Peru: June 14, 2006

Wednesday: We started out the day with a trek through the Indian Market in Yungay where Lauren chose a guinea pig to share with everyone for breakfast (called cuy in Peru). A lot of people watched this poor little one meet his fate. A lot of people on the team tried it, but in the end, the biggest portion was given to a dog outside, who was the only one brave enough to really eat it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_pig#Guinea_pigs_as_food

After breakfast, we began our ascent up to Portachuelo, the Continental divide. I actually was left at Lake Chinancocha, which the rest went up to the top (I have already been up twice before, and the crazy winding roads make freak me out...just a little). Everyone said that it was beautiful, not too scary, and they had a snowball fight, which is a rare thing these days in NC. Afterwards, once everyone got back to the lake, we had a picnic and then headed back down the mountain.

On the way back down the mountain, the team left Elizabeth, Susan, Sherry, and I at the Kusi school to do a ¨capacitacion¨ for the teachers of that school and the surrounding ones. We felt a little out of place when we arrived. First of all, we were late, because the bus driver had taken us on a detour, and then we were VERY underdressed. The area teachers had come dressed in ties and dresses, while we were just in jeans and t-shirts from having come from a long day of sightseeing. YIKES and que verguenza! The room was all set up with several tables in fronts with a funny little spot light (which plugged in by directly sticking the wires into the wall!) and the teachers were all waiting when we got there.

Johnson, the director of the school, introduced us to the teachers in his formal manner, and then an area director did another official welcome before the program began. Susan and Elizabeth began with a workshop on discipline similar to the one that Susan had done with the parents on Monday. I then followed with a workshop on how to tell good stories, which began with an interactive telling of the Tortoise and the Hare and the teachers pretending that they were in 1st grade. =) Afterwards, Susan finished with a discussion of how to ask good questions, while Elizabeth demonstrated the process by acting as a chef, complete with funky glasses and a great chef´s hat.

The training went so well! The teachers were sweet and receptive and asked us some great questions. Praise God for a great day!

Angel, one of the Scripture Union´s house parents, took us home after the training. As I was talking to him, he began to tell me about how he and his wife have started a Bible study in their home. It began with just his family and their cook, but now it has grown to 30 people!!! They have also started a Saturday morning Bible Club for the children in the surrounding area. I was so excited to hear this, because when we had been to Kusi before, and even while we were planning this trip with the teacher training and parent workshops, I was thinking about the fact that, yes, we are doing this now, but who is going to stay to train and disciple this people after we leave since there is no church. Yes, there is a school with some christian teachers, and Scripture Union is building this to get boys off the street and teach them about the Bible, but there was no actual church. God is so faithful and it is so evident that He is at work in what is happening in the Kusi-Ongo-Yungay area of Peru! Please pray for the work that Angel and Rosa and their children, Jusephi and Alexia, are doing!

Here is a link to the state we are staying in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancash