Snows and Alpaca Deaths in the Andes

23 April 2017

Today we have been serving for 3 months (which means we have finished 1/6 of our 18-month mission). We have never been more busy in our lives - the time has flown by.

Humanitarian Work

From the relative comfort of Lima, it is sometimes hard to imagine how hard life can be in remote parts of the country. With needs always greater than the resources we can provide, we have to pass along many of these requests for help to our leaders who have to decide where our aid will go.

Alpacas Wiped out in the Andes

Friday, a young mayor from a tiny village in Huancavelica district high in Andes mountains came to our office asking for help. His village, situated above 15,000 ft elevation, had been hit by the same storms that recently caused flooding throughout Peru. However, these storms had brought snow to the high Andes, which covered the ground and caused many of their alpaca herds to die of starvation (the animals couldn't find forage in the grasslands that were frozen over).

News photo showing some of the many alpacas that died from starvation high in the Andes this year. 

Estimates show that throughout Peru this year, 180,000 alpacas have died of starvation due to untimely snow storms. Many remote villages depend almost entirely on their herds of alpaca for their livelihood, and it takes years to rebound from losses like this.

News photo showing devastation from loss of  alpaca herds throughout the Andes this year.

The mayor from this mountain village in Huancavelica that appealed for help said they were in need of food, warm clothes, and roofing material to repair buildings that collapsed - it was so sad to see the dire need in this village.  Anyway, this village's request for help gets added to the list of other areas suffering from similar needs, and local leaders in our area office have some tough decisions to make on where to send our aid.

Vision Projects

Last year's vision project in Arequipa provided a host of vision surgeries and donated ophthalmology equipment.  In addition, 2,200 glasses were donated to needy children in the area. 

  

This week we worked to collect the many missing invoices for the glasses from the supplier (we have paid them only half of the total bill because, due to continuing problems with their accounting system, they can't seem to get their invoices to us). Six months after the project delivery, we are still trying to get them to bill us. We held a meeting with this supplier in our office this week and told them we can't proceed with future projects using them until they get this straightened out. That hopefully got their attention.

This year's vision project is providing a similar level of aid up north in the city of Tarapoto. With the aid contract now signed (took 4 months and multiple revisions with attorneys), we are now ready to order the surgical equipment we are donating, along with another 2,000 sets of glasses for needy children. We hope to have this all ready to go in the next two months.

Parque El Olivar (Lima's Olive Grove)

On our preparation day (Saturday), we rented bikes and visited Lima's 450-year-old olive grove. The trees, orignally planted by the Spanish royalty in the 1560s, are still producing olives. About 1,700 of these olive trees remain and have now been declared a national monument in Peru.

Parque El Olivar, an oasis of calm in Lima.

Some of the trees in the park are the originals planted in the 1560s by the Spanish. They still produce olives. A few lagoons of water, plus charming flower beds, add to the quiet ambiance of this island of calm in the middle of Lima.

It seemed strange to be in the middle of this crazy city and find this extensive olive grove, a reminder of past days when Lima was on the edge of the Spanish conquest of the new world.

Parque El Olivar, a quiet place to reflect among some very old olive trees. Last year, they harvested almost 2 tons of olives from this grove of 1,700 trees in the middle of the city.

Our bike journey through the park was almost a reverent experience, being in the presence of such an ancient grove of trees.

Journey along the Coast and to the Cliffside Parque de Amor

We continued our Saturday biking journey, which was a good diversion from the super-busy weeks that we spend doing humanitarian work. Our 15-kilometer (9 mile) ride took us from the center of the Miraflores area of Lima, through the city, and then along the coast.

Biking along the cliffs overlooking Lima's coast. Fresh ocean breezes suggest our super-hot summer has finally come to an end.

A famous site along the trip was the Parque del Amor (Park of Love). Known for its beautiful architecture and sculptures, it sits on the edge of cliffs that drop into the Pacific Ocean.

The  Park of Love is filled with flowing ceramic mosaic walls that draw lovers and families into this cheery place near the sea.

Gigantic sculpture in the middle of the Park of Love. Note the paraglider in the background. The cliffs of Miraflores provide a constant updraft from the ocean. Paragliders in the air every time we come to Miraflores. 

Mission Training Center

We walk about a kilometer every day to get to the area office. On the way we pass the church's Peru Mission Training Center (MTC), better known as the Centro de Capacitación Misional. This is where young missionaries go through 3 to 6 six weeks of training as they begin their full-time mission service in either Peru or Bolivia. Every other Wednesday we get to see a new batch of young men and women missionaries being dropped off, and we see the tears of separation along with the smiles of joy as parents and families say their goodbyes.

Families saying their goodbyes to young missionaries entering the Centro de Capacitación Misional.

About 150 missionaries are in the Centro de Capacitación Misional at any time. Spanish-speaking local missionaries spend 3 weeks here; foreign missionaries spend 6 weeks, which includes intensive language training.

Chocolate in Peru

Peru grows about 4 percent of the world's cacao, the key ingredient in chocolate. We love dark chocolate, and they have some really good bars here in Peru. A day without a little dark chocolate is an empty, sad experience, so we always make sure we have some of our favorites each day.

Some of our favorite dark chocolate here in Peru. Chocolate originally came from the Americas, so eating a little every day is part of our Peruvian cultural experience.

We found a chocolate museum in the center of Lima celebrating this country's place in the world of chocolate. You could smell the incredible aroma, and then buy luscious chocolate goodies. We bought some delicious brownies; not your typical treat here in Peru, but it brought back memories of home.

Peruvian cacao beans I got to sift through at the Lima Chocolate Museum. The shells of these beans are removed as part of the chocolate preparation process. We bought a bag of just the shells which we can make into an incredible chocolate-flavored tea. 

Ugly Dogs - Peruvian Hairless

We have seen some ugly dogs, but by far the ugliest are a breed of dog known as the Peruvian Hairless. You see them all around the country. They are an ancient breed that were already here long before the Spanish arrived. Usually black with sometimes a little fluff on the top of their head, they just seem really strange in their hairless state.  We try to avoid them as they are very protective of the human families and their territory.

Peruvian Hairless - A popular (and ugly) breed throughout Peru. This dog calmly let me take his picture, then the next day followed me down the street while trying to bite me. 

Andean Tapestry

A man came to our door selling tapestries made by family members high in the Andes. One piece caught my eye, a piece the man said took a month to make. His family takes raw sheep wool, cleans it and cards it, turns it into yarn and dyes it with natural colors from plants and insects, then weaves it into amazing tapestries. I ended getting this piece. It looks like a tapestry woven onto another tapestry, with fringes sticking out in the middle of the tapestry to make it appear even more three-dimensional. It was an interesting fusion of styles - traditional and modern - all on one piece of cloth a yard wide. What creative crafts - all made from scratch!

Three-dimensional tapestry from Andean weavers. It looks as though there is a multi-colored belt suspended in the air on a black background, but this is all just woven on one piece of cloth.

So, with a good, relaxing weekend under our belt, we return to our humanitarian work on Monday. This service is a very intense experience, a greater adventure than we have ever experienced. We're glad we are here.