Another day of Life in Peru!

Reader’s Digest subscribers know what “Life in these United States” is all about. It’s a column containing personal, humorous experiences by some of the readership, submitted for publication. It’s easy reading, depicting life, especially those times when we can laugh at ourselves. Well, let me tell you from first-hand experience that “Life in San Juan de Lurigancho, Peru” is nothing like that. There are definitely those times when it is humorous and we do laugh at ourselves. But life is typically not that way. Life here in general is very similar to your life wherever you live.

Think about your day today. What was so funny about it? Probably not much! It was just another day. Today we walked to a hotel (30 minute walk) to meet Heather, our fellow American missionary. We needed to visit the hotel the upcoming American TEAM will be renting in its’ entirety for their stay. With the hotel contract negotiations complete, we were asking permission to enter each room to take measurements and determine the number of beds and sizes in each individual room. This will enable the TEAM leaders to begin making room assignments stateside as their arrival will be close to midnight (or later) when they finally arrive.

Don brought along a pad of paper, pencil, ruler, tape measure and me! The plan was for Heather to communicate our needs to the owners of the hotel and request permission to see each room. They were so accommodating. They opened each room, put on the lights and left us to do what we had to do. There was only one room occupied that we could not gather the necessary information from. However, two hours later, it seemed like Don and I had measured each and every wall in the hotel. He quickly did a draft drawing of each individual room including the placement of the bathroom, doorways and the beds. He sketched out the lobby space, stairwells and hallways for two floors. After completing the 29 rooms, we headed downstairs to buy a cold water and catch a bus home.

No way did Don ever expect to be using the skills he developed as a young man in life. Not as a missionary some people have been known to say! Since coming to Peru he has completed a wiring diagram for the campus of Hope House, drawings for the indoor outhouse for the church and house at Pachacutec, others for the wall separating the church from the bathroom, and its accompanying sink installation, penciled plans for the windows installation at Pachacutec, the roof at the same location, and now a hotel floor plan! Although the jobs have not been completed, he sketched a kitchen at Good Shepherd and building plans for the another orphanage a few years ago, as well. It just continues to amaze us that throughout our lives, God was preparing us for such a time as this.

We chose to take the bus home and walk the ½ mile to our home as we also needed to stop at the Mercado for some fruit. It was a pleasure to ride that short distance after being on our feet, in the heat, for a couple of hours.

Armed with the facts, Don now has to tidy up the drawings and scan them to send on to the TEAM leaders in North Carolina. Another day’s work facing him! Think I’ll spend some time reading one of the 45 books we brought home so I don’t get in his way. (tee hee!) Oh, the Life in Peru that we live. Not much different than yours!