Teaching Music in the Tarma District

Beverly has begun to teach music to children and adults in the Tarma District. This picture shows four of the six women who meet twice a week to learn how to conduct hymns. Scott says some of them can already lead the music better than anyone we have seen in Tarma or Lima.

Here are some of the teenagers in Tarma who meet on Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday nights to learn to play the piano. Hopefully, they will be able to accompany hymns in their branches.

On Saturday mornings we travel to La Aroya (an hour away) where Beverly is teaching these people how to play the piano.

On Saturday afternoons, we travel to Junin (an hour from La Aroya) where five children are learning to play the piano. The man in this picture is our nonmember taxi driver who actually sat through the first lesson while he waited for us. He is such a kind man; we are trying to interest him in the church.

This is Freddy. He was eagerly awaiting our arrival at the church in Junin. Then he called his two friends on the phone so that they would come. Freddy is smart and talented.

Our Favorite "Grocery Store"

To continue your tour of our neighborhood, we now show you our favorite grocery store here in Tarma: Comercial Alicia. It's located only three blocks from our home. Here we buy our fruit, vegetables, cheese, juices, laundry detergent, tissue paper, etc., and most importantly our large containers of bottled water.


Inside the store you will find cluttered shelves and piles of just about everything, crammed into a space about the size of our Orem living room. The old man in the picture here is father to María, the owner (María's sister Alicia, for whom the store was named, passed away last year):


After Scott took two or three pictures of the store, he was wondering how to ask the two women who run the store for their pictures. But then, María the owner asked him to take her picture!


Scott was then able to take a picture of the other woman, also named María, who helps run the store:


These two Marias are so helpful. If they don't have something we need, they send a helper to go get it at another market. If the vegetables out front don't look so great, they volunteer to check their produce in the back for something better. If we don't know the Spanish name for something, they play 20 Questions until they figure out what we want.

Today we bought an onion, four Roma tomatoes, two large red bell peppers, and two packages of (chicken) ham. The total price: US$1.3o. As Scott says---the food in Tarma is nearly free.

Our Tarma Neighborhood

We showed you our neighborhood in Lima, now we want to show you our neighborhood in Tarma. Looking south out our second-floor bedroom window (Remember, in Peru the poor homes are in the hills, not the rich ones):


Looking east out our bedroom window, with our yard in the foreground (the big building high up on the hill is a school):


The Internet store across the street:


Looking west down Bermúdez (our street), with its constant parade of mototaxis:


The bread store (panedería), a half a block away, where we buy bread almost every day:


The copy center, a block and a half away, where we make copies of handouts for our lessons:


The paper and office-supplies store, two blocks away:

The barber shop/beauty salon ("peluquería"), where Beverly had her hair done and Scott had his hair cut. The haircut for Scott was on par with the haircuts at the BYU Barber Shop (US$10-$12), but here in Tarma, Scott paid US$0.80. Yep, that's 80 cents for a haircut. Beverly's tint and haircut: $14. (However, she's not sure she'll go back because standard procedure in Tarma is to use the same brush, comb, towel, and rinse water for all clients.)


The bodega (little general store) a half a block away, where we buy eggs, milk, soda pop, canned tuna fish, chips, etc.

As you can see, we have a wide range of wonderful little stores all within a few blocks. We really enjoy our neighborhood.

And there's never a dull moment on our street. Here you see the gate to our house (house number 390) and a "moving van" going down the hill:

Tarma Zone Missionary Party at Our House

On Monday (Preparation Day), March 9, the missionaries in our zone had a special activity which included a birthday party at our home for Elder Santos (who was just transferred to Tarma). Scott knew of Elder Santos before he even arrived in the mission because one of Scott's former running buddies, Rob Waite, was Elder Santos' bishop.

Here Beverly lights the "candles" (matches) on Elder Santos' cake:


Elder Wengren (Taylorsville, UT), Elder Santos (Fontana, CA), and Elder Keel (Elder Santos' new companion, Victorsville, CA). These are our Tarma missionaries (along with Elder Illachura):



We also enjoyed the company of Elder Clark (New Hampshire, personal secretary to President Leyva and whom we knew in Lima) and Elder Cook (Logan, UT, our Zone Leader):


The group enjoyed a meal of pancakes and omelets. We love these wonderful, hard-working missionaries! The eight elders are (left to right) Elders Wengren, Santos, Keel, Lima (the other Zone Leader), Clark, Cook, Davis (an Office Missionary we knew in Lima; assistant to the president), and Illachura:

Did they enjoy the food? They ate two dozen eggs, two packages of ham, a red pepper, an onion, and a package of Cheddar cheese; a package of pancake mix (32 pancakes) and a quart of maple syrup; three liters of soda pop, two liters of milk, and a large chocolate cake. We used every dish and pan in our house!

Happy Birthday, Elder Santos! Welcome to Tarma! (Elder Santos gets a portrait photo because his mom is an avid follower of this blog.)

District Conference in Tarma

Usually General Authorities don't attend a member district conference, because they are assigned only to stake conferences. But we were privileged this past weekend to enjoy the company of Elder Carlos A. Godoy of the First Quorum of Seventy. He is from Brazil, speaks a fascinating mixture of Spanish and Portuguese, and is a dynamic, entertaining, inspiring speaker. During the conference, Elder Godoy challenged the members of the Tarma District to work toward becoming a stake.


His attendance at our Tarma District Conference did cause Scott some consternation, however, because Scott was in charge of developing the program (the topics, the speakers, the music, etc.), and didn't get confirmation that Elder Godoy was coming until the day before the conference. In fact, Scott didn't know for sure if President and Sister Leyva were going to be at the conference, so he had to develop several versions of the program to be ready for whoever showed up.

Beverly played the piano for all the sessions, except the priesthood leadership session in which Scott played. Here she is playing the piano during one of the several choir rehearsals for the conference:


The conference sessions were all held in the Tarma chapel:


Scott gave a 40-minute training presentation at the priesthood leadership session (to about 65 men) and then an 10-minute talk in the adult session Saturday night. Beverly gave a talk in the auxiliary leadership meeting (to about 50 women) and then bore her testimony in the adult session. About 700 people attended the Sunday morning of the conference.

Scott spent the weekend in interviews (the district presidency was reorganized and members with special needs came from the outlying areas to attend conference and have interviews). Scott also attended training meetings for the new district presidency with President Leyva and Elder Godoy, and then later he gave training at the first presidency meeting of the new district presidency.

What a relief it is to have the Tarma District Conference over. And, more importantly, how wonderful it was to feel the Spirit in all the meetings, to have wonderful attendance at the conference, and to see the members excited about the prospects of eventually becoming a stake.

More Carnival: Our Neighborhood Party

Friday night, March 6, 2009, we heard crowds of people and a loud band playing just outside our door. We went out to investigate. It was another stewardship ("mayordomo") party for Carnavales. This one didn't involve colorful costumes, just a lot of people, noise, fireworks, and drinking. Here the big band plays their music:


People were dancing in the street, and soon a man invited Beverly to dance:


Soon Scott joined in the merriment:


The mayordoma (wife of the steward) passed around liquor, which we gracefully declined:

She begged us to drink, was offended that we wouldn't even take a sip, but then was satisfied when Beverly agreed to dance with her:

While people danced, a group of men built a fireworks castillo (castle) of bamboo:

We left the party around 11:00 pm, after talking with lots of people, dancing, and listening to the band. But we couldn't sleep with all the racket, so we stayed up until after midnight to watch the fireworks. Here people from all over the neighborhood assemble for the fireworks (these pictures were taken from the balcony of our house):

The fireworks began at the base of the castillo:

More fireworks:

The fireworks came in waves, with different types, colors and sounds . . .

. . . and finished with the grand finale:

When we chatted with people, we met the mayordomo y mayordoma. They were so friendly and kind. They invited us to all the events of their two-day holiday. Here's the cover of the invitation:

Cortamonte is translated "tree cut" (We're not sure what the term means). Here's the text of the invitation:

And here's the two-day program of festivities. It involves the band and fireworks on Friday night, and on Saturday, a breakfast, an activity and mass at the local church, a grand dinner, and the tree-cutting ceremony:

We would have been tempted to join in the activities, but we are involved in District Conference this Saturday. Besides, we would have been the only sober ones in the entire group. Living in Tarma is an unending series of adventures. And many of them occur right on our street.

Carnival in Tarma

One night, just as we arrived home, a parade of people came down our street. Here at the right are some men dressed up as women:


Scott pulled out his camera and began taking pictures. The costumed people were thrilled to have someone take their pictures:


Even the adults wanted their pictures taken:


Proud parents also encouraged their kids to have their pictures taken:


Two days later, we ran into some more merrymakers along the main street of downtown Tarma. The band was playing loudly and the costumed people were dancing enthusiastically:


Crowds gathered to watch the revelers and to join in the fun:


All of this is part of the month-long celebration of carnival ("carnavales," as it is called here). Carnival occurs each year just before Lent, the 40 days of fasting prior to Easter. The most famous carnival celebrations are in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

In Tarma, neighborhoods join together, dress up, hire a band, and walk from their neighborhood to downtown Tarma, where the music, dancing, fireworks, and (of course, drinking), goes on until late at night.

Another Tarma tradition during carnival is the process of choosing a "mayordomo" (steward). The steward organizes a group, hires a band, holds a parade through the streets of Tarma, and serves a big feast. The following are pictures of a stewardship group walking up our street.


As they got closer, we saw the "mayordomo" (steward) holding the group's banner and dancing with his partner. The women were dressed in traditional costumes with native hats:


As the group paraded up the street, they occasionally twirled around as part of their traditional dance:


This couple strutted and danced to the music as they walked along. The woman wore the customary expression of being in a trance:


However, this woman couldn't resist a smile as she knew Scott was taking her picture:



Here you can see the dancers, followed by the band:

After the parade passed our house, some men on horses joined the group. Their horses pranced and bucked at the head of the procession.

The parade literally stopped traffic on our street, as you can see from the parked mototaxis (the three-wheeled vehicles that we ride in everywhere we go within the city.)

Life in Tarma is never dull.