Peru was our last country and one of those places we moved around a bit so this will go place by place and cover our flights back to SA.
Mancora
The yellow team arrived in Mancore, a beach chilling town place in north Peru in the semi desert, on the Monday 2 pm, the exact time that you could start booking into the backpackers we were staying at. Maxine and the Blue team was already there and greeted us when we got there. The 3 days in Mancore was a rest and recovery time for the team and to get some debrief on the Luke 10 and prepare for our last country of ministry. And it was just that, we chilled and there was no expectation for 3 days, there was time to do admin, chat to some people and try and wrap your head around what just happened the previous 11 days.
Puira
Our next stop was Puira a city in the deep Peru desert, the road there was interesting since after a few hours of driving past deep desert and miles and miles of sand there was suddenly rice plantations, the green got me and then I started to wonder where the water comes from, it was from rivers from the mountain that flows through the desert. In Puira we helped out with a church plant, this meant that we spend most of our time in the area going round speaking to people telling them about new church and having a church service every night. We also went out with the Gideon's to hand out bibles at schools during the mornings. During the handout we mostly went from class to class and had 5 min to share. The time there was good and even if there was the occasional surprise in program and where we need to be we still manage to get to some people. More importantly we had time to sit with the people doing the church plant and could speak into their lives and share with them some lessons we learned during the year about prayer and church.
Chiclyo, Ferrenfe, Inkawasi, Ferrenfe
From Puira we went to Chiclyo and Ferrenfe where oom Hendrik and tannie Ronel lives that we were serving under for our time in Peru. We were there for a few chill days before we left for the Mountains. Since they are South African and their home reflects this and they are also so open it felt like being home for a bit and for the first time it got to us that we are almost going home. We even had a braai and malva poeding. From there we went to the mountains, we had a bit of a bumpy start since the time we would have gone were delayed due to mud slides on the road up the mountain. The town of Inkawasi was about 10000 feet about see level ad that is high, with altitude and cold in the evenings being a factor, but it was so beautiful and good to be in the mountains. At the start in the mountains our time was spent going to remote villages in the area to hand out bibles with the Gideon's again. We had some interesting times getting to where we need to be with the transport that we had and on the first day Jaco and me ended up standing on the side of the bakkie in the rain on the way back home, it was cold. 
One of the days some of us had a walk back home along the mountain paths and beside feeling a bit lost at one stage we did get home after a nice walk. By that time we got use to some surprises and things not looking as expected in the program and visits. The last 2 days in the mountain we spend cleaning round the house and helping to fix up the hand weaving house, by doing the roof and doing the electric wiring and putting in lights. The time in the mountains were very cool but way to short. After that we went back to Ferrenfe for a few days, the first day back we were taken to a museum of the old peeps in the area and the stuffies they build. And then we had lunch with the man who took us and had some more ceviche , a raw fish dish from Peru, it was really good. But even better than that was to hear the testimony of the man and how he was part of one of the 2 biggest drug cartels in the big drug wars on the Peru Columbia border in the 90's and how he led the guerillas forces of this cartel and how he was saved later in life because of a miracle healing. The next day we stripped and repainted the shop that sells the hand woven goods of the mountain that we visited. The following day we did not have anything to do excet get ready and packed to get on the bus for Lima. We made the bus on time, but while watching the movie on the bus we were asked on the intercom system to be quite since we were scaring the other people on the bus. It was really funny.
Lima
Our time in Lima started of with my B-day. It started on the bus and a morning to settle in. The afternoon we went to do some evangelism in the market while some of our team was sick and helping some old people. That evening there was a bit of a surprise party for me, but we got a bit side tracked and when we got there a bit late everyone was a bit in panic since it is a dangerous area. The time there was spend going to schools handing out some more bibles and helping with some of the services in church and hanging out with the church members. In the end the church treated us very well with us being sent off and it feeling like Christmas because everyone wants to give you stuff.
The way home
We took a flight from Lima, Peru to Sao Paulo, Brazil and our original tickets from Sao Paulo to Johannesburg would have meant a 6 hour wait before our next flight, but a month before our tickets were changed by SAA and that meant we were going to have to wait 25hours. Fortunately Brazil has some hectic consumer rights stuff going for them and we went to the SAA office when we landed and they booked us into a very nice hotel for the night and next morning, breakfast included. This was by far the most luxury we lived in for the year and breakfast was great fun. Flight back from Brazil to RSA was good since I had 4 seats to stretch myself out on, and not only that but the crew spoke English and was South African . We landed nice an early on 7 November and a lot of family was waiting for us.
My time there
In general Peru was probably my most difficult country for a few reasons. I was leading the coordination while there and that created a few problems of its own. Besides it creating a new dynamic that had to be adjusted to in the team it was also not the easiest place to do the coordination with lots of miscommunication, misunderstandings and surprises everywhere we went and the more it happened the more frustrated I became because I put a lot of false responsibility on myself and if things would not be as expected I would be blaming myself. It was also a period of being distracted very easily and allowing circumstances to shift my focus from God. There was elements of spiritual pride that I became aware of in my behaviour, but since I had a bad time there it showed me that I really have nothing to base any pride on, not that you should ever have any reason to have pride in the first place. All in all it was a bit of an emotional and difficult time with so much more popping up that God still wants to deal with in my life.
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