Change of Plans

We appreciate your patience waiting for our blog to be restored.  While the folks at Goshen College were dealing with the technical issues required to re-build the blog, the folks in the mountains of Peru are dealing with the heaviest rains in over a decade.  We had planned to travel to Cusco this week for a service project with a Mennonite Church in the village of Lucre followed by a visit to Inca Ruins and ultimately, Machu Picchu.  Then we learned about the flooding in Cusco — streets are like rivers, low-lying areas like ponds, the airport closed, the rail line closed, the bridge to Pisac collapsed.  We quickly decided to postpone our trip to Cusco to the end of the semester and have rearranged our program.   We shifted our week 6 activities to week 4, and students will leave for service earlier than originally planned.   Perhaps some of our students can help with the clean up and rebuilding efforts once the rains subside.  For now our thoughts and prayers are with those whose lives have been impacted by the heavy rain and high water.

We began our study here in Lima with language classes, a workshop on jewelry making and a trip downtown, including lunch atop the hill that overlooks the city — Cerro San Cristobol — and a tour of the charming and tranquil Santa Domingo Monastery.   We’ll describe what came next in future blog entries…