Getting into Peruvian Life

26 February 2017

Humanitarian Services

We work inside the administrative area office of the LDS church for the northwest area of South America. Shown here is the Humanitarian Services office along with our Peruvian work director, Alex Principe, in the background. Most of our time so far has been spent in this office where we work at an often frantic pace.

Humanitarian Services office, Marshall and Sandy with
Alex Principe, Area Humanitarian Specialist

What do we do in the office? A mind-numbing host of activities to plan and execute humanitarian projects all over Peru including vision, wells for clean water, wheelchair donations and evaluator training projects, and coordinating ultrasound equipment donations to remote health clinics.

This mission has been one of the busiest things we have ever attempted.  After running around all day working these many projects, we are exhausted.

We walk to the Humanitarian Services office everyday - it's a quick 10-minute walk. On the way to the office is this incredible ceramic tile mural - an entire city block wide. The mural, made by local Peruvian artists, shows local scenes and neighboring churches.

Gigantic Ceramic Mural - One City Block Wide
La Molina, Peru

Home, Sweet Home

We live in a nice neighborhood in the La Molina suburb of Lima, about a half mile from the Area Office.  We are in the third floor apartment. Like all apartments in this area, there is a small parking area enclosed with a locked gate. Ours is a 3-bedroom, 2-bath apartment that takes up the entire floor. (Note the charged electric wires above the parking garage, designed to discourage thieves.)

Our Home in Lima (3rd Floor)

 Out And About

None of the senior missionaries are allowed to drive - it is far too dangerous with crazed drivers and cram-packed streets. So, we walk to the office (10 minutes), or we walk to the supermarket (20 minutes), or we take buses or taxis.

We often take buses on the weekends (our day off).  The buses are usually full of people but are fairly cheap.  Here is a shot of the bus we took yesterday, crammed with people. We were the only non-hispanics on the bus - it's hard to blend in when you're more than a head taller than most of the locals.

Riding the city bus in Lima, Peru

Shop till you Drop!

We walk a mile to the supermarket, then carry $100 worth of groceries back home.  We bought a cart to haul everything, then we walk the 20 minutes back to our apartment as we pull the little cart.

We cram $100 worth of groceries into this cart and then walk 20 minutes to get home.

Shopping at the little mom-and-pop shops is lots of fun, but for most of our grocery shopping, we go to the supermarket.  It is just like going to Super Walmart, except everything is in Spanish. Prices for any imported goods are about 6 times what they are in the USA, but local produce is super cheap.

Just like Super Walmart, but everything is in Spanish

Around Town

Walking around town has its advantages - we often come across scenes we would never see if we were driving behind the wheel.

Here are some young girls in a traditional folk dance at a performance with their teacher.  We just stumbled across this cute little show while walking to a crafts shop.

Cute entourage of girls performing folk dances

Strange Milk

In the USA, we always buy fresh, refrigerated milk. Not so in most of the world where milk goes bad quickly due to warm temperatures. This is the only thing we can buy here in Peru - boxed milk that stores on the shelf at room temperatures for 6 months. This milk is sterilized at ultra-high temperatures (called UHT), thus killing all the germs and allowing the long shelf life.  It doesn't taste as good as fresh milk in the USA, but it is all we have down here. Ah, the things we take for granted that are just not available throughout most of the world.

Non-refigerated Boxed Milk - Stored at Room Temperature

Fruit We've Never Seen Before

Aguaymanto, native to Peru, was new to us. It comes wrapped up like a gooseberry and is sometimes available in the USA under the name 'Picchu Berry' (named after Machu Picchu). This little delight has a burst of berry flavor.

Aguaymanto (or Picchu Berries) - a delightful burst of sweet flavor

Chirimoya, another native of Peru, looks like an artichoke on the outside, but inside it is a creamy white berry-flavored custard. Mark Twain called it a 'custard apple' and said it was his favorite fruit in the entire world. Even here, these are a little expensive but really delicious.

Chirimoya - a Creamy Berry-Flavored Custard Fruit

We Have to Try This Some Day

We snapped a shot of this delight yesterday - the waffle burger! So bizarre! We were full at the time, so we didn't stop to try it. We'll have to return some day and give this weird Peruvian burger a try!

Waffle Burger - I thought only Americans came up with this weird stuff!

And so we start another intense week of moving all our humanitarian projects toward completion. Thank goodness we still have enough health and strength to work at the pace that is required to keep up with this work.