Things we have learned - non-mission-related #3

As we may have mentioned, when we leave Huancayo, we are meeting up with 17 friends and family in Cusco, in order to hike the Inca Trail for four days, ending in Machu Picchu.  We figure that it will be a good way to leave South America after an extended stay.

We've been doing some warm-up hikes when we have the time, and did an epic one yesterday, gaining about 3,600 feet elevation, which is more and higher than the longest day on the trip.  This is a message I sent to our friends/fellow victims:

Dear Inca Trailers:  Yesterday we declared a Preparation Day and went on a hike out the front door. The weather was perfect, and we stuffed our packs with junk enough to match what we expect to be carrying.  Luckily, we live a couple of blocks from some significant mountains, and we start at 10,700 feet at the house.

1.  You can buy or rent better trekking poles than this beautiful model is demonstrating.  Actually, this is her stream-crossing stick that she hides in the bushes and uses every time we go on this hike.  It won't get stolen, but it's not carbon-fiber.

There is a road part of the way up, recently improved for the construction of towers for a new power line over the mountains.

2.  Having a friend along to talk to makes the hike easier.  This was Hayde, a nice 53-year-old lady on the way up the mountain to her potato patch, accompanied by her dogs, and followed by her husband with the three donkeys to carry the harvest back down.

3.  I don't think we're going to have phone coverage for text messages during the hike.

4.  One more evidence that Peruvians are a) immune to hard work or b) nuts or c) both.  This is an old corral, which would be fine, except that it's at about 13,800 feet up the side of the mountain.

5.  Don't trust barometric altimeters unless they are calibrated at a spot of known elevation.  Weather changes can significantly alter the readings, as any pilot will tell you.  This is approaching the top, but was reading several hundred feet lower.

6.  The climb is usually worth the pain of the climb.  We topped out a bit over 14,300 feet, with spectacular views.

7.  It's hard to get lost when you can see your house during the entire hike.

8.  Wear a wide-brimmed hat, use lots of sunscreen, and we're not kidding.  We slopped it on before the 8-hour hike, but still got moderately burned.  High altitude+full sun=burn, baby, burn.  Also, even though we weren't in snow fields or anything drastic, my eyes were a little scratchy last night.  

9.  We're probably going to survive the most difficult day on the trail.  I'm a bit sore this morning, but nothing too bad.  

10.  Go light.  'Nuff said.

We hope that your hikes are as rewarding, and use the hat.  Words of wisdom from the bald guy.

Dave & Paula

Yipes! It's going to end?!

We really are trying to not be aware of the time left before this assignment ends, and we still have a full calendar.  Last week we were on a Zone Conference trip, in which we dragged along the Area Mental Health Advisor and his wife, a couple of great Australians with the accompanying cool accent and great sense of humor.

 We had an enjoyable time with them, and their lessons to the missionaries were right on the money.

However, the local "O y M" (stands for'operations and maintenance') guys took advantage of our being gone for almost a week and invaded the mission home, the nice house where we live.  Their intent was to paint and repair the house in preparation for our replacement's arrival.  However, their timing was off, and we got home a long time before they finished.  (Actual simulated photo)

OK, it wasn't THAT bad, but it was close.  However, they did know that death awaited them if they touched Paula's plants.  

That's her cyclamen garden, and last time they cleaned their brushes in it with solvents, then scruffed up the dirt to try and hide their sin.  

So we just hid out in the office and hoped that the cleanup went OK.

It has reminded us that things are coming to a close one of these days, like it or not.

We hope that OyM clears out of YOUR house before you get home.

Dave & Paula

Always a little something extra

Every six months, the mission presidents in our five-country Area are gathered for a seminar of instruction by the leaders of the Area.  This one was in Lima, and it was our last such meeting out of the nearly five years we've been in South America.  Our 'class' of fifteen presidents and their wives gathered for one last photo together.  Notice that they are smiling.

To get to the seminar, we had flown to Lima from the other end of the Mission where we were conducting quarterly interviews with the missionaries.  During the interviews, my right foot started hurting, and by the time we flew, it was time for the crutches.  (Foot on left, wife on right)

The good new was that we got to board the airplane first.  The bad thing was getting wheeled out to the plane like an aged invalid.  No, hold it, I guess I WAS an aged invalid.
Anyway, we got to Lima, and with the hurt increasing, the nice senior missionaries serving as Area Medical Advisors took me to an x-ray place, where all looked OK.

The next morning, we snuck out of a couple of hours of the seminar and went to the Clinica Delgado, which would have been considered fancy by anyone's standards.

I was seen by Dr. Wagner Grau, a truly gentlemanly internist, and actually head of the Medical Society of Peru, who made time specifically for us.

He diagnosed an infection and started antibiotics.
Unfortunately, all of this has required extending our stay in Lima by a couple of days.

I've been doing my work in less-than-formal attire while elevating and resting the foot.

It finally seems to be coming around, and we'll head back to the hills early tomorrow morning.  We have very much appreciated the kind help of the Area Medical Advisors, Dr.'s Burton and Asay, and the permission from the Area presidency to make sure that things were getting better before sending us back, where care would have more likely involved a sheep-dung poultice.

We hope that all of your extremities are doing OK, and that your poultices are more pleasant.

Dave & Paula

So, we get the T-shirt!

As you alert readers know, the Mission includes the city of Cerro de Pasco, a city of 70,000 surrounding a huge open pit mine, situated at 14,400 feet.  There are five units of the Church in the city, making up a "stake" organization.  We have sixteen of our missionaries there at any given time, and two in an outlying small unit on the high plains.
Conditions in Cerro can be miserable.  It is constantly cold because of the altitude, and rain, sleet, hail and even snow are common.  There is no heat in any building anywhere.  I try to only send the best and toughest missionaries to work there.  To give a bit of recognition, only those who serve in Cerro receive this T-shirt:

You'll notice that the t-shirt is grey.  That is because Cerro de Pasco, is, for the most part, grey.

The greenest part of the city is the artificial turf in the soccer stadium.  It is said that due to the extreme altitude, the home team always wins.  The other guys are laying on the sidelines sucking oxygen, and I'm not kidding.

Our first nights spent in the city were not so good.  The online information about the hotel said, "Yep.  Heat, hot water and a cochera, (enclosed safe place to park the car)."  Zero for three.  We froze, it got worse in the cold shower, and we worried all night about the car parked on the street.  So, scratch Las Torres off your list of future places to stay in Cerro de Pasco.  And they should scratch even the two stars.

After that, we found a better hotel.  Yes, it had hot water (most of the time), yes, a guy watched the car during the night, and yes, there were heaters you could rent for the room, kinda, as long as you were in the first 35% of those staying the night and you paid extra.  

Little by little, we figured it out.  We learned to bring our own little heater, which worked OK because the rooms are teeny.  We learned to bring sleeping bags, because the heavy, scratchy wool blankets, if piled high enough to be warm will cause cessation of respiration, and the flannel sheets hold the sleeper like Velcro®.  In the end, by our 16th and 17th nights spent in Cerro, it actually got almost tolerable.  Almost.

It was with a weird, almost nostalgic feeling (I said almost) that we drove away from our last stay in Cerro de Pasco this week.  

But hey, we get the T-shirt!  That makes it all worth it!

We hope that your hotel nights are equally as unique.

Dave & Paula

Stretching the legs

As some of you might know, we are planning to hike the Inca Trail with friends and family after our replacement arrives at the end of June.  This backpacking hike ends the morning of the fourth day at Machu Picchu and looks pretty strenuous,

with some significant gains and losses of altitude.

Close behind where we live is a round hill, known as "la corona del fraile" which means "the head of the friar," because it has a bald top with a fringe of trees.  The missionaries have referred to it also as "la cabeza del Presidente," or "the head of you-know-who."  Those who do so often find themselves in the cold, windy places of the Mission on the next transfer.

We have begun substituting our normal forms of 30 minutes of daily exercise

for hiking up things, like that hill.  

We've increased the length and altitude-gained aspects of such hikes.  A couple of day ago, we invited the office staff and started up the mountains.

Though it started off rainy, it ended up just a little cloudy and cool, perfect for grinding up the hill.

Paula was fashionably cute, as always.  One must always look good, even if one doesn't feel good.

One must also, of course, gloatingly text her friends in the US as to her progress up the mountain.

We finally reached 13,400 feet, up from 10,700 at the start, and 10 kilometers distance, and did what any other extreme expedition does on attaining their goal.  We had sandwiches and cookies.  And juice.  duh.

OK, the dog.  After patting ourselves liberally on the back for our fine and grueling achievement, we looked around, and there was a middle-aged mamita calmly knitting and tending her flock of sheep.  

She had most likely hiked up that morning to bring them to pasture.  So much for feeling heroic. 

We hope that your strolls have as breathtaking views of the Andes.  Na na na na na na!

Dave & Paula 

That was lucky....I guess.

As you may recall, Keiko Fujimori, daughter of incarcerated former president Alberto Fujimori was being investigated for *gasp* campaign irregularities.  However, she has now been cleared, and leads the polls by a significant margin in the presidential elections to be held in seven days .

As you may also recall, travel to and from Lima has lately been complicado, as they are fond of saying here, because of the landslides that cut off the road down to the coast.  

At the time that we needed to purchase bus or plane tickets for the departing missionaries, that road was still iffy, so we opted for the air route with its own imponderables (weather, limited seats, cancellations, blah, blah, blah).

Because the planes that are sent from Lima are small, 

baggage that can be carried is limited, so we made sure that the four missionaries leaving yesterday afternoon were in line very early, in case someone else showed up similarly overloaded with books, cool souvenirs and stuff accumulated over two years here in the hills.  

As the plane was beginning to load, an entourage arrived at the little airport escorted by police motorcycles with lights flashing and sirens blaring.  It was none other than Keiko and her folks!

LCPeru quickly unloaded everyone off the plane that was being readied, including an elderly lady in a wheelchair, except for our missionaries. By the time Miss Fujimori and her staff and some of the reporters had loaded and departed, 

it was too dark for the second plane, in which she had arrived earlier, to take off, and all the remaining passengers were stranded, angry, and ready to talk to the newspeople on hand.  Including the elderly lady in the wheelchair, and a patient trying to get to Lima for dialysis.  Ouch!  Luckily, our missionaries were not mentioned.  

We're not sure why our guys weren't kicked off, except perhaps because of the mucho $$$ paid for their overweight bags, but they were able to get to Lima for their connections, uncomplicating this complicated week of missionaries' travel a little bit.  

We hope that Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, or whoever, doesn't complicate your travel plans.  Or uncomplicate them.  Or whatever.

Dave & Paula

PS  If you like reading Spanish and getting a headache, here's a link to the newspaper report:  http://www.americatv.com.pe/noticias/actualidad/keiko-fujimori-pasajeros-acusan-aerolinea-bajarlos-avion-favorecerla-n225245

Uh, oh! She's gone native!

We've been here for a fairly long time, without going in to detail on that point.  We've become accustomed to some things, appreciate many more, and could do without a few.
Many of the middle-aged and older women in our region dress in a traditional manner, which is both practical and lends the warmth needed here in the mountains, as well as protection from the fierce sun.  For better or worse, this fashion is fading, as the younger folks trend toward what is becoming the uniform of the world, wearing jeans, sweatshirts, and all the rest.
I'm starting to wonder whether it may getting toward time to head home soon.  Paula came back from a day of shopping in the market, wearing what can only be described as a new look for her.

The sparkly sweater, fancy blouse and pretty hat with a bow marked her as a mamita, sure enough.

The apron, skirt, leggings and loafers completed the picture.

Yeah, maybe time to buy the tickets, before she decides to bring some sheep home, too.  Or before she adopts some other outfits found here in the Mission.

I'm going to to check on those tickets.  Soon.

Dave