30th March 2010
An interesting morning buying jewellery. We have the idea of buying local artesan crafts (silverwork in this case) and sending it back to England to be sold (on ebay in this case - further details to be released when they are available for sale!!), with all the profits coming back into supporting the work of Peru Children's Trust in Huancayo, particularly those vital projects (like putting in bathrooms for families who don't have such basic facilities) that we struggle to raise finance for.

28th March 2010
A Peruvian style fasting day at church, along with the guys from the nearby San Jeronimo Vineyard, which involved very little prayer and lots of food!! Still, it was good to spend some time with them, even if I was really tired after having been woken at 6:45 by the blaring of music in our park from the local catholic church which meets there under a tent. Their service doesn't start until 9am, so I didn't really understand why they needed to have the music quite so loud and quite so early, but still...

27th March 2010
A bizarre afternoon (especially for our day off) - we went with Elizabeth from La Vina to visit the father of one of her work colleagues who is in Huancayo's 'Centre of Rehabilitation' for alcoholics and drug abusers. There doesn't seem to be much rehabilitation as far as I can see. Even before we had entered, Rachel commented on how much like a prison it seemed and, indeed, so it proved, with people confined to barracks for months at a time without access to their families until such time as they repent of their ways and admit their faults. The chap we spoke to described how he drank to forget problems within the family home. He might be dry for the months he's being 'rehabilitated', but when he goes back home and confronts these same problems is he really going to show himself to have been cured? Oh for a more holistic approach, particularly here in Huancayo where the rate of alcoholism is the highest of any Peruvian city. It would be great to be able to do something as a church, or even as the Peru Children's Trust, to combat this issue, but it'll be some time before finances could be available.

26th March 2010
I might have done something foolish - I seem to have agreed to spend time with all the Peruvian pastors in La Vina at 7am on Monday mornings from April onwards - if I manage to be awake, it should be a good time!

25th March 2010
Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, you find another family who moved to Huancayo about 4 years, looking for the husband who had decided 'to try and find work in the city' and hasn't be seen since. The family of mother and 5 children are scarred by his disappearance and have been left without resources. The mother is the only wage earner and only get about £2 a week on average to feed the 6 of them and some weeks she won't get any money at all when there is no agricultural work to be had. How many of our families are with us because of problems in familial relations.

24th March 2010
Another tragic case - a young mother who suffered abuse as a kid that destroyed her self-confidence and perhaps led her to marry someone over twice her age. When she fell pregnant for the third time, the said husband packed his bags and left her with nothing. So desperate she became that she was contemplating suicide when we found her, but hopefully help for one of her sons and some time with our in-house psychologist will set her on a more wholesome path.
The evening was fun though - I was leading the study time with the kids at our La Vina housegroup and they responded really well to what I had prepared (on Jesus' death).

23rd March 2010
Out to visit more potential new families today. Again, some tragic stories involving, amongst other factors, domestic abuse, abandonment, alcoholism and so forth. It's hard to pick out one example, but the family we visited in the afternoon stole my heart somewhat. The lady had been involved in a car accident (not that uncommon in Peru), during which the car fell 30m over a cliff edge. She ended up being crushed inside, suffering severe damage to several organs and, as a result, she can no longer work. Her husband, seeing this, decided to leave and has not been seen since. Two children have been left behind and for the first time in their lives as a family they are faced with desperate poverty (the three and an alcoholic uncle survive on the £65 a month pension of the grandmother). The daughter, who we have decided to help, is an excellent student and we'll do what we can for her now that her own mother can do little to provide for her needs, let alone her schooling.

22nd March 2010
Manuel, the boss of the Peru Children's Trust work here, has had nearly 3 weeks of double vision and has been to see countless doctors in Huancayo and there has been no improvement so we got together this morning and, as a leadership team, decided that he needs to go to Lima to see further specialists and get some rest. That potentially leaves me very busy!.

19th March 2010
Out to Santa Rosa, Chupaca, the village I visited 4 days ago to visit some other new families. We saw 3 separate families - one where the mother is seriously ill, a child has a deformed leg that needs an operation and where the father earns only peanuts each day; another where 13 people were living in a room about 15m2, sleeping 4 or 5 to a single bed (how I don't know) and another where a mother was abandoned by her husband when she became pregnant with their 3rd, who turned out to have a complicated birth and is now brain-damaged. One of the daughters of this last family is a real bright spark and a real sweetie (Paul: What do you like to do in your free time? Child: Help my mother and look after my sister). It's such a privilege to be in a position to be able to offer such children the help that they need to continue with their schooling. Thanks to all the Peru Children's Trust child sponsors who make it possible.

17th March 2010
We had La Vina housegroup tonight and for the first time we tried separating off adults and children for the study time, with me leading the study session with the adults (on the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem). It was fairly tricky evening. There was some level of interest, but not too much enthusiasm and, perhaps more difficult still was the fact that hardly anyone in the group seemingly has the ability to think for themselves - products of the Peruvian education system which is learning by rote. It makes doing interesting studies (where the answer is not always the Sunday School answer, "Jesus") fairly tricky. I need to learn how to pitch something dynamically (it is noticeable how well they respond to action) and simply, but at the same time not losing the message.

15th March 2010
I'm writing an article for the match-day programme for the forthcoming Southampton v Hartlepool game (they are doing a series this season on being a Saints fan in exile abroad), so had to go out visiting some families in my Southampton top in order to get a photo to accompany my article and help with Peru Children's Trust publicity. We met two desperately poor families, each with 9 children. We just don't have the resources to be able to help them all, so it was a difficult decision to select a child in each family who we'd help with schooling.

14th March 2010
We joined with La Vina in the evening for a time of singing and prayer. Culturally, nearly everyone will mumble inaudibly in prayer, but hopefully over time we'll be able to pray together more than simply praying as individuals.

12th March 2010
We met up with Elizabeth today to chat about the future of the La Vina group here. She seems to be happy to work in a team with us and she suggested, as we were about to, that we think about how to cater for the children in the group, who learn little and distract the others. We'll be seeing what we can track down in the way of resources. We've also decided to scale down the sunday meetings and focus on the mid-week housegroup sessions where we'll concentrate on the Easter story (for obvious reasons) and then move on to looking at Galatians (law and grace) over the next few months. The message of grace is one that is culturally very difficult to accept here. One person was telling us that they focused on this theme for 3 years in their church before people started to understand it, such are the cultural hurdles to overcome, so hopefully 3 months will be enough in our case!

11th March 2010
I have, today, finished my revision of the PCT Training Centre accounts for 2009 and while it is certainly the case that we lost money overall, the good news is that we finally managed to turn in our first two months of operating profit, which is a big step forward. It's clear from the results that developing income through on-site production (in our sewing, gastronomy workshops and through our mill) is the key to it all. Knowing this doesn't mean, however, that this coming year will be plain sailing. I still anticipate that we'll make an overall loss, but hopefully months were we don't will become a bit more commonplace.

9th March 2010
Had a brilliant day - full of meetings! I know that doesn't sound right, but we had a morning meeting with the leadership team and the current PCT Training Centre manager to outline the new arrangements. At points, it was a difficult meeting, with the manager offering to resign seeing as he took the changes to mean that there was a lack of confidence in his abilities. In the end, however, we ended up coming together as a leadership team in a way that I hadn't witnessed before and praying for each other.
In the afternoon, there was another meeting with a young lad who has basically been skipping classes even though he's had all his studies paid for. His story is a sad and dramatic one and it is easy to see where his problems stem from. After the difficulty of telling him that we had to withdraw financial support since he wasn't making good use of it, we touched on some deep themes from his childhood and, again, the meeting ended with us coming together and praying for him. It's so good to be a part of that.

8th March 2010
Well my reign as manager of the PCT Training Centre didn't last very long (about seven and a half hours) and, probably, no-one at the Centre was aware of it!! The current director was due to be told tomorrow morning about the changes, so I just spent the day there working without mentioning anything until a meeting in the afternoon where it was decided that I would not manage the Centre, but would instead work there part-time trying to encourage production (and thereby developing our own source of income) and work part-time with Manuel with a view to learning the ropes and taking on responsibility for everything in the summer while he takes a break to rest. This break seems to be much needed. Recently, he has developed double-vision and stress could well be a contributing factor.

7th March 2010
Every sunday in Huancayo, they close one of the main streets and turn it into a market. You have to keep your wits about you and your money split up into different places so it doesn't look like you're carrying much (although any self-respecting thief would naturally assume that we were carry bucket-loads just by the colour of our skin), but it is the place to pick up bargains and, what is more, the only place to buy these lovely rustic-style sets of crockery. Eventually, having walked through practically all the market we found the stall selling these and have placed an order for next week, so we'll have to run the gauntlet with the thieves again!

5th March 2010
Spent the morning with Rachel in town buying yet more necessary things for the flat before heading to Manuel's house for lunch and an opportunity for everyone there to greet our new arrival. Not surprisingly, they were really pleased to see Rachel, as am I!!
Over lunch, we heard talk of a table and a spare set of table and chairs down at the PCT Training Centre for a reasonable price, so we went to check them out. The tables are a little on the small side to seat 6, certainly with any comfort, but they will do nicely as desks for us both and the chairs will come in handy when we do have a dining room table so we snapped them up.

4th March 2010
Spent my first night at the flat on our new mattress, which is both big and comfortable. The really exciting news, however, is that Rachel is coming up from Lima this evening having heard from the University after all this time spent waiting that she can actually do the paperwork here rather than down there!!
Spent the afternoon in a meeting discussing the PCT Training Centre and, as of monday, I'm going to be put in charge in order to keep an eye on the expenditures and also try and give a little training to the current director who lacks skills in certain areas (like looking after the money!)

3rd March 2010
Finally, our arrives-on-the-first-day-of-the-month money has arrived, so I'm off to buy a mattress if I can find one big enough! It might cost more than a regular sized Peruvian one, but we have learn from our time in Chincha that rest and sleep are very important and worth spending extra on and, in any case, I'm hardly a regular-sized Peruvian!

1st March 2010
Spent the morning moving all the stuff that we already had in Huancayo into the flat and then, after stopping for a lunch of rice and guinea pig, spent all the afternoon slowly unpacking it. It's getting there, but it at least needs a mattress before I can properly move in!

28th February 2010
Spent another day shopping for bits and pieces for the flat (there is hardly anything, not even a plug for the sink!) and then sorting a few things out there. In the afternoon, out of the window, I was treated to a close-up view of a very bizarre and somewhat dangerous Peruvian custom called corta monte (cuts woods). Every community in the south and central highlands has one day a year when they all gather together, decorate a tree with desirable gifts (plastics, clothing and so forth) and then spend a few hours getting drunker and drunker while they dance around it, periodically trying to chop down the tree with an axe that they pass from hand-to-hand. Having axes flying in a crowd of drunkards is not the only danger, since others, especially children, will try and be as close to the tree when it falls so as to grab the gifts before someone else does. Inevitably, sometimes it falls a little too close to comfort. I read a story in the local newspaper about an 8 year old girl who had her leg broken by the falling tree.
After that excitement, I went to La Vina group in the evening to surprise everyone. It seems that the church has grown whilst we've been away, because more members of the family that make up the majority of the group have moved to Huancayo permanently, including someone who plays guitar, which is exciting. There are also apparently 2 new people from outside the family who are coming, but they weren't there tonight so I'm yet to meet them. Everyone seem very pleased to see me and it was good to be back!

26th February 2010
I'm here!! The 5 hour journey took 7 hours, seeing as we saw 3 accidents on the way, had to stop one for them to blow up part of the mountain overlooking the road and got stopped by the police and my driver had to pay a bribe to be allowed to continue. It's good to be back and it looks so different to when we were here before, given that it is now rainy season and everything is lush and green. The flat was ready for me to move in, but I only had time to dump my suitcases before my reception committee turned up (Manuel and 5 others from the Peru Children's Trust) to welcome me back, which was lovely. There was a sting in the tale though, as they invited me to my first meeting there and then!!

25th February 2010
Success!! We finally managed to get some papers signed and I'm now free to leave for Huancayo. What with transporting cherry trees, I had to go in search of a car that would take me and all our luggage up into the mountains and eventually found one for around 45 pounds which seemed fair enough for a chauffeur-driven 5 hour journey! I leave at 8am tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, Rachel has to remain in Lima for a few more days at least, while she visits the dentists and tries to get the necessary people to hurry up with her extra paperwork so that she'll be able to work in Huancayo.

21st February 2010
We're still in Lima, but it's actually been a good time of rest and of seeing people that it's been really useful to see. Today, for example, we met the Archers, an American couple, who are from the Vineyard there, but who work in Peru in training pastors and in providing resources and training to support work with children. With the contacts that Peru Children's Trust has with local churches in and around Huancayo, there is a very real possibility that we could sort out something to help support and resource them and help offer the children better care and education.

20th February 2010
Manuel, the man behind the work in Huancayo, expressed a desire some time ago to try and grow cherry trees. Knowing someone who knew someone who knew something about cherry trees meant that I found myself standing at the side of the Panamerican Highway (M25 equivalent) trying to get on a bus that would take me to Chincha to collect 4 saplings. I had to wait ages, since it seemed that the whole of Lima was heading to the beach that Saturday. Eventually, after 45 minutes or so, a bus stopped and found a space for me which I would have had to pay double the going rate for. I say would have, because about 10 minutes later, before I had had a chance to pay, the bus blew up! There was a loud clonking noise as we were hurtling along in the outside lane, as if we were driving over some large stones. Then smoke starting appearing and people on the bus started panicking. The driver swerved in to the hard shoulder and such was the thinkness of the smoke and the panic on board that many people were choosing the quickest way out - via the window. I wasn't sure that I'd fit out a window, so decided to descend more serenely via the conventional way. Once outside, it was hard to see exactly what the problem was for all the smoke, but fortunately a firetruck happened to drive past a couple of minutes later and hosed down the underside of the bus. Once that had been made safe, they then turn the hose upon those who had jumped from the windows, since the only place they'd been able to jump to was the middle of a dank, dark, horribly foul-smelling bog!!! Needless to say, I didn't make it to Chincha that day!

18th February 2010
Went out for a BMS World Mission in Peru reunion! We were on a bus when Scott phoned to say they'd be having ice-cream soon and would we like to join them. It was lovely to see him and the family again and share notes and experiences.

17th February 2010
This time the meeting was with the fix-it man who's going to sort out all the documentation. He has the kind of experience and contacts that you usually pay through the nose for (I know this because I've chatted to a couple of clients) but, while he didn't say anything to me directly, Pastor Ismael from the Lima Vineyard who came with me later told me that the fix-it man had felt that we were definitely meant to be here in Peru and that God had directed our steps and he wanted to do what he could to help us in this!! The result is that we have to pay the real costs of sorting the documentation and then he has left it up to us to add anything extra for his time and effort if we see fit. This is a bit of a result and means that I might even be able to make it up to Huancayo by the weekend - thank you God!
As I said, the Vineyard pastor was also at this meeting and it seems that the fix-it man knows the right people to be able to get the Vineyard church registered properly with the government and allow them to apply for visas too. Usually this process is very expensive and drawn out (2 years!), but Mr Fix-It thinks he can get it done in a month for a very reasonable cost which is also a result! Praise God again!
Then, to top off quite a day, we received an email saying that some friends (thank you so much - you know who you are) were going to start making a regular financial commitment to us. This now takes us up to the nominal target figure that we had been thinking about as a minimum to be able to help us to do what we do here. What faithful friends and what a faithful God, the real, authentic Mr. Fix-It!!
On another note, we also heard today that there is a chance, though at the moment more unlikely than likely, that the original founder of the Huancayo Vineyard will return to the city and the church. This would be great if it happens, since it would really add strength and we never sought to become pastors ourselves, but it would have a significant impact on our vision for the next stint there if he were to return since our roles within the church would inevitably change considerably. For the moment, however, we have to work on the principle that we'll be at least helping to run things there and it is still worth thinking and planning for the next 18 months.

15th February 2010
I had my meeting with the leadership team this evening and it went really well. They are happy to support my application and grateful for the opportunity to use their special status which allows them to apply for visas. They also seem to be genuinely interested in our work and have said that they will be praying for us from now on and also calling us up from time to time to see how we're doing, which is very kind of them. In return, they've asked for a financial contribution at a level of our choosing towards the administrations costs associated with maintaining their special status each year, which seems only fair.
Now, I just need to meet the man who'll sort all the documentation out and agree what he'll be doing and how much he wants for doing it. Should all that work out, then I finally get to start the visa process itself!

13th February 2010
Had my nice and early meeting and there is some promise. The leader of the church I have approached to help with my visa are willing to help in theory, but I have to return in a couple of days time to meet with all the leadership team and see whether they would be willing to help without strings attached. In reality, I know that I don't have time to do much at all if anything, but officially I would be working for them, so they have the right to ask things of me if they want. This is one reason why I might have to look elsewhere.

11th February 2010
Heard this morning that I'm to have a meeting nice and early on Saturday morning with the entity who is showing willingness to help with my visa application. The trouble is that they still think I can produce all the documents and all they have to do is sign, whereas actually they're going to have to sacrifice a fair bit of time getting together the documentation (since only they can do this). Let's hope that they're prepared to go this extra mile or else it is going to get expensive!

10th February 2010
Have heard this morning that the entity prepared to help me obtain my visa are still prepared to do so and are asking me to sort out all the necessary documentation. Unfortunately, I think it is them who need to do the lion's share, so we'll have to see what transpires...

9th February 2010
Lots of sleep later, but still feeling tired. Didn't manage much apart from sitting chatting, a bit of reading and choosing some more of that scrummy food!
We headed off after lunch and made it back to Lima shortly after nightfall and another earlyish night.

8th February 2010
Went family visiting again, principally to see the family that we'd grown closest to during our work in Chincha. Once again, carapulcra had been prepared, but we weren't complaining! It was good to see them, but it's clear that life isn't getting any easier for them. Hopefully, in the short time we were there, we were able to offer some helpful advice that will help them move forwards as a family.
We headed off after lunch to Huacachina and to see our friend Beth who runs the Bamboo House cafe-restuarant there. Perhaps the sheer difficulty of the choice from all the scrummy options on the menu tired me out, because I had to go to bed at 8:30!!

7th February 2010
A long night thanks to some nearby party, but I made it up in time to revisit Chincha market to buy some ingredients for lunch and then head off, with Rachel, to visit a girl who is a member of the family we lived with. Knowing we were coming, she'd cooked the local specialty, carapulcra, since it is our favourite Peruvian dish. Despite the fact that we soon to cook for Arturo's family, we were obliged to tuck in!
We went off looking at houses in the afternoon, since Arturo's family are still in one single room over 2 years after the earthquake and it won't be too long before there are six of them! They're not in a position to buy, but we went to look at some new builds his employers will be renting out as well as some adobe reforzado (reinforced mud brick) and quincha (wattle and daub) buildings, which are much cheaper than brick and concrete and earthquake resistant.
By the evening, I had a headache (not used to 30 degrees plus after wintering in the UK!!) and went for a snooze before we headed out for pizza in the evening with some other friends.

6th February 2010
With no progress possible with visas for a few days, we decided to head off to Chincha and Huacachina to catch up with a few old faces. It was great to revisit Chincha after 6 months away and catch up with people. For some it was a real surprise to see us back, but word soon got around that we had returned. People were really pleased to see us and gave us a big welcome, recounting how they had dreamed about the day when they would see us again. One woman even said that her husband, albeit after having a little too much to drink, had seen our photo one night and burst into tears, saying that he missed us a lot. It's nice to have been missed, though the effect was somewhat spoilt by everyone telling us that we were very white and fat and still without children (highly abnormal as far as they are concerned).
We finally got to see with our own eyes some of the fruits of our labours in the housing project that we'd been involved with previously. Now into its seventh month, the building phase sees six unfinished housing shells, with nothing having happened since Christmas through lack of funds. Indeed, some families we spoke to were definitely upset at the lack of progress and the fact that the architect had gone back to them more than once to ask for more money. It was pleasing to see that something had been done, but more pleasing to no longer be involved!
We also revisited our old house and saw all the changes that had been done since we were there (which, it has to be said, would have been quite handy if they'd happened in our time!) and got to enjoy the view from the roof once again.
We most enjoyed, however, meeting up with our friends Daniel and Arturo and his family, with whom we stayed. It was great to spend some time with them, albeit short, and catch up in person rather than over Skype or email.

4th February 2010
I feel as though I'm back in the country today, after having taken a minibus ride across town to try and get my phone sorted (it seems to have issues) and meet a fellow Southampton FC fan for lunch. The ride saw me on the front seat which usually has a bench seat facing it. On this occasion, the only way I had of fitting in was to put one of my knees in an area that a one poor Peruvian chap found a little close for comfort, which the lady next to me found amusing. To make matters worse, the Spanish way of saying 'sorry' literally means 'I feel it'!! I didn't get the phone sorted, but we had a nice lunch and natter about the Saints. There's a chance that this fellow fan may come up to Huancayo with us for a short time.
Afterwards, we took a taxi across the city to meet with the pastors of the main Vineyard church in Peru and had a really good chat about the church in Huancayo (they're going to come and visit us and sit down with us and Elizabeth, the other leader, to find out what the best way forward might look like) and also about getting me a visa. The ball is rolling.
In the evening, after having randomly bumped into him, we invited Pastor Pepe and his wife, from our days with the Peruvian Baptist Convention, out for dinner. It was nice to have the opportunity to thank them for their support, particularly because he still has to do some of the paperwork for us for our new visas, even though we are no longer with the Convention. We heard about the situation in Chincha, where some members of the church and community have become irate with the building project we had originally been part of. Construction started last August, but poor budgeting means that it has had to stop and has left people without doors, windows, bathrooms, electrics and the like. It was sad to hear this and it will be interesting, to say the least, to see the houses for ourselves when we go to Chincha shortly and meet with the families.

2nd February 2010
We're back!! We had smooth flights and thankfully we were able to get through US immigrations in time to be able to catch our connecting flight in Atlanta. Actually, as it turns out we could have arrived at the gate an hour after our flight was due to have left and still made it, since mechanical failure meant we were sitting on the tarmac for a while. But the real fun began when we got to Lima and tried to enter the country with 3 laptops (customs permit 2 only). Our third was rather ancient, will be going to the Peru Children's Trust, and came nowhere near their valuation of $300. After lengthy negotiations (which were happening at our equivalent of 8am after no sleep) with about 8 separate officials, we managed to settle on making a $20 contribution to the public coffers. Welcome to Peru!!