The Lost City of the Incas Part 2

The Lost City of the Incas Part 1

Meet our new BFF's in Peru. Not sure if we should make a sweater, eat them or kiss them!

The Birds!

Alfred Hitchcock’s movie may have changed the way many of us felt about the cute little creatures we call birds. Well, imagine if one of the Peruvian Condors is coming at you with their eight to ten foot wing spread swooping down to pluck out your eyes! Well you can rest assured that this will never happen because the Condor only eats dead animals. I won’t bore you with all the fascinating facts about the Condor but as the largest bird of flight on this planet it is definitely worth a fly by on our blog.

Thank You Mother Earth

Thank You Mother Earth! 
 
Today, I am in the Peruvian mountains in an adobe hut listening to Roy snoring softly. He is asleep on a lumpy bed that is covered with a thick wool blanket. The blanket perhaps once was brightly colored, but now shows countless years of wear. After consuming a lunch of alpaca soup, potato salad and fresh river trout browned over an open fire, it is now afternoon siesta time in Peru. Although I tried, I could not rest just thinking about Petro and Julia, the delightful couple that we are staying with for the next day or so.
 
After our siesta, Pedro’s wife Julia said that we were going to learn how Peruvian families farm. But before we started, she gave each of us a colorful and tightly woven blanket and carefully tied it around our neck. She also handed Roy a pick axe and some of the other men sickles. We then followed her up the mountain inching our way over loose rocks and stepping over streams of water coming from the snow on the top of the mountain. Julia, wearing her customary hat and colorful skirt, moved up the mountain only stopping occasionally to wait for us to catch up. The walk was hard due to the altitude and the fact that we are unaccustomed to the terrain.
Soon we arrived at a large garden that was filled with thousands of green plants that were all around a foot high and were all baring bright purple flowers.

Being a city girl, it was not immediately clear to me that these were potatoes. That was until Julia grabbed the pick axe with her small rough hands and with one large heave, she flung it high in the air and brought it down. Lifting the loosened plant she proudly exposed three large potatoes and a few small ones hanging from the plant. She told us to take the potatoes off, throw them on the blanket and replant the plant for future harvest. She handed the pick axe back to Roy and motioned for him to start on one of the many rows of plants that covered the mountain. As we all started to dig up the potatoes, Julia grabbed two of the women with us to go to the field below to pick beans.
 
Soon our old worn blanket was full of dirty mud covered potatoes of all sizes and shapes. Julia showed us how to bundle them up to carry them down the mountain in our blankets. The girls also picked a huge blanket full of the largest and greenest lima beans that I have ever seen. When we were all finished and together in the field once again, Julia started to sing and move amongst the rows of plants. We watched in amazement as she smiled and lifted her hands that were covered with mud and dirt to the sky. She twirled like a young girl with her many skirts bouncing in the air as she danced. Next she grabbed the other girl’s hands and they all danced together laughing and smiling. She told all of us that she was giving thanks to Mother Earth for the bountiful harvest.
 
Next Julia began to pick up all the discarded stalks from the beans and some tall grass and wrapped them in her blanket and threw the huge load over her back. When asked why, she explained that her bundle would be the food for the family cow. As we descended the mountain, we all had a huge sense of pride that tonight, we were providing dinner for our familia.

So, the next time we take our big steaming Russet’s out of the hot oven and we pile on the butter, sour cream and chives, we will remember Julia and Pedro and know that farming potatoes is really hard work. Maybe we will then go into our closet and Roy will wrap a blanket around his neck and I will put on my prettiest skirt and fanciest hat and together we will do a dance of thanks to Mother Earth!

Julia

Just cost a little chicken feed ...I mean feet!

This is not your mama's chicken soup! Today Roy and ventured out to walk around the absolutely beautiful city of Arequipa - Peru. We stopped by a small restaurant where delicious looking chickens were cooking over a fire pit on a handmade rotisserie. The girl that greeted us was cute as can be and spoke only Spanish. With my newly acquired mastering of the Spanish language, I ordered for Roy and myself. The waitress listened to me and then raddled something off about the chicken that I ordered. Although I didn’t totally understand her, I confidently said si or yes in Spanish. Imagine our surprise when we were served a chicken base soup loaded with little chicken feet. So, the Spanish lesson today is ....sopa de patas de pollo is soup with the feet of chicken!!!

 

Sands in my pants OH NO!!

Our penny from heaven finds a heavenly home! As you may have read in my earlier post, Roy and I were blessed to find a penny that we believe was from heaven, in a farm house that we were staying at near the orphanage in Peru. Well today we visited a beautiful nunnery that was built in 1579. At the time, as an honor, the second daughter of wealthy Spanish families were sent to the nunnery to live out their lives. The families paid in gold and silver the equivalent today of around $150,000 to the convent for their daughters. Once there, the daughters would become nuns and stay within the walls of the monastery. As I strolled through the long beautiful floral walkway and visited the many rooms of the nunnery, I felt like I could hear the voice of the nuns praying. Even though and honor, the thought of the girls that were just twelve years old being given to the nuns for a future life of seclusion and prayer was very sad. There were kitchens and sleeping rooms, chapels and gardens even a special cemetery for the remains of nuns that called this their home. As I reflected on all the thousands if not millions of prayers lifted up, I could not help but be moved. That is when I found this beautiful fountain surrounded by flowers in a secluded garden. Standing alone in this special place, I pulled out my heavenly penny that I had found in the dusty corner of the old farm kitchen. After saying a little prayer to all the nuns that called this special place their home, I tossed the penny into the very top of the fountain away from anyone’s sight. I sat on the fountain for a moment to give thanks for having found such a special home for my heavenly penny. Later that day, imagine my surprise when I looked at our pictures and saw that from the roof of the building, Roy had captured the moment.

 

SWEET DREAMS SWEET GIRLS! When we were at an orphanage in Africa last year, we were saddened to see that the children did not have pajamas to wear to bed. They actually slept in their clothes. This truly broke my heart because I remember so well the feeling of putting my pajamas on as a child and feeling so warm and cuddly. I pledged that when I went back to the orphanage, I would literally bring hundreds of pajamas so each child would have their very own. Well, the hundreds will have to wait until 2016 when we return to Africa to the large orphanage in Kenya. However, this year Roy and I brought about 40 beautiful pajama sets in all sizes for the girls in Peru ages 2- 17. On the second to last day of our stay, we came to orphanage with two very large suitcase and went off to a small room and closed the doors. The girls tried as they might to peak in to see what we had in our suitcases and all we could hear were little girl giggles on the other side of the old painted door. Inside we laid out all the pajamas by size so we could make sure we could match up the best choice for each girl. One by one starting with the smallest we let them select their brand new pj’s. Their eyes lit up when they saw how soft and cute each pair was. When the last girls came in which were the oldest, I told them because I had more in the bigger sizes that they could each pick two. How touching when they said that one was fine and they would save the extra’s for other girls in the future. We didn’t take many photos because the girls immediately took their new pj’s and put them near their beds. The next day when I arrived the girls were all excited to tell me how much they loved their pajamas and how soft they were. They had smiles that told me that they too felt warm and cuddly - maybe for the first time in a very long time. I hope that they all have Sweet dreams!

A vey sweet and tearful goodbye!

It is surprizing that those that are orphaned would love so freely. Perhaps they know the true value of connecting and being loved.

Learn Laugh and Love Expand Peru Orphanage

A very special message from heaven...

A very special message from heaven...

The Andes Mountains must be very close to heaven because Roy and I received a very special gift one morning. As I mentioned in an earlier post, while volunteering in Huancayo Peru we stayed with a family on a farm. Tourists are not common in this area since it is very remote. In fact, in all the time we were there, we were the only tourist that we ever saw. One morning while Roy and I sat alone in the kitchen sharing a pot of wonderful rich Peruvian coffee, Roy stopped in the middle of a sentence and pointed to the old stone floor and said, “Oh my God”! Lying in the dusty corner was a shiny USA penny looking so small and out of place. I actually began to shake as I went to retrieve it and when I looked up Roy was wiping a tear from his cheek. It is impossible to describe what this special gift meant to Roy and me. Although we believe that pennies that are found are messages from loved ones in heaven, we also believe that pennies fall from heaven but are earned on earth. I hope the penny we found means that you are proud of us dad.  

We are FAMILIA!

While in Huancayo Peru, we stayed with a lovely family on a farm in a very rural area high up in the Andes. The farm had been in their family for many generations and aside from farming, they also in the last ten years added sewing of school uniforms to their work load. Three generations lived and worked the farm and family business. The family was up very early every morning and retired long after the sun set behind the mountains. Our room was small with a lumpy mattress and musty pillows. The blanket was heavy wool that made it impossible to move once it covered you. The bathroom which consisted of a toilet, sink and shower (with no hot water) was a five minute walk down a tree lined path. On most days we ate meals with our new familia. Meals which usually consisted of boiled potatoes, rice and vegetables all mixed together in a large pot served with a homemade roll. Sometimes breakfast consisted of the leftovers from the dinner the night before reheated and served with coffee. When we arrived we gave our hostess a nice set of dish towels and pot holders and our host a carved pocket knife. They were visibly moved by our generosity. Each morning and evening our new family greeted us with a big smile and a hug always inquiring about our day. On the day we left, the entire family woke up very early to see us off. Together they handed us a beautiful hand woven blanket and gave us one last hug. As I said my final goodbye to my host Antonio, he reached over and with a tear in his eye blessed my forehead with the sign of the cross. He told us to return soon and always know from this day forward we are familia!

Meet our girls at the Expand Peru Girls Orphanage!