When I left the mission field, I honestly figured that there was a chance that I'd never see or hear of all of these people that I'd served ever again. I'm so glad I was wrong. Through social media and email I have been able to reconnect with dear friends over the last couple of years.
A number of weeks ago I found myself looking through satellite maps of the areas in Peru where I served as a missionary from 1997-99. I'd once before done this right as I'd heard of Google Earth years ago; however, I'd not discovered that street views were available in this old stomping ground. Once I saw that I could place the little orange stickman on these familiar streets, floodgates opened and memories flowed into the forefront of my mind as I virtually walked these streets once more.
I'd recommend this little activity for anyone who has served in the mission field. Sharing it in this fashion could seem as boring as a return missionary's slide show, so my apologies if the images/descriptions put you to sleep, but personally the reward for me putting this together has been too great not to share in some way. The experiences a missionary has serve him/her for a lifetime, and being reminded of specific places and events has only brought me to a closer understanding of how our Heavenly Father looks after and blesses all of us. We are all his children, and he loves each of us.
(Click on the photo titles to see maps and street views)
San Juan de Miraflores
This map shows the 3 different areas that I served in San Juan over the course of about 8 months.
This first apartment was toward the back of the first floor where we had rented a small room; large enough for two desks and a bunk bed. Our pension was on the second floor where we'd have bread and butter for breakfast, a Peruvian dish for lunch, and usually lunches leftovers for dinner. It was here I was immersed in speaking Castellano. Luckily for me, Roberto and Andrea (our pensionista's two children, who served and who is also currently serving their own mission) helped me practice my language skills each day. The Dávila's owned the house, and Patty owned a taxi that she leased to a driver named Kike. That red little car was parked behind the wide brown door in the evenings. Patty had a computer and it even had the Internet. It was up on the 3rd floor. It was through email that I was able to keep close contact with my sister on her decision whether or not to serve a mission. The house was a sort of army green back then. On this date 17 years ago I was spending one of my first Sundays there getting over my first little stomach bug. Thank goodness I got accostomed to the food quickly.
The chapel was only a block or two away. There was a public pitch of asphalt for street fútbol just in front of the church. We played all our 'fulbito' in the court just to the right of the church in a little courtyard. We'd also play basketball or set up volleyball in that same place. Seeing fences around every single building at first seemed very strange, but it soon became the norm to see spiked fences or walls topped with broken glass as an added security for any building. A barking dog on the rooftop was another most common security measure for many in Lima.
A flood in a distant city (Ica) brought several evacuated missionaries to our programs in Lima which caused a bit of a missionary shuffle. I was assigned to work in 1/3 of the program in which I was serving. That being the case, from one day to the next, we found a new room to rent and a new pension for our meals. Our rented room in this corner building belonged to the Hinostrosa family (I'm pretty sure it was this building). We were on the first floor and had much more room. The emergency transfers in this case left me without a companion. I was fortunate to have great support from stake missionaries to work beside me for weeks at a time.
This was the home of my second pension. A wonderful family of 6 that treated me like one of their own children. The Leturias had 3 girls and 1 boy just like my family. At the time they were even caring for their abuelita (much like my parents are doing now for my grandmother). Each time we'd return for a meal was a wonderful experience to see such a strong and faithful family. We sang a lot of songs together, had a number of laughs, and practiced our second languages English and Castellano for their children and myself respectively. Little Juanita, who was just 3 at the time, was the social media link I discovered a few years back that brought me into contact with this dear family once again. 6 years ago I wrote
this blog post about them finding me after I'd left San Juan.
We rented a room on the second floor of this building (the window on the right). It was probably the poorest area I was to experience. There was one bathroom for all the renters to share. The bathroom was without any shower so we'd bath over a drain with a bucket of water (usually very chilly water). This area was more dangerous than other I'd experienced and by this time I was training my second missionary Elder Nuñez. Thank goodness he was older and much more street smart than me as we navigated our way around this neighborhood. We met la Hermana Eva Alanya in this area who had the most infectious laughter I'd ever known.
Surco
Surco was a big change for me. It included area that were more affluent and I was called to be the District Leader in my area. The district included some very rich areas of Lima. On this day 16 years ago, I had my most memorable P-day of the mission where we were able to visit Jockey Plaza and El Hippodromo. The Hippodromo was the horse track there, and our missionary connections were able to not only get us into the facility to see the horses, but also to race one another on the track. The distance from our room to our pension was pretty far, but that wasn't the only thing I had to get used to, it was located inside of a school.
I'm pretty sure this is where we had our room. We had a tiny place situated on the roof top up a spiral metal staircase. It was inside this room where I saw my first and only wild scorpion. We also had a stereo in our room for some reason, it didn't belong to us, but we were allowed to use it. I remember listening to my recording of the Tabernacle Choir singing American spirituals as I studied. How fitting that I'd be recording some of those same songs as a member of the Tabernacle Choir years later under the direction of Mack Wilberg.
This is the gate we'd enter each weekday to eat each of our meals. The gate keeper knew us and was a church member. Our pension, La Familia Rubio, ran a small little kitchen within the school which was essentially a place for teachers to eat their lunch. My experience as an American walking inside these walls was enough to cause me to blush even today. All of the school girls heads turned my direction. Dressed in their dark grey school skirts and white blouses, they'd pucker their lips and make loud kissing noises which echoed across the inner courtyard along with their adolescent giggles. It wasn't just the girls who teased and/or swooned. It seems every little boy in this school wanted to ask us our names by saying something that sounded like, "WHADisURnayme". The Rubio family took care of feeding us here marvelously. I miss them and their pineapple/papaya drinks when I see this picture.
This plaza was a block or two away from our pension at the school. I loved walking through the area because it was kept so clean and nice. Cars swirled around the main cathedral and municipal buildings all day and very often we would find people to chat with here. We walked by the evening of the 4th of July to witness a concert in the park of sorts. I remember the woman singing with the band was wearing an elegant black party dress had the attention of everyone in the plaza.
Ica
I became a Zone Leader in the city of Ica a year after floods evacuated missionaries from the area. I was no longer in the humid coastal area, but in a dry dessert. Despite the heat, I loved this town. I forget what my ward was called, but I'll always remember my zone. I had some great missionaries to work with, 5 of which were sister missionaries (there were only 10 sisters in the whole mission). We had some great zone activities that weren't just limited to playing soccer. We toured fancy hotels and pools, saw the oasis of La Huacachina, went sand boarding, toured an Inka Kola factory, and discovered La Bruja de Cachiche. I spent my second Christmas here, and ate like a king for 6 months.
This was our place on the second floor. We rented a room on the second floor from La Familia Flores. Their two boys roomed across the hall and would often ask me to help them with their video games since they couldn't read the English instructions. Hermano Flores worked during the week at the Lima temple and the bishop of our ward lived downstairs on the first floor.
This is the chapel we'd attend for weekly Sunday meetings and for zone conferences. It was right on one of the main streets of the city. In the Google Street View you can actually see the missionaries just outside the gates surely just having wrapped up a zone meeting of their own.
El Huarango
I remember this restaurant for two reasons: it was the best place to eat Pollo-a-la-brasa and Anticuchos, and it was also the place where my whole zone got food poisoning from eating some bad mayonnaise. We drove past this corning several times during the week as we turned off the main street into the neighborhood where we lived.
This park isn't in Ica, but I visited here mostly while serving as a Zone Leader in Ica. I'd head to Lima once a month for Zone Leader conferences and stay there for about two days at a time. I always enjoyed walks along the cost in Miraflores which is a very tourist filled area.
Chorrillos
Barrio: Las Villas
I believe this was the home where we rented a rooftop apartment in Chorrillos. It was very close to the ocean. We could hear the ambient sound of the waves hitting the beach as we walked these streets. Our tiny rented room was accompanied by a doberman roof dog that died shortly after we moved out. There were 3 of us missionaries at the time, and our companionship seemed like the 3 stooges at times. We had a lot of laughs, and we played early morning fútbol in the park right across from this home. Ultimately, we needed to move across our program to a new more suitable area.
Barrio: Las Delicias
I ended mission in this area. It was very poor, but we were so well taken care of and so happy. The member support was incredible, and it was a most wonderful place to end my mission.
Apartment is around the corner to the left and on the right about a half block
You can't see the house we lived in on the Google Street View. Either the street is blocked from having car traffic or picture information was never included for this block were we lived. We had a comfortable room on the first floor and a nice bathroom with warm showers. We'd read scriptures each night with our host family.
La Hermana Capcha was our pension in this area. I believe she lived in this turquoise colored home. We'd approach the home with a high 'woot, woot' type call and we'd wait for La Hermana and her two kids to echo our call. She was so wonderful to us. It was hamburgers every night for dinner. It certainly wasn't a typical Peruvian dish, but she knew we loved it so she prepared it every day. She ran a little shop out of the front (behind the large metal black doors). She felt so guilty for selling beer out of her shop, so we always told her the Lord would bless her for removing that from her store.
Shortly before returning home from the mission, I visited La Rosa Nautica for a lunch to celebrate achieving my 'Maestro de Maestros' teaching level. It was amazing scenery and a delicious meal. Not exactly within our zone boundaries (maybe a mile or so away from our border), I found myself wanting to ask forgiveness for having taken the trip since we didn't really have permission.
Well, if any reader has made it this far, congratulations. I realize that the number of people I know that are likely to remain captive throughout a post like this are few, but I'm so glad to have this information at my fingertips. I hope to be able to share these places with my own kids or young adults who are preparing to serve missions some day. I feel blessed to have known this land, walked these streets, and become acquainted with a people that taught me so much about myself and about life. While I hope one day to return in person, this virtual tour will suffice in the meantime.
