Getting ourselves organised

We have been back in Peru for 11 days , in some ways it feels so natural to be back that it feels as if we never left, although the shortness of breath and the headaches we are experiencing remind us that we are reaclimatising to the altitude.

The new mid term family moved out of our house yesterday to a flat just round the corner even closer to our church than we live. It is a great location as they hope to host the Sunday school in their home during the service , this means that the childrens' work will be far more interesting than having a quiet story and colouring in the little cubby hole that they currently do during the sermon!

So today we have unpacked our travel bags and sorted out all of the bedrooms and tidied the house in preparation for Jessica's 8th birthday party tomorrow.Birthday parties are a big deal here! Peruvians normally hire a venue and a childrens' entertainer and invite the whole class, expecting most siblings to come too, quite how they organise party bags is a mystery to me since the invitations go out the day before the party and nobody ever replies, so we will be having a party in our home with a few friends from school and church, our friends have got used to the "odd " way us gringos celebrate childrens' birthday parties and we are even confident that they know us well enough to turn up at the invited time! We are so grateful that God has given Jessica some lovely friends and we are also great friends with their parents, some of whom also attend our church, our prayer is to make equally good friends this year with Sam's school friends.

Today Scott took Jess and Sam to El Molino market, the large market in Cusco where you can buy just about anything you need and we bought them new bikes. They are both so tall (head and shoulders above most of their Peruvian classmates)and have outgrown the bikes that they learnt to ride on.They are very excited about their new bikes, the challenge now will be finding a flat safe place for them to ride them! Today's other challenge will be putting the pinata together ready for the birthday celebration!