Greetings from Huanuco

Greetings from Huanuco! I’ll warn you—I might not be able to upload pictures from here, so my apologies of the blog posts look a little boring. Regardless, let’s get to it.  

Wilfredo, Antonio, me and Mirtha at Manos Cruzados

Thursday we spent nearly the entire day in the car, roughing the 8-9 hour drive to Huanuco. It was Wilfredo’s first time driving to Huanuco and, quite impressively, he did the entire thing without using a map or GPS. Thank the Lord, I managed not to get carsick during our journey, but Mirtha got altitude sickness and ended up getting sick multiple times throughout the journey. At one point, we stopped for lunch and tried the infamous Mate de Cocoa, which is supposed to help with altitude sickness, but didn’t seem to help Mirtha one bit.  

Eventually we arrived in Huanuco. Now, I know I’ve described Huanuco in a past post, but let me refresh your memory. In Huanuco, we stay with Orlando and his wife Carolina and their family. Their house is split into two parts. The left part of the house is home to roughly 30 pigs, an assortment of chickens and guinea pigs. Members of Orlando’s family look after the animals and it’s not irregular for us to hear the squeals of pigs, day and night. The right part of the house is where we’re staying. The yard area is full of rooster and chickens, and a lot of baby chicks, and, most importantly, the family’s six dogs (don’t worry—I’m thinking about devoting an entire post to my obsession with the dogs here.) On this side, Carolina and Orlando share a room with their youngest son, Enore, 11, and Carolina’s nephew Fabriscio, 7. Carolina and Orlando’s oldest sons, Jimmy and Antonio, both in their mid-twenties, share a room as well.  This side is also home to the kitchen where we share all of our meals, and the living room where we hold all of our services.  

Friday, Wilfredo, Mirtha, Antonio, Katrina and I went to visit some local ruins called the Manos Cruzados (The crossed hands), then went to town to pick up a few Huanuco essentials: sunscreen, aloe and bug spray. The bugs here are thick, and I’ve learned the hard way to ALWAYS wear bug spray—I have upwards of twenty bug bites on my left leg.

Katrina and I checking out the ruins at Manos Cruzados

Saturday, we trekked into town again to eat fried trout at a fundraiser for Orlando’s school. Orlando is a Communications teacher in town and his son Enore attends the same school. After chowing we headed back to Orlando’s house to prepare for “Sunday School” (but, like Monte Sion, on Saturdays). Unfortunately, nobody showed up, so Sunday School turned into us watching two different Chuckie movies. I don’t know why, but Chuckie movies are somehow VERY popular in Peru. Don’t ask me why, but at least once every three days someone talks about Chuckie here.

And that brings us to yesterday. Every Sunday, Jimmy and Antonio go on a run. Katrina and I asked to tag along before we realized what time said run began—6 a.m. Thus, at 6, we groggily hiked down the little hill that we live on (me, slipping and falling down part of it) then began our LONG run through town. Antonio and Jimmy don’t kid around—we ran for roughly an hour. Did I mention the altitude is high here? Because it is. Needless to say, Katrina and I filled the roles of the out of shape Americans for the day.  Eventually, we finished our run in a park and got some fresh squeezed orange juice, which made the whole affair worth it.

Welp...looks like I´ve been spelling the city name wrong...

After we got back, Katrina, Carolina and I headed down to the river to do laundry. Unfortunately, water and power come and go in Huanaco—which means we hoard water here. The family has at least ten giant buckets that we fill with water (when it’s around) and that lasts us through the days when the water isn’t working. Unfortunately, laundry requires too much water for that—thus, when there’s no water, it’s to the river to wash clothes. Carolina is more effective than any washing machine in existence—she scrubbed every piece of laundry like it’s never been scrubbed before. Katrina and I took the role of washing the soap out of the laundry, which was surprisingly difficult. After about an hour and a half, we trekked back up the hill with a significantly heavier bucket of VERY clean laundry (or as a clean as river water can get things.)

Next, it was time for church. In Huanuco, two hours before the service, children come to play. This can mean playing cards, a game of volleyball, or just splashing in the river—and Sunday, we did a little of each. I was impressed with how many kids came—roughly 15. Afterwards, we began the service. Katrina and I led a song that we’ve been trying to launch in Monte Sion, to no avail. However, much to Katrina and I’s pleasure, it went over well here, and someone even asked if we could sing it again at the end of church, which basically made my day.

At the end of the night, we bid farewell to Mirtha and Wilfredo. They left around 5 a.m. this morning for Callao, so Katrina and I are now officially on our own in Huanaco. There are still one thousand other things I want to say about this place—the moonlight on the mountains, life without internet, the inevitability that I will get fleas here because I can’t help but pet all the dogs, the work ethic everyone has—but those will just have to wait for another day—this is already a small novel. Until then!