Transportation, Supply Chain and Insurance Conundrums
On Monday morning, Julie woke up feeling sick. Some rest and a few home remedies had her feeling better in short order. Rich went out for a few medical supplies and groceries.
We went back out to Rimac in the evening for the Home Evening. The same drive that took 45 minutes on Sunday, took 2 1/2 hours Monday evening! Traffic is crazy here!! We went to a member's house. It is a very low income and humble area. Likewise, not the kind of area we wanted to be walking around at night in. Our friend José Luís took us there. He has his own car and spent a lot of the time, making sure no one was looking at his hubcaps…
Our new friend, Bro. Leyva, had a painting on the wall that Rich recognized and thought it was a copy until he heard that it was painted by Bro. Leyva’s dear friend, a former missionary ,who lived with them. Rich had seen this painting in the home of our wonderful friend named Miguel Huayapa when he showed his portfolio to us. Talk about a small world.
We have had very strange weather. We have hardly ever seen it rain in Lima. However, we had two nights of torrential rain. Where we have been it amounted to a few centimeters that ran down the streets and had no real impact. However to the North it has flooded houses and streets. A friend of ours spent all of one day shoring his roof with corrugated tin sheets. To the North of the country it has also been pouring rain. In some of the local beliefs, bad weather presages earthquakes and on Saturday, a whopping 7. Richter scale struck off the coast of Tumbes, Peru with big shocks in Ecuador.
One of our assignments is to look after missionary health needs. They are covered under the Church's insurance package and they have a WhatsApp number of a health care professional in the United States. They call him and he assesses their needs. If it is deemed that they need to see a Doctor, Specialist or Dentist, they get passed on to us. We make the appointments and inform everybody (the missionary, the mission president, and insurance) about them. Then, the day before they are seen, we contact insurance to request a guarantee letter that theoretically takes two hours or less.
Making the appointment calls is a cake walk. Working through the insurance portion, simply, is not. We had a train wreck of a time getting it figured out but, think we have it figured out finally.
One of our missionaries is an only granddaughter and her grandmother has sent two packages to her. They have both made it with no evidence of having been opened and evaluated! We have been stunned. We made another trip to the far North of the Lima area to THE post office for international mail in Lima! A city of nearly 12million, imagine it…
More importantly, it is just five minutes from the new Los Olivos temple. We drove by and snapped photos. It appears to be done but no open house or dedication dates have been mentioned. It was supposed to be by now…
We also inspect missionary houses for order and cleanliness. We also respond to any of their needs: mops, buckets, toasters, microwaves, refrigerators etc.. We needed to pick up five electric floor fans for these visits. Three weeks ago, the stores had dozens of them on shelves. This week we drove all over creation and checked out five different large supply places a la Lowes and Home Depot and finally found the five in our last stop. They are at the end of their inventory plan and people are still roasting in their homes so…
We have been spending some time with our friend Fernando Agüero and we mentioned him in one of these blogs. One of our dear friends, Keith Mortensen from Albuquerque asked about him. When we figured it all out, they had served as missionaries together in the late 1970s! More small world stuff.
After our movements to get here and her school vacations, Rich re-connected with Charo, his Quechua teacher and started classes up again this week.
On Saturday, we had been invited to attend a Relief Society anniversary get together in Rimac. We had decided to try out public transportation. We figured out how to get on and off of the metro and took it into the center of the city. We have a pretty vivid impression of the sardine packing analogy in high 80s and 99% humidity. These are Costco level packed sardine cans, let us tell you. It would be pretty difficult to pick a pocket in these presses of bodies. Everything was still where we put it before we left. Still figuring it all out…
Once in the center, we went to one of our favorite restaurants for lunch. Our plan was to take an Uber to Rimac and participate in the get together. We finished our lunch and tried to call the car. We waited until it was too late. No one would respond.
We ended up taking the metro back to the house and then an Uber to the evening's baptism. There is a baptism every Saturday evening to attend and we have been trying to make it to one every Saturday. They are wonderful events and we get to spend time with truly marvelous people.
Enjoying your blog!
ReplyDeleteLooks like there's nothing thrown at you that you can't handle. Which is just what I would expect from you two. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteWe are enjoying your blog too. I think we visited Rimac too once. Is it along the foothills on the only road to up into the Andes towards Huancayo? We did a family history class with Dulio Delgado.
ReplyDeleteI'm loving it
ReplyDeleteWe are proud of you and your faith and courage. God bless you as you bless them!
ReplyDeleteI love reading about your adventures! I love you both and I’m so inspired by your faithfulness and trust in the Lord as you serve. I’ll have to ask Keith Mortensen to tell me the story of his mission companion!
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