Arrived!

Yesterday we left Lima at 7 am with the car packed as full as possible! We arrived in Tarma at about 1pm after a long, winding, but absolutely beautiful drive through the Andes. (I`ll post some pictures soon!) The highest point we passed was 4,800 meters (about 15800 ft) where there is a crystal clear lake and snow. We stopped to take some pictures, and when we got out of the car we were really dizzy! When we decided to keep moving, the car stalled! We were a little nervous after that, but our little warrior car made it! We unloaded most of the stuff at the house where Xochi and I will be staying, and after some lunch and a very needed rest we unloaded Martin`s things at the room where he will be living.
Today we had lunch with Sherry, a Canadian missionary, bought some things we needed, and then went to Huaricolca to go to church with our pastor friend. We went early hoping to meet up with the mayor, but he had already gone home. So a lady who attends Pastor Guillermo´s church invited us to her home. As we were waiting for her we saw two boys go by with two donkeys. One boy jumped onto the bigger donkey and lay on it on his belly, hitching a ride Huaricolca style! The smaller boy jumped onto the smaller donkey to do the same thing, but his donkey stopped. He hit it on the rump but the donkey wouldn`t move. We all know donkeys can be a bit stubborn! So he jumped off and hit the donkey again, but this time the donkey took off running and the boy had to run behind it. We laughed so hard! I guess donkeys can be pretty smart too!
As we were waiting it started to thunder and there was lightening. We were waiting there with some kids and Martin was pretending to be afraid, but later he confessed that he was a little unsettled because it was the first time he had heard thunder like that. We got into the house just in time as it started to rain really hard. This home has a tin roof, so it was loud. Soon it started hailing, and then conversation was impossible! Once it calmed down outside we went out and saw that enough hail had fallen to collect handfuls of it. In the car the windshield was foggy and it reminded me so much of Canada! Since it had rained so crazily church was cancelled and we headed back down to Tarma.
Driving through Huaricolca (which takes no more than three minutes, and only that long because of the pot holes!) we saw so many kids. They are well behaved, they all say hello as they walk by, and we are so excited to begin getting to know them better and to work with them. We are planning to use the municipal building until we get our own place to run an after school program and have Sunday school. So the next investment we´ll make will be in school supplies and some books and toys and balls and things like that. Please pray that moms will let their kids come to play with us instead of dragging them to the fields after school.
And thank you for praying for our move! It went really, really well, thank you God!
Oh yeah, the day before we left Lima we had a meeting with Yois, our lawyer, and she is starting the process of forming an NGO. At the end of the month we`ll go to sign the first set of papers. We´re advancing! Praise God!
Thanks for reading!