This past weekend, Gloria and I took a trip by bus out to San Juan de Cotabambas in hopes of signing up mothers and children for the nutrition program. Our trip didn't exactly go as planned. It reminded me of the verse:
Isaiah 55:8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord."
The trip started with a taxi picking me up here at the Aprovite house at 3:30am Friday morning. I met Gloria at the bus which left at 4:30am. The bus was quite a cultural experience in itself. We stopped for "pan" or bread about 30 minutes into our journey. The windows opened up and people were throwing bags of bread in and I had no idea how they knew who was paying and who the bread was for, but it was all settled quickly and they hung their bread from the bars so it wouldn't get squished and we were again on our way.
And here is the little guy in the seat in front of us for the trip.
We arrived in San Juan de Cotabambas at about 12:30pm, which was about an 8 hour trip. We took our things down the mountain to stay with a pastor of the Mennonite church named Felix and his wife Isidora. We quickly learned our cell phones didn't work here, so I was unable to call or text Chris to let him know we arrived safely. Here are some of the pictures of our stay. I feel like I have now truly experienced the countryside of Peru.
Above is our room for the night and below is the sink we used to brush our teeth.
Here is a little peek at the outhouse, it was called a "bano seco", which means it is basically a hole in the ground with boards across it that had a hole in the middle.
Gloria and Isidora visiting in the kitchen as she cooks a meal over the fire. The kitchen was small and dark, but there was light from little windows and the doors being open. The light above Gloria's head is actually a small hole in the wall.
Here is a view of the village of San Juan de Cotabambas.
As I was saying earlier, our weekend didn't quite go as planned. We had hoped to have a meeting with the prospective mothers and sign the children up for the nutrition program. Instead, the town was having a meeting in which all people were expected to attend. We were able to speak at the meeting to let people know what we were doing but since it lasted all day, we didn't get to do any education with the mothers as we had planned. We were able to sign 31 children up though and we are excited to see how many more come when Gloria returns in April.
Here is one of the children in the meeting and some others that were playing outside.
We returned home Sunday in a trip that only took about 6 hours. We had a blessed weekend and it was great to see how the Lord made a way where we didn't see a way. It was a blessing for me to experience yet another part of the Peruvian culture. Please pray for the Prosim program and for the women and children we hope to minister to. We want to help them with their basic health needs and education but our ultimate goal is to show them the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
