My last weekend before the onslaught of uni starts. I better make sure I do plenty of relaxing.

I have been back in Australia for 5 days now but haven’t really had the energy to blog.

So much to think about, pray about and reflect on from the trip. I am still pretty sure that Peru is the place I am called to but have no idea what I am supposed to do there. Right now I am feeling most convicted by the idea of just living there (in community of course), and being friends with people rather than doing anything in particular if that makes sense. I am also convicted by the idea of not being busy, living simply, being connected with family, prayer, supporting relationships and connecting people across social divides. Again not fully knowing what that actually means.

However about week ago in my time of reflection and prayer I was reading Job. In a place of much pain and suffering I felt that was quite appropriate. I read this and I found it really spoke to me and made me feel at peace about the uncertanity.

“Give into God and come to terms with Him
and everything will turn out fine.
Let him tell you what to do;
take his words to heart.
Come back to God Almighty
and he’ll rebuild your life.
Clean house of everything evil.
Relax your grip on your money
and abandon your gold plated luxury.
God Almighty will be your treasure,
more wealth than you can imagine.

You’ll delight in God, the Mighty One,
and look to Him joyfully, boldly.
You’ll pray to Him and he’ll listen,
he’ll help you do what you’ve promised.
You’ll decide what you want and it will happen,
your life will be bathed in light.
To those who’ll feel low you’ll say “Be brave”
and God will save them.
Yes, even the guilty will escape,
escape through God’s grace in you.”

This won´t be a long one as I am at Buenas Aires airport and paying unbelievable amounts of money to be here but I wanted to write and ask people if they would be able to pray for my friend Teresa. Teresa´s 15 year old daughter Paola disappeared almost 5 months ago and she hasn´t heard anything. She has searched most of the north of Peru and Ecuador but nothing and has receieved no help from the police at all. In fact most of her meetings with them have been very negative. It seems quite possible she has been sold into prostitution or somthing. As you can imagine Teresa is compeltely distraught as she does not know what else to do but pray to God and hope for a miracle. I also can´t do anything else but that either and if you would all too that would be great.

Sorry I have been so slack on the blog front but we have made it to our final destination Chulucanas. I can´t say how happy I am to be here and rest finally. Lida is looking after us very nicely and yesterday I slept pretty much all day, it was wonderful.

Apart from that though the last week has been pretty busy. After our day in Arequipa we decided to take a tour to the Valle del Colcon which is about five hours out of Arequipa and you can see Condors. I don´t usually do tours but we had Lida with us so we thought it would be easier that way and it was pretty fun really. We stopped at a few touristy places along the way, met a really cool girl from New Zealand and the Condors were amazing. They are so big and they flew around for about an hour. They were actually looking for food but to me it was like they were putting on a show just for us.

That went for two days and then we moved on to Lima. I am not a huge fan of Lima but it was good to be there and catch up with some of Martin´s family. We saw his dad and some cousins and I finally met his nephew, Diego. He is absolutely gorgeous and kept calling me tia (aunt) I loved it. We also watched the soccer game between Peru and Argentina. Unortunately Peru didn´t win but it was exciting. Peru played four games in the Copa America before getting knocked out in the second round and they won two and lost two but I saw the two they lost. I hope I am not bad luck. We also went the stadium of Martin´s soccer team “La U” and watched a game. They tied. It was fun and I am pleased to finally have seen up close the other love of Martin´s life.

After two days in Lima we took the overnight bus to Piura and arrived at about 8.30 in the morning. We have visited many places in South America now which are far more beautiful than Piura and have talked a lot about where we may live but nothing feels like home quite like Piura does. It has changed a lot though and thankfully seems to be doing a lot better and much cleaner. I don´t know if that is true but it does seem that way. We visited Martin´s brother and his new baby. She is so cute although being around babies makes me so clucky. We also visited Martin´s other niece and Koky, Cesar and Arturo. Again they all seem to be doing really well which makes so happy. It was strange been there and made me feel very nostalgic. It is a good thing that things change and people grow but I guess part of us wants things to stay the same.

Then finally at about 8.30 in the evening we took the bus to Chulucanas. Lida has painted, reorganised and cleaned the whole house for us. It looks great actually and feels homely. She has been a wonderful host. I think she enjoyed the trip but really she is much more content having us in her home and I too am content. It was nice to unpack the bags fully knowing I don´t have to pack them up for another ten days. I have slipped in to the very slow paced life of the town. I have slept, ate, read, gone for some short walks around the place but pretty nothing else for two days. After the last couple of months I have so needed that. Tommorrow we go back to Piura to visit some of the families that I was friends with through Ayni. I am feeling a little anxious about it, there is a lot going on for them and me really, so am glad I have taken these two days to just relax. I haven´t made up my mind if I am going to go out to the school yet. I don´t think it would be at all helpful but people keep telling me I should. They think they´d be offended if I didn´t and I have to say Peruvians are kind of like that. I guess we´ll see.

Martin has been a lot more active, visiting people, playing basketball and catching up with everyone. He is so happy. Lots of memories here too for us. It is kind of like falling in love all over again.

I am not sure if my days are right. It is funny right now I seem to have lost track of what day it is, what the date is and how many days I´ve been gone but I guess it is not really that important.

Lida arrived today. It was really nice to see her and we have had such a specail day together which has been wonderful. It is so important to me to have a close and supportive relationship with her and I am not sure how great I have been at that so I am happy that we are having a good time. When she arrived we picked her up from the bus station and then we went and had lunch. It was good food and we had a spectacular view over all of Arequipa. It is called the white city cause most of the buildings are made out of the local volcanic rock which is white. Anyway it is very attractive, not to mention it has a very beautiful plaza and churches. After lunch we visited the Santa Catalina monastry. It must be the biggest and most lovely monastry ever. Then we wondered around town for a bit and then visited an archaelogical museum which houses “Juanita – the Ice Princess”. Juanita is a mummy whose remains were found in the mountains close to here. She is a very important mummy as she is pretty much fully in tact (it is bizarre) and she was sacrificed to the Inca god in the 1500´s. From all the other artifcats that they have found they believe she was a very noble and imporatnt sacrifice. It was fascinating, really fascinating.

We just had dinner and now I am going to go and have a shower and go to bed even thought it is only 8.30. Sight seeing really takes it out of me but will write soon.

Time is a funny thing. It feels kind of like an eternity since I was in Sydney yet on the other hand however it feels like only yesterday that I first came to Peru.

We made it to Peru today (maybe that is what has got me thinking about time). When we crossed the border Martin lay down on the soil for awhile. I didn´t go that far but I was feeling pretty moved. However where have we been since then.

I did manage to see the Valle de la Luna and it was pretty cool. Maybe not worth a five year wait but good and incredibly unique. After that we went back into La Paz and Martin went to the Coca museum. I didn´t as I had seen it before but it was pretty interesting. A sure example of just one of the ways that Bolivia has been so completely exploited.

After that we left La Paz and went to Copacabana, a cute little town on Lake Titicaca. There we visited the Island of the Sun. It took about five hours to walk across the island and it was stunning. There was also some Inca ruins to visit. Along the way though we were frequently asked by children with llamas if we would like to take their photo for one boliviano. Obviously they have realised that tourists like to take their photo so they are cashing in on it. You can´t blame them at all but I found it pretty grose. It just makes it so difficult to genuinely connect. That evening we went out with some other travellers we had met that day. They were great but some of the other tourist were just appalling. They complain about everything. While travelling one seems to meet the best and the worst of humanity.

This morning we left Compacabamba and after about three buses and nine hours we arrived in Arequipa, Peru. It was a bit of adventure as we had got down to about $10 and every town we arrived in told us there was no ATM so everything was pretty budget and there was lots of walking but it all worked out in ther end. As said it is good to be here. We will be staying here for three nights I suspect which will be nice as I may actually be able to unpack somewhat and it is a bit warmer so I am hoping to shake the cold that has been stalking me.

I have been feeling pretty negative the last two days really. Mostly to do with the fact that both Martin and I have been a little physically sick (a cold combined with the altitude sickness is not all that pleasant) but also pretty tired with constantly moving, living out of a backpack, being looked at a lot (although Bolivia believe it or not is better than Argentina) and just not knowing how to respond to all the poverty that I see around me. Martin thinks that I make it more complicated than it really it is. I think he makes it more simple than it really is. As usual the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

There have been some good and interesting moments though. After our nap in Oruro we went for a walk around that town. Again nothing spectacular but I enjoyed walking around. We sat in a plaza in the sun for awhile and I shut my eyes and felt the sun on my eyes and it was so soothing. We also visited an old mine that is no longer in use so they turend it into a museum. How awful it would be to work in a mine. I was feeling really sick and claustrophobic after like half an hour in there I couldn´t imagine been in there all day.

The next morning we moved on to La Paz. We bought tickets at the front of the bus upstairs so the drive was pretty spectacular especially driving into La Paz. What a crazy city it is. People everwhere, still dressed very traditionally and all with some crazy thing to sell. We went and checked out the Presedential Palace. It is quite attactive and we were hoping to get a glimpse of Evo Morales. Bolivia´s first indigenous president who is making some pretty big changes. The Bolivians we have spoken with tell us that they are yet to feel them but there is hope for the future. We sat in yet another plaza outside and after been hassled for about five minutes Martin aggreed to let one of the shoesshine boys clean his shoes. He did and then Martin cleaned his. You should have seen the looks of the people walking by when they saw that. Anyway we got chatting with them and it turned out that Bolivia was playing Uraguay in the America´s cup that afternoon and the boys did not have a TV to watch it or the ten Bolivianos it costs to see at the cinema so we invited them to watch it in our hotel. It was a fun 2 hours that we spent with them although Bolivia lost 1-0 so they left pretty disappointed. Then Peru lost 2-0 to Venezuala so I had a very disappointed Martin as well.

After a lot of soccer we went out for dinner and stumbled upon a drag show in the street that was trying to raise awareness of gay rights. It was pretty tame compared to Sydney but the crowd was still pretty quiet and didn´t fully know what to do but it was good to see that there is some openess to the rights of homosexuals and lesbians.

This morning feeling much better but still pretty tired and out of shape. Walking around this place is so hard. Two flights of steps and I am gasping. I am not sure why the altitude has affected me so much more this time as I am much fitter but it has. Today we head off to Valle de la Luna which was somthing I tried to see last time I was here but didn´t manage to due to getting robbed and few other disasters so I am hoping today will go well.

We have now arrived safely in Bolivia but it was an adventure to get here that is for sure. We left Ju-Juy in the morning and took a bus to the border where we crossed over into Bolivia without any problems. In fact it always amazes me how little they check at the borders here. Certainly not like home. Entering Bolivia the difference is pretty immediate. I am much, much more aware of the poverty here and much, much more aware of the indigenous culture. I guess that is like home and perhaps the rest of the world where it always seems to be the indigenous culture suffering most.

It is hard to know exactly how to respond. Before I came I was listening to the CD of Robyn Hemmes who spoke at the TEAR conference a couple of years ago. I have listened to it before but I wanted to engage with some of the stuff that she talks about before I came. In one of her talks she describes our tendency to look away when we come in contact with the poor. To ignore them and pretend they don´t exist. I was challenged on this trip not to do that but it sure is hard. On almost every street there is someone selling something or asking for money and when I look it seems to give them the impression I am going to buy something and they just keep at me until I look away. I can´t buy from everyone, I can´t give to everyone that asks and I am not sure that, that exchange empowers either of us so how do I have exchanges that empower people and make them feel valuable and lovable?

There have been some moments though which have felt good. I hope the other person would say the same. We decided to catch the train from the border to Oruro where we are now (about three hours from La Paz) in popular (third class). It was a fifteen hour trip over night and it may have been the most uncomfortable and cold night of my life but I would do it again for the exchanges we had with people. The guy who sat opposite us was named Andres. He talked with us a lot of the trip about Bolivia, the political, economic and social situstion and it was fascinating to hear it from him. In the middle of the night when it was so cold I had gone numb he put the only blanket he had over me and Martin so we could share it with him. It was very moving. There was also a woman who sat in the aisle across from us. She was dressed traditionally and I smiled at her and she smiled back. We didn´t say a word to each other but continued to smile through out the trip. Martin and I bought a bag of mandarines which we shared around and people took gratefully. I was worried people would look at me the whole way and wonder what the hell I was doing there but they didn´t seem to.

When we arrived we took a taxi to the hearest hotle and had a hot shower and a rest in a comfy bed. It was amzing and I was very grateful but I guess the others won´t be doing that.

We are still in Ju-Juy. It has been nice to spend more than one night somewhere. It´s been a pretty tranquil day. We got up late, wandered around the town for a couple of hours, ate and then came back to the hotel for more thermal baths and relaxing watching the view.

It may be one of my favourite days so far. I mean we didn´t do or see anything particularly exoctic or exciting but I just enjoyed wandering the town and the markets and watching people and how they live. It´s the ordinariness of it all or something that I like. No photos though. I was having dilemas about it as I would have liked to have got some but I just didn´t feel it was appropriate, not to mention kind of embarassing getting out the camera in some of the places that we were.

Martin and I desiced to make a list of ten things that we were grateful to God for. We got past ten but here are ten:

Times to relax
Mountains
Eachother
Hot water
Stars
Stillness
Waiting
Food
Wine
Different Cultures

I think that is the spelling but I am not sure. Anyway we are in a town in the very north of Argentina. This will be our last stop before we head to Bolivia but before that where have we been since I last wrote.

So we visited the Iguazu falls. They were absolutely incredible. Really undescribable so I won´t bother. Lots of photos but as usual of things of a grand nature they don´t really capture it. We were going to spend the night at the Sheraton for my birthday but we decided not to. It was a bit grose, totally overpriced and and we were finished at about 3pm (we have been getting started so early) so we thought that we should move on. I am keen to have plenty of time in Peru.

So we moved on to San Ignacio. We got there at like 11pm at night and it was absolutely freezing and we had to wonder around town looking for a place to stay. Thankfully we did without too much trouble but it was a little unnerving. The next morning we spent checking out the Jesuit missions which were pretty cool and very old (they were built in 1620) in temperature of about 0.

We then hopped on another bus for about 20 hours until we arrived here in Ju-Juy. Ju-Juy has been great for the couple of hours that we´ve been here. I had not heard anything about before and was expecting to pass though pretty quickly but I have changed my mind. I think when you are not expecting anything and then it turns out to be great you appreciate it even more.

So we have checked ourselves into a nice hotel hidden in some mountains and are really enjoying not been in a bus. We have done some exercise and had ourselves a themal bath in the water from the mountains and are now sitting watching the sun go down over the hills. Tonight we will celebrate my birthday with some wine and a nice meal so I better go but will hopefully write soon.