Bienvenidos a Dulce Refugio!!

I would like to introduce you all to "someone" very important: MY NEW HOUSE!!!

My house is not a new house but rather a different locale for the single Mennonite missionaries of Cusco. At the beginning of January, I moved out of the apartment that the mission has used for 17 years in order to have more space and be closer to the section of the city where the church and school are located. The new house is located in L'Arapa which is above one of the two universities in town.

The view from my window!

The name of our new house is DULCE REFUGIO which means "sweet refuge." I named it that because I think all households of single gals should have a name and why would naming a house be reserved only for the rich and old-fashioned? I want our house not to be a place that we escape to but a place where others feel safe and connected to God!

The members of Dulce Refugio are myself and two new missionaries that arrived last month. They are Bethany who is staying for 3 years and Shannon who is doing a one year internship. They are going to be teaching at PROMESA this year and together we make up the English teachers for the year. We are all getting along well and enjoying fellowship, singing silly songs and praying together.

The gals of Dulce Refugio: Bethany, Shannon and Me

One of the features of our new house besides being beautiful is a chicken coop. Last weekend in the middle of a torrential downpour (complete with hail), we went out and bought (what we hope are) 8 egg-laying chickens. Well, they are still young yet but they hopefully will be good egg-layers in the future. We are naming them all different names for chicken in different languages. So far we have: Chickie (english), Poulet (French), Pollita (Spanish), Huehnchen (German), Gocki (Pennsylvania Dutch) and Chuchie (Quechua) and Kalkun (Norweigan). They are still cute but I'm sure soon they'll look like normal chickens.



Our house is really a huge blessing and definitely a peaceful place. I'm glad that we've started a new epoca in Dulce Refugio and I can't wait to see all that God has ahead for us!

The view from the hill above my house