Lessons Learned in Churin: Beware the Stank Eye

My friends, I think I’ve watched more professional soccer this week than I have watched in the previous 25 years of my life; I’ve never been much of a soccer fan, but the atmosphere of the World Cup in South America is contagious (and Peru isn’t even in the World Cup.) However—it’s time to focus on other things for the next thirty minutes so we can do a recap. Shall we get on with it? We shall.

The suspicious looking water of the "Iron Bath."

Last week started out with our adventure to Churin. Churin is a pueblo known for its natural hot springs (Aguas Termales) and is a little more than four hours away from Lima. It was never a place Katrina and I planned on going, but Wilfredo pitched the idea to us and…well…we aren’t hard to convince when it comes to travel.

So—bright and early on Tuesday morning, we boarded a bus alongside our host Aunt Consuelo, our host mom Graciela, our host sister, Rocio, and of course, Wilfredo. In true Peruvian fashion, we arrived fantastically late in Churin. We quickly booked a hotel, found something to eat and sought out a “baño termale” so we could get a nice soak in before the day was up. We found one just before sunset called the “Baño de Fierro.” At the time, I had interpreted that to mean “Mud Bath” because the water was completely brown and looked filthy, but now that I put that phrase in Google Translate it turns out it means “Iron Water”…so I actually have no idea what kind of pool I got into.

Little hot waterfalls! 

Regardless, our first baño termale showed me two things:

1. Everyone we were going to encounter on our trip was going to be from “the third age”; the third age is a phrase has Peru kindly uses to refer to old people. Seriously, Churin is like the Panama City Beach for elderly Spring Break crowd.

2. Baños Termales are somehow very different than hot tubs. This sounds obvious, but it wasn’t obvious for me. I realize that one of them is natural, one is not, one is rather clean and chlorinated, one is not, etc. But beyond that, they’re both just hot water, right? Wrong. There was something more potent about the natural waters and you seriously had to get out and take a break after every 10-15 minutes.

Enjoying emoliente on our first night in Churin. 

Anyway, our “iron bath” was the only spring we visited on Tuesday, but Wednesday morning we were up and at it again. This time we went to another pueblo, about an hour and a half away from Churin called Huancahuasi. In Huancahuasi we tried out four other hot springs, all of them significantly cleaner looking than the iron bath and all of them with significantly more senior citizens. Katrina and I quickly found ourselves responsible for helping a variety of elderly strangers enter the pool, cross the pool, exit the pool, put on their shoes, etc.

Perhaps my favorite moment in Huancahuasi was after visiting our second pool we visited, which was the hottest. I had been moving towards the exit when a number of elderly women struck up a conversation, and me, not wanting to be rude, stayed in the pool a few minutes longer than recommended. As soon as we left the hot spring, I went outside, sat down and realized I didn’t have the energy to get back up—and that I also might pass out. I told our group to go ahead without me, not wanting to cause a ruckus, which of course immediately caused a ruckus. Anytime anyone feels “off” in Peru, the Peruvians always have a million theories and remedies. Rocio theorized I hadn’t eaten a good breakfast. Graciela theorized all I needed was Herbal Life (a weight loss shake) and immediately made me one. Wilfredo theorized the wind outside had gotten to me. Consuelo’s theory, however was my favorite: Mal de Ojo.

Our host family is pretty much adorable. 

Mal de Ojo would be what we call “evil eye” in English, or what I like to call “stank eye” and it’s the theory that if someone looks at you strongly for a period of time, they can cause your body damage. Consuelo immediately started cracking her wrist on my head to remedy the Mal de Ojo and informed me that when the evil left my body I would have a fantastic wave of diarrhea (for the record folks, the evil has not yet left my body. I expect it to leave when we arrive in Honduras.)

Luckily the Herbal Life or the wrist cracking or simply taking some rest helped, because I was back at it after 15 minutes. We spent the rest of the day enjoying the hot springs, some of the fresh trout from the region and simply being in each other’s company. Later that night we made the journey back to Callao.

As soon as we got back from Churin, two big things happened: 1. The World Cup started and 2. Father’s Day preparations began. Unfortunately, these two things do not mesh well together and Katrina and I’s productivity suffered. I began the first World Cup match saying soccer was boring and I didn’t understand how anyone watched it for 90 full minutes; however, by the time the United States’ game rolled around tonight, I was clutching my chair thinking If this game was longer than 90 minutes I would have a freaking heart attack. A monster has been created (or my need to cheer for sports that built up during American football season has finally been released.) Somehowe, some type of productivity happened and it was off to Monte Sion for Friday’s bible study and later Saturday’s service.

The whole group in Filidelfia for our Father's Day celebration. 

Saturday didn’t go quite as planned; to make a long story short, there was an accident during kid’s class and the person presiding ended up leaving church to take care of things. Luckily, Katrina took over presiding duties, things came together, and we were still able to celebrate the two father’s in attendance, Jose Luis and Juan.

Sunday’s service ran a little more accordingly to schedule, despite the fact that Marlene and I switched service roles and I ended up having one more chance to preach in Peru. I was a bit reluctant of the scripture for the week—Genesis 1:1-2:4—because it’s the creation story and that tends to get a little touchy; however I think things went well and I can say I genuinely enjoyed my last sermon in Peru. My preaching is far from perfect, but I’ve come a long way from having to read my sermons word for word from a piece of paper.

Watching some World Cup! Go USA! 

And thus, ladies and gentlemen, we round the corner past third and head for home. We have one more bible study. One more kid’s class. One more Monte Sion service. And one final service in Filidelfia. Remember how for the last six months I’ve been saying I can’t believe how fast time is slipping by? LOOK. It’s GONE. I TOLD you. Just because I noticed it was flying by didn’t mean there was anything I could do to stop it and now, well…it’s pretty much gone. So—we’re living it up while we can (at least during the seconds I can unglue myself from the World Cup.)

...Speaking of which…the World Cup. It has clearly been thirty minutes. There are things to do, rosters to Google, goodbye parties to plan, games to watch… and thus, I bid you farewell—until next time!