The Mercado

Today Timothy and I headed back to the mercado, the "market" here in Piura.  We had dropped off some measurements for some curtains for my home office last week, and it was time to pick them up.  (Note:  most rental houses in Piura do not come with window coverings, which feels important when you kind of look out of place most of the time.)  It is an interesting place, always changing, always busy (except for mid afternoon, when everything pretty much shuts down for lunch).  Today the roadway through the center was blocked by transit police...not sure why, but then, I am not usually aware of why most things happen here.  Before going further, here is someone else's picture of what it usually looks like:

You can find pretty much anything at the market.  So far, here is a list of our purchases:

- wash tub large enough to give Capitan a bath now and when he is 40 kilos
- 2 sets of curtains
- misc. kitchen gadgets
- multiple purchases of avocados, bananas, and other fruits
- Toby's school uniform pants (custom made from suit material)
- Mikaela's must-be-a-certain-color-red hair bands for school
- a mosquito net for Mikaela's bed (they really like her it appears)
- the gas tank (with gas) for our kitchen stove
- an aluminum fry pan (almost all cooking pots here are aluminum, but this was a bad purchase)
- our guest bed frames
- a ride-on toy for Timothy
- copies of our house keys
- PVC pipe and string for a pan flute Toby made at school
- replacement plumbing parts for our shower (purchased by an annoying plumber, but that is another story)
- a leash and collar for Capitan
- probably some other items I just cannot remember.

Most of my trips have been with Timothy, since the kids have been in school.  It is easy to get lost, since there are actually several mercados spanning several city blocks.  Most items are grouped, with stores selling kitchen items together, etc.  The nice part is, though, that if you can make it to one of the several streets that weaves through the area, you can easily get a taxi to take you home.

Prices are negotiable, mostly.  I like the places with the prices listed/marked on the products, since it makes it a bit tougher to take advantage of this gringo.  Or maybe the prices listed are for the gringos? :-)  But with repeated trips, you begin to take in a bit more than just the sometimes pungent smells, the unknown wet substance on the ground, the trash, the noise, the confusion.  You get to know the people.

That is why we are here, right?  The people.  I am getting to know the pastor of a church nearby who sells kitchen gadgets off a table on the main road.  I am getting to know the guy at the curtain shop, and he offers me more price points than just the top of the line.  And I am getting to understand how it works, how the mercado flows.  It is not scary anymore (ok, there are a few places I do avoid).  There is a level of fun seeing how it all flows, how it all runs.  One could say like a well oiled machine, but that might be pushing it...

God is present in Peru.  My eyes are finally opening to see that.

Take care.

Lowell

Team

Yesterday, our Team for northern Peru was finally together.  Great day!  Otto and Lidia Funk have lived in this area for over 3 years now, and as of yesterday morning, Stacy Kuhns and Heidi Schmidt have arrived here as well!  We are excited about what the next few months and years hold for us as a team.

We celebrated this milestone yesterday with a great meal of pasta alfredo, garlic bread, iced tea, and green salad.  Great "home" food as we start this new journey together.

We know that many of you have prayed for this day to happen soon, and we are thankful that we have reached that milestone!

Blessings.

Lowell

Typing Therapy

In case you're interested, I just wrote a long, rambling blog post for my other blog about writing, culture shock, Easter and home (among other things.) It was mostly for therapeutic purposes but if you miss listening to me try to think and talk at the same time, you might hop on over there.

Click here.

The Fraternity

Yesterday I was invited to attend a meeting of the Fraternity of Evangelical Pastors here in Piura.  It was incredible.  15 men of God, on their knees, praying for the Kingdom of God to reign here in this city.  There were a variety of backgrounds, a variety of denominations represented, but a clear unified voice was calling out for God's hand to move in this community.  I was blessed by the opportunity to be present in that room, to see a glimpse of what God is doing here in this place called Piura.

Oh, and there was Christmas Blend from Starbucks.  What a day!  Thanks Gene for taking me and Jose for opening up your church doors to host us!

Lowell

The First Days

Hey folks!  Our last blog post started out by saying the last days before a move are always hard for us. Well, the first days after a move aren't too easy either.  We are going through a lot of adjustments and are extremely thankful for God's provision of strength and courage as we are settling into a new normal for our family.  We are in a big, lovely house (filled with South American quirks) and the kids are loving having more space than ever before.  It's a big change from the last 3 homes we've rented/used since moving out of our house in Fresno and we are looking forward to stretching our hospitality muscles again as this house seems to have been MADE for hosting guests and events.  : )  Little could make us happier.  We expect it to be a great place for ministry and look forward to seeing how God will lead us that way. We are so thankful for how God has provided! Every day we are feeling more settled and we are grateful for that as well.

And the two big kids started school Thursday!  It's been another cultural adventure getting them signed up and set up at their new "colegio". So many things are different than what we're used to.  You don't know how much you knew about a system (i.e. the public school system in Fresno) until you are somewhere else and what you knew before doesn't apply anymore.  For example, in the States the public schools purchase and supply almost everything the kids need for their studies (i.e. textbooks, paper, art supplies, copy/printer paper, etc.).  Here, for public and private schools, your child is expected to purchase basically everything.  Our list included their textbooks, notebook covers (so they have the school logo on them!) pencils, pens, paint, paper of all shapes, colors and sizes, copy paper, poster board, toilet paper, 3 kinds of glue, dictionaries (Spanish and bilingual), a Bible... Many were things that I had never learned the Spanish names for.  (Some were things I wish my students would have had to bring back in the day - like a little kit for freshening up after recess or PE (complete with a little perfume or cologne if desired). Time for personal hygiene is actually on the class schedule.  Which is a good thing in a not place like this in the Summer!)

Anyway, the list was daunting and the crowds in the stores overwhelming at moments.  But eventually, after several shopping trips, we had the majority of the stuff we needed.  Then we just had to figure out what to do with it. I discovered this morning that some of the stuff we lugged to school could have been left at home.  In Fresno, the textbooks belong to the school and normally stay at the school.  Here, the textbooks belong to us and the kids bring them on designated days according to the schedule. The list of supplies was divided into personal, paper, materials, etc and each group of items is handled in a different way.  Now I know. : ) Thankfully their teachers (and everyone else) have been patient so far with the gringos and all of our confusion and questions.

Lowell and I were talking this morning about how this scenario is going to be repeated over and over and over this year - with the school and church and everything else.  I honestly can't think of a single thing that we do that is exactly the same here as it was in the U.S. The way we brush our teeth, flush the toilet, do the dishes, do the laundry, lock up at night, get around town, buy groceries, get to church, etc. is all different in some way. There are lots and lots of similarities, yes.  But there is a lot of new stuff to learn and new routines to settle into and new habits to make.  And that makes the first days in a new place harder than the next days will be - and I'm thankful for that.  We still haven't gotten everything together (like going to buy fabric and hiring a seamstress to make Toby's uniform pants.) (Yes, you read that right.)  But just thinking about what I know now that won't be totally new next year when school starts again makes me feel pretty satisfied. Buy the carátulas from the school and attach them with vinifan to the triple renglón cuadernos? No problem. Buy the textbooks at the local department store or at the publisher's store? Got it. Say goodbye to the kids on their first day of school ever in Peru? Thankfully, that's one I'll never have to do again. (At least for the two older kids.)

Overall, we can definitely say that our experience at the school has gotten off to a very positive start for ALL of us. THANK YOU FOR PRAYING FOR US. God has been faithful.

The Last Days

The last days before a move are always difficult for us.  First off, we usually procrastinate a bit more than we should in dealing with the little things - the receipts on the table, the pens and pencils laying around, actually getting those clothes in the suitcase, etc.  Those of you have helped us in the last 3 moves have watched this impact our schedule a bit!

There are other things too.  Cleaning up the house before we leave.  Making sure we have what we need for the journey.  Figuring out what we will need in the first few days when we arrive at our new home.  And making sure any last minute returns of borrowed items are completed.

But mostly, for the Ens family, it is the people.  We will miss the people.  We will miss those who are family and those who have become family.  Here in Trujillo, at Iglesia Familia de Dios, in Vista Hermosa, we have come to love this new family.  Tonight will be our last Monday prayer service with some of them for a while.  Yesterday we enjoyed a great morning service and a celebration in the afternoon.  And we will be back sometime, probably several times a year I am guessing.  But it won't be like when we were living here.

Soon we will arrive in a new town, and be joining a new church.  Eventually, they too will feel like family I am sure.  And with God's grace, we hope to stick around a few years longer there before moving again.  But this has been a good reminder not to let days go by without having a lunch with a new friend, inviting someone over for a game or two, and working diligently at building relationships.

Our next blog will probably happen after the move north tomorrow.  Hope to have much more to share!

Take care.

Lowell

Failure

We failed.  We didn't find what we were looking for.  A house.  A place to move into a few weeks from now.  A place close to the kids' new school.  Centrally located.  Easy access to transportation and stores.  And a retreat.  We need a place to retreat.

That was about 2 weeks ago now.  We still don't have a house to move into.  We looked.  We searched.  We even hired people to help us.  And others have looked.  But so far, failure.  Meaning lack of success.  As in one of those favorite U2 songs that we all love, "We still haven't found what we are looking for".

But we have learned some things.  We know where to focus our search.  We know a bit more of how that location relates to others in the city of Piura.  We know how to grab a moto-taxi and tell them where to go.  We know how much, in general, a taxi ride should cost.  We know what kind of house we are seeking, how big, what the cost should be.  We know what most will include and what they won't.  We have learned a lot about house hunting in Peru.

Tomorrow Toby and I will be traveling north once again to Piura, in part to look for house to rent.  Failure is not really a great option at this point.  We need a place to live.  We are tired of moving and want a place of our own.  Piura is a hot real estate market right now, so we are looking for a miracle on this one.  God has been faithful in the past in this area.  He found us a house in Abbotsford when we went there for training.  He found us a condo in Fresno when we returned.  He found us some great renters for our house there too.  This is a proven experience for us - we wait and pray, He is faithful to take care of us.

Your prayers are appreciated as we face the challenge of avoiding failure this weekend.  Take care.

Lowell