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Richie and Carys Alford

Having married last year, Richie and Carys are now on their way to Peru to work with Latin Link and Scripture Union Peru. They are going for two years and will be working with Street Children, supporting mission and relief aid along the Amazon, encouraging church leaders and working towards building future projects in Bolivia. It is all very exciting and we pray for God to go with them. Find out more about their crazy and brilliant futures by clicking here

Latest update! June 2009

Hello and welcome to our latest newsletter from Peru! Thank you so much to everyone who received our last update and for your prayers and support. So what have we been up to since we last wrote?

Back in Lima, our original plan to fly to Iquitos on Monday 4th May changed at the last minute and we rescheduled for the 10th May. This gave us an extra week in Lima which allowed us more time to visit other Latin Link projects around the city, as well as fitting in some sightseeing (picture of Lima Cathedral in the main square- ‘Plaza de Armas’).

We also were able to meet up with Billy Clark, the International Relations Director of Scripture Union Peru and his family. We also met wth Paul Clark, the Director of Scripture Union Peru and Paul Owen the SU Americas Director. This was an important time for us to get to know the directors and understand their vision for the work we will be doing.

Iquitos!!!

When we finally got off the plane at 9:30am on Sunday 10th May we were both excited that at last we had reached our final destination! Carys had visited Iquitos before in 2004 but Richie had no idea what to expect and what a surprise! An actual city in the middle of nowhere with tarmac and concrete streets, in a block design for easy navigation, swarming with three wheeled motorised rickshaws (very few cars here). Beautifully tiled but now delapidated river-front buildings bear testimony to a golden age now long past. Iquitos is quite unlike the other cities we’ve seen so far, feeling much poorer and with little prospect of change. The picture below is of Belen, one of the shantytowns on the river banks of Iquitos.

We arrived to a surprisingly refreshing climate; enjoyably warm and sunny. However this only lasted a few days before the intense heat returned. It is very very hot here. The heat can be immensely draining and exhausting which makes all things feel harder! Thank God for the occasional days where it’s cooler and for the joy when it rains!

On our arrival we stayed at “La Lampara”; a SU Peru guesthouse in the middle of the city centre. This was a wonderful place to stay as it had air con, wireless internet, a television, washing machine and a fully equipped kitchen. It was a great way to escape from the heat, as well as somewhere comfortable to stay while we adjusted to being in a new city.

Our first few days were spent with Billy Clark as part of our orientation to the work of Scripture Union Peru in Iquitos. This included visiting various parts of the city as well as meetings with Martin and Vanessa Bone, our new Latin Link mentors, and Doris Layche, the SU Peru schools coordinator (pictured from left to right- Doris, Pastors Alix and Atilio and Carys)

We spent the first few weeks here house hunting, which was an interesting experience! There are no formal estate agents so you just wander the streets looking for hand painted signs or, better still, just wander up and ask old ladies sitting on the pavement! Eventually we found a lovely house, which feels safe and has a spare room, an office and even a little garden with a mango tree! Lovely. It’s competely unfurnished- no such thing as “white goods included”! So we’ve spent a while sorting everything out, buying cookers, fridges, etc. All quite fun really, although it did feel a little bit like we were camping at first! Now that we have a coffee maker, a table and chairs and a very comfy bed we feel much more settled!

So, finally on Tuesday 26th May we moved into our new home (pictured left) which we have rented for the next year. At one point it seemed very unlikely to find anywhere like this, so it’s such a wonder and blessing to have found such a lovely place to stay!

Our work in Iquitos

As we mentioned in our last letter, the plan to spend a year in Iquitos and the following year in Puerto Maldonado has changed. We will now spend the whole two years in Iquitos working alongside the ministries here.

There are 3 main ministries here in Iquitos; schools work, the medical boat and clinic and the street children programme. For the first few months of our time here, we will primarily be involved in observing and learning about each ministry from the programme coordinators and their teams.

SU Peru have asked that our main aim for us during our time in Iquitos is to establish a new programme combining the schools work with the medical boat trips along the rivers. Currently the schools work exists in the city of Iquitos itself and nearby town Nauta. SU sees our role as building up a team of volunteers to take the schools programme to the rural indigenous communities along the rivers where the medical boat passes every three months.

SU Peru schools programme has a large network of volunteers, supported by regional coordinators, who give classes in “valores” (values) to primary and secondary aged children and young people.

In Iquitos the team of fourteen volunteers is led by Doris Layche who we have been learning from and work shadowing for the last few weeks. We have already observed several classes in both primary and secondary schools and taken part in regular volunteer meetings focused on training and fellowship.

There are also prayer meetings held three or four times a week in Iquitos, specifically for SU Peru work in schools. Additionally to the classes for children, SU Peru also run after-school classes for parents aimed at developing parenting skills and communication.

We have also begun to learn about the process of approaching schools to ask for permission to give ‘values’ classes and building relationships with the head teachers and staff involved.

Amazonian Politics

The political temperature has been hotter here than the physical one at the moment. There have been day strikes, blockades and clashes between police and indigenous people across the region. The indigenous people are protesting against the Government selling off their tribal lands for exploration and extraction of gold and oil, as well as for agriculture. A couple of weeks ago, nine police and several indigenous people were killed in clashes at a crude oil distribution station near Bagua. We are now entering into a two week truce (following the suspension of two controversial laws over ownership of natural resources in Peru) before the process of dialogue begins again.

Looking ahead……

A change of tack for us for a few weeks, as we will begin to work as guides and translators for visiting teams from Scotland and the US, coming to work on construction projects at the street children homes around Peru. We will be with them for the duration of their time in Iquitos, visiting Puerto Alegria, the SU boys home, 45 minutes down the river.

In July we are planning to go out on the medical boat ‘Amazon Hope’ for the first time, either for a 4 day or 10 day trip. We are looking forward to understanding this work and getting to know the staff on the medical programme, as well as meeting people from the rural Amazonian communities.

Prayer points

Thank you so much for all your prayers for us so far, we have felt blessed and protected each step along our journey. Physically, spiritually and emotionally we feel God has been ahead of us, protecting, guiding and leading us.

Thank you all again for your prayers, we are so grateful for all your support. Please let us know what you’re up to as well

With our love and prayers, Richie and Carys.

Second update from Richie and Carys

Hi,
We have been here in Iquitos for just about a week now, and there is much to be thankful for and to share with you.

We arrived on Sunday morning, after an hour and a half flight from Lima.  Sadly, the weather was cloudy so we could not see the terrain below us; happily the clouds meant we weren't greeted by a fierce heat.  This only came on Tuesday when the clouds lifted!  When cloudy it is about 25 - 29 degrees C, with pure sun it is hitting 33; nighttimes are over 20 degrees.  We are very thankful for air con to cool us down a bit.  We are staying at the Union Biblica Guest House, used by the medical teams on their way to and from the boat.

My first impression of Iquitos is of surprise.  That such a big city with normal houses and normal roads can be here at all.  In your mind, you know you are miles from anywhere but you feel as though you could be anywhere in Latin America.  The only big difference in the towns is the absence of cars, and abundance of three wheel mototaxis, which all zoom off (like a swarm of bees) when the lights turn from green to orange on the other road's lights.  No one waits for their own lights to go green!, and thankfully drivers do stop on the orange not the red!!  The rivers are massive too, more on them another time. 

We were met at the airport by Billy Clark, International Relations Director of Union Biblica Peru, who will be our boss for the next two years.  He stayed with us for two days outlining the work plans he has for us and showing us the city and UB projects.  It was great to spend time with him, and talk through a lot of the things that have been unclear up until now. 

Specifically with regards to our work, from now into mid June, we will begin working with the schools coordinator, Doris Layche, learning all about the 'Valores' [Values] programmes she runs in 15 schools in Iquitos.  Volunteers from local churches deliver the values classes once a week in each school.  One programme is aimed at children in year 6 of primary school, the other at year 5 [UK year 11] of secondary school.  In addition, there is also a 'School for Parents' that happens twice a term in the evenings in some of the schools.  We will learn from Doris how to recruit, train and coordinate a team of volunteers; we will not be involved in actually teaching the classes themselves, but will sit in from time to time.  Already we have met twice with Doris and some of her volunteers, and they are genuinely lovely people, really excited about how God is working through them to bring hope and change to the lives of many young people.

The long term plan is that we will take the same 'Valores' model and implement it with schools in the villages on the River Amazon and its tributaries reached by the 'Amazon Hope' Medical Programme run by Union Biblica.  Whilst the boat is docked at each village on its three-monthly routine visits, volunteers will go to the school in the village and teach the 'Valores' package to the school children.  Broadly speaking, this will be our primary role here.  There is a lot that we don't understand about it at the moment, but it sounds an exciting new area of work for us [a bit like a SWYM or ICE style project, but on the Amazon!].  We will share more as we come to understand it.

From the 14th June til the end of the month, we will also be helping with two work teams visiting from Scotland.  They will be working at Puerto Alegria Abandoned Boys' Home, home for 40 boys from the street, with a construction project there.  We will be acting as translators for their visit.  This also gives us a great chance to get to know the work of Union Biblica with street children. 

House hunting is a very different process to the way it is in the UK.  Apart from a few classifieds in the paper, some are advertised with a notice on the wall outside, others are not advertised at all, and the only way to find them is to ask in the corner shop if there is anything for rent in the area.  We have seen several places already, either too expensive for our budget, or not suitable for one reason or another.  The search will continue on Monday.  Martin and Vannesa, our Latin Link colleagues here, are a great help in this process as they understand the rules!  We are sure we will get on well with them as we settle into the Mentoring relationship we will have with them.

We are really thankful that
 

Please pray that

 

First update from Richie

We have been here for over a month now! 

Time does fly.  We spent an excellent first week in Lima on a formal orientation with the Latin Link coordinator.  We were with another young couple who are great fun, and so our time together passed really quickly.  We feel very happy to be part of the  LL Peru team, the advantages of it outweigh any disadvantages we may have feared.  The LL office is in the centre of town above a Christian bookshop.

We also went to Interpol and had our fingerprints taken, photos of head on and side on, and dental records made, for "Resident Non Catholic Missionary Visa ID Cards".  The process felt more like being incarcerated than becoming missionaries!

We then made a 14 hour overnight bus journey to the city of Arequipa, the second largest city in Peru, where we are now based for a couple of months of language training.  Arequipa is 8,000 feet above sea level.  The altitude has been difficult to adapt to, the thin air making us tireder than normal.  Walking around makes you short of breath very quickly.  We are both getting over that now, and feeling more normal now.  4 hours a day of Spanish classes are also very tiring - thinking constantly in a foreign language, even one we both know some of already, is hard work.  We both have 2 hours of conversation class one on one with a tutor.  We also have 2 hours of grammar class in a class with 2  students and a tutor.  So there is nowhere to hide!  We get two hours of homework too!  It does mean that we are progressing rapidly through stuff learning a great deal as we go.  It is a Christian language school which means that we are getting to grips with some of the vocab of the church, as well as the normal stuff.  "The book is on the table"  "El libro esta sobre la mesa".

Accommodation wise, we have really fallen on our feet.  We are staying in the house of two long term LL missionaries, Rosie and Ruth.  They are both away on long term leave, in N Ireland and Australia.  We had two weeks overlap with Rosie, who has been working here for 35 years, and so it was a wonderful time to learn from her and hear of her experiences.  We share the house with their god daughter, Yesenia, a yong Peruvian lady, and three dogs.  We prefer Yesy to the dogs!  The house has cable TV, wireless broadband, a tranquil garden, beautiful views of mountains and volcanoes, etc.  Our stomachs have behaved well so far with no illnesses to report yet, which is great! 

There is lots more I could say now but classes are beckoning.  So can you share this with the Thursday group, and these prayer requests to follow. 

More news to follow...