December 14, 2009 We are in Trujillo. It is so good to be out of Lima. The weather is nice here, not too hot with sunshine and a good breeze. Last Saturday, after teaching a self-employment class in Manchay we went to the bus station to take Cruz del Sur for a trip to Chimbote. We got on the bus about midnight and rode for 6 hours or less; the bus was a sleeper, very comfortable, with two levels. We were met by a church member 6 a.m. and taken to a hotel called the Dubai, an interesting hotel with Egyptian, and Saudi Arabian theme, with pictures of Saudi’s painted on the walls and a life size Santa playing a saxophone in the lobby. This hotel seemed to be renting rooms by the hour for pleasure seekers, but otherwise was nice enough. We got a little rest before going to church at 11 a.m. The 4 o’clock welfare and PEF meetings were very well attended. There has not been a new student here in Chimbote in the Fund for several years, but they now seem interested in getting some students participating. It is fun to be with Orlando. Monday we worked in the office. He has some unspent budget for the year and promised to print the book we have been working on with it. So we have worked on that in earnest, trying to finish our final draft. Copy editor is another new experience for me. Tues was a religious holiday and we ate dinner at Orlando’s house. Wednesday Raul Mata was going to meet us at 9, then Orlando was going to be here at 8:30, then at 9:30 no one was still here so Glenn asked the man in charge about the class he was to teach. He said the class was at 10 and it finally started at 10:30. Glenn is teaching some Career Workshop classes to students at a school for aspiring hotel workers here. The second class was at 3 p.m. and was huge. Most of the kids arrived without pencils. How can you be at a school without a pencil? Educational expectations are different here than they are at home. Friday—I stayed at the employment office to do loans while Glenn went with kids on a tour of SENATI, a technical school here in Trujillo and Orlando went to the police stations to see about a fender bender he had the day before. Eventually we left for a trip to Cajamarca, which is in the mountains. North of Trujillo along the coast it is desert, except for a few areas with some no account plants watered by the mist off the ocean, and the rice and asparagus fields grown in irrigated farmland. The wind was blowing and Orlando was driving at 160 kph – it was scary. We stopped for lunch at a nice restaurant on the beach in Pacasmayo, a city known for its cement factory. Heading inland toward the mountains we saw people harvesting corn by hand, bright orange piles of corn, mangos hanging green and some ripe on trees, grapes, and emerald green fields of rice, a huge reservoir without any recreational use. We were stopped for roadwork all along the road. I am reminded why months ago I said I would never ride with Orlando again. He never leaves enough time to get where he needs to be and so he feels justified in speeding to get there on time, on curvy roads where people, cars, various animals, buses and trucks might be around every corner. Then we hit the rain and fog and dirt roads in the dark, and I had to go to the bathroom the last hour and a half; I prayed to live. The first part of the trip I thought I was going to throw up, then I thought we were going to die. We were supposed to be at Cajamarca at 6. We arrived at 8 and the people were still waiting for us. We left the chapel at 11p.m., went to a restaurant for supper, left there at 12 finally heading, I thought to a hotel. After asking directions several times, calling someone twice for directions, doubling back twice, we arrived at our Hostal at 1:30, crawled into a freezing bed and got up to frost on the ground and vicunas grazing out the window. The redeeming part of the experience was that I saw stars that were too amazing to tell you; I didn’t know there were that many stars in the sky. Unfortunately I was too cold and too tired to enjoy them very long. We stayed at a cooperative farm outside Cajamarca called Porcon (supposed to be a 30 minute drive but it really is 60 minutes plus); this farm was founded by evangelicals; we ate breakfast at a restaurant called Jesus, bread of life. I had trout, fresh milk, rice and orange potatoes. We bought a wheel of cheese. Orlando is always thinking and looking for ideas for jobs and businesses for people. His mind is always working. We saw the trout farm, cultivated pine forests for lumber; but this also seems to be a tourist business. On the way back to Pacasmayo the road was blocked many places again for roadwork. The road varied between being very good, to the road being literally a gravel pit. Saturday night Orlando left us at a town called Casa Grande which has a district of the church. This town is in the middle of a huge sugar cane plantation and all the work here is associated with raising cane and making sugar. The district president took us to a couple of the branch meetings to drum up attendance to the employment meeting we would have that evening. The president’s name is Constante Sagastagi and he was one of Doug and Connie Earl’s missionaries 20 years ago. His family is an example of prosperity, I think. They invited us to dinner along with the full time missionaries; their home has bare cinderblock walls and rooms partitioned off with curtains, but they are a lovely family and truly serving and happy, and good people. Prosperous. Monday morning we are back at the hotel in Trujillo and we worked on reviewing loans to send to Salt Lake for final approval. That is not going so well, I think. The Columbian loans are a lot of 16 and 17 year old girls who want to be lawyers or environmental engineers with their budgets not filled in right and not enough money to be able to finish the career. It takes a long time to review these kinds of loans, and I don’t feel like they are good loans. It isn’t the kids fault; they are getting little or no guidance from the adults there apparently. Wednesday, Dec 16, 2009 I just looked at our blog and realized nothing new has been added for over a month. I actually have written since then, but it never got posted. It’s almost Christmas but it does not feel like it at all to me here. It is warm, and with no family events to look forward to, or traditional Christmas activities…not like Christmas at all. Hopefully we will post again soon if anyone is still bothering to check.

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