Peru, Saturday, December 8th
Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:39:03 -0500
Dear Family,
The trip to Ica was a "whirl-wind" trip. It is a four hour drive at best, but it took a little longer for us to get there since we traveled at night on Thursday night. Julio, my driver, is fond of saying about himself that he is a "pajaro de su isla" -- which means that he is a "songbird of his island". What he meant by that was he knows his town and can navigate it with ease. Well, our trip to Ica was proving that he had left his "island". That was especially true driving at night. I was glad that he did not push himself if he did not feel comfortable. One other thing I forgot to mention about the Thursday trip was that while we were eating we felt a very distinct tremor. It happened at 8:42, and I learned on Friday morning from Paulino that the tremor was 5.1 in Lima, but only 4.0 in Ica. It seems that he and perhaps all of Ica keep tract of such things (I wonder why?).
We got started a little after 9:00 am this morning. Since we were going to go through downtown, I had Julio go by Sol de Ica Hotel. This is the hotel in downtown where we have always stayed. It still hasn't reopened. I had met a worker at Las Dunas Hotel that was a former employee of Sol de Ica, and she told me that they have not received licenses to reopen. When I got there, the owner saw me outside taking pictures, and motioned me to come in. I went in and visited briefly. It seems that the only workers he has now are construction workers. I asked him why he wasn't opened, and he told me that it was because the government said that all buildings downtown could not be over 5 stories high. His hotel has a 6th floor, so he is tearing the 6th floor off so he can reopen. I asked him when, and he said in a few days. I told him that's what he said last September when I was here. He went into his song and dance that this was for sure. He said, "Don't worry Gringo, it will be ready". I asked him since he was having to do so much work would he raise his prices or could I get the same rate as 2007. I never did get a straight answer from him. I guess I got my answer!
At 10:00, we met Paulino and Ruben at the church building. Inside, the cook squad was cooking for noon meal. They are still feeding about 40 people (down from 150) and will probably cease this very shortly. All around thing seemed to be getting back to normal (normal wasn't all that good) but you could still see the scars from the earthquake everywhere, it's just that a lot of the rubble has been moved from the streets now.
I had them take me first to the lot where the new church building was to be built. It is basically cleaned off and ready for construction. He tells me that it will take about 2 months to build. That will be pushing it for us to use in June since in Latin America you DOUBLE all estimates and hope that make that schedule.
After we went to the lot, we checked out several members' houses. While we were traveling I asked about ALL of the members that were damaged as to the progress of rebuilding their house. I took out my list and went through it with him. It seems that the members want to wait until they see what the government is going to give them. If their help is like the food kitchen and clothing help was the people won't get much. It seems that the word is out that they are going to get more than I believe will come about. Whatever, we stand ready to supply the materials for a 10X10 room when they are ready to beginning building.
I did go by Yolanda Rojas' house since her story touched me the most. Her little provisional hut that was on the street had been moved off the street and is not hard fast against her damaged house. The only person home was a relative. He said Yolanda was at work that starts at 5:00 am each morning.
I finished my visit with Paulino going over details of administrating the relief project and things we need to keep everyone posted.
By the time we finished it was 12:30 pm. We are looking at a 4 hour ride to Lima and I MUST be there by 5:00 pm since I and another brother from the States, Terry Frizzell, are the two speakers at a youth conference. Given the fact that my driver, Julio, is a "pajaro de su isla", I not sure that I will get there in time. He assured me that since it will be day light he can get there much quicker. So we grabbed a couple bottles of water, some crackers and cookies (lunch) and off we went.
Surprisingly enough the "parajo de su isla" got us there by 4:30.
Five o'clock came and went, and close to 5:45 pm the youth conference began. I was a little concerned at first since my topic was the "Christian Engagement". I was to tell the teens the boundaries of being engaged to be married. The first group of kids that got there were PRE-TEENS! Finally enough of TEENS came that I only had to modify my message a little.
Terry went first. I told him that we were to go from 5:00 to 7:00. By the time he got up to speak, it was 6:00, so he did 30 minutes, and I started about 6:30. Now for those who know me I just want to tell you that at 7:07 the teens were having their after conference snacks!!! AND THAT WAS WITH USING A TRANSLATOR!
Terry, Rodolfo and I then went for supper and home. It's been a long day, and I am glad to get into my bed, even if it is 11:00 pm.
I have some photos to go with this. Also, my son has put all my blogs of this trip on my web page at www.panamajack.org You can send others there to get all the latest of this trip.
God bless.
