Winter Emergency Clothing in the Andes, Farewells and Cookout, and Drinking Fountains

27 August 2017

Clothing for Winter Emergencies in the Andes Mountains

High in the Andes Mountains, some villages are so poor that families can't afford decent shoes or warm clothing for their children (average income is about $70/month for a family of 5). Clothing takes low priority when all family resources are being spent for food.

When a harsh winter hits (like this year), we get pleas for help from mountain villages. We responded to the requests and this week received our first shipment of donations of shoes and polar-fleece jogging suits. These will go to the poorest of the poor in tiny villages around 15,000 ft. elevation that have been struck hard by this year's winter weather.

Packing up the pairs of shoes to donate high in the Andes Mountains to especially poor villages hit hard by freezing conditions.

We had the shoes custom made by a home business here in Lima (click this link - Shoes - for the original story). These were nice shoes that ended costing on average 23 Peruvian soles each (around $7 USD). We liked the shoes so much we bought ourselves a pair at the manufacturer's price.

Good quality shoes and super comfy (red for girls, black for boys)! This donation will hopefully make freezing winters more bearable. (We each bought a pair ourselves at the wholesale price - they are really comfy!)

In addition to the shoes, we are also providing 626 sets of polar-fleece jogging suits. We hope this donation to these poor villages will reduce the suffering currently being experienced due to the extreme cold this year.

Emergency donation of polar-fleece jogging suits with nylon exterior - will help the poor make it through the current freezing temperature emergency

Farewell to Friends

The volunteer missions that most senior couples serve last between 18 and 23 months. That means that new people are always coming in or leaving to return to their homes. It is a sad event when the missions of friends come to an end and it is time for them to leave, knowing we may never see them again. This week we had a farewell dinner for 10 that are leaving (this is 10 out of the 30 or so senior missionaries who work at the Area Office or in other capacities on this side of Lima).

Farewell dinner at Don Tito's  restaurant for the 10 who are leaving at the end of their missions. Our turn comes in another 11 months.

By the way, there is a tremendous variety of missions for senior couples here, including legal affairs, area medical authorities, financial auditors, self-sufficiency trainers, office staff, and the two of us who work on a host of humanitarian projects. There are so many opportunities to serve everywhere in the world.

Barbecue in the Mountains

On our day off, friends from the Area Office invited us and a few other senior missionaries for a barbecue. They drove an hour from their mountain home to pick us up, then we returned to their home for the cook out.

John Ora (left) and Cesar Perez invited us to join their families for the barbecue at John's house in the mountain community of Chaclacayo about an hour from here. John and Cesar both work in the Finance Department at the Area Office.

We were glad to get out of Lima with its grey skies and chilly weather. When we got out of town, the sun came out and warmed things up. It was especially good to see the sun, for a change.

Under the awning in the shade with the Halleys (left), Sister Jeri Prince, the Perez and Ora families, Elder Jerry Prince, and Sandy.

What a fun gathering and a joy to spend half the day visiting (in Spanish) with such good people.

A happy chance to relax in the home of John Ora.

Humitas - Sweet Smokey Treats

This week we came across a man selling 'humitas' out of his little street cart. Since they were cooked (and presumably safe), we bought some. Humitas are sweet cornmeal buns with anise seeds. They wrap them in corn husks and cook them over a fire, so they have a smoky flavor. In fact, humitas literally translates to 'little smokey things'.

Happy street vendor selling his 'Humitas' - sweet cornmeal buns with anise seeds wrapped in corn husks and cooked over a fire. They make these at home and then wheel them up and down the street until they are all sold.

Unwrap the 'Humitas' from their corn husk wrappers to eat them steamy hot - a delicious Peruvian street food.

Each 'Humitas' costs 1 Peruvian sole - about $0.30 USD. What a fun little treat to pick up on the street.

What is That?

Ever seen anything like this before? (photo taken at our church in Tumbes, Peru)

We take drinking fountains for granted in the USA - they are everywhere. However, they are extremely rare in most areas of the world.

When we were up north in Tumbes a few weeks back for a wheelchair donation, there were lots of Peruvians in one of our church buildings performing patient evaluations. One of our evaluators stared at the drinking fountain and asked Sandy what it was. She had to explain that it was a water fountain, typical of what we have everywhere in the USA. Sandy showed him how to push the button and make water came out. He was so amazed. He then pushed the button with one hand and used his other hand in a cupping shape to catch water and bring the water up to his mouth. Sandy had to correct him and show him how to drink directly from the stream of water. We just assumed everyone knew how to drink from a fountain.

Later, others that were at the evaluation were also amazed at the fountain. Some Peruvian got a disposable cup and put it on top of the fountain. We didn't understand why until we saw them using it. People would fill the cup, drink the water, and then pass the empty cup to the next person for them to fill up. We thought it was bizarre how the Peruvians came up with a way to bypass the sanitation inherent in a drinking fountain by adding a cup to the process that they all shared. Ah, the things you learn about different cultures by living abroad!

Aerial View of Miraflores District - Lima

On our day off each week, we often spend time in Miraflores, a really nice suburb about 10 miles from where we live. Running right down to the cliffs at the ocean, Miraflores is an upscale neighborhood where we often rent bikes or go shopping.

I included this aerial shot of Miraflores I took from a poster to show how modern this place is with its high-rise apartment and office buildings on some of the priciest real estate in Lima. It is always a nice escape to take the bus or a taxi to unwind in Miraflores. Not every area of Lima is this nice.

Aerial view of Miraflores at the edge of cliffs overlooking the ocean. (This shot is from a poster I found in Miraflores last week). What a nice, upscale part of town to unwind on a day off.

And so we return to our labors on Monday. This is truly a major undertaking for us - managing dozens of humanitarian projects all over Peru. At times when we feel stress from our labors, it is good to remember the counsel given by Paul in Hebrews 12:1 " . . . and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." We will try to remember to 'run with patience' this week as we dive back into this important but sometimes consuming work.

Medical Equipment to Save Lives, More Foods of Peru, and Scenes around Lima

20 August 2017

Saving Lives in Remote Clinics

Our project to help mothers and babies survive childbirth high in the Andes is coming to completion.  In two weeks we travel to Cerro de Pasco  (at 14,400 feet elevation) to make the final delivery of equipment that will help doctors save the poor who have no recourse but to visit government-sponsored clinics. These government clinics, though staffed with good doctors, often lack equipment that we would consider necessary in any modern health establishment.

Donations in Cerro de Pasco
Left: Portable Ultra-sound devices (3 total)
Right: Fetal Monitors (2 total)

Cerro de Pasco has a population of 50,000. Things get complicated there when there are medical emergencies because the next closest city with an airport is 2 hours away over twisting mountain roads. The equipment donations we are making (ultrasound devices, fetal heart monitors, blood chemical analyzers) will go to remote clinics where mothers often give birth. This equipment will help with early diagnosis of problem pregnancies so mothers can be referred to larger hospitals to give birth before they go into labor and have problems.

All of our humanitarian projects require approval by the Area Presidency. To help gain approval, we prepared a video of the health situation in Cerro de Pasco to show to the Area Presidency, highlighting maternal and neonatal deaths that occurred in the past year due to lack of equipment. Click on this link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etlgq5Jexak&t=2s) to view the short video we prepared (sorry, it's all in Spanish).

Video for Cerro de Pasco project. The doctors we interviewed described the multiple maternal and neonatal deaths they have had, many of which could have been prevented with early diagnosis of health issues and better monitoring during delivery.

Our trip to Cerro de Pasco for the delivery ceremony promises to be an adventure. Last time we went, we both suffered from altitude sickness (even after taking preventive medication ahead of time). The only cure that works for most people in the Andes is coca leaf tea, which quickly cures the headaches and nausea in ways that modern medications don't seem to touch.

More Peruvian Foods

Tamales - Peruvian Style

We love Mexican tamales, and we made them every year in New Mexico as part of our traditional Christmas meals. Here in Peru, rather than wrap up their tamales in corn husks, they wrap them in banana leaves and tie them neatly before cooking (you can buy them this way at most grocery stores).

Peruvian tamales - all wrapped up ready to cook

After cooking and unwrapping the tamales, they look a lot like the Mexican tamales. The corn masa can taste similar to the tamales we have at home, but the Peruvian tamales typically have less meat, are served with a special onion garnish on top (which they call 'sarsa'), and include a cooked olive. For these Peruvian tamales, we typically put lots of spicy 'crema de aji' on top (a Peruvian salsa which we really like). We usually eat far more 'aji' than most Peruvians because we like our food very spicy.

Peruvian tamales, cooked and ready to eat, served with an onion garnish on top call 'sarsa'.

Exotic Fruits of the Tropics - Passion Fruit and Granadilla

We find lots of fruit here in Peru that we never saw in the USA. Many of these fruits are so perishable they could never ship them from the tropics. Two that we really like are passion fruit (called maracuyá) and granadilla. The passion fruit is so tangy and tart that it is like eating a whole pack of Sweet Tarts. I often blend up several of both fruit, along with yogurt and some mango, to make an incredible smoothie that we drink every Sunday.

Tangy Passion Fruit (left) and Granadilla (right), some of our favorite tropical fruits.

Potatoes in Peru

All potatoes trace their origin to the Andes Mountains. The Spaniards took potatoes back to Europe with them, and they are now a staple around the world. Now, although we typically see about a half-dozen varieties of potatoes in the USA and Europe, here in the Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia there are something like 3,000 varieties. They come in lots of unusual shapes and most of the colors of the rainbow. Almost every Peruvian dish includes potatoes.

Some of the most bizarre shapes and colors of Peruvian potatoes.

Local grocery stores here in Lima carry a dozen varieties, but we find more odd and colorful types when we go to the little markets. Even more varieties are available in the mountain towns where the many varieties cultivated by the Incas are still easily available.

Bread to Your Door

Street merchants abound here in Peru - people go up and down the neighborhood streets selling their goods, many of them on bicycle carts. One of these merchants is a guy selling bread who rides his bike cart up and down our street, honking a little horn to let everyone know he is coming. You go out of your house, he opens up his 'store', and you pick the bread you want. How convenient!

The bread seller with his bike cart. Note the small horn in his hand that he honks to let all in the neighborhood know he is open for business.

Fresh breads, cakes, rolls - right to your front door.

Peruvian Hairless Dog

We occasionally see a very odd breed of dog here called the 'Peruvian Hairless'. This breed has been around since the time of the Incas. Ugly? I think so. We always watch ourselves when we see these dogs walking around - they like to bite!

Nap time for a Peruvian Hairless. They often have some blonde hair on the top of their heads, but other than that, their black skin is bare. Certainly a strange site for us.

Keeping us Safe

Here is a shot I took a while back. Police were gathered at a park downtown on the day of a demonstration. They seem to like demonstrations and strikes here. The cops come along too to maintain order. Next time I will include a shot of them in their riot gear - it is a lot more impressive!

Cops are always present during strikes and demonstrations in Peru.

Our humanitarian work marches on. It is hard work but we know we are helping those most in need. It is hard to believe we have now completed 7 of our 18 months in Peru. At times it feels like only a few weeks have passed - but on some days, it feels like we have been here for a decade! We are grateful, nonetheless, for this incredible chance to serve.

Aid to the Hungry, Improving Maternal - Newborn Health, and trip to Voodoo Alley

13 August 2017

Help for the Hungry of Arequipa

Many people in Peru are so poor they only get one meal a day. For the desperately poor, that once-a-day meal may be at a soup kitchen where you can get fed for 1.5 Peruvian Soles (equivalent to $0.50 USD). If that one meal a day is not good, you may end up malnourished.

The government of the region of Arequipa asked us for help in improving the quality of meals served at hundreds of soup kitchens (called Comedores Populares). Our part of  this humanitarian project involved donating equipment to 225 of these soup kitchens, a project we have been working on for a few months.

This week we made the final delivery and held the delivery ceremony in Arequipa.

Donation to the Arequipa Soup Kitchens project: 225 blenders, 450 10-gallon pots, 450 5-gallon pots, 200 dozen plates, 200 dozen soup bowls, and 200 dozen sets of utensils.

Arequipa - high in the Andes, closer to Chile than Lima, the site of our delivery to help improve nutrition for the poor. 

Government and church officials, plus the presidents of each of the soup kitchen associations showed up for the delivery and celebration. I went to the ceremony in Arequipa primarily to record the event; Sandy stayed back in Lima to work on the innumerable other projects we currently have in process.

Crowds in Arequipa, mainly leaders of hundreds of soup kitchens, awaiting the ceremony and delivery.

Woman from Arequipa dressed in traditional outfits for the delivery event

Hundreds of pots, blenders, plates, and utensils awaiting delivery.

Church and government leaders on the stand, including the Governor of Arequipa (addressing the crowds) and Elder Enrique Falabella of the LDS Church Quorum of the Seventy. (I was roaming around during the ceremony taking photos, relieved that I wasn't having to give a speech again).

The soup kitchens are located all over the region of Arequipa. This donation we made was part of a region-wide campaign to improve nutrition levels at all of these government-subsidized kitchens that feed poor families for as little as $0.50/meal. The banner behind the stage expressed the point of this project "Strengthening the Soup Kitchens of the Arequipa Region". The desperately poor are kept from starving based on this help.

Part of the delivery after the ceremony to leaders of the 225 soup kitchens. (Back row L to R, Moroni Torres, LDS Area Welfare Manager; Elder & Sister Johnson, LDS mission presidents of Arequipa mission; Regional Governor of Arequipa Yamila Osorio Delgado (waving); and Elder Enrique Falabella of the LDS Area Presidency.

At the event, Olger Gomez (left, Arequipa regional government) and I lined up with leaders of some of the soup kitchens. I felt like a giant around these little hard-working women. Their service in these soup kitchens helps to feed the desperately poor and keep them from starving. Our donation will aid their work.

In all, it was a happy time to see successful delivery for this project that has been months in the works for us.

Medical Equipment to Improve Maternal & Newborn Health

Later after the delivery ceremony in Arequipa, we had another delivery in the neighboring town of Cayma. This project involved donating medical equipment to health centers. The project was started after the death of an expectant mother who died due to the lack of medical equipment in the health centers in Cayma. She left behind a husband and three young children.

Our donation included two ultrasound devices, blood analyzers, and other critical lab equipment designed to improve maternal and newborn health in this poor sector in Cayma north of Arequipa.

The mayor of Cayma, along with church leaders, at the ceremony behind the medical equipment we donated.

We have been working on this project since March, planning with the doctors what equipment to obtain, coordinating the purchases, and shipping everything to the medical center and city of Cayma. This delivery represents the culmination of untold hours of planning and coordination.

I lined up with the medical staff from two health centers in Cayma behind the table of new equipment we donated. This was a celebration of our efforts over many months to provide help for poor mothers who come to the health centers.

Residents of Cayma at the donation ceremony of the medical equipment. Although the equipment was designated to help poor expectant mothers, everyone in the community will benefit from the increased capability of these health centers.

Residents in Cayma now have medical equipment that will help provide better care and hopefully avoid a repeat of the death that occurred earlier, leaving a family without a mother.

Eating in Peru

Food in Peru is incredibly tasty and inexpensive. Eating out is a delight with all the wonderful cuisine in this country (as evidenced by the 5 pounds I have gained since coming here). It is about as inexpensive to eat out as it is to eat at home.

Restaurante Don d'Emilio: dinner for two (pork plus side of 'carapulcra' potatoes, peanuts, peppers, and spices, plus mint tea and the tip). Total cost for two = $9.20 USD

Dinner at Plaza Josfel: Cebiche (on the left, raw fish in spicy lime juice) and fried fish with rice. Total cost for one plate: $3.00 USD

The food is delicious and inexpensive - Peru is a great place to live when it comes to food.

Custom Suits in Gamarra

Our day off on Saturday gave us the chance to travel into the Gamarra district of Lima to seek out a new custom-made suit. Prices in Gamarra are extremely low for hand-made suits (if you are willing to battle the intense crowds and sometimes scary conditions).

Getting a custom-made suit can be a real bargain - if you are brave enough to go into the Gamarra district. We and a few of our church friends were the only white faces on Saturday in this cram-packed and sometimes scary district.

After taking measurements from a suit shop recommended by American friends from church, I went to another shop and picked out a nice wool-blend fabric for the suit. All said, I will get a custom-made suit for about $120. Not bad!

Voodoo Alley

After the suit-fitting, our friends took us to a very bizarre area of Gamarra they call 'Voodoo Alley'. The place is filled with the most bizarre collection of shops selling charms, potions, magical equipment, and other supplies used by practitioners of the 'dark arts' and other superstitions.

One-stop shop for good-luck objects and protection from 'evil spirits'. Magnets and magic seeds, steel swords to ward off evil, horse shoes, and an ocelot head. The owner told me everything in the store would promote good luck. I told him the ocelot head wasn't good luck for the ocelot. He agreed.

Sandy in front of shops at 'Voodoo Alley'. Visiting this place in the Gamarra district was like a trip to a real-life Harry Potter Diagon Alley.

Snake skins and animal parts figured as important parts of the items offered. Most bizarre was one shop selling llama fetuses. The shop owner told me people take these fetuses and bury them in front of their houses to protect them from evil spirits.

Llama fetuses - very bizarre good-luck protection for your home.

Snake skins, charms, medallions - anything required for the local witch doctor!

Weird Medical Treatments and Weird Health Foods

On the edge of Voodoo Alley are shops providing some of the strangest of health foods and medical treatments we have ever seen. 

One shop blends up live frogs into a frothy drink filled with 'vital life energy'. That is one energy drink I don't think I will try.

Bucket full of live frogs on ice - key ingredient in frog drink.

Frothy live frog drink - blend up a few frogs, quail eggs, and protein powder for a new kind of high energy drink. (The owner told me 'No photos', so I had to go across the street and take this with the telephoto lens.)

Snakes and turtles play a prominent role in this strange kind of alternative medicine. Sandy pointed out this street-side shop selling fresh snake parts, along with an assortment of snake (culebra), turtle (tortuga), and boa oils and fats, reputed to cure any disease known to man.

Snake heads and organs, lizard tails, snake oil (aceite de culebra) and grease (grasa), reputed to cure any ailment known to man.

In all, a very bizarre way to treat what ails you!

And so we finish our weekend, ready to return to the humanitarian work that brought us to Peru. Our prayer is that we can improve the lives of those most in need - just as Jesus would do if he were here.

Winter Emergencies in the Andes, Fire Tragedy, and Peruvian Soccer

6 August 2017

Winter continues here in Peru, and extreme cold temperatures in the Andes have caused deaths and pleas for help from various regional governments. Our hands have been busy this week responding to emergency projects in five regions supplying blankets, mattresses, and now, donations of warm clothing.

A shot I took on a recent flight over the Andes to get to Arequipa, one of the five regions (similar to states) most affected by the killer cold temperatures.

We spent time last week out searching for warm clothing and shoes to help one of the regions hardest hit by the cold.

For our donation of shoes, we ended up going to a shoe factory to negotiate prices and quality of goods. I use the term 'factory' loosely. In Peru, you can set up a factory in your house and have a team of people working around the clock (I don't think there are zoning restrictions, let alone labor restrictions). Here is a shot of the home factory we visited that cranks out shoes with 5 people working 12-hour days. For the 100 pair we are ordering, each pair will cost about $10 USD (not bad for hand-made shoes).

Home-based shoe factory in Lima. Five employees, 12-hour days. They said they could fill our order for 100 pairs of shoes in about a week (but we will go with something other than red, I'm sure).

Television Segment - Well Donation up North

The media covered our donation of the first five wells (out of the 18 total) in Monsefu. We ended up as part of the 4-minute news segment, including an interview, receiving the gift of the enormous hat, and the best gift of all - the live rooster.

The TV station that ran the news segment posted it on YouTube. Click this link to see the video.

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHa0LQI_p2c&spfreload=5

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TV news segment covering the donation of wells in Monsefu.

Fire Tragedy - Death in the Sweatshops

While out shopping for the clothing donation in the Andes, we went by the scene of a terrible tragedy.  A few weeks back, a fire burned a gigantic factory building downtown Lima. It was a sweatshop with hundreds of workers, many of whom were locked into their factory by owners who wanted to limit the number of breaks employees took and also wanted to reduce theft by workers from their factories.

The entire building burned, killing a handful of workers who were locked in and could not get out.

When the fire broke out, most of the workers were able to escape, but a handful that were locked in died. The saddest thing is that they were calling friends and relatives on their cell phones, pleading for help, when they died.

Notice the metal container factories on top of the building with bars on the windows where the workers died.

A similar fire tragedy hit a sweatshop in New York City in 1911, killing over 120 workers that died while locked into the building. That one event changed the face of labor abuse in the US. Most Peruvians hope this tragedy will bring about similar changes.

Soccer in Peru

Since coming, I have been intrigued by how crazy Peruvians are for soccer. The largest soccer stadium in Lima (the second largest in all of Peru) is about a mile from our house.  Whenever there is a soccer match, the neighborhood is put on lock down and gates in and out of our neighborhood are closed to traffic. People are also urged to stay indoors when these matches occur due to the danger of roving bands of crazed fans. Most matches are televised, and you can hear people shouting inside their homes every time there is a goal.

Monumental Stadium, a mile from our home, the largest soccer stadium in Lima.

There are five (yes, five) professional soccer teams in Lima. I had wanted to see a match here, just to say I had done it. But I didn't feel safe attempting it on my own. Last Saturday night, my chance came when a local Peruvian church leader, Bishop Mauricio Dipas, offered to take me to a game at the nearby stadium. (Sandy decided to stay home to wash her hair. Her resolve for adventure has taken a beating over the years).

At the soccer game with some Peruvian members of our church (to protect me?) I was the only white face in the crowd.

We bought tickets and paid $12 each to sit in the 'safe' section (meaning, the rowdy people sit in the $3 seats where the fights usually take place). The Lima 'Universitario' team played the team from Ayacucho, and we won 2-0.

Seats at the end zone of the stadium were filled with hundreds of men who stood up during the entire game, chanting and singing in unison. My friends told me that it was the most dangerous part of the stadium reserved for the 'choir'. If you know all the team songs and chants and are willing to stand up during the entire game, you can get into the games for free if you sing with the 'choir'. I could not believe the volume that came out of the 'choir'. After the game, people were selling CDs of the 'choir' songs and chants so you could learn the songs and come back to a future game as a choir member.

The 'choir' at the soccer game - a dangerous place to sit given the rowdy nature of those crazed fans.

The crowd was well behaved, and we left after the game without incident. However, a number of Peruvians we work with have crazy tales about fights and robberies after the games, so I was glad all ended safely.

Getting Around Lima

They don't let any of us missionaries drive in Peru because of how crazy the traffic is, so we get around in other ways. Taxis in Lima are cheap, and they are everywhere. Anyone can put a 'taxi' sign on the roof of their car or a decal in the window and offer taxi service. There are no meters - you simply agree on the price before you get into the cab. A 2-mile taxi ride usually costs about $2 USD. An hour-long ride across town costs $8 to $10 USD.

Typical Lima taxi (although many are more beat up than this). Anyone can turn their car into a taxi in Peru.

Buses are other options, even cheaper than taxis, but often crammed full of people. We are now brave enough to take any of these buses across town. There is no schedule. You just stand on the curb and wait for something to come along that looks like it might be heading your direction. This bus shown here is going to 'La Punta' about 15 miles away in the district of Callao. Just climb on board for an adventure.

A host of city buses and private buses compete against each other. This is a nice one - most are beat up. Cost to ride these buses is about $0.50 USD.

The craziest of the buses are called 'Combis' and they come in all sizes. Usually, they have a hawker that hangs on the side of the bus screaming out where they are going and urging people to get on quickly.

There is no limit to how many people they can get onto these buses. I have twice been on minibus Combis (called Micros or MEE-krose in Spanish) with more than 30 people inside. Riding on these can be like the old college competitions to see how many people you could cram into a phone booth. If you look at these buses as a fun, entertaining way to get around, you will have a good laugh at the end of the ride and have an adventure most tourists never get!

Typical of the Micro Combis found throughout Peru. The hawker hangs on, screaming out the destination and urging people to get on quickly. I have twice been in Micros holding more than 30 people. These buses dart in and out of traffic like motorcycles and can get you across town faster than any other mode of transportation.

You see some pretty bizarre vehicles that carry a host of cargo, similar to trucks, but are actually converted motorcycles.

Home-made delivery truck for shuttling junk around town.

Mattress delivery truck - on a 3-wheel motorcycle.

If nothing else, watching the many crazy vehicles on the roads in Lima provides entertainment available in no other way. And, as crazy as traffic is here, we have only seen two accidents in the past 6 months.

Everyone honks their horn in Lima. It is the way you let other drivers know where you are - kind of like a proximity warning device. But the noise can be disturbing. Here is a sign in Miraflores urging drivers to lay off their horns - I don't think the sign deters anyone!

"Saca la mano del Claxon" (Take your hand off the horn) - street sign in the suburb of Miraflores.

Peruvian Artfest

Finally, on Saturday (our day off), we went to the "Ruraq Maki" show at the Ministry of Culture. Artisans from throughout Peru, wearing their traditional regional costumes, brought in their best work to show off (and sell) the many crafts found in this country.

Hand-woven tapestries and embroidery from high in the Andes Mountains

Ceramics from the Ayacucho region in southern Peru

The Last Supper - Peruvian Style!

Traditional fabric weaver from Puno (at 12,000 feet elevation). These cotton items are not dyed - natural cotton in Peru comes in many shades of brown.

Carved gourd (not painted). Gourd carving is an ancient tradition in Peru. This piece (a little smaller than a pumpkin) took over a month to complete. The carved images each tell a story, birth through death, of village life in Peru.

Small carved gourds with metal rims. I bought one in Arequipa and one in Miraflores. They hold tea that you drink through a sipper straw.  These are immensely popular in Argentina, more rare in Peru. I filled the one on the left with a jungle herb called 'Mate" (MAW-tay), which I have enjoyed for many years.  

And so our weekend comes to an end and we return to our humanitarian labors tomorrow. Every day is an adventure here in Peru as we go about this important work that touches many lives.