Saturday's Highlights

Here is a missed trip highlight from Burton for Saturday's events.  The emails do not seem to come in in a normal manner - sometimes they are sent twice or sometimes they come in after the newer email was sent. 
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Burton (3/19/11)- We are seeing some wonderful examples of Gods creation. We went to visit a village where AIDIA is training church leaders and members God's design for the family.  The name of the church was Quillcaccasa.  It was a three hour trip up into the mountains, the scenery on the way was very beautiful. The air is quite thin at 13,500 feet, it's a bit tough on our bodies with the curvy roads and high altitudes.  We are hoping and praying for non eventful trip home.  Thank you for all your prayers.

Karin- Annie and I spent our day in Abancai because we were not feeling real chipper and did not think we could handle the three hour trek up to the village.  So we had our own adventure in Abancai.  We walked downtown and did some exploring and people watching, hoping we would remember how to get home! 

We even got brave enough to take a taxi back to the motel with our very limited Spanish.

As we were waiting for the rest of the team to arrive, we got invited to play volleyball with some kids in the street.  That was a lot of fun, but I don't think they were that impressed with our skills.  It was kind of a bummer when you missed the ball because it rolled all the way down the hill!

That night we had some really good chicken at the restaurant and then we watched a festival downtown.  This festival involved cutting down a tree that was right in the middle of the street.  The tree is filled with gifts such as laundry baskets.  People in traditional costumes dance around the tree, and they take turns taking a chop with an axe.  Finally the tree falls and whoever fells the tree gets to take all the presents home, but next year he has to provide the tree and the gifts! After that entertainment, we provided entertainment for the Peruvians as we attempted to buy stuff on the street and bargain.  If you have never seen Mike strike a bargain with his own brand of Spanish, you are truly missing an event.  At one point, we had gathered quite a crowd and the gringos were providing quite the entertainment. We have thoroughly enjoyed the people here and feel blessed to be a part of it all.