Yesterday morning, I spent hours trying to get various digital tools to do the things I wanted them to do so that I could do work. I think I more or less have that taken care of though I discovered that the one item I needed to edit is still in Peru on my computer there because I neglected to upload it to anywhere accessible. That will have to wait, I guess.
My oldest brother Thomas took me out to lunch yesterday because he wanted me to meet some friends of his from Mexico. They were very happy to test my Spanish, and I think I passed. I’m afraid my brother felt a bit left out. I let Rafael know I was out with my oldest brother, which delighted him because my brother’s nickname is Toby, the same as Rafael’s dog.
While out in town, I got a call from Percy. He had taken the truck to Cusco to pick up some supplies for the farm and was stopped by a police officer. Unfortunately, the truck’s inspection was out-of-date. The police said they were going to impound the truck and demand over S/2,000. Percy worked with them awhile until the one officer said he was willing to accept a diezmo (a tithe). Percy gave him S/150 and went on to Cusco the inspection center.
Percy was very apologetic because he knows I am principally against bribing officials, but I told him not to fret over it. What would you do in that situation? It often seems the government is set up to promote corruption there, but I have so far been able to avoid giving in to the system.
Last evening, Toby’s hosted their prayer group here at their house. Their church splits into small groups for prayer meetings and Bible studies sometimes. Toby asked me to give a talk about Peru. I worked dilligently through the afternoon to curate an album of photos that wove a story of our time there. Unfortunately, we could not get my devices to communicate with Toby’s devices; perhaps mine speak Spanish.
I didn’t get a count of how many showed up, but it was a surprising number. Maybe over fifty people? They were scattered throughout the living room, dining room, and into the kitchen! It was a blessing to see that many interested persons. I had to come up with a bit of an impromtu talk because what I had prepared didn’t really flow without the pictures, but it seemed very Peru-appropriate that something would go wonky. That actually made me feel more calm about it.
After the talk, our family sang, then I shared the pictures via my laptop with a limited number of persons who could crowd around. It was fine.
Two of my sisters had arrived shortly before the meeting, so we had to stay up until way too late catching up on life. With Aunt China back, our children were delighted and also felt the need to stay awake. Sleep is hard to come by when there are so many things to do and say and hear.
Juan David 