Happy birthday to Ruthiebuns who turned 75 years young on the 8th of August.
Our Assistants to the President, Elders Madder and Cosentino, gave her a lollipop with a scorpion inside it. Ruth won't forget this present!
It was a fun day of different gifts and good eats!
There were birthday flowers too.
Jefferson, our office driver, wasted no time eating his piece(s).
Sister Godfrey showed up to enjoy the chocolate cake, and in no time the cake was half gone.
The office Elders made sure that every crumb was eaten.
Our missionaries get sick and have accidents on their mission: the flu, intestinal distress, dog bites, broken bones, severe coughs, ingrown toenails, cuts, migraine headaches, styes, allergies, apendicitis, hernias, emotional and psychological problems, etc., etc. Ruth is the one that gets them an appointment to see a doctor so that they can get the medical attention that they need. It requires a lot of calling and leg work.
Luckily we have a really nice clinic right across the street from the Mission Offices so that makes her job a lot easier. The name of the clinic is Clínica Jesús de Norte.
Right next to the clinic is a school that trains all prepares nurses, technicians and other medical personnel to work in clinics and hospitals. As you can imagine, there are a lot of people coming and going.
Ruth walks over to the clinic from the offices and makes an appointment for the missionaries. The staff is always helpful.
When the missionary arrives he/she gets on the elevator to go up to the floor where his/her doctor is located.
After they get to the right floor and area they have to sit and wait for the doctor to see them.
After seeing and visiting the doctor they take the elevator down to the main floor where they have to wait to pay or submit their insurance claim.
After taking care of the payments and insurance they go to the pharmacy to pick up the prescriptions for their ailments. There's always medication to get.
In some cases our missionaries need to go to the emergency room to be checked in for treatment, but that is another story!
Peru celebrates its independence day on the 28th of July.
They have a big celebration in central Lima at the Presidential Palace. We tried to get to the activities but when we arrived they had everything fenced off for security reasons. We ended walking through the streets with all of the thousands of people and took the following pictures.
Even the dogs get dressed up for independence day.
Where there is an independence day celebration there has to be horses.
As we walked through the streets we came upon these two unique dancers all painted and dressed up to entertain the crowds. They had really unique dance routines, both modern and traditional. The "green guy" really had all the moves.
We decided to visit China Town since we were so close.
If you visit China Town in Lima then you have to try Min Pao. Delicious!
Right next to China Town is the central market so we took a few pictures inside.
Guinea pig (cuy), anyone? Skinned and already to fry and eat.
Lima has so much to offer and so much to see. Love the colonial architecture.
Ruth wanted to celebrate the 4th of July at the Mission Offices. We decided to buy a red, white and blue frosting cake, but we ended up with chocolate cake with red cherries on top! The baker forgot to make the red, white and blue frosting cake!
Ruth and I before we start cutting the cake and giving it to others.
Jefferson, our office driver, was the first one to get a piece of cake.
Our mission psychologist, Miguel, and our cleaning lady, Meche, loved it!
When the office Elders saw the cake they sang the National Anthem before they ate their piece (Elders Madder, Edwards & Valenzuela).
Several Sister missionaries came into the office and little by little the cake slowly disappeared.
Ruth made this wall decoration out of toilet paper rolls to help us remember the 4th of July the rest of the day.
