Up into the Mountains - San Jose

This field includes both jungle and mountains.  Bagua Grande where the bach is is around 400 m above sea level.  Our forays into the mountains take us up to around 2,500 m above sea level - all in a 1-2 hour car trip, winding up gravel tracks.  So you climb steeply!  Our friends are scattered around in the mountains behind Bagua Grande.  Most have come in touch through one original man called Antonio Delgado who saw truth and professed.  Sadly, he later became involved in village politics and ended up joining the terrorists.  He is still outside today, but maintains that what he heard was truth.  From time to time the workers still visit him and his wife where they now live in the jungle, always receiving a warm welcome.

We went to a locality called San Jose at 2,500 m above sea level to have a few days, and the Sunday am mtg with a couple Silverio and Aleja.  As a young man, Silverio worked for a man Samuel who had come to meetings through Antonio.  Samuel would invite him each time the workers (Norman Nash and cos) would come to his house.  Silverio was worried he would dock his pay while he attended the meeting!  But Samuel promised him no, he would pay him all the same.  Silverio and his wife both decided to follow Jesus, and at this stage, just one of their nine children did the same - more or less at the same time as his parents professed.  While we were there, three of their sons and respective wives and kids came along to the gospel meeting, so there is hope yet...

This is the scenery while travelling in the vehicle climbing steadily up the mountain.

Silverio meets us where the vehicle leaves us, with his pack horse to take our backpacks

Taking a pack horse without a rider is like driving an empty car alongside passengers walking...I got the horse as Palmira doesn't ride due to back/hip problems.  Which by the way all these native mountain workers suffer, due to  having lugged heavy loads in their childhood/youth.  From here it was an hour's walk/ride in to Silverio's farm.

This is still the "highway"

Leaving the road to start crossing farmland

Beautiful bush and farmland!

Smelt a very familiar scent...Pongas!!

Arrived.  One of his sons lives up on that hill

Wow, this place is advanced!!  Solar panels bring electric light!  We each had our own bed!  Mine is pictured behind the curtain.  The meeting room is the part you don't see.  The family sleep behind a partition that goes beyond the curtained "passage".  Every morning tough grandma gets up at 5 to milk her 9 cows.  Her grandchildren who were staying for holidays would go with her.  Come back and rush off for the (cold) shower (high altitude at 8 am isn't particularly tropical temps).  Milk is made into ricotta cheese, then eaten with mandioc and/or spuds for breakfast.

Kitchen scene.  Grandma stoking fire, Palmira peeling spuds while two little cousins watch on.  

I said this place is modern...a separate curtained off shower and longdrop.  The shower consists of a hose connected to a shower head.  You turn the hose on up at the house, and it comes out high pressure freezing water!!

Flashest longdrop I've seen in a long time!

Johanna, the 7 year old granddaughter who would delight in skimming up the tree when she saw me go off on a bathroom visit, then give me a fright as I walked back under it! Cute.

Dusk, from Silverio's back yard...cool palm trees

Sunset over the mountains

Grandma Aleja frying up guinea pig for tea!

Looks much better when it turns golden brown!

Taking corn off the cob (maize) to make tamales - a kind of dough made of ground corn, then wrapped in the husks and steamed, sometimes cheese in the middle.

Post-meeting football match amongst the cousins!  Got pretty heated!

Silverio and Palmira out in the yard after meeting

The weather is very changeable.  Usually rains/drizzles at this time of year, temps not freezing cold, quite pleasant really.

One of the grandchildren, cute little gumboots

She was fascinated by me and couldn't take her eyes off this strange white-haired, tall person!

No shortage of kids around here

Johanna and her cousin and the donkey

Relaxing Sunday afternoon

Keeping order during the football match

Palmira Rojas and I.  She also has a sister in the work, called Celmira

Johanna fascinated by Palmira's ribbon embroidery

Adios San Jose...beginning the pilgrimmage out at 6am.  Silverio accompanied us again with the packhorse (so I got to ride out).

A Visit to Sinai

Yep, we visited Sinai...but not the mount.  It's a little town on the edge of the Marañon River - the "mother" of the Amazon.  HOT as Hades, you feel like you are living in a sauna.  Bugs of all kinds, all waiting to bite and suck that fresh blood.  We piled into one of the station wagons that make the trip (about 2 hours from bach), driver another kind of Jehu, fascinated by the gravel road curving along the river.  He did slow down when asked, but kept forgetting!  Here lives an elderly lady called Eufemia (around about 84), her husband Alberto, a "mudita" (literally translated, a little deaf mute lady) whose name is Maruja, but they just call her la mudita! And several grandchildren and sons and daughters-in-law.  We went for a bible study or two and the night.

First sight of the River Marañon

Doña Eufemia.

She tells the story of how she first met the workers.  She had been searching for a long time, reading and reading her Bible.  Once she had a dream that she was floating down the river but she wasn't drowning.  A man in white came and directed her where to get out.  She crawled up a cliff, and at the top of the cliff was a house with people sitting in it.  She went in, and heard them singing the hymns (that later she learned when she came to listen to the gospel).  Later in a second dream, she was walking through a very narrow path in the bush.  She came upon a soldier all dressed in uniform who was barring her way, and asked her where she was going.  Then he held out a Bible to her and put on top of the Bible 4 grains of corn.  He said to her these are the 4 gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  Soon afterwards, she saw three men in the township, outside, hanging up hammocks preparing to spend the night there.  They were Trevor Loechel and two Peruvian companions, Heradio Coronel and Eliseo Gonzalez, who had walked all day and had another day's walking ahead yet to reach the destination where they were going.  Noone in the town would receive them, Eufemia went and asked them to stay the night in her home.  After much insisting they did.  She didn't have much room, but somehow they managed.  After they had eaten, the first question she asked "who of you is a soldier of the Lord?".  Trevor answered all of us!  That was how she came to hear truth, and was the only one that accepted it.  She knows many people as they used to live down by the river and pan for gold, as many people do.  Her husband Alberto made a start, but has a weakness for drink!

After the little Bible study... Eufemia and daughter-in-law in front, Alberto and Maruja in back, and two little terrors, grandsons.

The "mudita" Maruja.  She has just as interesting a story.  She just appeared one day at their house and has stayed on!  She was just a young girl when she came stumbling by, looked like an old lady, hadn't eaten for 10 days.  Noone knows where she came from, but it would seem that her family were all shot by the terrorists, according to what they can make out by her funny sign-language.  She gesticulates having seen them all shot, and then draws tears running down her face.  When she first showed up people tried to take her back to where they thought perhaps she came from but she wouldn't stay because she wasn't from there.  She went from pillar to post, and eventually turned up here.  They felt sorry for her and invited her in to eat something.  And she never left!!  She's a real help to Eufemia, and inspite of her not hearing anything, she is really alert.  She and Eufemia have a little meeting together always!

The kitchen/living area...no words needed!

Breakfast...rice, chicken, mandioc, fried banana and beans

A really beautiful tree in the backyard

One of the little terrors making mudcakes

Coca plant (this is what they make cocaine from).  The leaves are most commonly chewed as a stimulant.

Handsome rooster

The buckets is where you bath!!  Needless to say, it's advisable to wait till dark...

No explanations needed...

The little terrors rocking the dog in the hammock

Walking down to the river

This is the river that is the precursor to the Amazon.  The Marañon is very westward, and the water flows a very long way east to reach the Atlantic ocean, rather than drop over the mountains and into the Pacific!

Imagine these scenes with an oppressive 40oC...

All elegance is forfeited in favour of bug protection...and even then the beggars bit me through the socks!! Little tiny flies that make big itchy bites.  You don't feel them in the moment of being bitten.

Doña Eufemia's feet!

And mine post-bug bites!

The guinea pigs, cats and chooks all sleep in here under the stove

Star fruit

Driving with the Devil

Everything is relative. I used to think that in relation to New Zealand, Argentina is chaotic and messy. Since arriving in Peru I have decided that Argentina is very orderly and a law abiding!

We went bush yesterday. To get there we took a vehicle for one hour. We arrive at the vehicle depot and sit waiting. There is an elderly man sitting beside me I glance at his white shirt back there is a tick meandering around investigating. I keep a close eye on the tick lest he decide to investigate my bare arm. 

Eventually the driver gets behind the wheel which is a signal for all passengers to board. It's a station wagon so I got in along with two others, that made three of us in the back seat which if we were in Argentina the driver would refuse to let any more in - one person per seat belt after all! Silly me forgot I am not in Argentina. To my surprise two more got in beside me and when I looked in the front there were two beside the driver so all up we were eight in the five seater station wagon. No problem. Start driving the driver has no hair on his head but two black bushy eyebrows.  He has a tattoo of a heart pierced by a sword on his forearm and between his forefinger and thumb  an unidentified black blob tattoo. We drove normally out of the city and once we hit the windy gravel road he was overcome with a great desire to fulfil his dream of becoming a Rally driver. He floored it!  Must have been doing nigh on 100 kmph around those gravel corners on his bald tires.     Drumming the steering wheel to the beat of the music blaring from the stereo.  He was a maniac! I don't get scared easily with "reasonably" mad drivers, but this time I sat there, terrified and holding on for grim death.  The lady and her kid beside me were fast asleep. Palmira wasn't saying anything so I figured this must be normal. She is from a part of the country where the people are unknown for being hotheaded so she would soon put him in his place if she felt it needful I thought. I was very thankful when we started to climb because the car was rather gutless and the steep road inhibited Jehu"s madness what a relief. 

It started to rain. Jehu slammed anchors and leaps from the car to wind up the windows of the rear doors.  Winding up consists of placing a hand on either side of the window pain and tugging with all his might until the glass reaches the top of the window frame this was repeated for both sides.  The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful except for an abrupt swerve or three to avoid colliding head on with a couple of vehicles as we came around the corner and a stretch where Jehu once again briefly translated us  to the Indy 500.  (On the way back we were telling a different driver about our hair-raising trip, and he laughed and said oh you must have gone with El Diablo! - The Devil)

El Diablo in full flight

Paying the Devil...and heaving relieved sighs!

We went to visit this little family, Leyder and Dora and their son Darwin.  Leyder's mother died faithfully, and one of his 8 brothers is professing.  Leyder has been in touch for a long time, and made his choice known a month ago.  His wife is lovely, and listens in the meetings.  Nice to see his joy and enthusiasm....long may it last!

They have a plot of land where they grow coffee and beans amongst other things.  Looking over the coffee plantation

Coffee beans starting to ripen

After seeing all this I realised why coffee is so expensive!  Here Leyder and Darwin are demonstrating how they take the red shell off the beans, which leaves them with a sweet moist coating.  These have to be then dried before being sold to the wholesaler.  They have become very fussy now, and grade the coffee before buying it.  So the grower takes his beans to the buyer and they will roast it and grind it and drink it to see the quality before paying the grower.  

Banana flower

Red beans - cleaning them of the dirt and stones and one or two black and white beans that somehow got in amongst the original seed, then bagging them to take to sell.

No pegs!

Dora cooking in her fancy kitchen...no scullery here!

Going down to the outhouse

Beneath our mozzie net, set to share the bed for the night...

Wardrobe

Our bed from the outside...the family sleep on the other side of the partition.  Gotta be careful who you talk about because every conversation is heard!!

Night in the kitchen, Darwin drawing under a very dim light bulb!!

Some of the fruit...the orange something like a persimmon in flavour.  The white one is guanabana.  A rich fruit with a banana/pineapple/feijoa flavour