Meeting friends, old and new

We have recently met some unexpected people in our assignment, and made new friends in the process.

Met the first lady of Peru

Photos:
*First Lady Nancy Kuzcinski visits the Welfare Services Office
*She toured the office to be better acquainted with the humanitarian work of the Church in Peru 

The first lady of Peru visited our offices in part because of our mutual shared interest in humanitarian assistance to better the lives of children. She has been involved for many years in relief efforts related to children and met with the leaders of our department and other church leaders here to explore ways in which we can collaborate to direct resources to relieve suffering among the youngest members of Peruvian society.

Her husband was elected president of Peru in elections held this year. She spoke the best English of anybody we have met who is associated with the Peruvian government. The fact that she was born in Wisconsin and is a U.S. citizen may have helped with that a little bit!

Met Lance and family (two youngest children)

Lance is a friend from junior high and high school. We were leaving the Lima temple and he and his two youngest children passed by on the sidewalk. Mary had a quick moment of recognition and grabbed my arm saying, "Rob, that's Lance!" I looked, and of course, she was right, so I called out to him and we met them. A couple days later we had them to our apartment for dinner. It was his children's first visit to Peru to visit some distant relatives.It has been more than thirty years since we had seen him while we were attending BYU. I guess even in a city of 10 million people it is possible to "run into each other" at random. 

Met the chief of Peru National Police . . .

Photos:

*They gave us cool hats with the logo of all police divisions.

*Discussing our humanitarian projects with Mr. Fujimori and National Police

*The ceremony in explosives/demolition class with officers from three countries and the military.

. . . and Kenji Fujimori, son of the former president of Peru, member of majority party in Congress of Peru.  His sister was almost elected president this year, but only received 49.86% of the vote.

We went to the headquarters of the National Police for a ceremony regarding the donation of some surplus computer equipment that will assist them in training officers who serve the public. The area surrounding headquarters is represented by Mr. Fujimori in Congress so he attended to deliver a "message" that a donation like ours is intended to improve the lives of all the people and for that reason should not wander away to some other location or use.

We took advantage of the time we had together to share with Mr. Fujimori information about the projects we have been coordinating in many areas of Peru to improve eduction, health, and nutrition of people in impoverished places far away from other services. He had a lot of questions and it was a great chance to share some of the operating principles we try to use: we work with others to help them become more self-reliant. We provide resources that they don't have and leverage the resources they do have to maximize the positive impact of what we do.

Mr. Fujimori is an agronomist, educated at the University of Kansas and Utah State University, so he was very interested in our family food production projects, as well.