It rarely rains in Arequipa

Sunday was an adventure in Arequipa.

Lets being with the rules of the road here in Peru (birds chirping silence)...there are none. Nope not really. Its courteous to obey the lights but other then that is every man for himself. Knowing those "rules" and knowing kids don't use cars seats here we set off for church at mom and dad Tovar's church. We contemplated all hoping in a car together and going to church together but instead of keeping with our standard circus clown antics and clowning all 7 of us in one car we took the sensible route and took two cars. Dad Tovar drove one car with Ronan, Virgil and Jenn while John drove the other car with Eli and myself (mom went to church early). Not smart. We should have taken one car. As John and I drove behind Dad T. sitting in typical Peruvian traffic (imagine NYC on an easy day) the car begins to stall out. Up the hill we are sitting and the car won't start! Horns are honking (not unusual) and John tries to start the car! Success it starts....and 5 seconds later it dies....so goes on the same story for the next 5 minutes until we can inch our way to a parking space on the opposite side of the road. With no Peruvian Soles (currency), only US dollars and no cell phones to call anyone we come up with a plan. To my surprise I'm not nervous, frustrated or as high strung as usual...in fact I'm a little bit excited that we have encountered our first adventure. Thank goodness I'm with a Peruvian who "knows" what to do! So proceeds the plan. We hop out of the car and walk a few blocks to exchange some money, find a taxi, negotiate with the taxi on a fare, get in the taxi, drive to church on one way (going the wrong way) road and get to church now 45 minutes late. Whew! We made it. John and Dad T. took the cab back the car where we left it and amazingly enough the car starts. What? Its true. Its like it never happened. So they took the car home, just in case, and took a cab back to church where after church we clowned all, now, 8 of us in one car and drove home. As much as we try to not be a part of the circus, we just can't get away. The circus is in our blood. It is who we are and we are here to stay!

Home from church.

Children sleep.

Children wake up to enjoy celebrating Eli's 2nd birthday today with their favorite food: hot dogs and cake!

Light misting rain starts

Skyped with family and friends.

Ah, time to rest.

Jenn in the rainy room

Eli barricaded from the rain

The guys assessing the situation

What a great Sunday. We all gather into one room start a movie and relax. About 20 minutes into the movie I go downstairs to get Eli more "coffee" per his request. As I am having a moment to myself I begin to contemplate inwardly "This feels great. A good Sunday not so different from when we were home in New Braunfels. Lunch with new friends and family and relaxing. Now all of us watching a movie and enjoying some down time". Hahahahahahaha! Fool! I wasn't downstairs 3 minutes and I come back upstairs to a relaxing room turned to mad chaos...Its raining in the house...no it pouring in the house! All the furniture being rearranged, every last towel being used to wipe up the floors, wires being picked up and now we are attempting to barricade the children to keep them dry and out of a rain mess! So much for a relaxing evening! After an hour of mopping, cleaning and drying up we did finally get back to relaxing. Oh what a night. Its summer here and yes its the rainy season but that means nothing more then daily late afternoon clouds and a light gentle sprinkle. It rarely REALLY rains Arequipa. When it does, it doesn't rain that hard.

Me trying to dry off Eli bed that got wet in the rain

Saving our pants with our high waters

High waters and socks???? He has intelligent parents :)

Ro and his rain high waters (note him playing with the blasted light switch!)

It was all good fun when it was all said and done, but for many its not fun and games. Many Peruvians here in Arequipa are suffering because of all this rain. Pray for the people in the lower parts of Arequipa. Because it has been raining so hard, there is a lot of flooding. People are losing their homes and loved ones. Please join with us in praying for them.