Water shortage

Rainy season is here in Cusco and it certainly rains cats and dogs , the rain keeps us awake at night it floods the flower beds in our front garden it floods the streets it causes landslides and washes peoples' homes away! Until today I did not understand why often when we have heavy rain we don't have running water in our home. This morning when we woke up we couldn't turn on taps or flush the toilet. It was explained to me by a taxi driver this morning that the heavy rains have caused damage to the water tanks and filters and so the whole of Cusco was without water.

Samuel and I returned from taking Jess to her gymnastics class and found Vicky our neighbour banging on our door telling us that we had water for 2 hours before they turned it off for 48 hours to repair the problem. Well Sam and I got busy emptying plastic containers of firewood and dressing up clothes and filled up as many receptacles with water as possible in preparation! Having no running water certainly makes us appreciate it when we do have it and to spare a thought for those who live their lives on a daily basis without easy access to water in particular at this present time those who have lost everything in Haiti!In fact I just heard that some missionaries who live in Pisac not too far from Cusco in the sacred valley have had their house flooded and a huge amount of damage to their school and camp ministry!

And where was Scott while we were filling up water containers? poor Scott was stranded at Cusco airport. The runway was flooded so the airport was closed and his 7 am flight had not arrived from Lima, he hopes to be on the plane 6 hrs later than scheduled on his way to Lima as he travels to the baptist conference in sunny Trujillo.

Peru weather is crazy, it is summer in Lima and last week we got sunburned , we returned to torrential Cusco rain and no sun to heat up the houses so last week it was after sun lotion , this week it is thermal vests! It is hard not to be grumpy about the weather here the streets are muddy and flooded it takes ages for things to dry with no sun or central heating , so I was tickled to read my friend Regina's facebook status which said "Rain! Rain! Reign Lord Jesus!" What a great reminder that we need him to reign in our lives!!