A Visit from Belfast

Last weekend we had the pleasure of a visit from our Mission Director, Gordon Darragh, his wife, Janet and daughter, Amy. Having them with us gaveus the opportunity to relax a little and to join in some of the touristy things that they were doing in Arequipa.

During our sightseeing of the city we were able to go to a number of lookout points that overlook the city and enjoy the spectacular views with the snow peaked mountians in the background. We also spent some time at a park with children's amusements and a lake. Although the purpose of our visit was to give Amy and Sarah something to entertain them we all thoroughly enjoyed our time there, particularly our little lap of the lake in the rowing boat.

One of the more interesting activites that we did was to visit the musuem of the ice mummy "Juanita". The museum told the story of Juanita through various artifacts. The city of Arequipa is surrounded by volcanoes. The Incas in Peru believed that everytime a volcano erupted it was a message from the gods telling them that they were angry. In order to appease the gods the Incas used to choose a child to sacrifice at the top of the mountain (almost 6000 metres) after a long pilgrimage.

Juanita was an eleven year old girl who at birth was "the chosen child" who would be used to appease the gods. She made her pilgrimage with her family knowing that she was the chosen one and woud be sacrificed. After she was sacrificed at the top of the mountain she was then buried about two metres under the surface. At 6000 metres the body of Juanita very quickly froze. Hundreds of years later Juanita's body was discovered still frozen and with everything in place including her hair. The climax of the visit to the museum was a display of Juanita in a glass freezer. The idea of it sounds horrible but the museum visit was fascinating as it gave us a great insight into the history and culture of the Incas. Hundreds of years later many Peruvians still believe that natural disasters are the gods' ways of demonstrating their anger.

As I was taken through the museum I could not help draw parallels between Juanita "the chosen one to appease the gods" and the chosen one, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Unfortunately for Juanita her willingness to die was in vain, however, we know that the death (and resurrection) of Jesus was not in vain. I could not help leaving the museum thanking God that through the chosen one, Jesus Christ, we have been freed from much more than the fury of the volcanoes but that we have been freed from the burden of our sins.

Following the Darragh departure we were thinking that everything would return to normal here, however it was just after they left that we discovered that there would be strikes thoughout Arequipa. The scale of the strikes left us housebound and needing to miss a number of classes. Fortunately the strikes are not as intense as they were and have since been able to return to classes, however, the situation has not yet been resolved with the government and more intense strikes are inevitable if a resolution is not found.

In terms of our classes, as previously mentioned we would be taking a second practical class with the intention of working on some Biblical vocabulary now that we have finished our grammar course. We have just started reading The Purpose Driven Life in Spanish (Una Vida Con Proposito). So far this has been really good and we are enjoying this. From next Friday we will have two weeks off for mid-winter break here. We plan to spend a little bit of this time with the Morrows in Ilo. We may even get the chance to look at a number of potential houses while we are there. For the remainder of our holiday we plan to relax a little, take opportunities to use our Spanish and do some studying on our own so we don't forget anything!

At language institute with our grammar teacher, Julio.