Catching up

We are a bit wet and windswept but loving our time here.
When people ask us what we miss most about the UK , we miss boring things like drinking tap water, flushing toilets, double glazing , central heating, fish and chips and clarks shoe shops but most of all we miss our wonderful family and friends. Jess and Sam are now old enough to remember every experience and are taking it all in having a great time catching up with everyone and making new memories to treasure.

Spring in the UK

The Williamsons have not experienced a British springtime for 4 years , it is such a treat to see the pretty spring flowers here. Where we live in Cusco, Peru we only really have 2 seasons : rainy season and dry season and we do miss experiencing the changing of the seasons throughout the year. Anjanette's sister has an impressive bluebell wood directly behind her house in Leicestershire and the bluebells are at their best right now, here are a few beautiful photos.

Huambutio news

This week there have been a number of exciting advancements with the Huambutio project.

Anjanette and some of the nurses visited the government health post in Lucre and had a very promising conversation with the doctor there. Lucre is the closest health post to Huambutio (2 bus rides journey from Huambutio) it was good to learn more about the services they provide , to explain about our proposed project and to hear the medical staff in Lucre make suggestions about health services that they do not currently provide that they feel would benefit the community.

Next week we plan to start visiting people in their homes in Huambutio to carry out health questionnaires, this will give us much more information about the needs of the population and an opportunity to get to know people. Before we start knocking on doors the nurses felt that it was important to hold a meeting with the community to explain about our project and to ask permission to visit their homes to do the questionnaires.

Well we had a false start when the original date for the agreed meeting seemed to have been forgotten , the president of the Huambutio community board suggested that 9 am Sunday morning would be a good time to meet. Six days a week the community work in their fields and they often will hold general meetings on a Sunday. Well we were not so sure than anyone would turn up, Carla and Carlotta from El Puente Iglesia worked hard putting up posters and distributing fliers and we prayed and hoped people would attend.

Imagine our surprise when we arrived and found the community hall full with over a hundred people even before 9 am, in our experience in Peru people being on time is nothing short of a miracle and being early is completely unheard of!

Well we had a great meeting Nancy one of our nurses did an excellent job explaining about the project in spanish and in quechua and answering tricky questions. We were generally very well received by the community and we are hopeful that next week they will be open to answering our questions. Elisabeth is the government health promoter for Huambutio she has agreed to go with Carla and the nurses at 0600 in the morning, (before people leave to work in their fields ) next week to start the questionnaires. Both her support and the nurses being prepared to start work at 0600 is more than we could have hoped for!

We also have exciting medical license news, Scott made a flying visit to Arequipa last week to take back Anjanette's medical papers from the University there, the process is not moving and we have decided to pursue another route.

Anjanette will apply for a 1 year temporary license to practice medicine in Peru from MMI an international organisation who we have previously worked with on short term medical campaigns. The MMI organisers are very helpful and it seems that this will be a very quick and straightforward process , it will probably take a couple of weeks as opposed to the couple of years we have been waiting so far!

Happy Easter

We had great fun celebrating Easter with our Peruvian church family. The cake we shared in church says "Cristo Vive" which means Christ is Alive! The children had an easter egg hunt in the local park during the service and we all enjoyed celebrating this special resurrection Sunday.

Family day out on Good Friday

As well as our special Easter church activities and chocolate, Jess and Sam are excited that Easter means 2 days off school (Thurs and Friday are public holidays in Peru.)

Samuel is currently singing "Ya llego la Pascua fa la la la la la la la la !"

We have Easter events at church on Thursday (communion) Saturday (showing the film the Passion of the Christ) and Sunday (Easter celebration service and egg hunt!)

However as a church we do not have a special Good Friday celebration, for many Peruvians it is a family day when they eat 12 dishes consisting of fish and shellfish as they fast from meat .

Well we did not stay home and eat 12 dishes but had a lovely relaxing family day we drove out to the sacred valley and spent some time in Urubamba visiting our colleagues James and Julia in their new home. Driving and walking in the valley you can not help but be amazed by God's wonderful creation.These photos give an idea of how beautiful the green countryside and cloudy blue sky was.

Action team's despedida

Even though it seems as if they have just arrived in fact 6 months have almost passed and the time has come to say goodbye to the action team.

They have been involved in schools and hospital work, looked after children in a childrens' home as well as many aspects of our church ministry at El Puente.

It has been a busy and challenging time and we are grateful for their service and hard work. We thanked them and prayed for them in church today and in true El Puente style ate lots of food afterwards. Thankyou Rob Amy Liz and Jessica.The church was packed and we needed that extra space!

Here is a photo of how the musicians' area looks after Pastor Scott knocked the wall down, it is great to have more space to move. Anjanette is seen in the photo leading worship with our new church members Alfredo (playing guitar) and Paola (playing the cajon.)