Friday and Fernando’s

Something that Juanito finds fairly frustrating recently is defining the passage of time. When will later be? How long is “after naps”? Is one hour a “really, really long time”? And the most frustrating of all, when will tomorrow get here?

“Daddy, tomorrow will never get here!” he wailed the other day when I told him he needed to wait until said time. “It is always today, or when it’s not today, it’s tonight. It is never tomorrow!” Maybe that’s how you all feel after I said I’d try to do an update “tomorrow.”

We are all well, praise the Lord. And I did not get sick, praise the Lord! The children were ill only about two days, then Steph was about two days beyond that, but everyone is more or less back to normal.

Now, back to last Friday. As you may remember, I had wanted to take biscuits to the lady who had not paid us the full amount promised for our goats. That did not happen. I did think of it, but it turned out we were simply too pressed for time to make it happen because we had unexpected visitors.

Percy had run into a lady who buys and sells beef cattle and had told her we had two heifers to sell. We’d been praying about those heifers all week because we’d planned to take them to market if no one turned up to buy them. Well, God finally sent someone right before we were wanting to leave for Inquilpata.

The two heifers in question were Lamar’s. I have been working with them over the last year to get them bred, but they simply would not settle. For reasons neither the vet nor I could determine, they kept aborting after a month or two or three, so we decided to sell them for meat. Unfortunately, they were not very beefy heifers.

The lady wanted to give us next to nothing for them. We settled in for a long haggle. Bit by bit, Percy and Lucrecia got the price up until we hit a wall that could not be crossed. It was still pretty low, but the price was pretty close to what the vet and the cattle man Jubinal had told us. We sold them and waved goodbye. That leaves only one of Lamar’s heifers here. She is bred, and we are waiting until she calves to sell her with the calf for a higher price.

After the cattle swindler lady left, we headed to market. It was already after 8:00, which meant we’d missed the main rush of animal buyers. We took the last five bucks. In a few minutes, we’d sold three for a pretty good price. Within an hour, we sold the fourth one, but after a couple hours, we still had Pippin. We plan to take him back this Friday, Lord willing, along with the pigs, to sell—hopefully a bit earlier in the morning.

The goat lady from the week before did come over to talk. She seemed rather embarrassed to be there, but she said good morning and mumbled around a bit before going back to her corner. I was sorry to not have biscuits for her.

After market, we had lunch and a short nap before I went out to butcher some chickens for supper. I butchered one rooster, leaving us with only one rooster for the flock. I also butchered an old hen who had a limp. She had been attacked in her youth (some months ago) and had never completely mended.

I got a phone call from Lamar while butchering and found out I could carry on a conversation and butcher chickens at the same time. I needed to keep moving because Fernando’s were planning to come for supper, and we were making chalupas for them.

I had started beans in the pressure cooker before naps. China worked on getting the tortillas together. Fernando’s were bringing the vegetables. When they arrived (almost two hours late), Steph and Esmeralda worked together to make the guacamole, fresh salsa, and red sauce for the rice. Somehow, we ended up with enough rice for a week, but the other portions left us with enough to share leftovers with Fernando’s.

As we made supper together, we talked. We hadn’t seen Esmeralda since February and Fernando sometime before that. They have been locked up at home in terror of Covid, but now Fernando is vaccinated—no one else is—so they can go back to life as normal. Fernando is a devout (sometimes) Catholic, but he is horrified at the thought of meeting God. It’s a tremendous bondage.

Esmeralda was very joyful to be with us again. She delighted in the singing, and we just so happened to be ready for songs of surrender in our family devotions. We sang, “Just As I Am” and similar songs. For the month of July, we are memorizing the song “Me Libertó” (He Freed Me), which is one of Esmeralda’s favorite songs.

She was very excited to commit to coming for Bible study on Saturday, so it was doubly disappointing that we had to cancel. But she is planning to come this week, Lord willing. Please pray that no roadblocks are put in her path. She is hungry for the Lord.

Caleb and Belinda report they are working with a September departure date in mind. As we all know, these things are hard to nail down, but they are going to work toward that. They have their passports in hand, but they are waiting on the baby’s still. There is a small hill of paperwork that we/they will need to do before they come, but that will need to happen in August as we need the items dated a certain time before they come. It’ll be fun!

I talked with Javier the attorney several times over the past couple of weeks. I now have my carnet process completed… -ish. I have the paper copy of my carnet. We cannot figure out how to make an appointment to pick up the physical carnet in Cusco, but Javier did apply for it to be made there. So, I will need to go to Cusco and talk to the man who refuses to accept questions at the door. Yay! Thankfully, I do not need that to travel.

We were able to have Willow’s passport taken care of in Lima, meaning it will arrive in Lima, meaning it should arrive sooner than if it were sent to Cusco, meaning that we might see it coming in a week or two. That also means that we will need to have it picked up in Lima at the Embassy either by mineownself or by a dear friend who happens to live near Lima. (Now accepting applications for the position of Dear-Friend-who-happens-to-live-near-Lima.”)

So, progress is being made. If and when we have Willow’s U.S. passport, we plan to buy tickets to the States, Lord willing. It is still seeming that it won’t be possible until August. We don’t feel anxious about it. It will be when it will be, and we are trusting that God will choose the best time for us.