming in to Cajamarca

A couple of videos of the landing

Back to the airport

I was checked in for my 5:09 a.m. flight by 3:20, so then we all sat in the food court (containing McDonald's, Papa John's and Dunkin' Donuts) until 3:50 or so.  Then I headed through security.

Wait!  Wait!  It's not as dangerous as it looks!

After all the security checkpoints I had already been through, I wasn't expecting to have any difficulties this time around.  However, when my carry-on bag went through the scanner, they picked up something and decided to send it through again.  Another agent was called over to gaze at the screen.  They sent it on through and opened it up but found nothing hazardous.  Through the scanner again.  This time the search was narrowed down to, of all things, my bible case!  I know God's word is compared to a sword, but it's not literal, folks!  "May I open up this bag?"  "Certainly."  So, what she found was my bible and hymnbook... and a metal hair stick that I had taken to the midweek bible study the previous week to give to one of our friends.  When she wasn't able to be in the meeting, I promptly forgot about the hair stick still residing in the bag... until this moment.  Fortunately, they decided that it was not a tool of great danger and let me pass with the stick.

On to Cajamarca...

This'll help you sleep!

This was waiting for me when I arrived at the sisters' bach in Lima.  

My first night in Peru

My flight into Lima arrived on time.  I was sitting in the second to last row of the airplane, so by the time I disembarked and sailed through customs, my luggage was already making laps on the baggage carousel. Then the dear, sweet Peruvian customs officials let me pass through the final checkpoint without even putting my backpack through the scanner.  The two sister workers in the field, Patti MacDonald and Flor Coronel, along with one of the friends who is a taxi driver were waiting to meet me when I came out of baggage claim and take me to the sisters' bach for a few hours of sleep.  The ride from the airport to the bach was possibly something like half an hour.  (Whatever details are not specifically recorded in my journal have likely been forgotten by this point.)  We had a cup of tea before showering and hitting the sack.  When I set my alarm for 2:00 am before crawling into bed, my phone helpfully informed me, "That is three hours and seven minutes from now."  Ugh!  The bach is directly above a sports complex of some kind, and there was some kind of event going on in full swing both when I went to bed and when I woke up a few hours later.  The music rather disoriented me when my alarm woke me up.  I was quite glad, however, that I at least had the presence of mind to turn on my light because I ended up dozing until 2:29.  Oops!  Anyway, we made it to the waiting taxi by 3:00 to head back to the airport.

Here's a sampling of the "doings" below.  Turn your volume all the way up to get the "full" effect.  Despite the noise, I had to keep the window open to keep from suffocating.  

Welcome to Peru!