A weekend in the mountains....

   Last week we had the pleasure of having Nathan's sister, Rebekah come visit us in Cusco. We had such a wonderful time with her. Rebekah was my roommate in college and actually introduced Nathan and I, so she has been my good friend long before she became my sister-in-law. She also has celiac disease, like me, so she made me many gluten free goodies and even froze many pie crusts and pizza doughs in my freezer. She has such a heart to serve and love on us, so it was such a treat to have her visit.

    During the time that Rebekah was here we also had a team from Chattanooga, TN here as well. Last Saturday we went up into the mountains with this group to help with their medical clinics as well as help with translating. This team had an autorefractor, which is a machine used in ophthalmology to measure a persons glasses prescription. Nathan was able to work with the physician who brought the machine, and the two of them were able to see and help many people. Nathan also saw quite a few patients with cataracts that hopefully he will be able to help when the ophthalmology clinic is up and running in September.

The local health post in this village

I am trying to translate :=)

Nathan seeing patients 

Patients waiting to be seen

Village where we held the medical clinic

    After a very long day of travel we finally made it to see the infamous Machu Picchu. It was really amazing to see. It is an old ancient Inkan city that was found about 100 years ago. Since that time thousands of tourists come every year to see it. Part of the wonder of it all is that it takes many hours and lots of modes of transportation to arrive at the ancient city. From our house in Cusco we had to board a bus for about 2 hours. Then from there we took a 2 hour train. From there we then took a 30 minute bus ride to the top to finally see MP. It was a very long, but very fun day, and we are thankful that we got to experience this with Rebekah.

My dear sister-in-law Rebekah 

Machu Picchu

Famous terracing by the Inkas

Car owners and peruvian residents all in the same day

Our new (used) truck! We are so thankful!

    This past week we went to Lima with the intention of finishing the process for our residency visas as well as buying a car. To my amazement we actually accomplished both in the same day. On Tuesday we spent the morning in the immigration office being fingerprinted, photographed, and questioned and then in the afternoon we found and purchased a car. We finally finished the process around 9 pm and then went to pick up Nathan's sister at the airport at midnight. Talk about one very long day! We are so excited that we were able to get these things done.  There was one difficulty about buying a car in Lima....it had to be driven the 18 hours over the mountains back to Cusco. So, Nathan and our team leader, Keith started the journey on Wednesday night and arrived back in Cusco on Thursday with our truck! I am so excited to go to the grocery store and not have to carry all of our groceries home.
  
    The clinic process is continuing to move along nicely. We have had several wonderful teams from the US who have been helping us with the construction. There was a group here from Texas of about 30 people and I do believe that they almost finished all of the framing in one week. We are so thankful for their help and could not have done that much work without them. This week the framing of the roof is being completed and the sidewalk and retaining wall is being built by some of our Peruvian friends from the church.The clinic really looks like a building now. We cannot wait for the day that Nathan will be working there.

Here are a few pictures:

Mostly finished framing 

Hard at work on the roof

This will be the patient waiting room 

The sidewalk to the left is being finished and rocked right now

Texas cooking meets Peruvian dinner

  This past weekend several Peruvian physicians from Lima, who are involved in the Christian Physician Organization of Peru, arrived in Cusco. They came to Cusco to meet with Christian physicians here and to host a program called "Saline Solution," which teaches and encourages Christian doctors to be sharing their faith with their patients. Nathan was really excited to get to hear this program in Spanish, since he has only ever heard it in English. Several medical students as well as dental students attended this conference. It was so neat because Nathan was able to reconnect with one of the medical students that we met in 2009 when we were here touring and "scoping out" Cusco. The medical student seemed very surprised and excited to see Nathan and to hear more about the medical student ministry that will be beginning soon.
   On Sunday night we had all of the physicians who had come from Lima in our home for dinner. It was a rather late dinner, as it started at 9:00pm, but I am quickly adjusting to late meal times. We had a wonderful time getting to know them and also enjoying King Ranch Chicken, a true Texas food. We are so thankful for these new friendships.

Here are a few pictures:

Nathan at the conference 

A time of prayer for the ministries in Cusco

The whole group from Lima and Cusco

Nathan being the perfect host at dinner :=)

Dinner at our house