Chinchil

After getting to Josue’s house, we were all too excited to crawl into bed that night after hiking for the majority of the daylight hours. I stayed on the second floor of the mud house where all I had to worry about was making it safely up the ladder and not walking on the weak spots on the floor. The ones who slept on the main floor had other worries, like that of having the piglets trying to get into your room in the morning. There were three main buildings on Josue’s land: the building with all of the rooms (the two-story building), the building with the kitchen, storeroom, and dining room, and the little shack behind the hill (the outhouse). There was a faucet in the center of the area where all the water came from. There was no other running water besides that. After waking up in the morning and cautiously making it down the rickety ladder, I made my way through the mud, the chickens, piglets, and dogs to get ready for the morning with the ice cold water. I was thankful for the presence of water as opposed to having to haul the water from a stream.
The kitchen was a tiny room, big enough only for the stone stove, a little table, and a few people. The meals that came from the kitchen were delicious as we were able to have the meat right from their livestock. Mutton and pork were the staples. It was interesting to see them slaughter one of their sheep, since I had never seen the slaughtering and cleaning of an animal before. The dining room was another small room with three short tables in the shape of a “U.” We could fit about eight people in the room at a time, but whenever one person wanted to get out, everyone else, it seemed, had to leave the room. It was a time of close fellowship and we enjoyed our times around the tables.
Since the people live off of their land and their animals, animal noises could be heard throughout the day and the night. Donkey brays were heard around three in the morning, the rooster (I believe it must have been blind) would crow in about five minute intervals making it difficult to fall back asleep during the wee hours of the morning while pigs squealing and sheep bleating could be heard at any hour. It was quite a hilarious time listening to all the sounds of the night in the mountains. One night in particular as Tessha and I were about asleep, the donkey went off with the loudest brays I had ever heard. We both erupted into laughter as soon the rooster joined in to add the harmony to the lullaby.
It was a great experience in the mountains. The sights were unbelievable as looking through our window in the morning the clouds covered the nearest mountains, but as the day progressed, the clouds lifted showing the splendor of God’s creation. The mountains were speckled with herds of sheep and goats while the colorful clothes of the shepherds stood out against the green background. The majesty of the mountains is something impossible to describe, likewise the majesty of the Creator and our all-powerful God is something that no words can even come close to explain.