What a CrAZy week!

Sunset at Monte Sion

Hmm, last week seems like it was years ago. So many things happened! Let me give you a brief recap.

Between Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday, we FINALLY finished painting and cleaning Monte Sion!!! It's was a glorious (as Melissa always says) moment when we set up the chairs for church and could sit down and be at peace. No more thinking about painting or cleaning, just enjoying. I'm excited to have it all done for MEADS, which will start on Friday. Hope everyone appreciates the change of scenery as much as we do. The old, white, dank box wasn't so fun to visit each week. The nice warm colors on the walls and full of people all weekend will be spectacular. 

Zombie Billy

Prudencio painting the trim.

Melissa tackling the back of the church!

Hard Working Folks

Wednesday was a less good day for Wilfredo. He left his house in the morning to run some errands and when he got home just a few hours later, his house had been robbed. All of the houses here have open roof plans and I always thought it was curious because it is prime access to getting into someone's house. I just assumed that no one took on the added obstacle of getting onto the roof and that was why people didn't have problems. Well, I guess not. None of his doors were broken and I don't think any locks were broken. Who knows how many people were there, but presumably they used the roof and managed to take all of Wilfredo's valuables. Fortunately they didn't use the door, or they might have taken off with his furniture too. So that was less than good news to get, especially coming the day before he headed to Colombia. Yikes!

To add to the pain, Karen and Graciela found his house flooded on Saturday. Billy and I went on Friday to give the dogs food and so Billy could say his goodbyes to Verbanita (the puppy). We had issues with the key, so that primarily occupied my mind while we were there, but I did walk in to check on things real quick and everything seemed fine. Not sure what happened between then and the next day, but apparently a pipe on the roof was broken and just flooded everything. Bummer dude. Bummer. I think they got it all cleaned up and hopefully the water is fully shut off until it can be fixed.

The good part to Wednesday was that it was Sandra's birthday. She was able to spend time with her family before they headed back home, which I am sure she appreciated. Sunday night, we celebrated her birthday with a yummy cake with lots of candles on top. I got used to seeing just 1 or a question mark, which seems to be the preferred candle. Age is a big secret here, partly because I don't think anyone knows how old they actually are. Details. Feliz cumpleanos, Sandra! 

La Punta - Beach Trip
Ana, Graciela, Sandra, Billy, Rocio,
Me, & Melissa. Karen took the picture.

Friday afternoon we said our goodbyes to Billy and Ana. They left at 3pm to begin their day and half long bus ride back to Pomabamba. Sandra is known to cry a lot. She always says she is a "llorona" or "cry baby" because everything makes her cry. One time, we were watching Esto es Guerra, which is a game show where scantily clad women and very muscular men compete in teams (Leones v. Cobras) in assorted timed activities. Well, one of the team members was leaving as his wife was about to have a baby, and both Billy and Sandra were sitting there watching it with tears in their eyes. It was both cute and hilarious at the same time that they got so emotional about it. Anyways, I digress. When we said our goodbyes to Ana and Billy, Ana started getting choked up and had tears streaming down her face. We know where Billy and Sandra got it from. And I am a contagious crier, so of course I got choked up. Goodbyes suck.

I promised Billy I would give him a call on Friday at 3pm to check in with him. I look forward to hearing about their trip home, which sounds like it was quite an adventure! Apparently, it rained a lot the few days before they left and the roads were HORRIBLE. Graciela told me they had to get out of the bus and walk for parts because cars and their bus couldn't pass. Can you imagine if that happened in the States?! Me either. They would have canceled the trip, no doubt. But we're in Peru and we persevere here! Otherwise, I hear they made it home safely. Also, I will have to ask about his first week of school. Apparently start date is just a suggestion, so he missed the first week of class. Hopefully his teachers showed up, apparently that is also just a suggestion.

This weekend was an average church weekend. Unfortunately, no one showed up for class on Friday night at Monte Sion. No kids showed up for class on Saturday either. So it goes.

We had a nice service at Monte Sion. Prudencio and Marlene presided and Betzabe spoke. I like when Prudencio presides because he is a thinker and likes to share about his experience with the scripture. Marlene is good for music, but she doesn't plan ahead and is always searching through the computer while other people are sharing and it can be distracting, especially when songs start randomly blaring. Betzabe hasn't given a sermon in a while, but she gave a nice concise talk. I appreciated it a lot. Hermana Maruja, Hermana Elsa and her daughter Nicole, and Hermana Maria joined us.

I have a confession to make - well, it's really quite well known - I procrastinate. Like crazy. I try very hard to break the habit and I occasionally succeed. This weekend, I did not. So, I woke up at 7:30am (before my alarm) on Sunday morning to get to work on preparing my class and testimony for church in the afternoon. Don't get me wrong, I had been thinking about these things over the past few days, but just hadn't actually prepared anything. That is when my computer decided to give me hell, or rather it likes to freeze. I spent 4 hours talking with Windows tech support trying to get it fixed. Well, my computer is now bug free, but it still doesn't work properly! But that's another story. Computer problems and procrastination make for a long morning. 

We made it to church in time to get it cleaned-up and all set-up in time for class to start. I shared about Holy Attention per the information from the church website. We took a moment to think about who or what we would like to give our attention to and how we could do something for that person or thing. It was interesting to hear about what was on people's minds. Jhonny was thinking about the kids in the jungle (he recently vacationed in Iquitos), Gladys was thinking about people that are "forgotten" at church (she watched a movie about forgotten people), Melissa was thinking about the people on the Malaysia flight (it's all over the news here too), and I was thinking about the kids at Monte Sion (I don't get out much). We'll see if anyone continues to spend time dwelling in those thoughts and exploring ways to promote them. 

For church, the theme was Believe in Christ and Melissa gave the sermon. Gladys asked me to share as part of the service, so I shared the poem "Footprints." Mirtha sent me a message today asking for the poem, which was cool. Glad that the words of the poem touched someone else. I love it. 

After church, 10 of us loaded up into our very own combi (at least for a few minutes) and headed home. Oddly enough, this was the FIRST time we went home on a combi after church. Usually Wilfredo drives us. Then, we ran to the grocery store to load up on food for the week. Pretty nice when you can buy food for 9 people for a week+ for less than S/. 500 (~$180). We enjoyed some chicken and french fries for dinner and then cake for Sandra's birthday. To finish up the weekend, Melissa, Sandra, and I watched the movie "Nebraska" (I haven't decided if I would recommend it or not..maybe?). 

Now, onto a new week that will certainly be full and busy as well. Wilfredo, Steve, and Carlos arrive tomorrow! Buen viaje a ellos! 

(OK, not so brief, sorry.)

~nos vemos

Karen, Me, and Billy

P.S. 4 more months until we will be back in the USA!