That's not a taco!

This isn't a taco?

Photos:  

*Mary saw that a restaurant near our apartment had tacos on the menu so she decided to try one. It had lettuce, tomatoes, ground beef and shoestring potatoes wrapped up in a crepelike "tortilla." Not bad, but not a taco.  

*This old boat sits along the Malecon of Iquitos and is floating during the high-water season of the Amazon River. You can see the Amazon River in the distance. It is at least a half-mile (or more) to the River from this point. The Amazon here is wider than Lake Washington in Seattle (considerably wider).  

*This is a hostel built on (what will be) the Amazon River's edge during high water. If you look closely you may be able to make out the tents that are pitched inside.  That is how you get a "private" room in this hostel.  

*New Presiding Bishopric. 

We are now in Iquitos along the Amazon for the Helping Babies Breathe course and will be in Tarapoto later this week.

This week was spent in (at times) frantic preparation to get food arrangements made, credentials and name tags printed for participating doctors, payment arrangements made for hotels, food providers, and final ground transportation arrangements. Making the arrangements to pay the bills was quite challenging because it is done a different way here than at home. You'd almost think we were living in another country or something! Rob still enjoys last minute preparations as much as ever so it has been a challenging week, but he hopes to gradually strengthen his "flexibility" talent muscles. There was also some shopping involved and we aren't sure if those shopping muscles are going to strengthen or not. The jury is still out on that one.

You might be wondering what the presiding bishopric has to do with our mission. Elder Christopher Waddell (on the right), now Bishop Waddell, was most recently living in Lima, Peru and was serving as a counselor in the South America Northwest Area Presidency. That means that he has been serving in our office and because of his new assignment, he will be moving to Salt Lake City. We haven't really had much of an opportunity to get to know the Waddels, but we will miss the them. But what has been a really nice experience for us is that Bishop Waddell was Rob's very first missionary companion in Spain when he was a young missionary.

In some ways, we will still be working with Bishop Waddell in our Humanitarian assignment. "The Presiding Bishopric is also the channel through which temporal matters of the Church are carried out. These temporal matters include issues that deal with tithes; fast offerings; the recording, disbursement, and management of funds; and the welfare program of the Church and its humanitarian efforts." Ensign, July 2005