Are the mountains bigger in Cusco, and does Jesus walk more slowly?

On the face of it, of course the mountains are bigger in Cusco – bigger than in most places. We are living in the Andes, 3,300m above sea level. The summit of the mountain behind our house is 1,000m higher than the city in the foothills below. I was writing to a friend recently, talking about the beauty of the surrounding countryside and the way the mountains display the amazing creative power of God and then, in the same paragraph, describing the ‘mountains’ of poverty, spiritual evil, institutional corruption, dishonesty and mistrust that we struggle with. Living cross-culturally perhaps I see these types of ‘mountain’ very clearly, more so than if I had grown up here. I wonder if people moving to Britain see other mountains that we British don’t see?

Anyway, the current climb, which we started about five years ago, is adoption paperwork. We pray, our families pray, almost everyone we know prays, but we see only very slow progress. Sometimes there is no obvious progress for weeks on end. Is that because the mountain is so huge – a human construction which contains a complex, slow and frustrating system influenced by corruption and mistrust? Perhaps. Or does Jesus walk more slowly in Cusco?

That question brings me to something Jesus said about his burden being light and his yoke, easy. It is currently ploughing time in the little fields around our house. A few people now use a tractor but most still use a pair of oxen. I was reading recently about Jesus’ use of the word ‘yoke’ and about oxen learning to plough.[1] When Jesus spoke of a yoke he was almost certainly thinking of the wooden beam used to join two ploughing oxen. The word ‘disciple’ comes from the word for learner, which is the same word used for a younger ox learning how to plough from an older ox. So when Jesus spoke of us taking his yoke upon us, he is imagining each one of us as a young ox walking alongside himself, the older, experienced ox. Apparently, when a young ox begins to plough he will tend to go too fast and wear himself out before the day is out. But joined by the yoke to an older ox he will have to go at the correct pace. He can’t wander off and plough a different field. He won’t plough wobbly furrows. He won’t charge off and cause damage. He gets to rest once the job is done.

To me, this signifies that we need to learn to walk at Jesus’ pace through life, in the ‘field’ that he chooses. He will set the right pace, walk in a straight line and help us get the job done that he has in mind for us. (Did you ever read in the Bible a section that says: And Jesus rushed off. He was in such a hurry that he decided to leave his disciples at home that day ...) We may think that a faster pace would be better or that another field looks easier or more interesting. We might think that ploughing all through the night is a good plan. We might consider the idea of charging off on our own somewhere - but who knows what damage that may cause! I wonder if sharing Jesus’ yoke with him sounds restricting? Prior to this, Jesus had said, ‘Come to me all you who are weary and I will give you rest.’ He was thinking of our best interests, not trying to hold us back in life.

In many aspects of life, Jesus may walk more slowly than we would wish. Maybe an illness, a house move, learning a new language, teaching a child with additional needs or a job hunt seem to be never-ending. Begging him to hurry up is perhaps not the answer. Asking him about the pace, and what we are supposed to be learning and enjoying on the way, is perhaps more productive.

From my perspective, the mountains are higher and Jesus does walk more slowly in Cusco. But it is better to struggle over the mountains than give up, and to walk with Jesus than without him. However, I’m still hoping that we’ll reach a downhill section soon ....

‘When you stop trying to control your life and instead allow your anxieties and problems to bring you to God in prayer, you shift from worrying to watching. You watch God weave his patterns in the story of your life. Instead of trying to be out front, designing your life, you realise you are inside God’s drama. As you wait, you begin to see him work, and your life begins to sparkle with wonder. You are learning to trust again.’

 Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life, NavPress 2009

---

[1]  p30 Building a Discipling Culture, Mike Breen, 2011

Christmas in the Dark

Christmas in Cusco mostly happens in the dark. Mass, the big meal and the opening of gifts all happen in the middle of the night as the 24^th December ‘explodes’ into the 25^th (fireworks are traditional here on Christmas Eve!). There are many cultural differences between Christmas in Peru and Christmas in the UK. It is nowhere near as big a festival as it is in Britain, at least in the commercial sense, and that can be an advantage, leaving us free to celebrate Christmas as we wish, rather than being bombarded by the advertising, the TV Christmas specials and the parties. 

Cusco Main Square at Christmas at night

But Christmas ‘in the dark’ is obviously a metaphorical reality for many and being away from family and friends and the things that in the past have made Christmas special helps us appreciate the mixed feelings or even depression which Christmas can bring. Sorely missed family members abroad, illness or the death of someone close in the preceding year (or longer ago) can make Christmas dark. A 17 year old we are visiting in the hospital at the moment, recently paralysed after a bicycle accident, is certainly sharing a dark Christmas with his father, alone in the trauma ward. 

The whole feeling that we are supposed to have a ‘Happy Christmas’ makes matters a hundred times worse when we don’t feel happy. But just before Christmas I came across a clip by Glen Scrivener (a minister from Eastbourne), entitled ‘Christmas in Dark Places’ (you may have seen it as it deservedly did the rounds on facebook), which got me thinking and helped me to see Christmas in a different light.

Jesus was born in the dark, away from home, into poverty:

It’s dark, in the bible, when Christmas is spoken.
Always a bolt from the blue for the broken.
It’s the valley of shadow, the land of the dead,
It’s, “No place in the inn,” so He stoops to the shed.
He’s born to the shameful, bends to the weak,
becomes the lowly: the God who can’t speak!
And yet, what a Word, this Saviour who comes,
Our dismal, abysmal depths He plumbs.
Through crib and then cross, to compass our life.
To carry and conquer. Our Brother in strife.  

 (Glen Scrivener, http://christthetruth.wordpress.com/)

It’s actually quite obvious, but I had somehow failed to totally realise this before - if we feel as though our Christmas is dark, and that we don’t even want to participate, then Christmas is for us more than anyone. Not the commercial version of Christmas, or even the ‘happy family’ version of Christmas but the Christmas that we read about in the Bible where God comes to earth precisely for the lonely, the poor, the oppressed and the depressed.

And if we are not among the lonely, the poor, the oppressed or the depressed (or even if we are) then through the Holy Spirit within us we are called to bring light - Jesus coming once more into the darkness.

‘The people walking in darkness
    have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
                      a light has dawned.’   (Isaiah 9:2)

Buying a ‘Happy Christmas’?

Something else I read this week, together with the experience of visiting our first real, shiny, western-style shopping mall in Cusco, has also impacted me in relation to Christmas:

‘The world sees joy as something received…. Many are trying to extract from life that which life may seem reluctant to give. So often, of course, this ends in disillusionment. Enduring happiness is found only on the narrow road with Me.’                                   Fr Hon Woolley in ‘I am with you’

People often look for experiences, success or ‘stuff’ to bring joy. We try and ‘buy’ happiness with new clothes, a new car, chocolate or holidays. The new shopping centre in Cusco, which, in a fit of desperation, half-opened a week before Christmas (it certainly wouldn’t be open yet in the UK due to Health and Safety regulations), houses a large supermarket, a department store, various other smaller shops and soon will have a food court, once it’s finished. Local people are trying to figure out how to use the escalators without falling over and numerous cleaners are constantly trying to keep the floors shiny (rainy season and a building site outside making this rather impossible!). It is a place where the advertisements tell us we can buy happiness. Rather poignantly, it is built on the site of, and right next door to what remains of, a Catholic school and seminary. Talk about a visual aid for Jesus’ words, ‘You cannot serve both God and Money.’ (Matthew 6:24)

Cusco's new shopping centre

Despite the increasing materialism in Cusco, Christmas is seen by many here as a time to contribute to the needs of the less fortunate, and many, many businesses, schools and hotels fund ‘chocolatadas’ where hot chocolate, food and toys are handed out. A few evangelical churches  also run chocolatadas and use the opportunity to give the Christmas message, but sadly, in my opinion, many evangelical churches tend to ‘throw the baby out with the bath water’ as they like  to be distinct from the Catholic church and don’t even mention Christmas!

Nativity Scenes and the Meaning of Christmas

A final Christmas thought is one that relates to the elaborate nativity scenes that the kids enjoyed seeing in the Catholic churches just prior to Christmas. Nativity scenes are big in general – in homes, hotels, shops and bus stations. An article in the New York Times caught my attention (I must add that I don’t normally read the New York Times but was sent the link by a friend). It’s entitled ‘Ideas from a Manger’ and here’s the introduction:

‘Pause for a moment, in the last leg of your holiday shopping, to glance at one of the manger scenes you pass along the way. Cast your eyes across the shepherds and animals, the infant and the kings. Then try to see the scene this way: not just as a pious set-piece, but as a complete world picture — intimate, miniature and comprehensive. 

Because that’s what the Christmas story really is — an entire worldview in a compact narrative, a depiction of how human beings relate to the universe and to one another. It’s about the vertical link between God and man — the angels, the star, the creator stooping to enter his creation. But it’s also about the horizontal relationships of society, because it locates transcendence in the ordinary, the commonplace, the low’. 

I don’t think an attempt to summarise would do the article justice, so here’s the link if you’re interested in worldviews and what a nativity scene encapsulates:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/22/opinion/sunday/douthat-ideas-from-a-manger.html?_r=1&

Giant Nativity Scene at Korikancha, Cusco

Towards the end of the article the author states:

‘So there are two interesting religious questions that will probably face Americans for many Christmases to come. The first is whether biblical religion can regain some of the ground it has lost, or whether the spiritual worldview will continue to carry all before it.’

I wouldn’t like to call a life with God based on the Bible ‘religion’ (that is another entire topic), but the Biblical story is the only one that makes sense of, and redeems, the dark. I hope your Christmas was ‘happy’, but if it wasn’t, let’s remember that Jesus came more for dark Christmases than merry ones, and the joy He brings can be yours. Let’s not look for the joy we seek under the bright lights of a shopping mall, but in the Child in the manger, the Light of the World.

O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep,
The silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light.
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.

Flood damage near Cusco

Today we visited the Community of Huacarpay about 40 mins out if Cusco. The community of 500+ people has been completely devastated following the heavy rains in the last few days. Flood waters have destroyed most of the houses. Most people are staying in temporary shelters and trying to salvage whatever possessions they can. Short term aid is arriving, but the long term solution could be a difficult process. For more pictures from our visit please click here.

Some strange events of daily life

Yesterday I was rather surprised to find a metal post suddenly appear through the lounge wall a few inches behind the TV. The workmen next door had obviously not thought very carefully about the thickness of the wall and had come straight through! A little surprising seeing as we are in a very old mud brick house with extremely thick walls. Anyway, after the man in the shop below trying to help (he wasn’t much help as he had been drinking), the landlady arriving and the workmen going in and out a few times, they managed to knock the post back through. There is a still a hole in the wall though. What made it more complicated was that I was looking after our friends Ian and Juliana’s two boys as well as our two at the time, and after the first post appeared it sounded as though another one was on its way so there was a lot of frantic running backwards and forwards to tell the workmen to stop! Fortunately Pip, who has just moved in with us for a few weeks, was around and could help watch the kids.

Today as I was coming back from the children’s home I was fortunate (I thought!) to find a taxi who could take me down to the main road. This is not a very common occurrence as the home is up a rough track where there aren’t many taxis. However, as this one tried to turn round, it became obvious that it wasn’t going to start. It seemed as though if we could push it to face the right direction then we could at least roll down, as the track is on a slight slope. So the taxi driver and I got out and just about managed to push it round. We then rolled some of the way down until we came to another flat part where we came to a halt. A guy working in a nearby field helped push and we got a little further. Then we stopped again. This time another taxi driver came to the rescue. He got in the car while my driver pushed. He managed to start the car, so drove a little way down the track. Meanwhile my diver caught up, jumped in and off we went! The other driver ran back up the road to retrieve his car and passengers! And after all the pushing I still paid the guy as I felt sorry for him! The road up to the children’s home is proving quite eventful as a few weeks ago on the same road, Lucy and I had to dodge rally cars on some sort of cross-Peru race. They had raced as far as the village near the main road, then came slowly through to a check point just under a mile from the home. From there they were set off at 2 minute intervals. There were a few policemen blowing whistles, but really you needed to either walk through the fields by the side of the track, or run for about 90 seconds down the track and jump into the ditch when you heard the next engine! It was the most dangerous event I had ever seen!

House-hunting

House-hunting is very interesting here. Firstly, there are no estate agents where you can go and look at photos of houses. Secondly, in many areas, everything is behind high walls so that you have no idea if there is a one-bedroom flat behind or, as I found in one case, three or four courtyards, over 20 rooms for tourists and three houses! Thirdly, some streets are inaccessible by road and/or up rather a lot of steps. Fourthly, there are a couple of newspapers that advertise houses and flats (one is a like a small version of Friday-Ads) but it hard to tell from the advertisement exactly what is being offered – there is often no price quoted and the size can be quite vague. As a result of all this we have looked at some highly unsuitable places! However, it’s fun looking round so we don’t mind too much!

It seems quite acceptable to wander round an area that you like and ask people you see if they know anywhere for rent. Sometimes there are notices in windows, normally handwritten, saying that rooms are available, and you can knock and look. Or, it seems to be OK to knock on doors of properties that look promising and ask if any of the property is available. So far, we have found quite a few places this way.

We have been looking mainly in the area below the 'Cristo Blanco' statue that overlooks the city:

Here is a selection of places that we’ve seen on our periodic house-hunting expeditions, plus a few pictures to give you a bigger picture of Cusco:

On one occasion, we saw a lady outside her house and asked if she knew of anywhere, and she said she had two small properties inside her courtyard that were rented out. They are currently occupied but we went to see the courtyard anyway. It was a beautiful place in a lovely location near town so we might go back and ask again sometime. Encouraged by this, we knocked on the door of the property next door. This also had various rooms and flats positioned around a courtyard, again mostly rented, and the lady said we could ask again in a few weeks.

I was about to knock on another door when two women came down the street saying that they had a house available. It turned out to be a bit small and would be rather cold as all the rooms had to be accessed individually from the courtyard or balcony. It had no outside space where boys could play either.

On another occasion I saw a notice saying that there was a room to rent in a house ‘arriba’. ‘Arriba’ means higher up and that can often mean in a location in a poor area accessed by hundreds of steps! I decided to have a look as even if it says there is only one room there can often be more space that might be available later. (Probably after the main tourist season is over in September there might be more available.) The house turned out to be up quite a lot of steps but there was road access from another direction, although you would have to cross the playground opposite. The property had an amazing view across the city and a good proportion of it was being renovated. It seemed that although only one room was available at that time, it would be worth re-visiting at a later date.

I found another property undergoing renovation in a slightly more convenient location. There seemed to be about three houses on the plot, one of which would be available in a couple of months. The lady said it would have 5 bedrooms but it was hard to see how! It is also due to have a ‘chiminea’ (fire place) though so again, it’s worth another look later! This one was shown to me by a friendly security guard who saw me wandering about and said he knew the owner.

A couple of properties advertised in the paper have been worth a look but both turned out to be huge. One needed complete renovation – windows, floors, rooves - everything except new walls! It was actually for sale and we’re not planning on trying to buy something here. It had three courtyards and could be a beautiful hotel if someone has plenty of money to invest! The other was newly built but was four storeys high and had fifteen bedrooms! It was not in the area we are hoping for and was out of our price-range.

Wandering round a slightly different area, a lady I met said that the house on the corner might have a flat for rent. I knocked but the landlady was out so the girl who answered suggested I call back in a few days. I did so, but she was out again! However, the man who opened the door let me have a look inside the courtyard this time. The property turned out to consist of various rooms and two flats surrounding the big courtyard. The second floor looks as though it has amazing views over the town. The guy I met runs bicycle tours and lives in part of the building. I eventually got hold of the landlady a few days later who said she might have something in December.

The two most recent places we have looked at were advertised as suitable for running as hostels. We thought they would be too big but in actual fact they were a very suitable size. The first one was not really in the area we want but it was interesting to find a something the right size which was not much too expensive. It was snapped up by someone else the day after we saw it so we didn't get time to seriously consider it. The second place again was not in the area we are wanting but we actually like the street very much, and given the location of Sammy's school next year it would be right on a good bus route! This place has been advertised for several weeks now. Noone is taking it because the price is extortionate! We will see if the landlord eventually comes down to a realistic price.

A street we like. So far we have not found any suitable properties for rent here.

Shopping in Cusco

Quite a few people have been asking what shopping is like here, so here is a description.

Food

Today, Monday, I went to the little supermarket near our house. It’s one of the few in Cusco, although there is a bigger one opening soon, also nearby. It has about 8 short aisles and 5 checkouts. I normally go there on Mondays to do the main shopping for the week and if I take Benjamin in the double buggy I can put a basket in the back seat and fit everything in. I make the list and then check with Dina, my ‘empleada’ (lady who helps me at home) if there’s anything else we need, since she chooses the lunches 2 days per week and does most of the cleaning.

This is my list for today, which is fairly typical:
Breakfast cereal
Rice
Pasta
Raisins
Toilet roll
Disinfectant
Gloves for cleaning
Raisins
Eggs
Margarine
Worstershire sauce
Chicken and mince (fresh – little frozen food available)
Water (we boil some and get some in bottles)
Juice (Dina makes fresh juice mainly but Sammy often has a little carton when he comes out of school – this started as his treat for going to school on his own and now he gets very disappointed if we forget it!)
Leek and pineapple (most of our fruit and veg comes from the market but sometimes there is something extra we need)

Tuesday I normally go to the ‘milk’ shop. This is a little shop near Sammy’s school which sells mainly dairy products. Everything comes from a farm in the valley near here where they train young ‘campesinos’ (people from the countryside) in organic and ecologically friendly farming methods. I think the farm was started by a monastery. They have several shops in the area and we think these are the only places where you can buy pasteurised milk. We buy milk (in plastic bags), cheese, yogurt and jam there. Tuesday is the best day to go as that is when they bring the fresh produce in.

Thursday Dina normally goes to the market for me. There are lots of markets in Cusco, some under cover and some outdoors, with different sections selling everything under the sun! There are normally areas for fruit and veg, meat (not too keen to buy meat here as nothing is refridgerated) and clothes, and then, depending on the market, a whole mixture of tiny stalls with toys, kitchen things, tools, TVs and electrical goods, DVDs, etc. Dina normally buys things like potatoes, broccoli, peas, beans, carrots, pumpkin, cucumber, tomatoes, choclo (sweetcorn – yellow as a vegetable and purple to make into ‘chicha’, a drink), bananas, apples, mangoes, kiwi fruit and plums (when available). Very similar to the things we would buy at home really, but much cheaper! A lot of what is grown here is the same as in Britain. There is a lot more grown in the jungle areas but we don’t see that very often as it’s a long way from here. Although we don’t have seasons in the same way, the weather here is similar to Britain in some ways (see the ‘weather’ blog entry!) so I presume that’s why many of the crops are similar.

Clothes

As I’ve said, clothes can be bought in the market, although there’s nowhere to try them on of course. There are also lots of little shops in the town centre, plus a few bigger ones, where clothes of better quality can be bought. There are two shops which resemble somewhere like a small ‘NEXT’ (well, not really, but they’re the nearest thing!). There are no department stores here, although there are some in Lima which are just like anything you’d find in Britain. We’ll only visit Lima once or twice a year though as it’s an hour’s flight away so we certainly won’t be going for shopping trips!
We’ve not needed to buy much here so far. I bought Sammy some new pyjamas the other week as he was starting to grow out of his. There wasn’t much choice but I found some fleecy ones, blue and white with little aeroplanes, which don’t look too bad. I had a look for myself as I wear both my pyjama tops at once to keep warm, but I couldn’t see anything I could bear to wear!
Roland and I have both just bought a warm jacket each – indoors it is cold both during the day and in the evening and people often wear coats indoors. Jackets with a fleece lining seem a popular idea and it saves wearing actual coats indoors!

Furniture

When we buy furniture (ongoing – it’s a long process!) we normally either go to a furniture market (the side of the road or a plaza, set up temporarily at weekends), or go to the big ‘shops’ beside the main road, or get a carpenter to make things. We bought a little kitchen table, bedside table and a desk from one of the shops, lounge furniture from a side-of-the road market and had the dining table and chairs made by a carpenter (this took weeks as the first carpenter made the wrong stuff entirely!) The second carpenter was great and he has just made Sammy a special chair (an adapted version of Benjamin’s highchair) as he was fidgeting so much on a normal chair. Mattresses are bought in mattress shops, and then you have to try and find a bed base of the right size to match. We are still just on mattresses at the moment but we are buying a base for Sammy soon from a family just returning to Switzerland who live near to us.

We bought our rabbit cage from a market that was partially on the railway track! Trains only go a couple of times early in the morning and a couple of times late at night (it’s the train to Mach Picchu). This market had hundreds of chickens and ducks in little cages, plus the odd cockerel tied by one foot to a post and a few cages of guinea pigs and rabbits.

Kitchen items

There is a big kitchen shop where you can buy almost anything, so we got most things there. Plastic items can be bought in special plastics shops – there is a street full of them. The best one can take a long time to shop in though. As in many shops here, you have to choose your items from those on display and then get an assistant to write them down for you. You take this list to a desk where they copy it onto a receipt. You take the receipt to another desk where you pay. You then go to a third desk where you can collect your items (once they have been found from the store). It’s a bit like Argos I suppose! I seem to have spent a lot of time in this shop buying things like waste bins, kids beakers, jugs, a washing up bowl, a laundry basket and storage boxes for the boys’ toys. The funniest occasion was when I went to get a draining rack – I wanted orange to match the worktop(!) but they couldn’t find one, despite there being one on display, so I said I’d have green instead, but they brought out blue saying it was green. Then they brought me a small orange one, but it really was far too small. In the end I gave up and went to another shop. They also had an orange one on display but for some reason the girl had to run up the road somewhere to find me one. Then she brought it with the underneath tray missing so off she went again. The only tray she could find had the corner broken off! By this time I was so fed up I bought it anyway, as I really didn’t need the tray part!

So, with perseverance, and good friends like Geoff and Rachel to tell you where to look, you can buy almost anything here. The choice and the quality may be limited, but at least the prices are cheap. However, if you want to buy an Alpaca jumper in a smart tourist shop in the main plaza, that’s another matter!

Weather!!

The weather in Cusco

This week the tree in our little garden is looking very confused! Thinking it is autumn it has been shedding its leaves, but due to the warm days it is also thinking it could be spring so has started to grow new leaves and produce white blossom! In fact, it is supposed to be winter here as we are approaching the shortest day (corresponding to the longest day in the northern hemisphere).

Seasons

We have decided that the four seasons don’t exist here – there is a wet season and a dry season. At this time of year (June) it gets dark a bit earlier (about 6pm) and light a bit later (about 6am) and it is colder at nights (below freezing at times, although we have only seen a tiny bit of frost in our area of town). However, in the daytime it gets really hot by late morning if it is sunny (it usually is) and we try to walk in the shade on the way home from school. Sammy wears a woolly hat and gloves to go to school at 8:15 and needs sun cream and a sun hat to come home at 12:30! We are forever adding or taking off layers of clothes! I saw a notice advertising a clothing collection yesterday – the idea is to take warm clothes up to the higher areas where many small children and older people die in the cold weather. Up in the mountains it is colder at night and the houses are very poor. In Cusco no one seems to have central heating but most people have glass in the windows and many have electricity so it is possible to get an electric fire (for those that can afford it).

A sunny day during the dry season near Cusco.

When we arrived here in March it was the end of the rainy season. On the whole it was dry in the mornings and then we had thunderstorms in the afternoon. I think it rains more than that from December to February but we’ll have to wait and see. Climate change is possibly having an effect as we did get some rain in May which is apparently very unusual. It is lighter for longer in the wet season – from about 5am until 7pm in December. The temperature is less variable – not quite so cold by night and not quite so hot by day.

Our street

Here are a couple of views down our street and the park opposite that the boys enjoy playing in.






Here is Sammy on his new bike and Benjamin pushing his car.