Well, what is Cuzco like, for those of you who are interested?  Cuzco is probably one of the most popular tourist destinations in South America, because of its proximity to Machu Pichu, and also the many Inca ruins right in Cuzco, and the surrounding area.  It is situated in a rather narrow valley, with mountains on both sides.   At the far end of the valley, you can see snow capped Ausengate, almost 21000 feet high.  Although 40 miles away, it is usually visible on a clear day, which is normal case for this time of year.  Even though it is only the 10th highest peak in Peru, it is still more than 500 feet higher than Mt. McKinley, the highest peak in North America.  Because it has high mountains on 3 sides, the only way to land at the airport is from the East, and the only way to take off is from the West.  I guess they don’t have that much wind to make it necessary to reverse that, because it is not going to happen.  

 I live only a block away from one of the busiest streets in Cuzco, the Avenida La Cultura.  This is the main road that takes people into downtown Cuzco, and so it is always quite busy….Luckily there are traffic lights that allow pedestrians to cross, and most of the drivers here obey the light signals.  Down the center of the Avenida Cultura is a Ciclovia, or bikeway, which is also good for pedestrians and runners.  It has steep banked grassy areas which protect the middle from vehicles, and also enhance its beauty.  There are also a lot of flowers and trees in the median there, and every day, there are multiple workers watering, weeding, sweeping, and just in general making it look nice. 

 I take a bus to work and back about 4 miles away every day.  The city buses are frequent, and you don’t have to wait long for the appropriate bus to come by.  Each bus or combi (vans which are smaller that also carry people) has a driver and then one person who collects the money–70 centimos (about 25 cents) to go anywhere in the city, basically.  I enjoy listening to the collectors barking out the future stops at any stop–they would all make good auctioneers, because they run through the names of future stops in 5 seconds flat.  Also as you drive along, they call out the next stop–Puente, Andino, Sol de Oro, etc.  If you want to get off at that stop, you say “Baja” (down), and the bus stops to let you off as you pay…If there is no response, the collector says, “Puente, nadie” (Puente, no one) in a downward trailing tone of voice, such that it seems that he is very disappointed that there was no response…It is very reliable transportation, and once you get used to it, it works quite well.  I always try for the bigger buses, so that way if you have to stand up, which is frequently, you have enough room to stand straight up.  The combis require bending your head over at an awkward angle if you are Americano.  The Peruvians in general are short enough that no bending is required.  Occasionally on the bus, someone will get on and make a spiel from one stop to the other, or longer, usually trying to beg for money for some cause or another.  One fellow was asking for money for himself because he was in the hospital for 7-8 months, and had surgery, and to prove it, he pulled up his shirt to show large abdominal scars with some hernias too.  I think, TMI, but I still gave him money.  After they collect, they get off at the next stop, and they never pay anything for their ride so I guess it is gratis (free). I would have to say this is the first country that I have seen that.  

Finding your way around downtown is a bit difficult, because they change the names of streets every block.  The names of the streets are rather interesting, and that is only the ones that I know in Spanish.  Names such as Matara (he will kill), or Afligidos (the afflicted ones) don’t inspire confidence late at night.  I am sure the Quechua words are even more interesting, but I don’t know how to interpret those yet…

Last weekend, I headed to a country church in San Juan de Quihuares  with Dr. Derek Brubaker, his father Bob, and his brother Jeremy, (visiting here from the states) and then Gloria Mamami, one of the ladies from the church here in Cuzco.  We were planning to get there for the service, and then afterwards there would be a health talk, and eat together.  Well, the first part of that didn’t happen, as we got delayed by road construction several times enough to miss the service.  But at least we got there in time for the fellowship meal!  When we first got there, they made us go drink tea and eat some bread, which was very welcome as it was getting late.  Then Derek and Gloria did the talk, and then we had a fellowship meal.  Some of the roads to there are not for anyone who is scared of heights.  No guardrails, with huge dropoffs, and there is slippery gravel as well.  We had to climb the mountains too, at one point topping out at over 14,000 feet on one of the passes.

Well, I would love to write more, but tonight seems like sleep may be more important.  So I’ll live you with this site if you want to look at pictures of some of these things.

https://picasaweb.google.com/101410363747604056143/CuzcoPeru2013?authkey=Gv1sRgCOq67q2R3oHTOg

In the past several years, I have had numerous opportunities to function in a missionary setting.  And yet, there is always a bit of ‘angst’ in the background, at least for me in trying to figure out my motives and to strip away the extra.  I have been reading “Gracias” by Henri Nouwen who spent 6 months in Peru (of all places, including Cuzco) and Bolivia.  In there, he talks at some length about why people become missionaries and leave the comfortable life to go to the unfamiliar or unknown.   He lists the following..

1.  A desire to serve Christ unconditionally

2.  An urge to help the poor

3.  An intellectual interest in another culture

4.  The attraction of adventure

5.  A need to break away from family

6.  A search for self-affirmation

7.  Guilt

8.  Desire to save

I can think of several other motivations that he did not list, such as a desire to build up “good works” in an effort to look good to others, or even to God.  Also, we may be trying to make up for past failures, although that may correspond to guilt as well.  I could probably see all of the above in my motivations as well, although of course the correct answer is Jesus!  I don’t want to overanalyze, but sometimes I can’t help it….

He lists the last 2 as the most damaging motivations, because both make the missionary and life on the mission painful.  For example, when I go to a foreign country because I feel guilty about my wealth, I am in for a lot of trouble.  Guilt can not be taken away by hard work, and acts of service still make us vulnerable in that we still are much richer than those we serve.  In the same way, the desire to save people from sin, from poverty, from exploitation, or whatever causes despair when the harder you work, you realize that you are very limited in actually accomplishing anything.  So depending on the success of “saving” makes your life destructive and depressive.  Although they are damaging, it is probable that no one in the mission field is completely free of those particular motivations.  

But, the great challenge, is to live and work out of gratitude.  The Lord God took on our guilt and saved us.  So our task is to give visibility to the Divine work in the midst of our daily existence.  When we finally come to the point that we realize our guilt has been taken away, and that only God can save, then we are finally free to live as missionaries.  Clinging to guilt is resisting God’s grace, and wanting to be a savior is competing with God’s very being.  And both are forms of idolatry.

None of that is particularly earth shattering, and I have taken most of the last 2 paragraphs out of his book, but that somehow helped me to strip away the extra layers of motivation, and get down to the basics of what serving Christ is about.  No matter where or when or how, it is God at work, and we join Him in the work that He is already doing…so comforting, and relieving of guilt for long hours with little results, or service without recognition.  In the midst of a large city and thousands of people, the task seems too large.   Even in relating to people at home, or even a mission board sometimes feels like justification for existence as a missionary needs to continually be provided.  And yet, I feel a freedom in this work right now.  In fact, the thought came to me today that maybe the only reason I am here in Peru is to share the gospel with my Spanish teacher.  And if that is the only reason, then I need to be sure and do that, or I will have failed.  (Oh, there is the guilt again).  

So these are thoughts that come after only 12 days in Peru..so what will happen in the next 60 days?  We will see.  

Well, that is bad when you can’t complete writing of your one trip, before you go on another.  How is it that I am back in Peru so soon?  Well, a year ago, I signed up for a Medical Mission International (MMI) trip to the Colca Canyon area of Peru.  Normally this is a very sought after trip, as it involves hiking long miles up in the mountains of Peru to Quechua Indian villages, and so you need to sign up early.  So after my service with EMM (Eastern Mennonite Missions) in Africa, I decided to see if they could use any help in their medical work in Peru, since I was going to be down there anyway.  I was given the go ahead to come down, that several doctors were on extended furlough over the summer, and they could use the help.  And then while I was arranging that, I got the call from University of South Alabama medical School that needed people on the trip to Iquitos.  I made the EMM work here in Cuzco go up until the trip to the Colca Canyon, so that was one trip, but couldn’t quite combine all 3.  So I flew back down here on Wednesday, from Pensacola, to Atlanta, to Lima, and then Cuzco.  Connections all went well on the journey, but for some reason (age 55?) I had a brain freeze, resulting in my checked bag staying in Lima.  When I was checking my bag in Pensacola, for some reason I asked if the bag would go all the way to Cuzco, with Delta cooperating with LAN.  He checked his computer and said that it would.  Somehow that translated to telling me I don’t need to worry about it until Cuzco, forgetting that I need to run it through customs in Lima before putting it back on the checked baggage carousel. And I had just done this a month ago!!  So, that meant I had no stethoscope, camera, or computer, not to mention my coats, and toothpaste and toothbrush.  Somehow, i didn’t pack very smart, did I?  I was able to get my bag on Saturday which has given me a lot more clothing options, anyway.

Sleeping in the Lima airport with absolutely nothing to sleep on is not much fun.  You could try a cold tile floor up against a wall, with lights and racket all night long but I don’t recommend it.  I spent Wednesday night there before leaving early for Cuzco the next morning.    In Cuzco, I am staying with John and Cindy Kreider, long term missionaries with EMM.  They have been in Peru for 14 years total over 2 separate stints.  They have a daughter still at home, Orianna, but otherwise are empty nesters…so this will work out very well.  I went by bus to the La Fuente (the fountain) clinic on Friday for my first day of work, as Thursday was spent in getting acclimated to the high altitude. Cuzco is at 3400 meters, which is at 11,400 feet, and there is not as much oxygen up here.  It was interesting that everyone in the clinic has an oxygen saturation of around 90 % which would provoke panic in the US, but is not worthy of a second look here. 

The first afternoon after a nap, I went to the the center of Cuzco, again by bus.  Cindy showed some of the sights to me, then left to go shopping.  I had a map, and explored.  The Inca buildings are incredible.  They had no iron tools, yet the stones are interlocking, and put together without any cement, and there is not a space between the blocks to put anything in.  It reminds of king Solomon’s temple with it’s perfectly carved stones.   They also built them with perfectly inward slanting walls, which made them by earthquake proof, since they won’t sway and topple over. They also built all this without the benefit of the wheel, which seems incredible.  Someone explain that too me.  The plaza de Armas is the center of what was the Inca capital, and many of the palace buildings of the Inca Kings are still in use in the downtown, although they are now coffee shops, stores, or tourist traps…

Work in the clinic was busy the first day, but we managed well with 2 doctors doing the work.  It is very well equipped, even having a second building for ophthalmology, they do ophthalmological surgery such as cataracts there.   I didn’t have too many language struggles the first day, but I am starting Spanish lessons on Monday–4 days a week for 2 hours a day.  That will be in the afternoon, as I work until 1 pm or so in the clinic.  So my usual schedule will be to work 8-1 every day, and then lessons in the afternoon.

Oh, By the way, it is cold here at night…about 30 degrees this morning, but relatively pleasant during the day if the sun shines, which it normally does in this their dry season.  It still feels good to have a sweater around most of the time (and now that I have my suitcase, I do have that, at least, as well as winter coats…)  Since I didn’t have my camera until yesterday, pictures will wait.  I do have better internet here, so hopefully can do better with updating at least…In Christ and su amor,  Jon

In the first part of June, I was invited to go to Iquitos, Peru with a group of medical students, both 1st and 2nd year students, from the University of South Alabama.  They needed another doctor, and I was ready and willing to accompany them.  Duane Baxter, the leader of the group, knew my son Robert in Troy University Campus Outreach program, and so that is how they got my name.  There were also a couple of prospective PA students, a pharmacist, a pharmacy student, and one student from LSU medical school, as well as 2 pediatricians from Mobile, Susan Ashbee, and Faye Roberts.  I didn’t know what exactly it would involve, but on June 8th, I joined the rest of the group in Mobile, for the short 2 hour bus ride to New Orleans International Airport…It was a stretching exercise in missions.  Our goal was to fly to Iquitos, which is the gateway to Amazon in Peru, and then take a boat up the Amazon River to different villages for each clinic.  

The trip down to Lima was uneventful, but got the award for the bumpiest flight I have ever had.  Constant turbulence made it difficult to sleep, as we were always bouncing.  That seemed to go on for hours, but the flight was only 5 1/2 hours, but the seat belt sign stayed on for most of that time…I did get some rest, which was good, as we got there at daybreak.  Then on a flight to Iquitos, arriving around lunch time, almost exactly 24 hours after leaving Mobile in the bus.  Amazon Medical Missions is a ministry which is based out of Georgia, and led by Mike and Susie Dempsey.  They have been in this ministry for more than 15 years, and I don’t know how they work so tirelessly.  It is a real blessing to the workers who come down.  Check out this website http://amazonmedicalmissions.org/ if you want to know more about their ministry.  We had amazing accommodations..I would say sort of like a mini-cruise ship.  The rooms held 2-3 people with air conditioning, and a large dining hall, with gourmet food every day.  You sort of forgot you were in the jungle, until we stopped at a village, and went to work…then it was easy to remember.  The first day, we set up our large leaky tent in the rain (it rained every day) and the only piece of level ground was by the river in a muddy area.  The mud had a crust on it, but would sink in about 3-4 inches as you walked on it.  By the end of the day, however, we were breaking through.  I was glad to wear just my sandals, so that I didn’t have as much clean up.  However, the mud must have harbored quite a few chiggers, as the following days they manifested themselves with a vengeance, itchy places up and down my legs….but, hey, we have those in Alabama too.  The people of the village would gather, and then we would have a short evangelistic message, and then we went to our stations.  I would normally have 2 medical students working at my station, and with the Peruvian doctor Tony, we would have 4 stations to see the patients in the on area of the tent.  It was not high acuity of emergencies, but it stretched my capabilities, as I was translating their Spanish….(to be continued)