In the Middle of Nowhere

Zac forgot to take his card reader to the internet cafe today so there's no new pictures but I think he'll be sure to send some next Monday.  In the meantime, here's an excerpt from his email today:

Hey guys,

I´m in a little town called Chao, which is a suburb of Viru. It´s basically in the middle of nowhere. We have a little tiny chapel that holds about 70 people (it´s a branch). Church last Sunday was good. . . . I live in a pretty spacious apartment, but there´s nothing in it. We have a bunk bed, a desk, a dresser, and a bathroom. We have warm water. There´s tons of stores everywhere, but just little tiny shops. No big stores like Tottus or anything. The weather is super hot. Chao is a desert. . . .The food in general is really good. We have one pench who fixes us lunch and dinner. She owns a restaurant and we just go in the back to eat. Then we have another pench for breakfast and laundry. I thought she was pretty good, until this morning she gave us gizzard and onion sandwiches. I ate one but I couldn´t make myself eat the second one. Meaker seemed to like it...

Zac's reference to a "pench" is his slang for pensionista.  There are members of the Church in Peru who volunteer to take care of the missionaries by cooking for them and doing their laundry.  A "branch" refers to the size of the congregation.  A full size congregation is referred to as a ward (approximately 300 people).  A congregation not yet big enough for a ward is called a branch.