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Tomorrow is my last day in Peru and it will be spent traveling and waiting in airports. It will be 36 hours by the time we leave Cusco and I arrive in Rapid City so this is my last posting. I've been reflecting on my most memorable experience on my trip and I've decided it's the house call we made while doing one of the clinics. The doctor asked me if I wanted to come so I dropped everything and went and I am so glad that I did!


The last patient of the day was a woman who asked the doctor to come and see her 90 year old mother. The lived just down the street behind an adobe wall which looked like any other we had seen from the bus window. When we entered the hut we went into a whole different world. It looked like a bomb had been dropped on it. We found out later that their nice block house had been destroyed by the earthquake and they didn't have the money to rebuild. Chickens roamed at will and there were 3 and a half walls. The ceiling was woven mat and blanket material over poles stretched across the space. I can't imagine that it would withstand much of a wind and it certainly wasn't warm at night.


The old woman lay on a matress in the corner with some blankets, a pillow, and chickens walking over her. There was one black, baby chick that seemed to perfer her shoulder to perch on because every time she was brushed away the chick found its way back. The daughter was worried because her mother couldn't straighten her legs. They were frozen in a cross legged position which I would suppose is how she sat most of her life. The doctor examined her legs and it was obvious that it hurt her. He told the daughter that they would not straighten again because of her age. He further examined her and asked the daughter questions and found that she was otherwise very healthy. I'm sure she was blind and couldn't hear very well but all her body functions were operating as they should. The daughter was concerned about her mother and obiously loved her very much. She did have a wheel chair which was good. The doctor assured her that she had been taking very good care of her mother because she had no bed sores, ate well, and seemed content.


We prayed around her bed and I felt a chill. Isn't this what we were send to do? We had seen the face of Jesus that day. We all bid the mother good bye because her mother had gone to sleep again. The doctor slipped some money in her had and I put some in her pocket when I kissed her farewell. I am wondering what she will think when she finds it later. Will she think she was visited by angels? I hope so!

Blessings,

Debi

Have you ever gone someplace and found that it just didn´t live up to all the pictures you had seen of it? Well, that wasn´t the case with Machu Pichu! It was absolutely fabulous even though it rained. When doesn´t it rain on me? Did I tell you that this part of the trip was a tour so all our arrangements have been made for us and we have had a guide to tell us what we are seeing? We left at 6 this morning and went by bus to the train station nd then rode the train for 3 and a half hours the Macu Pichu Town. Then we got on a bus and rode it for 30 minutes to the top which sounds like quite production but it went quite smoothly. There was breakfast on the train the scenery was unbelievable. It was agricultural land along the river the rain followed. The river runs into the Amazon eventually and we rode through the Andes seeing snow covered peaks far, far away. Machu Pichu is actually lower than Cusco City which was good because I suffered from altitude sickness last night...headache and upset stomach but took some medicine and felt better this morning. I won´t tell you too much about the site because you have to see pictures to appreciate it. I will tell you I am very tired and I can´t wait to be home to my husband´s loving arms and my own soft, quiet bed. Traffic noise and sleeping on hard beds with my socks on to keep warm have become the norm and I´m ready to give it up. I´ll be home on Monday. When I get back to Lima (we fly there on Sunday) I will try to make my last entry at the hotel there.

Blessings,

Debi

We went to Cusco today which is a city at 13,000 feet and then on to Machu Pichu tomorrow! Cusco was the capital of the Inca empire before it was over-run by the Spanish. The city square is on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites and our hotel is located there so we can look out our windows and see traffic and the old buildings all around us. The breakfast room has a balcony above the square and the sun shines there in the morning so it is a pleasant place to to sit for breakfast.

We had a tour of the city today. Our guide was very knowledgable of the Inca building technique. When the Spanish invaded Peru they destroyed all the Inca temples and build their own buildings on their foundations. In 1950 there was an earthquake which destroyed many of the buildings in the city. The buildings crumbled down to the Inca foundations which stood solid showing how incredibly tight and strong their stonework was!

I'm not feeling so well tonight and I think I may have altitude sickness...headache, upset stomach, and I can't get enough oxygen. It's not pleasant but traveling with a doctor has its advantages. Also everyone can well stocked for any illness so I know I will be taken care of so don't worry.

Blessings,

Debi

Are children all over the world the same? When we got on the chicken bus this morning for our drive to Pisco the were 3 kids sitting with their bus driver who I assume was their father. I smiled and asked them throughout the interpreter why they weren't in school and the little looked at me and answered with a smile that there was an earth quake last night but it was just at their school! I'll have to add that one to my list of excuses that I have heard kids use over my 30 years of teaching!

We spent the day at Sammy's church. She is one of the young Peruvian pastors who has been with us all the time. She is really a fireball! The kids were all ready for us at the back of the church in a little yard area. We sang songs as usual and did pretty much what has become our routine but at one point several little boys ran to a corner of the yard and when I asked what had happened I was told that they had to go to the bathroom. They were all standing with their zippers down peeing with kind od a swaying motion like an oscillating sprinkler! I wish now that I had taken a picture. We did see kids getting out of school today walking down the sidewalk to their homes in their school uniforms. They all looked very nice and I took a picture of a little boy with a tie on. A lot of the schools here are private so parents have to pay tuition so I don't know if that means not all children get to go to school or not.

The mission trip is winding down and people are starting to leave for home. I heard tonight that by tomorrow they think they will have seen 600 in the clinic. I would say that is pretty good for a team of 2 doctors and a PA! They have thri routine fine tuned just like we do by now so that it is almost too bad we are quitting but my have to home and go back to work. I'm glad we are going on to Machu Pichu. There will be 11 of us left to do that.

If you have been following my blog, please write me an email.......it would be nice to hear from you.

How much fun are you allowed to have on a mission trip? Today we got up in Nazca, ate breakfast, and started back to Ica. It was our day off so we went at it at a more relaxed pace. Some of the group wanted to go fly over the Nazca Lines but after waiting around the trip got more and more expensive and in the end they weren't able to got without reservations. One of the tiny women in the group thought she was going to be able to fit into another group but they boarded the plane and it wouldn't start. Sort of telling on the quality of the equipment, I thought.

Just before Ica we got to an oasis in the desert where we stopped for lunch and then we rode in a dune buggy!!!! The dunes were beautiful in the sunshine. It reminded me of the movie English Patient. The ripples of the sand and the waves on it's surface were lovely. We zipped and roared over the sand like a roller coaster. After awhile we stopped and some of us sledded down the dune on a wake board. We laid on our stomachs and went flying down the hills. It was exhilarating! My heart pumped hard and I laid there and just laughed at the bottom. It felt so good to just be free and let go after feeling kind of couped up because we have to be so careful to never walk alone. A good roll in the sand is good for the soul.

We stayed in Paracas last night and some of the group got on a boat early this morning and went out to an island with penguins, pelicans, seals, and other sea life but I decided that a slow morning to myself would be awfully nice. I like everyone in the group very much but I´m just not used to so much togetherness. I made cross necklace kits for the Bible School group we were to have that day and shopped around. I got some nice things for very good prices and found an ATM to get some cash for the remainder of the trip. Felt good

Bible School was really fun. We went to and area that was constructed of houses which were basically plywood boxes on a sand road. This city was swept clean by the tsunami which swept over the city after the earthquake just north of there. The hotel and all the shops along the boardwalk were new and pretty as compared to the rest of Peru. We had some extra helpers, Jim and Jean, with us today and we were thankful for their help with the 26 kids. We have done the same lesson so many times now that we have it perfected by now and feel pretty good about what we are doing with them.

After Bible School we ate lunch and did some more shopping while we were waiting for the food to come....have to help the local economy. Then on we drove in small vans instead of the chicken bus toward Nasca along the road with just sand to look at on either side. We were driving toward the mountains and as we got closer they looked a lot like the Badlands but with out any of the color in the layers and much bigger but shaped the same. When we got to the top of the plateau we stopped at a viewing platform where you could see a couple of the line formations. I had planned on taking the flight over the lines tomorrow but I have decided against it. The Peruvians say it is very dangerous and they don´t do it so that says something about it. Only 6 of the group were going. When I did the paperwork to go on this trip, I had to fill in a form giving instructions as to what to do with my body if something should happen here and it gave me a shiver so I´m not testing my luck. I hope you are happy with me, Wes

I´ve been reflecting on all the creature comforts we are doing without here and actually it's not so bad and I'm kind of proud of myself. I can now use the toilet without sitting on the seat because there is usually none. I can remember to throw the toilet paper away when I'm done because they don't flush here unless it is brown. I can brush my teeth using bottled water instead of running the tape, the water isn't drinkable. I can take a shower in 5 minutes so others can have hot water too. I don't eat lettuce or vegetables because they aren't safe for the same reason and I wear about 3 layers of clothing which I peel off during the day and then put back on at night. We eat a lot of chicken and rice but we did have pizza tonight so it was a big night on the town of Nasca. I miss home and I will go back to using a microwave very easily.

Blessings,

Debi