visit from NMBC

fellowship after our church service

Roger brings a greeting from New Malden


Thanks to Frances (Roger's wife ) and friends who knitted baby clothes, we gave them out at Yucay today.

Roger Pearce is an elder from our sending church New Malden Baptist church, he has stayed with us for a few days and it has been great to spend time together and for him to gain a greater understanding into our lives here in Cusco at El Puente cafe iglesia.

Yusna

Last week people all over the Cusco region celebrated “Yusna”. The tree you see pictured above was not there until last week. It was cut down and planted (again) just so it could be cut down (again). Yusna is a tradition where couples play traditional Peruvian music (waino) and dance around the tree. Each couple gets to hack away at the tree with an axe. While the couples hack away at the tree the children fight for the “gifts” that fall out of it. (The tree above has different size bowls in it). The couple that finally topples the tree gets the honour of getting the tree next year!

only one week more of school hols!

10 weeks school hols during rainy season is a long time! Here's a photo of Jess and Sam passing the time flying cardboard rockets out of the packaging from all the toothbrushes we took to Yucay!

cinema trip

We hadn't been to the cinema for a whole year since there is no cinema in Cusco so whilst in Lima last week we took the children to see Alvin and the Chipmunks , we managed to understand it in spanish and we really enjoyed it. Jess and Sam are now chipmunk mad and Sam just announced that when he is older he'd like to change his name to Alvin!

Mancora beach holiday

What a treat! We have just returned from a week at the beach in Mancora Northern Peru . Our hotel was on the beach front and we loved being a stones throw away from the Pacific ocean. It was hot and wonderful to have some time away from cold rainy Cusco to recharge the batteries and relax and unwind! Sam and Jess loved swimming in the hotel pool and also hunting in the rock pools on the beach, Scott spent a lot of time swimming in the ocean and enjoyed watching the surfers and Anjanette relaxed in the sun with her head in a book for most of the holiday. Thanks to a number of different friends who gave us money for Christmas which enabled us to have such a wonderful break.

Huge Pots and spoons

Perhaps Chef Scott could cope but most of us would hate the thought of cooking for a community of over 300 people! The Yucay community asked us to provide another large cooking pot which cooks for 100 people , also some enormous wooden spoons and some plastic washing bowls. Various aid organisations arrive on an adhoc basis with all sorts of dry goods which are so important, we are priveleged to have built up friendships with the community leaders in Yucay and discuss their needs with them, each week we plan to return and take some supplies to help them .It was heartbreaking to see their destroyed houses as they showed us around, they are cold in their plastic tents and very shaken by their experiences and frightened of further problems with flooding and landslides as the heavy rains continue.

Toothbrushes

Community leaders in Yucay asked us to provide hygiene packs so we collected toothbrushes toothpaste soap and sanitary towels for 325 people who live in the tents there.

more flooding pics

on the hillsides in Cusco you see lots of plastic sheeting so the rain runs straight off the plastic and does not collect near the foundations of the house hopefully protecting the adobe houses from becoming saturated and collapsing


this is the remains of a house that was close to the river Vilcanota

where the river burst its banks and broke the wall and flooded the village


crops destroyed by the flooding too!

Hygiene Pack for Yucay

First half of the personal hygiene pack (£1.80) per family ready. Then to complete we will need another £2.00 for a family of four. Want to help....contact us today.

Yucay and Calca

ladies cooking food to share for 200 people in the community between Yucay and Calca, we were able to donate some tuna milk and water to them

Margaret Swires (in charge of social action for the Peruvian Baptist convention) giving out spanish literature written especially for victims of natural disasters

clean water we gave to the residents in Calca

Filthy water in Calca


With the community representatives in Yucay

Some Videos of the Cusco floods