Peru Report #2: Thursday, June 13, 2012 from Dorado Hotel, (Room 209) Tacna Peru at 7:15 a.m.—45 minutes before breakfast.
Dear Family and Friends:
We are up and working since 5 a.m. and rested, thanks to the Lord for good sleep in good beds (twin beds in our room) and no scheduled meeting last night.
The royal welcome planned for us at the airport yesterday didn’t happen because of a misunderstanding of our arrival time. But it was more than replaced by a huge royal welcome at noon at our SDA School near our hotel. They have 1038 students from age 3 to 18 and all of them were present in uniform to welcome us with a brass band and shouts of joy. Bill Tucker, director of Quiet Hour, told the group that this is the strongest welcome he and QH has ever had and QH has been in 137 countries. The mayor of Tacna was there giving his welcome too. He was much impressed with the group and it will be a big help in SDA relations here in the future. In these last days we will need all the good will we can muster to get through the difficult times Satan is planning and engineering. We have some of the welcome on video to share back home as opportunities open to do that.
The food here is outstanding at the hotel where we take our meals. We had anticipated heavy hot spices, but it is just the opposite. Careful counseling of the hotel personnel has produced wonderful, subtle flavors in the vegetables they have served and the cleanliness is great. We can trust eating raw fruit and vegetables without the normal third world consequences. We can buy safe water by 5 gal. jugs to use in the room.
There is no heat in the room, but even though it is winter here, the cold is not too much. We may try to buy an electric heater today just to help dry the clothes Mary Alice washes and hangs in the bathroom. We can give it to the pastor when we leave. (LATER UPDATE: We don’t need to buy a heater because the hotel had one to loan to us and it is helping a lot in the drying process). There is hot water in the shower and the water does not run all over the floor in the bathing area, as in India and elsewhere we have been. So far, the biggest problem is that the only electric outlet for plugging in the computer is in the bathroom. Our extension cord helps but is still in the way of washing etc. So, we make good use of the computer battery and recharge it when able. (UPDATE: We discovered that the outlet in back of the desk is not for phone as we thought but is actually an electric outlet and serves the computer much better.)
Today we will meet with the Press. They are giving good coverage. Yesterday at the welcoming celebration you would have thought we were visiting government dignitaries. (We are—the government we represent is in Heaven). I quipped that we would get a sun tan from the camera flashes. And we shook hands with hundreds of the children and others as we left the school area. There was such joy and energy in their exuberance.
Also today we will meet with the pastors we will be working with. Tomorrow night when the public meetings start, the program will be tight right through to the end on June 30. We’ll try to keep you updated with the progress and challenges. Just now it is time to head for breakfast after our “family worship” here in the room.
CONTINUING AT 3:15 p.m.: We just came back from lunch and they had wonderful asparagus soup plus lima beans and rice and some kind of gluten they made. Also “Russian” potato salad (potatoes mixed with beets). All was very good and tasty.
At the meeting with the Press we had an exciting time. Some of the questions were loaded but handled very tactfully and apparently received well. Since the mayor of Tacna has been so helpful in our coming, some assumed that there were politics involved. Tacna is very political we are told and stood out as very brave in getting their Independence. They turned back the armed forces of Chili some years ago when there was an attempted takeover.
I learned through the President of the Mission here (Pastor Medina) that Alberto Pena whom we worked with in Ecuador some years ago when he was President there, is now teaching in our SDA Seminary in Lima. I was able to talk with him on the phone and he is excited we are here. He plans to meet us at the airport in Lima on the Sunday (July 1) when we are returning to USA. He will take us around to see some things in Lima of interest to our group.
Fellowship opportunities here are wonderful. The people are so glad to be together and the locals are warmly welcoming us. There are many beautiful people here in every sense of the word.
In a late morning walk to the center of town we were pleased to see the beautiful bougainvillea flowers. They seem to be growing everywhere decorating gates etc. Some had trunks the size of trees rather than the usual vines we are used to in USA. Many other flowers were in bloom in the plaza gardens. Along the way I bought a Spanish/English dictionary put out by Oxford. It cost about $7 but is well worth it.
The money here is called “soles” and each one is worth about 38 cents. So it takes some mental gymnastics to keep track of the cost of things. We do not plan to buy much for several reasons.
Our next meeting today is at 7 p.m. and they insist on driving us so we will all be together. The meeting place (at the school where we had the Royal welcome) is near here but the drive takes longer because of the many one-way streets.
Our group here now has been richly blessed to get here safe and sound and with no suitcases missing. One man on his way is still in Lima. His suitcases (as of this morning) did not arrive. So he is stranded without his stuff. Haven’t heard an update on him yet.
Another seven were stranded for today in Lima because there was a heavy fog cover here in Tacna and the plane did not fly. They cancelled the flight. We expect to see them tonight. Since they were missing, the orientation planned for today will take place either this evening or tomorrow morning. So, “Adaptability” is still the greatest need in the mission field.
The pastor we will be working with in the Gethsemani church is named Daniel. He seems so glad we are to be working with him. They have everything ready including the sound system and screen and maybe even video projector. We shall soon see and report.
The biggest problem with the food here is that it tastes so good that it takes real will (or won’t) power to prevent gaining serious weight while here. It seems to be very healthfully prepared.
I checked further regarding how to phone us here from USA in case of emergency. The number to dial is 011 (to get out of USA) + 51 (Peru country code) + 52 (Tacna area code) + 415741 (Hotel Dorado number) and we are in Room 209. We hope there will be no emergency to phone us about, but just in case, now you have it.
There will be much more to share soon, but I’ll get this on its way now.
With love,
Glenn and Mary Alice (Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma)