Tree felled, car inspection and vacation!
We've been working in the garden!!! 💪
The largest tree in the middle of our garden had had cracks in its trunk for some time.
To be precise, in three different places, which creaked heavily in the wind!
Within two weeks, the cracks have widened! I informed the owner of our house about this. He wanted to come by on Sun. or Mon. with a worker, but unfortunately he hadn't found anyone.
On Monday evening I wrote to the owner again to say that we were worried that the branch might break off.
He confirmed to come by on Tue. 15:00h.
When Rahel came home with the children at 15:20 on Tuesday, they heard a loud crash!
At that moment, a large branch broke off and fell onto our fireplace and the corrugated iron fence!
The children were shocked and terrified that the whole tree might collapse.
Shortly afterwards, the owner arrived and was quite surprised!
Thank God he was late and Rachel and the children were not yet in the garden!!! That was God's preservation!
The next day, the whole tree was felled. We used ropes to pull the branch in a different direction as we sawed it down so that it didn't fall onto the house or the donkey stable. This went reasonably well and we had no injuries to report despite the dangerous undertaking.
Our landlord's comment at the end of the day was that it had been a very dangerous day and wiped the sweat from his brow.
In mid-May, we were able to buy a car from another missionary family who were going back to Germany. Even before we left, we knew that our driver's license was only valid for 6 months in Peru and that we would have to take the car test again. Now that the car purchase was just around the corner and we were planning a vacation at the end of June, the time had come to tackle it. Our missionary colleagues from the neighboring town gave us a detailed list of what we had to do.
It all started when our bank card was confiscated and as there was no branch of this bank in Curahuasi, we had to travel to the neighboring town of Abancay, 1.5 hours away. The idea came up to take the first part of the driving test on this train. This was the psychosomatic test. We were warmly welcomed at the psychosomatic center «Senor de los milagros de Dios» and immediately recognized as employees of Diospi Suyana. Over the next 3 hours we had to write down at least 15 sheets of paper with our name and identity number (this is very important here in Peru and most Peruvians know it by heart), fill in various forms, do a hearing and eye test as well as a medical examination, which included measuring the circumference of our necks (what is this always for?!). In between, there were always waiting times. We took it all with a smile!
Now we had a week to learn 200 questions in Spanish about the traffic rules. First of all, we had to translate all the questions into German so that we had an idea of what they were about. But even with the translation, not all the questions made sense. So we had to work hard and memorize.
A week later, the time had come and we were back in Abancay for the theory test.
Before the exam, we took some time to pray and read the following passage from the Bible:
„Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine understanding.“ Proverbs 3:5 This verse has been a great encouragement to us! The car test here is often very corrupt and without bribes you often don't pass the test. We were dependent on God's work.
After filling out the forms again, signing and fingerprinting them, we were ready to go. Of the 200 questions, 40 were included in the exam and we had to get 35 right. We both passed with 1 mistake and were over the moon.
For the next day we booked a driving instructor for 1 hour each and then the practical test took place. This took place on a parkour. In the driving lesson beforehand, we learned the sequence in which we had to drive the parkour during the test. On the actual test, everyone was alone in the car and had to drive the parkour exactly as previously rehearsed. This included traffic lights, stop signs, driving in circles, reversing a distance and parking backwards and sideways. The latter were also checked very carefully. When reversing, the side lines are not parallel and so the car on one side was not parallel in the parking space, which was then loudly criticized. It didn't help to explain that we were parked nicely in the parking space on one side!
In the end, we both passed and were able to pick up our license three days later. This whole process of the car test has made us feel even more at home and we enjoy being on the road in our own car.
As the children were on vacation in the last week of June, we planned to spend a few days in the Sacred Valley near Cusco. Now, with our own car, we could organize the trip independently. We could stop wherever we wanted and drive as fast as our stomachs, especially those of our children, would allow.
We had rented accommodation for 3 nights. We visited a colibri garden where we were able to observe different species of colibri. The Inca Museum was also on the program, where the pre-Inca period up to the Inca Empire was presented in various rooms.
We enjoyed good food and time as a family. It did us a lot of good and we returned home invigorated, where we were happily greeted by our Peruvian neighbors and our dog Samy.
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ueli tschamper says:
dear gabriel, dear rahel,
i have fond memories of my two driving tests, one in basel (failed) and the second in füllinsdorf (was totally easy).
and how are the neck circumferences? i also wondered why they measure that, but just...
this only briefly, i will write another mail later. yesterday i finally got the book «i have seen god» that gabriel gave me with this beautiful dedication, more about this in a special mail in the next few days. best regards
ueli