Our first trip to Juliaca. Don't let the pictures fool you, it is much worse than it shows. There is a garbage situation right now so there are mountains of garbage. The ex mayor got his throat slit in jail last week and things just aren't going to well. But in the food court in the mall we met a nice dog that was very friendly. In spite of all that the church is doing very well there. There is a good stake there and lots of good members. It is colder there so I kept my coat on most of the time. It is pretty close to 14,000 feet there.
These are the Bolivian Missionaries that I have found. Another group of new missionaries will come next week and eight of them are from Bolivia. It makes me feel like we did something all those years ago.
It's worse than it looks? Yes, we have been there, and Juliaca is one of the worst examples of city mismanagement that I have ever seen. It is a prosperous commercial center (the "knockoff" capital of Peru as well), but they can't even pave the streets or collect the garbage. We remember the members as being very faithful and glad to see us whenever we were able to get there.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you are in the rainy/cold season now, and yes, that is not pleasant. About halfway through, we figured out to travel to the warm places in the cold months, and the cold places in the warm months. The time we went to Espinar, we walked around in shirtsleeves the whole time. The change is really only a few degrees, but the extra cold really soaks through the concrete walls. The chapels are the coldest places. Hna Johnson (Dawn) packed a little round electric heater with her in the cold season - maybe that is still in the apartment. When we were in the chapels working Historia Familiar, we would find the smallest room and work there, so we could heat it up a little. A few of the chapels do have heat, but sometimes it doesn't work. A few even have portable propane heaters, but it seems like those are out of fuel most of the time. Anyway, it all just adds to the adventure!
Hope you are healthy, eating good food and being careful of the water. We were always on high alert, to avoid anything that could be suspect, and for the most part, we did OK. Never really bad sick, but seemed to have little tummy burbles on occasion, which is one reason we always carried our own toilet paper with us, that and the odds of having any available in bathrooms were pretty small.
We are having a big Mision Cusco reunion in Farmington on Friday, 31 March. The Poulsens, Rhoades, and Haslers will be there along with us, we are looking forward to seeing them, as well as the missionaries that we knew and loved.
Keep these posts coming, we love to see your travels, experiences, and adventures!