Wednesday, August 9 and Thursday, August 10 (Josh Blessing)
Hola friends and church family! Our group arrived safely to Cusco, Peru this morning. Steve & Bethany and boys arrived a week ago and the rest of our team (Steve & Beth, Josh & Rosemary and children, Carolyn and boys, Moses and Joel Madavaram) had an uneventful travel from Lancaster to JFK airport,New York to Lima, Peru, and then to Cusco, Peru. It was nice to only have 2 flights to Cusco rather than the 3 flights we took back in 2019 for LVCF’s first trip to Peru.
A fun God story is how we found a driver for our trip to the airport. There was much discussion over options to get to JFK airport, which is at least a 3.5-hour drive from Lancaster. The team reserved a 15-passenger van in the hopes we could find a driver. Only a few days prior to our flight, we reached out to Galen Sauder who is a schoolteacher at Lancaster Mennonite and an experienced coach and school bus driver. He responded quickly that he believed he could take us even though we later found out that he and his wife had an early flight the next morning. We are thankful for Galen who got us there safely; he had gone with a group to Cusco, Peru many years ago to do work on the Promesa school so that was a neat connection as well.
Our group met pastor Steve & Beth (who are staying longer and needed to drive separately) at JFK airport in plenty of time and we got through security quickly. It helps to have younger children in your group as airport staff often intentionally try to shepherd you through lines quicker. 😊 We made it to our gate and the children played games and colored until we boarded and departed at 12:05 a.m. The first flight went smoothly and was the first flight for some of the children in our group. They handled it very well. We had 2 meals on the 8-hour flight to Lima (dinner at 1 a.m. and breakfast at 6 a.m.). Some got several hours of sleep on this overnight flight and some did not. We hurried to get through customs and barely made our connecting 1.5 hour flight to Cusco.
Pastor Roberto, who shared at LVCF in 2015 when in PA for Mennonite World Conference, picked us up at the airport. He drove us to the 2 homes where we are staying in San Jeronimo where we reunited with Steve & Bethany. It takes time to adjust to the altitude in Cusco which is 10,000 – 11,000 ft above sea level. Most of us had a mild headache once we landed. We did our best to stay hydrated, which helps, and then our hosts gave us plenty of Coca tea which also helps adjust to the high altitude. It is a blessing that half of our group can stay with Pastor Roberto & Valeria and half with Francisca & Rolando. We are experiencing incredibly generous hospitality and, after resting for a few hours and getting settled, enjoyed a delicious lunch of homemade soup with chicken and vegetables.
After our late lunch, Pastor Roberto drove us to the city of Cusco where we needed to get local SIM cards for our phones, exchange money, and get tourist tickets for visiting sites in the area. Finally, we walked to the plaza in the middle of Cusco where there was traditional, albeit Mexican dancing taking place. We walked a bit further to a pizzeria where we had dinner, debriefed together, and then headed home by bus. There are many new things that we are experiencing, especially the children. This includes the presence of street dogs, crowded public transportation, and some pretty noisy areas but I’ll let the children write more about that in the upcoming entries 😊 We have had a good first day and are very thankful for the safe travels and generosity of our hosts. Thank you for your prayers!
