14th September 2009 - Headlines 3

Weather Reports (we are British after all!) We have had a mixture of it, mainly warm and sunny during the day and a bit chilly at night but to be honest it doesn't get much colder than it did in Chincha, and here our house is completely closed off and gets lots of sun so keeps warm.  We have had some lovely thunder and lightening, which takes away our electricity, and our nice torches we brought with us from England now don't work very well as they got too hot in Chincha and the batteries leaked all over the inside! Need to get that sorted as we are approaching the wet season and expect lots of power shortages!!

Vineyard Ventures
The gringo (white foreigner) effect hasn't worn off yet!  (We hope not to be the main reason people come for too much longer!!)  We've had a good number at most meetings, the Wednesday meeting being more popular than the Sunday so far.  We are loving getting to know the central family around which the meetings have evolved, and we are encouraged to see new people coming to visit to see what we get up to.  We have led most meetings but Elizabeth has encouraged us greatly with her willingness to do what she feels she can and some other members of the family are showing signs of enthusiasm for getting more involved. We celebrated the Church's 3rd anniversary yesterday, Sunday 13th, with volleyball, pot luck lunch, a "service" and cake!!

New Flat
We've been to see a lovely flat only 5 blocks from where we are at the moment.  It will be available from the end of this month in theory and, if it is, we may well snap it up before anyone else does rather than wait until February, our return date - the reason being that it seems just too good to pass up and the rent is lower than we were expecting to pay. It's well located for work and near to where some from church live and it's got lots of space to have various get togethers there. The only trouble is that it is far bigger than we need and we don't have much furniture - but the bonus would be that we'll have plenty of room for visitors (hint, hint!!) 

Paul: Making Progress
Paul has now finished revising the accounts for the PCT Centre and his recommendations have been accepted for implementation. This include measures such as limiting the amount of time that workshops can remain open if they don't have many students (and are losing money); changing teachers' pay so that there is a financial incentive for them to care for their students and recruit more; abandoning the high-cost, low-results publicity approach in favour of a "bring-a-friend" scheme which offers existing students a discount in their monthly fees if they bring others and also changes in the level of those monthly fees. All apart from the monthly fee increases are to be implemented over the next few weeks before we leave the country.
The accounting review has also revealed that the PCT Centre cannot hope to cover all its costs by simply charging students. We have realised that commercial production (through our sewing, carpentry and metalwork workshops as well as the mill) is going to be the secret to becoming financially self-sustaining (which is the goal). As such, the Trust has recruited a Production Manager - Paul!!! - to try and grow this business side of the PCT Centre. Much to his relief, Paul will be filling this role on a temporary basis, while a long-term candidate is found.  

Rachel: Teaching Opportunities
This week Rachel temporarily took on two English classes as part of the gastronomy course at the PCT Centre.  The reason being, Vicky, the usual teacher, can't now come on Friday mornings. 
Rachel also had an interview this week at a local language school and they were very enthusiastic about taking her on, even asking her to start in October, which isn't possible due to our leaving half way through the month.  She has observed one lesson and is considering  starting work in February, with one of the biggest attractions being that they may well help with visas!!  As yet we don't have a way of getting visas for our return next year so this may be a good option for us.

A Final Funny
Did you know that Peru is featured in the Bible...???
Isaiah 28:20 " The bed is too short to stretch out on, the blanket too narrow to wrap around you."

For those of you who pray: (A more comprehensive list can be found here)
Please Thank God:
*For the continued ease with which Paul has been able to institute changes at the PCT Centre
*For Graciela (Rachel's student in Chincha) as she continues to attend a church youth group and is making new friends.
*For the likelihood of work for Rachel in February
Please pray:
*That the changes Paul is making will bring about positive results
*For our financial situation, please see our website for details.
*For continued wisdom as we help lead Huancayo Vineyard
*For our visa situation, that we will be able to organise visas for our return

 

24th August 2009 - Headlines 2

Hello from High up in the Andes where the sun is incredibly strong! In the shade you can shiver with cold but in the sun you can burn to a crisp. It is hard to know what to wear. We're enjoying Huancayo and all it has to offer so far.

EL SHADDAI / PERU CHILDREN'S TRUST - A QUICK SUMMARY
Peru Children's Trust exists in the UK with the aim of fundraising for the work of the El Shaddai Association in Huancayo. El Shaddai has two branches. The older, more established branch is sponsorship of children from the poorest families so as to cover their education costs. The second, much younger, branch is a Training Centre which hosts a number of workshops at which skills for employment can be learnt, such as sewing and cooking (see here for more info). In both branches, the aim is to break the cycle of poverty by providing the poor with an education and the means to develop an income.

PAUL'S WORK
Since arriving, Paul has been tasked with trying to find ways of making the Training Centre financially self-sustaining. He has reviewed the accounts from this year in order to gather a clear picture of what ground needs to be made up and is now working with each workshop in turn (starting with sewing) to find ways to make it sustainable.

AND RACHEL...
... has been asked to support the teacher who teaches English to our 'new up and coming chefs' in the gastronomy workshops. She has attended two of the classes and is looking forward to helping the current teacher develop her syllabus and introduce new or different teaching techniques to improve learning. Students convulsed into laughter when she pointed out the importance of pronouncing "peas" as "peas" and not "piss"!
Rachel also had an encouraging conversation with the current teacher, Vicky, who has already expressed interest in reading the Bible with someone.

OUR NEW CHURCH
We are very excited to have found 2 Vineyard churches in the area, one about half an hour away and another much closer to us. The latter is relatively new, it will celebrate 2 years this September, but has remained incredibly small, just one extended family with a couple of neighbours. Whilst we arrived here hoping for a respite, enjoying being back in the Vineyard fold (we were attending a Vineyard church in the UK before we left), we have been seen to be an answer to desperate prayer as this small group doesn't have a Pastor. We are now being looked upon as new leaders sent from above... we weren't banking on that! However the group excites us very much. For more info, photos and prayer requests, click here.

CONTACT FROM CHINCHA!!!
We have enjoyed receiving various phone calls from Chincha from people who say they are missing us!! It has been very encouraging. Some have called just for a quick chat, a couple called to tell us that their house is under construction AT LAST! We had a call from the girl who took over from us in the housing project as she was having a hard time with a few things and she knew that we would know what to say or do... what a privilege to be called upon!

For those of you who pray (more info and situation updates are available here):
Please thank God for:
We have settled into church and, in Paul's case, work
We love Huancayo!!
The building of houses in Chincha has started!!!!!!!!
That Rachel is sleeping better
That we are developing friendships

Please pray for:
God to make clear to Rachel what she should be doing here
Organising new visas for our return in Feb
A nice place to live when we return
Vicky, the English teacher
Wisdom for Paul to know how to improve the efficiency of the centre.
Wisdom to know how to respond to the need for leaders of the church

 

11th August 2009 - Headlines 1

Saludos (greetings) a todos (to everyone) THE MOVE We have been in Huancayo now for a week. We had our first proper shower in 8 days two days ago! Rachel's was successfully warm, Paul's was NOT. More on that later... Our move went remarkably smoothly. We sent our large goods by lorry and we travelled by bus from Lima and we all arrived safely. Our good friend, Daniel, from Chincha, accompanied us and helped us pick up our stuff when it arrived. Rachel spent most of the first few days in bed catching up on sleep and fighting off Paul's cold, which is now nearly gone. Thank you for your prayers. Something that really amazed us during the move was how little we had to pay for our excess baggage on the bus. Because it was cheaper to pay (20p per kg) extra baggage on the bus than pay for cargo (40p per kg) on the lorry, we transferred lots of heavy stuff to our suitcases. We had 5 suitcases and we know that 2 of them together weighed just over 100 kgs, so with three more suitcases and only 20kg allowance each, we were expecting to pay lots. However when we gave in our baggage, all 5 suitcases came to 110kg and we only had to pay £4 ish (they gave us 30kg allowance!) so that was quite miraculous! TEMPORARY LIVING ARRANGEMENTS Manuel, who runs the project here (Peru Children's Trust), has generously allowed us to stay with him until we return to England . We'll find our own place when we return in February. So, we have stuffed us and all our gear into one room for now, which is a bit of a squash, but we get access to the whole house which is large with a lovely big kitchen (which we haven't had for ages), and comes with Cable TV so we are very enthusiastic about now being able to watch BBC World News! Living here also means we get cooked for by a lovely lady called Juana. She cooks lovely food, the only meal we have both struggled with was a meal of cows' feet and rice! We hope that doesn't appear on the menu too often! The slightly more challenging aspect about life here is that there isn't hot water very often and there isn't any water from about 8pm until the early hours! We've washed in the sink most of the time we have been here, using the kettle to heat water for hair (mountain cold water gives you headaches!). However Juana recently gave us the delightful news that Wednesdays and Sundays are "shower days" when we get warm water... but you have to get to it quickly, by 7.45am the pressure isn't good enough to activate the elements, as Paul discovered last Sunday! We also have a temporary postal address which will serve until we return to the UK . It is on our sending items page. We will be leaving Peru mid-October (but not returning to England until 7th November), so please keep this in mind when sending things over. FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF HUANCAYO Huancayo, nestled in the Andes and overlooked by a snow-capped peak, is one of Peru 's largest cities (pop. 0.5m) and very important to the Peruvian economy, since it provides the majority of the agricultural goods for the capital, Lima . These strong links may be the reason why Huancayo feels more progressive than Chincha. The climate is just on the chilly side most of the year, but the sun is strong given the altitude (3,200m). What is more, it rains. Having lived in the desert, Paul is greatly excited about this and proudly went out the other day in his rain coat, with his face turned up to the sky studying the clouds! In fact at the time of writing we are listening to our first thunderstorm in a VERY long time! Very exciting! Both of us are excited about the existence of a cinema and cafes in the town, things we have missed having the opportunity to enjoy. We are also enjoying Manuel's lovely "english country-garden", though it does contain three ferocious dogs that are yet to get used to us!. For those of you who pray: Please thank God for: A safe move for us and all our things Manuel's generosity in having us in his home Nearly full recovery for us both from colds and coughs Please pray for: Help for Rachel who can't seem to sleep well at night Wisdom for Paul as he endeavours to pick his way through project info and begins to put together suggestions for a more efficient way forward Good friendships.

 

2nd August 2009
Greetings from cold, damp Lima... although there is a patch of blue just up above...

Thank you to all of you who replied to our last email, indicating that you would like to continue receiving our news once we had left Chincha.  If you still haven't replied but wish to, please subscribe here, otherwise we'll assume you've had enough of us!

We left Chincha yesterday after packing up a sizeable load to send by lorry to Huancayo and cleaning out the flat, a HUGE thankyou to Margaret who helped us and left our bathroom far cleaner than it has ever been (even before we moved in).  Over the last week we have discovered just where our mice friends have been able to get... EVERYWHERE!!! Really disgusting, really not impressed.  Our oven spewed out hot mouse smell for the last week or so, though no mouse to be found...  my nose (Rach, who has powerful nose) will take a while to forget!!!  Biggest mishap of the entire packing up process was Rachel giving Paul a kettle to pack in our new wardrobe... but it was full of water and we didn't realise until the water had fallen through from top to bottom through all the shelves... whoops!!

We have really enjoyed spending time with new found friends (Arturo and Martha with their three children) towards the end of our time here, making cakes, eating cakes, going out for chinese, and going to Huacachina (oasis) where you can sandboard and row across the lagoon.  For those of you who have been praying for good friends, well we found them... just 2 months before leaving, so we made the most of our time with them.

It was hard saying goodbye to some people. The church threw us a leaving party last Tuesday which was quite emotional as some people gave testimonies of how we had helped them or how they had enjoyed us being with them and will miss us. We were showered with confetti and glitter, some of which is still in my hair nearly a week later! 

Paul is now free from parasites once again, and has shaken his cold and cough, which Rachel now has!  Please pray for full recovery for her as going to altitude can complicated matters especially with respiratory/lung problems.

Having left Chincha we are very thankful for the time we have had there. It was a real privilege to share in the lives of people who live there despite it being incredibly hard. We have learned an amazing amount and we have been changed through our experiences and this will be serve us for the future.  We will miss various aspects of life there as well as some people, fully hoping to visit Chincha when we can, but we look forward with excitement to our new life in Huancayo. We travel tomorrow (Monday) where we hope to be reunited with our goods sent by lorry.

9th July 2009
We have at last decided and confirmed what our next steps will be after finishing in Chincha and with BMS World Mission at the end of the month. A big thank you to everyone thinking and praying for us over this time of decisions.

At the end of July we shall be moving into the mountains to live in a city called Huancayo, roughly 8 hours east of Lima, right in the heart of the Andes. We shall be there as volunteers in order to support the work of the Peru Children's Trust. More specific information about this at a later stage, but please feel free to have a look at their webpage. We are committing ourselves to another two years but this will include about 3 months home in the UK from November to the end of January in order to visit family, friends and churches.

We are excited about this move and we hope that many of you will continue to share with us in our continuing adventures in Peru after the end of July. In order to help us stay in contact we would like to revise our email list in order to give everyone the chance to opt in again to receive our news via email/blog.

We shall be putting together a NEW list specifically for the start of August and our new placement, so can we ask you could let Rachel know via the contact us page if you want to receive our emails. If we don't hear from you we shall simply not add you to our new list. As always you can always un/subscribe at a later date should you change your mind.

The last few weeks have seen us enjoying lots of new friendships (such timing!!) that have primarily come about through English Classes and friends of our ever faithful friend Daniel. One particular family whom we have only known for the last 4 weeks or so have really gone out of their way to show us friendship by having us round for a meal, taking us on horseback round a huge farming area that produces mandarins and eggs/chickens for Marks and Spencers and then surprised us last week by buying us a new colour TV!! WOW!  This family does not have money to spare, their house fell in the earthquake and the five of them share a room that was left - we feel incredibly encouraged by them and their generosity. We hope to enjoy friendship with them despite no longer living in Chincha.

Paul continues to try out lots of jam recipes, some more successful than others!  We had a pancake evening  recently in order to try the new products - Peruvians love pancakes!

Rachel is still enjoying her last few weeks with her student Graciela who tells us not to leave several times a lesson and has even asked if she can come with us to help us move to Huancayo!! Sadly there won't be room for her.

The last month our health has suffered yet again. Rachel managed a whole two months without disaster and then last week happened!! Better not to remember it! Paul, on the other hand has had a few more regular problems and so we are embarking on more tests before leaving Chincha. Perhaps a good idea to rid ourselves of all things Chincha before moving on!! Call it a spring clean.