Earthquake Emergency Response, Satellite Phones, and National Archaeology Museum

21 January 2018

Last week's magnitude 7.1 earthquake a few hundred miles south of us was a major disaster. Thankfully, where it hit was not in a major population center. However, remote villages and homes were leveled and there was one fatality.

News shot of residents inspecting damage in Chala, Peru, after the 7.1 magnitude earthquake.

Emergency Response to the Earthquake

When disasters strike here in Peru, government officials often contact our church first for help because they know we can mobilize aid faster than any other organization. After last week's 7.1 magnitude earthquake, the government of Arequipa contacted us for help. Specifically, they needed 30,000 liters of water to be sent to the towns and villages affected.

For this particular disaster, we had the 30,000 liters of water on their way to the disaster site just 5 days after the earthquake.

Loading up a truckload of 30,000 liters of water for the earthquake victims - that's a lot of water.

Many hands were involved in this emergency request. First, we got approval from the Area Presidency. Next, our Welfare Department (which includes Humanitarian Services) created a purchase requisition, then our Purchasing Department had to locate vendors with the supplies on hand and locate transportation to make the shipment to this remote region. Finally, when everything was ready, the supplies were sent on their way to help the earthquake victims.

This is the truck filled with 30,000 liters of water that left Lima for the disaster zone on Friday, just 5 days after the earthquake.

The government of Arequipa took charge of distributing the water after it arrived on Saturday (yesterday). They worked with local governments to get the water to those that were left without power and water after the earthquake.

The purpose of all our disaster relief activities is to sustain life as soon as disaster occurs. This aid is a short-term help designed to get people through the most critical days after the disaster so they can get started on the rebuilding.

Coordinating Disasters with Satellite Telephones

Many disasters knock out power and cell phone communication. Therefore, we have 25 satellite telephones distributed among our leaders in the five countries we assist (Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru). During extreme emergencies, satellite phones are the only way to communicate with the rest of the world.

Diagram of the Iridium Satellite network we use. The Iridium Network consists of 66 satellites in orbit 485 miles above the earth with ground speeds of 16,832 miles an hour. You can call anywhere on earth with these satellite phones.

Unfortunately, using satellite phones is a little tricky. Church leaders in the five countries in our area were trained in using their satellite phones a few years ago, but without constant use, it is easy to forget how they work. Part of my job lately has been developing a process so that everyone with a satellite phone is required to use it twice a year as part of a refresher training and system test.

Here is a shot of our small, hand-held satellite telephones - they connect with any smart phone to communicate with the rest of the world via satellite during a disaster. (You have to be outdoors with a clear view of the sky in order to talk through the satellite phones).

I've been working out several kinks in this critical satellite phone system. One bug I found is that we can't call the satellite phones directly from our office landline phones or our cell phones (the problem was we didn't have our phone contract setup properly for access to satellite phones). We are now working on the fix for this problem, but prior to my working with the system, no one knew this bug existed.

Ah, the Good Lord found a way to put my Engineering background to use even here in South America!

National Museum of Archaeology

Most people only know of the Inca Empire in Peru, but prior to the Incas, dozens of major civilizations existed over several thousands of years.  Literally millions of relics have been excavated (legally or not) since Europeans arrived five centuries ago. The largest repository for these relics in Peru is the National Museum of Archaeology in Lima. On Saturday (our day off) we spent a few hours wandering around these amazing relics of the past.

National Museum of Archaeology in Lima - Peru's largest museum of antiquities.

You could spend days in this museum seeing their extensive collection of relics, ceramics, tapestries, and mummies.

Reconstruction of the ruins from the Chavin de Huantar civilization high in the Andes.

Closeup of the monolith recovered from deep inside the temple pyramid at Chavin.

Decorative heads from the walls of the Chavin de Huantar ruins.

Indian cemeteries exist all over Peru. Mummies are constantly being recovered by archaeologists to study these ancient cultures. One part of the museum included a recreation of a mummy tomb discovered in southern Peru where 50 mummies were recovered from a cave. Each mummy was wrapped in multiple layers of cloth and bound up in bags.

Multiple mummies of the Paracas civilization on display in the reconstructed mummy cave. One is cut open to show how they buried the dead in an upright, sitting position. Each of the bags contains a mummy.

Moche civilization ceramics provide a glimpse into what the people may have looked like. The Moche became so skilled with ceramics that they made molds to help them mass-produce their pottery.

Typical Moche water pitcher. Most of these pitchers show men.

This is a very rare Moche water pitcher showing a woman rather than a man.

Other water pitchers included more traditional designs of animals and geometric shapes. Note how the spout on many of these pitchers also includes the loop handle to make it easy to carry.

Animals and geometric designs form the basis of much ancient Peruvian pottery.

Ceramics from other civilizations (such as Nazca, Paracas, Huari, etc.) are equally well executed but have very different styles. 

Nazca, Paracas, Huari and others have very different ceramic styles from the Moche. The variety of shapes and designs never ceases to amaze us.

One of the thousands of ancient pottery relics on display at the museum.

Most of these ancient civilizations buried their dead with gold jewelry. For hundreds of years, a favorite activity here in Peru has been to go out on the weekends and dig up Indian cemeteries looking for treasure. This type of looting activity has only become illegal in the last 80 years, although the grave robbing still goes on. When archaeologists can find an undisturbed tomb, it is a real treasure.

Occasional major finds are still happening in different areas around Peru as official excavations are still ongoing round the country. Here is a reconstruction of an ancient Moche emperor, complete with the gold vestments, crown, and amulets that were recovered recently from a previously undisturbed tomb.

Moche emperor in full golden regalia 

Finally, one part of the museum let us dress up in recreations of fabrics recovered from tombs. We felt just like the natives! (In the photo, the paper object Sandy held is called "Flat Stanley". We take pictures of him with various Peruvian scenes, then send the photos to our grandson, Miles, as part of a school project to explore the world.)

Dress up time in the museum.

Peru is such an interesting country, filled with more ruins of past civilizations than any other country in the world, except for Egypt. And yet, the only ruins most people know about are the Inca ruins at Machu Picchu. We are fortunate to have had the chance to see so many of these ancient cultures in our time here.

The Last Supper - Peruvian Style

We recently picked up this ceramic piece showing the Last Supper, done in a particularly Peruvian style. All of the apostles are dressed like local Peruvians of the Andes Mountains wearing their traditional chullo hats. It is always interesting to see how locals define various Biblical events to add a local context.

Peruvian view of the Last Supper

We have been in two cathedrals in Peru where they have large paintings of the Last Supper where the main course of the meal was cuy (guinea pig, a very traditional Andean meal). We're not so sure about the historic accuracy of cuy in the last supper!

Painting of the Last Supper in the Cusco Cathedral. Note the cuy (or guinea pig) as part of the meal.

So, this weekend marks the one-year point on our mission - only six months left to go. What new adventures and experiences will these final six months bring? We just press forward with the many projects we have in the works, hoping to complete as many as possible before we finish up and return to our home in July.