TV, radio, flat tires, and hit & run accidents

It’s time for another weekly blog update, since plenty has happened to update on while it’s fresh on the mind, and while I have a moment to do so. Actually it will be a good mental exercise since I need to write my latest newsletter update today anyway, so I’ll already be in “writing about life in Peru” mode.

I’m liking my place here just fine. There’s at least 3 other people who rent rooms here, but I never see any of them. I know they’re here because additional stuff besides what I’ve bought shows up in the fridge. But their absence, for all intents and purposes, makes me feel I have a lot of space here. I’m not sure how this internet connection will hold up for podcasting by recording on Skype, since it was not so good the two times I’ve used it since being here, but hopefully I’ll continue the Fire On Your Head podcast, albeit in a bit of a different direction than we’ve been going in previously, but that’s for another update.

I’ve registered for Spanish school. I start tomorrow, 9am-1pm. I’m paid up for at least a week. I tried paying for the whole month, but TD Bank back home won’t let me withdraw more than $200/day for some reason, even though my American account works fine. It’s really infuriating me to be honest, since I had no problem with them the whole time I lived in Holland, and last April and May when I was here I could take out more at a time no problem. Oh, and not to mention I called them 3 weeks before I left to tell them I’d be in Peru and needing to withdraw large sums of cash at a time to which they told me they’d see to it that I was able. I’ve had my mom go in person to tell them I’m not able to but they insist I am and that I’m just not using the correct ATM machines and that there's nothing wrong on their end. Right, what would I know being the one over here and trying it myself? The whole point of paying for the whole month of Spanish school was to get a discount for paying in bulk, but so much for that.

Yesterday I went with Ron and his son Chad to Chincha again yesterday, about 2 and a half hours away from Lima, which was where the epicenter of the earthquake was a few years ago. We were delivering boxes of food to Pastor Manuel, who leads the Pentecostal church there that feeds some children in that town. We were supposed to meet with the director of a radio station there about putting 15 minute teachings of Derek Prince ministries in Spanish. When we got there, Ron was told they wanted to talk to him/us on the air – not just radio, but some kind of local access television station -- for 10 minutes. When the host got there, he told us 30 minutes. When we went live, it was at least 60 minutes we were on. But I’m told that’s the culture’s way of doing things—different than what you’re told.

Ron told me later he felt like we were Beavis and Butthead not knowing we were supposed to speak on air. Ron translated the brief portion I shared, but the time was spent mostly with him getting his preach on in Spanish. The guy we went there to meet left apparently while we were on the air, but I’m assuming the teachings are going to be on the air no problem.

What we witnessed next as we were taking pastor Manuel back to his home in Chincha left an impression on me. I didn’t witness the actual collision, but I saw the dust everywhere and a woman flying around in the dirt after apparently what Ron said was a taxi driver hitting a couple on a motorcycle. We had to have only been one or two cars behind the taxi, and when we got close to the spot, pulled over to see if they were alright. The man, who presumably was operating the bike, yelled at us to go get the license plate number from the car, so we did and I wrote it down as soon as we caught up to it. What amazed me was to see a family inside the car. If they weren’t a family then it was a driver, and another adult and at least one child in the backseat! This messes with my head. How could you hit a person or a motorcyclist and drive them off the road and then just take off like nothing happened? In broad daylight when plenty of other people would see it?!

So we went back and gave the man the tag number, who I could now see a had huge bloody gash up his arm and his clothes were relatively torn and dirty from the incident. We approached the small crowd that was gathered around the woman who was visibly distraught and in pain, sitting in a plastic lawn chair. She was a mess. Her face was bloody over most of her left side, and her left leg was noticeably swollen. She declined prayer from us, but we waited long enough to see them get a taxi that would presumably take them to a hospital. My prayer is that the driver is caught and followed up on, instead of let off the hook with some kind of bribe to the police officers, because in this culture the justice system is pretty messed up and the police officers don’t enforce much unless there’s something in it for them. But the whole experience left me shaken for the next hour or so, and even now writing it out, as I’d never seen something like that in person.

So I'd say we had an eventful and long day, including the flat tire we got on the way home as we were 20 minutes outside of Lima. Fun times.

That’s all for now, maybe in the weeks to come I could adequately write a blog entry in Spanish, but don’t hold your breath.

Blessings, and fire on your head.