Monuments

Last Saturday Evie and I went to Miraflores, a suburb on the ocean. It really is a nice part of Lima. Here's the photo. However, this post isn't about Miraflores or the ocean. It's about what you cannot see in the background because my head is in the way.

This picture is from the same place (and isn't Evie's favorite, but again the post isn't about her either). If you look about one third of the way from top of her head towards the right edge of photo you can barely see Lima's famous (or infamous ) Cristo del Pacífico (the Christ of the Pacific) statue. Actually, to see it you really need to download the photo and zoom in, but don't worry about that because here are some pictures of it.

It is a 120-foot structure featuring a white statue of Jesus that is 72 feet tall made of fiberglass built in 2011. It has an awkward setting. It is not on the highest point of the hill, but down below a summit covered with unsightly cell phone towers.

Here's another view looking out towards Miraflores where we were.  It's really something of a knock off of the more famous Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

It is lit with colored lights at night which to some makes it more grotesque than inspiring. 

It was intended as a gift to the country by former president Alan Garcia just as he was leaving office. Many viewed it as a vanity project by an unpopular president trying to create a legacy. One newspaper observed that it was "A monument as great as his humility."  

Nonetheless, Garcia personally helped fund the cost of the statue but only to the tune of around 100,000 Peruvian soles (about $30,000). He said it would "bless and protect Lima." However, it cost over a million dollars and the rest was funded by a donation from Odebrecht, a large Brazilian construction company that has built major projects throughout the South America. The statute received decidedly mixed reviews among Peruvians. Some local residents have been disappointed that it hasn't attracted as much tourist traffic and spending as they had hoped. 

Turns out the donation for the statute wasn't the only donations Odebrecht had been making. Late last year Odebrecht settled with the United States, Brazil and Switzerland for up to $4.5 billion under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for an elaborate bribe scheme involving $800 million in payoffs in exchange for lucrative contracts, including contracts with Peru during the Garcia administration. Here are links to a stories in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. You may want to check out which ever source you're most comfortable with or be adventuresome and check out both.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/at-121-feet-this-may-be-the-worlds-largest-unwanted-statue-1493576431

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/world/americas/peru-colombia-venezuela-brazil-odebrecht-scandal.html?_r=0

Odebrecht's business model was to bride government officials to secure contracts for large infrastructure projects, which tended to be completed late, if at all, and with huge cost overruns. Odebrecth made lots of money, the politicians got legacy building projects they could brag about, as well as a lot of money personally, and their country and its people were saddled with the financial burden of overpriced projects that never seem to get done. Corruption, at all levels, is an insidious and disabling disease in so many South American countries.

So here we have a statute, of all persons, of Jesus Christ, that has come to be a symbol, not of Him or His gospel, but of vanity, greed and corruption. How sad. 

I was thinking about this last Sunday night, which happened to be Father's Day, when I was talking with Janell and another monument came to mind.

It is not large or on a majestic setting, but is a simple and headstone in a cemetery west of Nampa on a small rise overlooking the beautiful farmland of Canyon County. I know those people very well and their faith in Christ and love and devotion to each other. To me their lives, recorded with this simple headstone, are a monument to what the Cristo del Pacífico statue should have represented, but does not.

Doors

While we live on a busy corner, behind our apartment is a quiet residential neighborhood. This is what it looks like walking on the streets of our neighborhood. As you can see, it's all about walls and doors -- and you can't see what's behind them.

To get inside, you push a button on an intercom on the wall and, if they want to let you in, someone inside will push a button that opens the door. In some of the newer homes there is a video camera so the person inside can see who wants to come in.

It could be a little front yard (or courtyard) like this one. While from the street it may look like a garage, it is really just a wall but with a garage-type door and often with some grass or plants. It's useful to have cars that aren't too big, because in this little courtyard between the wall and the house is usually the only place to park your car.  This is typical of our neighborhood.

There are, however, other neighborhoods with homes and yards as large as ours was in Flower Mound (but with different architectural styles).  These homes are also surrounded by walls, so you can't see them from the street.

This little courtyard also happens to have a resident.

So what is behind these doors?

A little store called a "tienda" or "minimarket." They have these all over our neighborhood, including several on each block. While there are "supermercados" (supermarkets) here in Lima that are similar to those in the U.S., you don't really need to go to them often, because you can usually find what you need at one of these tiendas just a few steps away from your apartment.

So what is behind this door?  You need to wait until later in the afternoon or evening to find out.

It's Don Wichi's Sandwicheria (Mr. Wichi's sandwich store) with hamburgers (which are good even by U.S. standards) and also a "mixto completo" (ham, cheese and an egg on a bun), and with juices to drink that I've never heard of. They're very good and can be mixed with milk if you want.  This is one of my favorite places to eat, and it's just steps from our apartment!

 What would be behind this long wall?

A sports club with young men playing futbol (soccer). While I suppose they have grass soccer fields in the large stadiums somewhere, everyone around here plays soccer on concrete courts. The parks usually have basketball standards along with the soccer goals on these courts, but I've never seen anyone playing basketball (although I'm sure some do), but there is almost always someone playing soccer.

What do you think is behind these secure, private and imposing, but attractive, walls?

New missionaries. This is the Lima, Peru Missionary Training Center.

This is the Lima, Peru Temple. Note: It is not hidden by a wall. It is an "ensign to the world" and we want everyone to see this beautiful building.

But it does have doors, actually beautiful doors. At this temple, you do not enter through an annex or side doors, but through these front doors. What's behind these doors? Ask Grandma Evie. That's where she works.

Episode 1 - MTC

This is our district of Senior Missionaries and instructor in the Provo, MTC. Notwithstanding all the normal, and some even justifiable, complaints about the MTC, we enjoyed our week there.

This is the classic photo in front of the world map at the Provo MTC.

Concerned family members, however, have pointed out that Grandma Evie and Grandpa Mike are not pointing to the same place on the map. In fact, they were distracted by the photographer asking for bigger smiles and lost track of where they were pointing. Nevertheless, is this an ominous sign, some sort of dramatic foreshadowing of things to come? Well, you'll need to keep up with all of this season's episodes to find out.

Welcome to our new blog. We are having some interesting experiences we want to tell you about and besides this is what Senior Missionaries are supposed to do.

 A comment about the name. We live at the corner of the streets Bogota and Melgarejo in the neighbor of Santa Patrica in the municipality of La Molina in the district of Lima, Peru. Our apartment is on the corner on the third floor. (Above and to the right of the women with the dog.)

While Willy and the poor boys are not playing and no one is throwing nickels, there are lots of interesting things in our new neighborhood we hope to share.