We've Arrived in Arequipa!

We've been here almost a week and still don't have wifi.  I'm trying to finally post something while we are at the mission office.  I hope this doesn't get too long.  

Leaving from Salt Lake Airport.  We somehow managed to get all
our luggage and our granddaughter Penny in the car

We made it!!  We left for the airport in Salt Lake City at 1:00 pm Monday and arrived in Arequipa on Tuesday at 12:30 pm.  It's a two hour time difference from Salt Lake/Denver - so, with layovers, close to 24 hours.  Hermana Chipman (mission leader) picked us up and took us to the mission home to feed us.  

Arriving in Arequipa.

She then drove us to our apartment.  It will take us weeks to figure out how to get around the city.  There are lots of narrow streets that go every which way - very confusing.  Our apartment is on the 7th floor and is very nice.  We have a doorman and you need a code to enter the buildings.  Getting our luggage to our building (which is the farthest from the road) and then up a small elevator was very comical.  The mission leaders took us out to dinner that night where I tried ceviche - Yum!  It was in the touristy part of town which we've only seen at night, but it seems nice.  Most of the city is what you would picture as a Peruvian city.  It's been really fun to catch up with the Chipmans.  As we come to learn what all their massive responsibilities are, we are really glad we are here able to help.

First night in Arequipa.  Dinner with the Chipmans

In front of the cathedral in Arequipa down the street from the restaurant

We took it easy the next morning so we could get unpacked.  Presidente Chipman eventually texted us to be sure we had water.  I thought how thoughtful that was and told him we had some, but that we'd buy more when we shopped with Hermana Chipman that afternoon.  Then he clarified and asked if water was coming out of the faucets.  Well, it was at the time, which was why we were confused, but apparently most of the city did not have water coming out of their faucets.  We went shopping and by the time we got home, ours had stopped too.

The doorman told us the water was due to come back at 5:00 am the next morning, and sure enough we heard the toilet tanks fill up at 4:30 am.  It's been fine ever since.  The Chipmans, though, had to monitor it for all the missionaries and the office senior couple didn't have water for 3 days, so we were lucky.  I guess it depended what part of the city you were in.

Then the next day, while doing wash, we flooded our kitchen.  The washing machine drains into a utility sink, and a small piece of paper had fallen into the sink and blocked the drain so that the water overflowed and flooded the kitchen and laundry room.  We were able to sweep the water into a small drain in the laundry room and mop up the rest.  We went from not enough water to too much water in about 24 hours. 

The rest of the week was learning to get around the city and meeting the missionaries, who are awesome!!  The Chipmans have taken us to some really good restaurants.  But grocery shopping will take some getting used to.  The Chipmans met with us on Saturday to give us more of any idea of our responsibilities.  We are going with them to Tacna this week and will meet with the pensionistas down there while Presidente does missionary interviews.  The missionaries live in pensions in some areas and have pensionistas who are paid to feed them and do their wash.  We are going over new contracts with them which among other things, insures that they are given safe and healthy food to eat.  Today I am looking into English Connect.  A program the church has developed to teach English to Spanish speaking missionaries to help them with occupations when they finish their mission.  We went over other things that I will write about as we get to it.

Yesterday, we went to a stake conference here in Arequipa.  The Chipmans spoke and from what I could tell, the meeting was very good (but all in Spanish of course).  The VanDusens (office couple) invited us to dinner, which was our first experience in getting our own ride.  We used the app InDrive (like Uber) to get there, but just flagged a taxi to get home.  We had a very nice time at dinner.

One night Presidente Chipman picked us up on his way home from the mission office and there was a beautiful sunset over the volcano and mountains.  We raced up the hill to the temple to try to get a picture.  The sunset had faded by then, but here is an idea:

The Arequipa temple at sunset

This gives an idea of a street in Arequipa with the mountains in the back.

We found an ice cream shop that sells ice cream made from sheep's milk.
They told us they don't need to use as much sugar because the milk is sweeter.
It was very good.