¨Yes, but no...´´

We are on the move again...

After a week of traveling with 53 team members, I can understand why Jesus chose only twelve! Our hotel lobby is once again filled to overflowing with bags of all shapes and sizes (mostly big). And, we´re going to be piling into a bus or two for a trip back to the Trujillo airport for a 2130 flight to Lima. We have a free day in Lima tomorrow, and then fly to Iquitos at 0520. Jack, our logistics guy, tells us we can be napping in a hammock in the Amazon rainforest by 2 oclock Tuesday afternoon.

This part of our trip is really just tourism. We spent the morning in church at the Mission Complex in Florencia, where we´d held clinic for the last three days. The pastor, Carlos, told the story of the work he has undertaken here ... he has planted twelve churches, and is planning a trade school and high school in the future.

We had ´chifa´for lunch ... chinese food. And then, time for a nap!

Thank you to those who´ve been leaving comments. It is encouraging to know that we are missed, by our friends and family and by Alley! (Otis only remembers us for a minute and a half, the trainer tells us. BTW, we are seeing some strange dogs, including a hairless beast that is a descendant of a pre Incan breed!)

As we traveled here, Wendi looked down at her watch in the Dallas airport to see that it had died. Perhaps that is the lesson we are both to learn ... patience in the way that others deal with the world. We are certainly not at home ... everything seems to work a little differently. It is customary to turn in your hotel key as you leave your hotel room for the day. The traffic rules are baffling. We watched only two channels on the tv for a couple of nights, and then learned that the remote control is held at the desk to be ´checked out´. We turned in some laundry in a duffle bag, and they washed the bag too! As we toured Chan Chan with Carlos yesterday, Wendi made a comment to him about our schedule. His response is typical Peruvian ... ¨Yes, but no.¨

The upcoming trip to Iquitos will certainly be even more bizarre. Or should I say, ¨bizarro¨ ... the name of the bar that our hotel balcony faces, it has kept us awake for the past few nights. We are headed to an ecotourism lodge, with no electricity. We´ll have a chance to hunt tarantulas, snakes, and all sorts of things. Maybe it is the right place to be for Halloween.

Thank you again for your thoughts of us. We are well. We look forward to sharing the stories with you. And, sharing the burden that we feel for the work here in Peru, just as Wendi and the Women of Purpose group have felt for Bolivia. ...