Holy, moly!

Okay, I’m going to make y’all wait for the super awesome part because I like to go in chronological order and because Saturday was pretty interesting, too.I suppose I should start with 12:30 am on Saturday because that’s where the problems began. We were all soundly asleep in our beds when we heard a soft, “Kelly, Kim!” coming from outside our doors. Kelly and I groggily sat up and asked who it was, and it was Wílder and Daniel. Kelly got up and woke up the boys while I tried to decide if I was dreaming or not. It turns out that Wílder and Daniel had been drinking and had come to talk to us about some problems they were having. So, Shane and Kelly talked to them for I don’t know how long because Wílder and Daniel didn’t want all of us out there talking in the middle of the night. While they talked, I prayed for God to use this time, and then I went back to sleep. In the morning when I woke up, Kelly explained to me what they talked about and what the problems were, and she told me that Wílder and his wife had had an argument about all the time he spends with the four of us and how she was jealous of that time. [And I want to clarify before I go on that Elva, his wife, is really nice and we really like her a lot; but she works in another city and so we haven’t been able to spend much time with her. I don’t want you to draw any bad conclusions about her from this.] Anyways, we all felt pretty crappy about the whole situation because we felt that our friendship with Wílder had been put in jeopardy. So we prayed about it and we now just need to talk to both of them about it. Anyways, Saturday I also got to cook with Jackie again, which was fantastic! I had been in kind of a funk in the morning because of a prolonged lack of sleep from the week and the night before and because of the whole precarious situation with Wílder and Elva. I just wanted to go home and stop having problems (yeah, right), and I didn’t really want to function or be around people. But, hanging out with Jackie really helped me remember why I’m here, and God just changed my attitude to be more positive. Also, the meal we cooked was freaking delicious, and we got to share the Gospel with her as we hung out after we ate. She kind of just nodded and agreed and didn’t really seem to get it, but I’m looking forward to hanging out with her more and hopefully getting to share more of Christ’s love with her and how it has changed me personally. She also had these really warm legging things that would keep us warm on Sunday, which soon I will describe, and David and I bought some. However, David later found out that they were girl pants and they certainly would not fit him….it was really hilarious. Afterwards we played a little volleyball, which was fun because there weren’t that many people, so Shane, a girl named Merli, and I were on one team playing against a team of 5. We still beat them, oh, yeah. In the evening we went over to this girl named Zócima’s hostel because she had invited us to come chat about what we believe and stuff. It was awesome because she was really eager to just hear what we had to say, so we shared the Gospel with her and talked through some of her questions and then prayed with her. We left her a couple of passages to read and we’re going to meet up with her again this week. So, all-in-all, a not so good day turned out to be a day of hanging out with friends and sharing the Gospel….twice.

Okay, here it goes….my attempt to put into words one of the coolest days of my life. We woke up at 1:30 Sunday morning to head to the plaza to leave at 2 am for a three hour ride up into the highest altitude I’ve ever been at….to herd wild vicuña with practically the whole village of Cabana. [Vicuña are basically the wild, very distant cousins of the domesticated alpaca.] We stood around in the plaza with the rest of the people for about half an hour, and we finally got on a truck around 2:30 am. [And these are not like pickup trucks or anything; they’re like cargo trucks (not 18-wheelers) with high walls surrounding the back]. We were all nice and comfortable with our heavy blankets and several layers, and we arranged ourselves on the floor leaning up against the wall, all cozy and comfortable. However, some people in charge told us we had to get down because they needed the truck for something else, so we got off and went in search of another truck with some space for us…we sort of found one. I can’t really say that it had space for us, but we got on anyways. It was, without a doubt, the most miserable, uncomfortable ride of my life. I shall try to describe it. Kelly and I were squished up next to each other at the back of the truck up against the doors, which I feared might somehow swing open while twisting and turning on the mountain roads and dump us out. I was straddling Shane, basically (I know it sounds awkward, but it was the only, only way), who was leaning up against me, and David was leaning up against him. So, I had Shane’s weight, plus David’s, plus the fact that we were going up hill most of the time meaning that everything was tilted and all the pressure was on the back of the truck. Yeah, it was rather difficult to breathe/move. Not to mention that we were completely packed in all around us with other people, so limbs tended to go numb rather quickly. I didn’t sleep at all, and I alternated between wondering if my tail bone was broken or whether it was still there at all from the numbness. I felt a little nauseous, but thanks be to God that I did not throw up because that would have made it all that much worse. The only positive thing was that I was not cold because of the blankets we had brought and the body heat that surrounded me. Anyways, it was terrible and I was wondering the whole time if it would be worth it….it was. We finally arrived at 6 am, and it was freezing. We were in these plains where the vicuña live, and we were so high that we could see just tips of mountains in the distance and the clouds barely hovering above them; we were above 4,000 meters, so more than 13,000 feet. Everyone just stood around as we waited for another truck to arrive and for breakfast, and I watched the sun rise above the mountains and shine on the plains. It warmed us up enough to where we could put our blankets up, but it was still mighty cold [I was wearing 3 layers on bottom and 6 layers on top]. We ate a breakfast of yummy sopa de carne (beef soup) and these really hard biscuit things that you soak in warm sugary water. Around 10 or so we all loaded back onto the trucks to travel across to the other side of the plain to begin the Chacco (pronounced cha-ho; that’s the name of the vicuña herding thing). When we got to the other side, they unloaded these things that looked like flag football belts, only longer ribbons and attached to long ropes. We all grabbed a couple and started walking to where we would start the Chacco, and it was really funny to see everyone walking around with these things because they kind of reminded me of Swamp Thing. Anyways, we got to where we were going to start, and then we just kind of sat around a while longer and waited while they untangled all the ribbon thingies and tied all the ropes together and organized everyone. By the way, the purpose of the ribbon thingies was to stretch out one big rope with ribbons on it all the way across the width of the plain so as not to let any vicuña escape and the ribbons were supposed to help scare them away from trying to escape. So, after everyone and everything was ready, we started stretching out the humongous rope ribbons across the plain. I’m really bad at estimating, but I’m going to say that it was at least 2 or 3 miles wide…that’s how many people were involved, and we were spaced out about every 20-30 feet. Luckily, we were in the middle, so we just kind of stayed where we were. Once everything was stretched out and ready, everyone started walking forward at a pretty fast pace over the plain. Thankfully, the way was flat, but there were lots of rocks that made it difficult to walk and made you turn your ankles a couple of times, but if there was like a stream or something in front of you, you could just drop where you were holding the rope and walk around it. We walked and walked, and with more and more frequency we saw vicuña running back and forth across the plain, looking for a way to escape. It was so cool to see them up close because they’re really beautiful animals and very graceful looking. As we got closer and closer to the corral, we all started moving in closer together, until finally we had dropped the rope and were all holding hands and herding over a hundred wild vicuña into the fences. It was pretty tiring, because we had walked for over an hour and a half at a brisk pace, and I think we covered about 4 miles or so. But it was awesome and exhilarating. The whole time I was thinking that I couldn’t believe I was doing this and how awesome it was. What made it even more amazing was that I had researched some about Peru before I came here and had learned about this huge community herding effort and had thought that it would be so cool if I could do that. But I never could have thought that I actually would get to participate. It was incredible. After all the vicuñas were in the corral, we sat down for a bit, but then there was a sort of parade and speech thing. They invited us gringos, as special guests, to stand up with the various represented organizations, while several community and regional officials made speeches. It was basically the same thing as the other festivals we’ve been to, only thankfully much shorter and the speeches were mainly about how great the vicuñas are and how we need to protect and support them better. There was one special dance presentation, and then everyone could just dance as they pleased. Around 2 pm we ate lunch, which was soup and this delicious plate of beef and rice and potatoes. After that we all went to watch as they sheared the vicuñas’ fur, which is the softest, warmest, finest, most expensive fiber (not wool, they really stressed that) in the world. As a souvenir, I picked up a little piece of fluff that was lying on the ground. The best part, though, was that I actually got to hold a baby vicuña! It was awesome. Watching them shear the vicuñas was kind of sad though because you could see how frightened they were, and they had to tie them down and stuff. But as soon as they were shaved and vaccinated against parasites, they let them go freely. Pretty soon after that, we loaded back onto the trucks, and this time the four of us got back on the original, less packed truck we had been on in the beginning. It was so much more comfortable. These clouds had been rolling in for about an hour or two before we left, and a little ways down the road it actually started snowing…not kidding. It was weird because even though it was cold, it wasn’t that cold for it to be snowing. And then it started hailing, which was so cool because they were these perfect little white balls falling in the bed of the truck, and we looked over the walls to see the ground covered in white. We covered ourselves with the blankets to protect us, but we still watched the whole thing. I was thinking that since we had been through snow and hail, now we just needed some rain. After it had died down, I noticed a teenage girl in the corner of the truck, crying. So I went over and asked her what was wrong, thinking she maybe was just scared, and she told me that she was supposed to have been dropped off a long time ago so that she could go to her grandmother’s house. So, we asked the driver to stop, and Kelly, the driver, some other men, Yasmin (the girl), and I tried to figure out what we could do. Yasmin was nearly hysterical because she just wanted to walk the hour or more road back to her grandmother’s house, through the hailstorm and the cold, and probably arrive after dark. We couldn’t let her do that, but she just refused to come back with us to Cabana and leave at 2 am the next morning to come back. Finally, we convinced her that it was the only solution, so she got back on, and we found out later that her father, who lives in Cabana, is not very nice and probably beats her. So then we understood why she didn’t want to come back, but we told her that she could stay with us in our hostel and that her father didn’t even have to know she was in town. She went to his house anyways, so that was pretty sad and kind of frustrating. Anyways, the ride back was just as bumpy and sway-ey as before, and the hail in the back of the truck had melted and made our blankets wet. Irony of ironies, about an hour away from Cabana it started to rain, so we covered ourselves as best we could, and just rode it out. That has to be the most bizarre day of weather I’ve ever experienced, but the ride back was still a hundred times better than the ride there. One, it was not 2 in the morning and two, we had ample space to move around and stretch. We got back around 6:30 in the evening, bought some fruit and stuff for dinner, and headed back to the hostel to eat and clean up. The one thing I hated the whole time we were up there doing the vicuña thing was that it was so freaking dusty and the wind just blew it around the whole time. The dust plus the exhaust from the truck made me feel so nasty, and I did something I hadn’t done the whole time I’ve been here: I took a shower at night. Usually I shower in the afternoon, when it’s warmest and there’s a greater chance of hot water, but I just couldn’t stand to go to bed the way I was. Thankfully, the water was warm, and it was a perfect way to end an awesome day. I was warm, dry, and completely clean, and I was so sleepy that I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, and I slept beautifully until I woke up this morning. It was fantastic.

Whew! So there it is, in as much detail as I care to write, but when I see you I’ll add some more : ). Now, prayer requests:

- Pray for Yasmín, that everything would work out for her and that her father won’t abuse her
- Pray for the situation with Wílder and Elva, that we would be able to salvage those friendships and still have opportunities to share with them
- Pray for Jackie and Zócima, that they wouldn’t be able to get the message of the Gospel off their minds and that God would just open them to receive His grace
- Pray for our time left here, that we would make the most of it and hold nothing back
- Pray for more and more opportunities to love and share Christ’s love

It’s getting down to the end here, which is really hard and really strange to think about. I love and miss you all, and I thank y’all for praying for me and sticking with me throughout this whole time.