Greetings to all, and thanks for checking in. A few notes from the past week and a half...
MISSING CLOTHES
The first story relates to the title of this post. On Monday night, I left my window cracked when I went to sleep, as I am accustomed to do at times (though less often now with the weather turning cooler). When I woke up and began to put on clothes to go running, I noticed and wondered that the window was wide open. In the next moments, I realized in succession that my pants were and a couple of shirts that I`d worn yesterday were gone (I`d laid them on my desk near the window when I went to bed) and that, though I had only a few soles in the jeans, my house keys had been in the front pocket. At that point, I assumed that the burglar (whose tracks showed they`d climbed along our front wall from the roof of our neighbor`s house) had probably entered the house downstairs with the keys and taken whatever could be found -- my guitar, house money, TV/stereo, etc. Thankfully, though, this fear proved unfounded. To make a long story shorter, my friend Roberto helped bring a locksmith to the house later in the day, who removed the two door locks, changed the key system and made new keys, and re-installed the locks -- all for about $12. In the meantime I stayed at the house with the door manually bolted as a precaution, and we had our handyman Oscar bring a friend to do an estimate for putting in bars over the upstairs windows. Apparently the burglar either saw me sleeping there and decided not to enter further, or planned to grab from my desk whatever could be found (this also solves the mystery of several other missing clothing articles about four months ago, which I`d thought I`d lost but now realize were most definitely stolen as well -- only I didn`t notice the window open, since it was during the hot months). As I will be gone a few weeks during the next two months, we are moving quickly to install the window bars and to close in the open-roofed upstairs hallway as safety precautions. I still have enough clothes to wear, not to worry. :)
BIRTHDAY PARTY HOUSE
Lenin, a friend and member of our JUMIFRA youth council, celebrated his 27th birthday last Thursday and a couple girls from our group asked if we would offer our house as the party location. We agreed, and after our English class we enjoyed a small potluck of snacks and a gathering of 15-20 folks from the parish, all friends of ours. Roger and Elvis played guitar and sang some, those who wished to had the chance to honor Lenin with a few words, we drank Inca Cola, Anis tea, and sangrìa, and of course there was dancing to the radio of our small boombox. All in all, a very pleasant Peruvian evening, organized on a couple days` notice -- though it ended by 11:30 (with a little push). Lenin thought it best to have folks walk home before it was too late, esp. with the next day being a work day, and so we turned down the music and I announced that before everyone left, I wanted to get a group photo. It`s a cultural quirk that few people will leave early unless others do, almost a sign of weakness :) to admit one is tired. Another quirk is that people don`t serve themselves here -- a snack table buffet will basically go untouched unless you put the food on trays and serve it around. Apparently everyone had fun, because we were asked yesterday to host another birthday party tomorrow night, Saturday, for Juan -- also a friend and member of the Lima trip group.
MADELEINE`S FAMILY
At the specific request of the grandmother who came by my house, I made a return visit to Madeleine and her family, who I wrote about last time. They had asked for help for Madeleine with school English homework, so I brought a photocopy of Inglès Para Latinos that Michi had sent me. I stayed this time for an hour and a half (still they asked `Leaving already?`) and visited, though I couldn`t do much with the English worksheet, Madeleine needing a lot of background instruction to help her understand the concepts. Either she has missed days, really struggles, or the teacher did not explain/teach the concept well. The expected help from a local priest to fund their escape trip to south Peru fell through, and unsubtle hints were given as to how much money they would need to all five make the journey. I see their need, but also felt a bit manipulated and cornered. Also, I think the precedent of me being a money source is not a good one to establish. For now, I will visit periodically to help with English if they desire it.
CONFIRMATION CLASSES
I began a couple weeks ago to assist my friend Yuri with the two confirmation preparation classes, Tuesday and Saturday evenings for two hours each. He prepares the lessons (I think he gets a small stipend for coordinating the program), and I am enjoying getting to know the forty (total, both groups) teenagers, 13-17 years old. I`ve even shared a couple of my favorite youth ministry games -- maybe even more than US teenagers, they love to play group games (a few even wanted to extend the classtime on Tuesday to play another game at the end). The lesson on Tuesday I found intriguing. The topic was Moses/Exodus, and Yuri did a good job of relating this ancient story to the students` modern Peruvian experience by first having them reflect on their own reality. To his question of `How do the Peruvian people live?` they responded that Peruvians live in crisis, with a lack of justice, amidst violence, in poverty, show a lack of love/respect for others, and in increasing environmental pollution. He then drew the parrallel between the state of the Israelites in Egypt and many Peruvians today -- who is working to help liberate our people today? Do you think Moses was afraid? Asked about their dreams for the future, some were similar to dreams of US teens: family, house, etc -- but they also expressed dreams of the reality of life here changing, and agreed that if everyone did their part change was indeed possible. I was struck by their desires to make things better and by their sober evaluation of their own society (I`ve received blank stares upon asking Corvallis youth to reflect on their society in a similar way) and by the fact that nonetheless their youthful hope remains. I felt within a renewed desire to help them as I could to realize changes here -- maybe this could be a focus of my work here in the next 15 months (May 25 was 8 months in Chimbote).
On a different Confirmation-related topic, I have a goal of helping these Confirmation youth make connections with youth at St. Mary`s in Corvallis through exchange of letters, photos, stories, etc. I will also pursue this connection with the first communion children/youth here and coorsponding catechism kids back in Oregon, hopefully helping all involved to learn and grow through the cultural sharing.
ENGLISH CLASSES
Due to my upcoming absences (June 1-20, July 2-15) from Chimbote, we have put off beginning a new english class term. Still, we held our end-of-term field trip this past Sunday, taking the 1-hour bus trip to a garden/recreation area called Candamo near the small town of San Jacinto. Nine of us enjoyed the chance to visit a new place, play soccer on actual grass, and just relax.
One final note -- for a couple weeks now we have been enjoying running water in the house, the pump`s problems at least temporarily solved. Showers are warm enough to make it manageable as well.
That`s it for now. I wish you a great week!
Friday, May 30, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
Mothers Day and Basketball
Greetings! Some notes on recent events here in Chimbote:
MOTHERS DAY
Photos of our parish event honoring mothers, organized and put on by the youth and young adults of the parish, are ready to view by clicking the photo link at right. The event was a great success: our youth council planned, coordinated and decorated well; children`s catechesis groups, Confirmation youth, and both choirs contributed musical/dance/singing/skits/recited poems, we raffled off a few food baskets, and the moms seemed to have a good time. Nicole, Emily and I chuckled at a couple of the dance acts, knowing they would have caused at least a little scandal in our US parishes. I especially enjoyed the folkloric music by some members of my choir and also by a joint group of parish choir members, and I was proud of the organization by our JUMIFRA members. I helped out, but was by no means in charge. Honoring moms is a big deal here, as most schools held similar type events on Friday or Saturday before Mothers Day.
MADELEINE`S FAMILY
In a story also related to Mothers Day but of a different tone, I had the chance to meet and spend time with Madeleine, a 12-year-old girl, and her family in the days leading up to May 11. On the Saturday previous, she and her grandmother knocked on my door in the evening and asked if I could help her translate a song into Spanish (Hotel California) so she could sing it at her parish`s (San Felipe) Mothers` Day event. Her grandmother also explained to me how they had no food to make anything to eat all day, and she was suffering with obvious neck and shoulder pain. I said I would help, we agreed that I`d stop by their house on Monday, and I sent with them some pasta, dried beans, a little frozen chicken, and a few ibruprofen tablets. On Monday I found their house after wandering a bit, the first impression being how dark it was inside -- only a small window near the door. After my eyes adjusted, they pulled up a stool for me to sit in the small front room with a very cute 4-year-old girl and her nine year old brother, who was busy drawing cartoon figures. His grandmother wasted no time in pulling out a number of his previous drawings to show off for me, and they were pretty good. He was currently in the process of drawing two soccer players in action from a newspaper photo, but substituting cartoon figure heads for their human ones. This front room and a bedroom next to it had concrete floors, but the kitchen behind (and the one or two additional rooms) had hard-packed dirt floor, with a door opening out the back to a small yard where they banished the dog when I came in. Madeleine and her mom, Rosa, brought me a couple cassettes of English rock ballads, one with Hotel California, and I proceded to transcribe first the English lyrics and then translate them into Spanish, with Rosa and Madeleine looking on. They brought me coffee and bread afterward, and I offered to re-work the lyrics to bit the music better and return in a couple days. I had to quite firm to leave without accepting another mug of coffee, as my English class would be beginning soon. During my visit a hush fell on the house during the few minutes that Rosa`s uncle came and left -- he obviously inspires fear and both the mom and grandma mentioned how they couldn`t wait to move out of Chimbote, back to their home area near Pisco in south Peru.
Translating a song is a bit complicated, having to sacrifice exact meaning for rhyme and flow, but I enjoyed the experience and returned to Madeleine`s house a couple days later in the late morning. She was dressed in her school uniform, but soon after arriving I was informed by her mom that she wouldn`t be going to school that day since she was afraid they`d charge them for copies (which they apparently do on occasion) and there wasn`t the couple soles to pay. The little girl with the big brown eyes continued to be fascinated by me, and kept telling me things very adamantly that I could only partly understand. They offered (made me take) some of the fried dough they were having for lunch, and apologized a few times for not being able to offer me a regular meal. I ate as many as I could, then put a few in the bag I was carrying. Though I had been planning to just deliver the song, I soon found myself offered (directed) to sit down, and Rosa began showing me and the family her photo album of happier days, gradually breaking into the story of how she had moved here when she was 11, was mistreated by and hated her father, and had her husband abuse her and steal her young son, who would be about 7 by now. I was at this point feeling a mixture of discomfort at hearing the story of her troubles, a little cramped in the stomach, and just plain tired from the barrage of Spanish that was the story that Rosa obviously badly wanted to tell me. After over an hour and a half, I managed to break in to say that I needed to be going, and the grandma returned in time to send me home with bagged milk and bread that they gave out at the school as part of a government food program. They obviously needed the food more than me, but I was powerless to resist taking it (or a few more fried dough pieces, which she kindly put in a plastic bag for me to take). As they walked with me back to my house, Rosa and Madeleine described how they planned to leave town for the south in the middle of the night the following week, but also that I should come back to visit them if they were still around.
The entire experience left me glad to be out of the situation, humbled by their generosity, and saddened by the story and situation of life. I have not been back yet to visit, but am slowly working up to it.
BASKETBALL
The past couple of weeks I have had the chance to play and coach a lot of basketball, which I have enjoyed. Our Saturday morning sessions with children (mostly a few boys, but one 8-year-old girl named Elizabeth also is consistent and we practice until she gets tired and then just hang out). On Friday afternoons I help my friend Elmer and his friend Jaime coach a group of 13-15 year olds as they hope to form a team that can play other local private school teams. In fact, we had our first scrimmage this past Saturday. I and Elmer need to work out some differences in coaching strategy/philosophy (for example, I think that all who have practiced should get a good chance to play, whereas he wants the best five to play most of the time). I have mostly given in, but we are meeting to discuss things this week and I hope we can work out a compromise. Being around basketball and playing a bit here and there has been a good, fun release. Except for my inability to loudly yell instructions during a game, I think I have a lot to offer in terms of teaching fundamentals and strategy. Communicating to the team in Spanish continues to be a bit of a challenge, though it is pushing me to learn new terms and phrases that just don`t appear in dictionaries.
CEVICHE AND SPORTS
Partly as a celebration of the Mothers Day event`s success, our youth council and the parish put on a morning of sports and ceviche at the parish for our young people. I helped by accompanying a small group to buy fresh fish at the pier at 6:30 am Sunday morning and helping to chop/prepare the favorite local dish of raw fish, lime juice, garlic and ajì (chili). On the side come sweet potato, fried corn kernels, seaweed and onion. A couple of girls from the council directed the operation, and our sub-coordinator organized a number of group games. After ceviche, the guys had a few intense soccer games in the small parish courtyard before we returned home at about 2 pm.
NEXT YEAR
A little news about what next year will bring, as Meg, our assistant director, let us know last week that there will be three new Incarnate Word Missionaries (all women) here in Chimbote next year to replace Nicole and Emily, who will be leaving in early September. Their names are Courtney, Julie, and Jane -- Courtney and Julie have nursing/medical training and will likely be assisting at the clinic or the hospice, while Jane will be a ´free-lancer` like me, seeking to assist in the parish or in other local ministries. I am happy to know that I will again have company to share the experience with, and it also means I will be staying in the same house for the next year as well.
MOTHERS DAY
Photos of our parish event honoring mothers, organized and put on by the youth and young adults of the parish, are ready to view by clicking the photo link at right. The event was a great success: our youth council planned, coordinated and decorated well; children`s catechesis groups, Confirmation youth, and both choirs contributed musical/dance/singing/skits/recited poems, we raffled off a few food baskets, and the moms seemed to have a good time. Nicole, Emily and I chuckled at a couple of the dance acts, knowing they would have caused at least a little scandal in our US parishes. I especially enjoyed the folkloric music by some members of my choir and also by a joint group of parish choir members, and I was proud of the organization by our JUMIFRA members. I helped out, but was by no means in charge. Honoring moms is a big deal here, as most schools held similar type events on Friday or Saturday before Mothers Day.
MADELEINE`S FAMILY
In a story also related to Mothers Day but of a different tone, I had the chance to meet and spend time with Madeleine, a 12-year-old girl, and her family in the days leading up to May 11. On the Saturday previous, she and her grandmother knocked on my door in the evening and asked if I could help her translate a song into Spanish (Hotel California) so she could sing it at her parish`s (San Felipe) Mothers` Day event. Her grandmother also explained to me how they had no food to make anything to eat all day, and she was suffering with obvious neck and shoulder pain. I said I would help, we agreed that I`d stop by their house on Monday, and I sent with them some pasta, dried beans, a little frozen chicken, and a few ibruprofen tablets. On Monday I found their house after wandering a bit, the first impression being how dark it was inside -- only a small window near the door. After my eyes adjusted, they pulled up a stool for me to sit in the small front room with a very cute 4-year-old girl and her nine year old brother, who was busy drawing cartoon figures. His grandmother wasted no time in pulling out a number of his previous drawings to show off for me, and they were pretty good. He was currently in the process of drawing two soccer players in action from a newspaper photo, but substituting cartoon figure heads for their human ones. This front room and a bedroom next to it had concrete floors, but the kitchen behind (and the one or two additional rooms) had hard-packed dirt floor, with a door opening out the back to a small yard where they banished the dog when I came in. Madeleine and her mom, Rosa, brought me a couple cassettes of English rock ballads, one with Hotel California, and I proceded to transcribe first the English lyrics and then translate them into Spanish, with Rosa and Madeleine looking on. They brought me coffee and bread afterward, and I offered to re-work the lyrics to bit the music better and return in a couple days. I had to quite firm to leave without accepting another mug of coffee, as my English class would be beginning soon. During my visit a hush fell on the house during the few minutes that Rosa`s uncle came and left -- he obviously inspires fear and both the mom and grandma mentioned how they couldn`t wait to move out of Chimbote, back to their home area near Pisco in south Peru.
Translating a song is a bit complicated, having to sacrifice exact meaning for rhyme and flow, but I enjoyed the experience and returned to Madeleine`s house a couple days later in the late morning. She was dressed in her school uniform, but soon after arriving I was informed by her mom that she wouldn`t be going to school that day since she was afraid they`d charge them for copies (which they apparently do on occasion) and there wasn`t the couple soles to pay. The little girl with the big brown eyes continued to be fascinated by me, and kept telling me things very adamantly that I could only partly understand. They offered (made me take) some of the fried dough they were having for lunch, and apologized a few times for not being able to offer me a regular meal. I ate as many as I could, then put a few in the bag I was carrying. Though I had been planning to just deliver the song, I soon found myself offered (directed) to sit down, and Rosa began showing me and the family her photo album of happier days, gradually breaking into the story of how she had moved here when she was 11, was mistreated by and hated her father, and had her husband abuse her and steal her young son, who would be about 7 by now. I was at this point feeling a mixture of discomfort at hearing the story of her troubles, a little cramped in the stomach, and just plain tired from the barrage of Spanish that was the story that Rosa obviously badly wanted to tell me. After over an hour and a half, I managed to break in to say that I needed to be going, and the grandma returned in time to send me home with bagged milk and bread that they gave out at the school as part of a government food program. They obviously needed the food more than me, but I was powerless to resist taking it (or a few more fried dough pieces, which she kindly put in a plastic bag for me to take). As they walked with me back to my house, Rosa and Madeleine described how they planned to leave town for the south in the middle of the night the following week, but also that I should come back to visit them if they were still around.
The entire experience left me glad to be out of the situation, humbled by their generosity, and saddened by the story and situation of life. I have not been back yet to visit, but am slowly working up to it.
BASKETBALL
The past couple of weeks I have had the chance to play and coach a lot of basketball, which I have enjoyed. Our Saturday morning sessions with children (mostly a few boys, but one 8-year-old girl named Elizabeth also is consistent and we practice until she gets tired and then just hang out). On Friday afternoons I help my friend Elmer and his friend Jaime coach a group of 13-15 year olds as they hope to form a team that can play other local private school teams. In fact, we had our first scrimmage this past Saturday. I and Elmer need to work out some differences in coaching strategy/philosophy (for example, I think that all who have practiced should get a good chance to play, whereas he wants the best five to play most of the time). I have mostly given in, but we are meeting to discuss things this week and I hope we can work out a compromise. Being around basketball and playing a bit here and there has been a good, fun release. Except for my inability to loudly yell instructions during a game, I think I have a lot to offer in terms of teaching fundamentals and strategy. Communicating to the team in Spanish continues to be a bit of a challenge, though it is pushing me to learn new terms and phrases that just don`t appear in dictionaries.
CEVICHE AND SPORTS
Partly as a celebration of the Mothers Day event`s success, our youth council and the parish put on a morning of sports and ceviche at the parish for our young people. I helped by accompanying a small group to buy fresh fish at the pier at 6:30 am Sunday morning and helping to chop/prepare the favorite local dish of raw fish, lime juice, garlic and ajì (chili). On the side come sweet potato, fried corn kernels, seaweed and onion. A couple of girls from the council directed the operation, and our sub-coordinator organized a number of group games. After ceviche, the guys had a few intense soccer games in the small parish courtyard before we returned home at about 2 pm.
NEXT YEAR
A little news about what next year will bring, as Meg, our assistant director, let us know last week that there will be three new Incarnate Word Missionaries (all women) here in Chimbote next year to replace Nicole and Emily, who will be leaving in early September. Their names are Courtney, Julie, and Jane -- Courtney and Julie have nursing/medical training and will likely be assisting at the clinic or the hospice, while Jane will be a ´free-lancer` like me, seeking to assist in the parish or in other local ministries. I am happy to know that I will again have company to share the experience with, and it also means I will be staying in the same house for the next year as well.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Fiesta de Pariacoto, etc...
Greetings from Chimbote, where again the air smells of fish. Most of my photos from the fiesta in Pariacoto are now posted and accessible through the link at right.
THIS WEEKEND
Here our youth leadership group (JUMIFRA -- Jòvenes Misioneros Franciscanos), mostly consisting of folks that went to the February training in Lima, has a couple of big events planned for this weekend. First, a show honoring mothers of the parish on Saturday evening, 8-10 pm. The various youth groups within parish (catechism, confirmation, altar servers, choirs) are each preparing a couple numbers -- songs and dances mostly -- to present within the show for the mothers. Our group is coordinating the organization, food baskets as prizes, decoration and clean-up, etc. I may be a part of one of the numbers that our choir is doing. I am pround of the leadership various folks within JUMIFRA have taken in organizing this. We recently too have elected coordinators and secretary for the group, and we continue meeting each Sunday morning at 10:00 am. We still need a little work on meeting organization, but little by little. Anyway, the second event is a Pentecost Vigil. Since Pentecost and Mothers Day fall on the same day this year, the vigil is planned for immediately following the mothers day event -- songs, reflections, a bonfire, and finally Mass, all of which will end sometime around 1 a.m. I believe. I also have scheduled sessions with a couple different groups of basketball players -- younger boys and girls, 8-13, on Saturday morning and a group of 13-15 year old guys on Friday and Saturday afternoon. This second group has been playing together casually with a little guidance from a college student here (Jaime), and he and Elmer (my partner in this basketball project) have hopes of forming a formal team and entering a tournament in a couple months -- apparently having a gringo as one of the coaches is a big draw :). `They would be so excited to play in an indoor gym,´ Jaime told me. Last Saturday we worked on playing zone defense and how to run a fast break. One thing I`m learning is that there is a lot of basketball vocabulary that I don`t know, but it is enjoyable to combine youth work and basketball.
PARIACOTO
Brother Tino from the parish here enthusiastically encouraged Emily, Nicole and I to make the two-hour trip last Thursday, 5/1, to Pariacoto, pop. 2500, for their yearly Patronal Feast -- patron of the parish (and therefore the town) is Señor de Mayo, basically Jesus. Each town and city has a patron saint, and the feast day is an opportunity for a town-wide fiesta. Chimbote`s patron, by the way, is the fisherman St. Peter, feast day the 29th of June. In my reading about pre-conquest Peru, I`ve found many references to days-long feasts even in that time, so it is quite possible that these saint feasts were meant to coop the earlier religious feasts and imbue them with Christian significance. Whatever the case, we enjoyed the experience -- the girls had to leave Thursday evening for work Friday, but I stayed overnight at the parish in large room with many bunks, the same place I`d stayed for the November Confirmation retreat. A youth dance group from the nearby town of Yautan was also staying at the parish, and so it was somewhat like a high school boys slumber party :). I did, in fact, enjoy the chance to meet and talk with many of the guys that were there.
We arrived at about 8:00 am Thursday, after negotiating the early morning transit with only a couple moments of confusion -- very few taxis (or anything) on the streets at 5:45 am, and a helpful lady led us to the first of two shared cars that we needed to take. After breakfast at the parish with the high school kids of the dance group, we waited for the 9:00 am start until about 9:45. First, the band was introduced and marched with dancers to the parish. From there began the collection of offerings -- which would also happen Friday morning -- for the city-wide feast to be held on Friday evening. Thursday was the day for collecting cuyes (guinea pigs), rabbits, yucca, oil, sheep, etc. The procession made its criss-crossing, joyously inefficient way through the dirt streets -- the town has just one paved road -- until nearly 2 pm. At each house (pre-registered to donate), the entire entourage of band, dancers, and spectators like us would stop, and the pastor Padre Raùl would dance with the woman of the house in acceptance of their offering, the girl dancers often dancing with male members or they just would dance with each other. Many an individual cuy or rabbit must have been sick to its stomach after being swung around by the ears, neck, back, etc in joyous dance. And litters, looking like portable tents, of multiple-rodent offerings were also girated to the music in joining the procession. After 2 (or 5) songs, the owners of the donated goods would join the journey to the next house, where the ritual would be repeated. Nicole, Emily and I began by watching from the sides but were soon pulled into a chain of the dancers, holding hands and weaving in, out, behind, in front, and through the procession to the very danceable music. It was truly a lot of fun. By the end, Nicole and Emily had taken turns leading the donated sheep and we each had a contingent of younger children vying to hold our hands as we marched along to the beat. Needless to say, we were tired by the end, but well worth it.
After a 3:00 pm lunch at the parish with Padre Raùl and some of his visiting family (he hails from Iquitos in the Peruvian Amazon), we were taken on a short hike while the kids of the village enjoyed their own show/party, which included a mountain of cake. Brother Martìn walked with us to the site where the two Franciscan priests were murdered by terrorists in 1991 (as well as a walk through of the town cemetery), and along the way we enjoyed the tranquility of the irrigated valley, apple trees and other crops thriving below us. With the rainy season only just ended, the hills that were quite brown in November now are touched with a bit of green. The clean, odor-free air was also a treat. Soon after returning to the parish, the girls caught a car home -- Thursday was a national holiday (Feast of St. Joseph the Worker/ National Workers`Day) so they had the day off, but not Friday. Everyone in Pariacoto did, apprently, have the entire weekend free from work.
In the evening, I attend the mass -- which officially opened the celebration, and next had a light dinner in the `kitchen`, an open walled area where they were preparing the food for the celebration. By this time the cuyes were skinned and cooking -- or waiting to be cooked -- and the skinless sheep carcasses were hanging nearby waiting their turn. Next, a dance in the street out in front of the church, first with the (undoubtedly weary) band that had played so much earlier. The second band arrived late from Huaràz at about 11:30 pm, and were set up with their mikes and sound system a little before one to begin their set of dance/cumbia/pop/salsa music. Getting a late start didn`t phase them, however -- they still got their four hours of playing in, finishing up (I heard -- I crashed at about 1:00 am) sometime after 5 am. Sleeping was a bit interrupted by something that must have resembled a pillow fight, people running around, chaperone yelling, etc. Enjoying not being responsible for their group, I put in earplugs and did my best. The dance itself was also quite enjoyable until I got almost too tired to enjoy it. I danced with some of the high school group I`d gotten to know during the day, and also a few folks from the parish there -- one of which happened to be the sister of Oscar, our periodic handyman here in Chimbote. Many times the beer was passed around, and I seemed to be the only one refusing most of the time. Drinking here is done from a common cup -- bottle is passed, followed by the glass. You fill the glass with the amount you want, and pass the bottle to the next person. After drinking from the glass, you dump the dregs on the ground and pass the glass to the person with the glass, and so on.
Despite being a bit groggy on Friday, I joined the procession for the second round of collections. Friday seemed to be the day for donating beers and bulls -- three bulls, to be exact, were donated, as well as what I heard was 150 cases (12 20 oz bottles) of beer. And at each house, Padre Raùl danced and they opened one of the bottles to share with him. He either has a high tolerance or is good about sneakily pouring out his share on the ground, or maybe both. In my view the celebration is marred somewhat by the excessive alcohol consumption, with several quite drunk guys making fools of themselves by mid-day. As Emily commented, the people work hard and also party hard (not everyone obviously, but many). For this reason (and because of my fatigue), I was not too sorry to catch a couple cars back to Chimbote at 2:30 Friday afternoon. I do think I will may return next year, though, if it works out.
Well, I wish you all a great weekend. More stories for next time!
THIS WEEKEND
Here our youth leadership group (JUMIFRA -- Jòvenes Misioneros Franciscanos), mostly consisting of folks that went to the February training in Lima, has a couple of big events planned for this weekend. First, a show honoring mothers of the parish on Saturday evening, 8-10 pm. The various youth groups within parish (catechism, confirmation, altar servers, choirs) are each preparing a couple numbers -- songs and dances mostly -- to present within the show for the mothers. Our group is coordinating the organization, food baskets as prizes, decoration and clean-up, etc. I may be a part of one of the numbers that our choir is doing. I am pround of the leadership various folks within JUMIFRA have taken in organizing this. We recently too have elected coordinators and secretary for the group, and we continue meeting each Sunday morning at 10:00 am. We still need a little work on meeting organization, but little by little. Anyway, the second event is a Pentecost Vigil. Since Pentecost and Mothers Day fall on the same day this year, the vigil is planned for immediately following the mothers day event -- songs, reflections, a bonfire, and finally Mass, all of which will end sometime around 1 a.m. I believe. I also have scheduled sessions with a couple different groups of basketball players -- younger boys and girls, 8-13, on Saturday morning and a group of 13-15 year old guys on Friday and Saturday afternoon. This second group has been playing together casually with a little guidance from a college student here (Jaime), and he and Elmer (my partner in this basketball project) have hopes of forming a formal team and entering a tournament in a couple months -- apparently having a gringo as one of the coaches is a big draw :). `They would be so excited to play in an indoor gym,´ Jaime told me. Last Saturday we worked on playing zone defense and how to run a fast break. One thing I`m learning is that there is a lot of basketball vocabulary that I don`t know, but it is enjoyable to combine youth work and basketball.
PARIACOTO
Brother Tino from the parish here enthusiastically encouraged Emily, Nicole and I to make the two-hour trip last Thursday, 5/1, to Pariacoto, pop. 2500, for their yearly Patronal Feast -- patron of the parish (and therefore the town) is Señor de Mayo, basically Jesus. Each town and city has a patron saint, and the feast day is an opportunity for a town-wide fiesta. Chimbote`s patron, by the way, is the fisherman St. Peter, feast day the 29th of June. In my reading about pre-conquest Peru, I`ve found many references to days-long feasts even in that time, so it is quite possible that these saint feasts were meant to coop the earlier religious feasts and imbue them with Christian significance. Whatever the case, we enjoyed the experience -- the girls had to leave Thursday evening for work Friday, but I stayed overnight at the parish in large room with many bunks, the same place I`d stayed for the November Confirmation retreat. A youth dance group from the nearby town of Yautan was also staying at the parish, and so it was somewhat like a high school boys slumber party :). I did, in fact, enjoy the chance to meet and talk with many of the guys that were there.
We arrived at about 8:00 am Thursday, after negotiating the early morning transit with only a couple moments of confusion -- very few taxis (or anything) on the streets at 5:45 am, and a helpful lady led us to the first of two shared cars that we needed to take. After breakfast at the parish with the high school kids of the dance group, we waited for the 9:00 am start until about 9:45. First, the band was introduced and marched with dancers to the parish. From there began the collection of offerings -- which would also happen Friday morning -- for the city-wide feast to be held on Friday evening. Thursday was the day for collecting cuyes (guinea pigs), rabbits, yucca, oil, sheep, etc. The procession made its criss-crossing, joyously inefficient way through the dirt streets -- the town has just one paved road -- until nearly 2 pm. At each house (pre-registered to donate), the entire entourage of band, dancers, and spectators like us would stop, and the pastor Padre Raùl would dance with the woman of the house in acceptance of their offering, the girl dancers often dancing with male members or they just would dance with each other. Many an individual cuy or rabbit must have been sick to its stomach after being swung around by the ears, neck, back, etc in joyous dance. And litters, looking like portable tents, of multiple-rodent offerings were also girated to the music in joining the procession. After 2 (or 5) songs, the owners of the donated goods would join the journey to the next house, where the ritual would be repeated. Nicole, Emily and I began by watching from the sides but were soon pulled into a chain of the dancers, holding hands and weaving in, out, behind, in front, and through the procession to the very danceable music. It was truly a lot of fun. By the end, Nicole and Emily had taken turns leading the donated sheep and we each had a contingent of younger children vying to hold our hands as we marched along to the beat. Needless to say, we were tired by the end, but well worth it.
After a 3:00 pm lunch at the parish with Padre Raùl and some of his visiting family (he hails from Iquitos in the Peruvian Amazon), we were taken on a short hike while the kids of the village enjoyed their own show/party, which included a mountain of cake. Brother Martìn walked with us to the site where the two Franciscan priests were murdered by terrorists in 1991 (as well as a walk through of the town cemetery), and along the way we enjoyed the tranquility of the irrigated valley, apple trees and other crops thriving below us. With the rainy season only just ended, the hills that were quite brown in November now are touched with a bit of green. The clean, odor-free air was also a treat. Soon after returning to the parish, the girls caught a car home -- Thursday was a national holiday (Feast of St. Joseph the Worker/ National Workers`Day) so they had the day off, but not Friday. Everyone in Pariacoto did, apprently, have the entire weekend free from work.
In the evening, I attend the mass -- which officially opened the celebration, and next had a light dinner in the `kitchen`, an open walled area where they were preparing the food for the celebration. By this time the cuyes were skinned and cooking -- or waiting to be cooked -- and the skinless sheep carcasses were hanging nearby waiting their turn. Next, a dance in the street out in front of the church, first with the (undoubtedly weary) band that had played so much earlier. The second band arrived late from Huaràz at about 11:30 pm, and were set up with their mikes and sound system a little before one to begin their set of dance/cumbia/pop/salsa music. Getting a late start didn`t phase them, however -- they still got their four hours of playing in, finishing up (I heard -- I crashed at about 1:00 am) sometime after 5 am. Sleeping was a bit interrupted by something that must have resembled a pillow fight, people running around, chaperone yelling, etc. Enjoying not being responsible for their group, I put in earplugs and did my best. The dance itself was also quite enjoyable until I got almost too tired to enjoy it. I danced with some of the high school group I`d gotten to know during the day, and also a few folks from the parish there -- one of which happened to be the sister of Oscar, our periodic handyman here in Chimbote. Many times the beer was passed around, and I seemed to be the only one refusing most of the time. Drinking here is done from a common cup -- bottle is passed, followed by the glass. You fill the glass with the amount you want, and pass the bottle to the next person. After drinking from the glass, you dump the dregs on the ground and pass the glass to the person with the glass, and so on.
Despite being a bit groggy on Friday, I joined the procession for the second round of collections. Friday seemed to be the day for donating beers and bulls -- three bulls, to be exact, were donated, as well as what I heard was 150 cases (12 20 oz bottles) of beer. And at each house, Padre Raùl danced and they opened one of the bottles to share with him. He either has a high tolerance or is good about sneakily pouring out his share on the ground, or maybe both. In my view the celebration is marred somewhat by the excessive alcohol consumption, with several quite drunk guys making fools of themselves by mid-day. As Emily commented, the people work hard and also party hard (not everyone obviously, but many). For this reason (and because of my fatigue), I was not too sorry to catch a couple cars back to Chimbote at 2:30 Friday afternoon. I do think I will may return next year, though, if it works out.
Well, I wish you all a great weekend. More stories for next time!
Saturday, May 3, 2008
...Continued
Before recounting our experience at Pariacoto`s festival this past Thursday and Friday -- which deserves it`s own posting -- I will attempt to finish off some thoughts that were interrupted last time.
TRANSIT STRIKE
This past Monday, public transit vehicles -- taxis, combis (minivan buses), colectivos (fixed-route cars), and buses -- held a strike in response to a proposed tariff hike on their licenses and registration. The first impression was of quiet, much less noise reaching my room as I dressed to go running. As it got light, the non-working drivers set out lines of good-sized rocks across each intersection of the paved street at our corner, and growing crowds gathered to `police` the strike -- burning tires basically prepared to throw rocks at any car deigning to work. The ubiquitous motorcycle taxis were not actually a part of the strike, but there were few brave enough to test it. Emily witness some that still worked get parts ripped from them by groups of people either party to the strike or maybe just taking advantage of the opportunity to do damage. And, there were just a lot of people in the street, either walking to work or just taking the day off because they could not get to their jobs or classes. I walked with Emily and Nicole to work in the morning because there were no Motos to be found and it felt a bit dangerous. By evening the tension had settled (maybe post-lunch lethargy), and the drivers settled with the government in some form and we were spared the planned second day of the strike.
SOCCER
I was invited by three friends from my choir (Alex, Yuri and Juan Carlos) to go to an afternoon soccer game of the local team, Josè Galvez, playing a team from Chiclayo, to the north. Nicole, who was an avid soccer player in the US and has impressed a number of guys with her skill on a couple occasions (girls don`t play soccer here), also accepted the invitation to come along. I enjoyed the afternoon a lot, and Chimbote won 4-0 to boot. There were about 50 males there for each female, and most of the women were involved in selling food -- so it was actually a good thing that Nicole was there with four Peruvian guys so that she wouldn`t be harrassed as much. Groups of fans (from various neighborhoods, like fan clubs) argued a bit with each other (and with seated fans who complained about their view being blocked) over space to hang their banners from the chain link fence that surrounded the field, some even going over the barbed wire at the top to hang it in a better spot (guards on the field were fine with this, surprisingly). Our section was pretty low-key and the experience was quite pleasant, though the rush to get a taxi after the game was a bit chaotic (a parallel to the jam in stadium parking lots, though here people don`t generally own cars).
CHOIR
The game made me late for pre-mass choir rehearsal (I was actually the only one of us four who ended up going), but I still was in time to practice most of the songs and sing for mass, which I enjoy. The choir is an enthusiastic, high spirited group that I enjoy being a part of, but I struggle a bit with a couple areas. One, I still feel a bit of an outsider even with about four months of participation. People are friendly and welcoming, but apart from Alex and Yuri I haven`t gotten to know them real well. I also have some trouble getting a word in during choir meetings, both due to several folks that really like to talk and that they usually happen after our rehearsals (at about 11:00 pm), and I am not in my best Spanish form at that hour. I am considering ways to integrate more -- and will begin this coming Wednesday joining the musicians for their separate rehearsal, so as to learn some from them and gain some much-needed practice (and confidence) in playing guitar with a group. The second main lack in the choir that I feel (related to the first) is that it doesn`t feel like a faith community, which I think would enrich the experience for all of us. I have the idea of suggesting some scripture reflection (of readings for the Sundays that we will sing at mass) to encourage some deeper sharing within the group, which may help us connect better. One natural obstacle, common to many groups, is that the majority of members have been together for a number of years and welcoming new entries takes some effort.
MISSIONARY COURSE
The IWM director, Tere Mañon, has invited me to take a three-week course in Lima for foreign Catholic missionaries in the first part of June. It deals with the political, social, and religious realities of life in Peru and is offered by the Bartoleme de Las Casas Center -- which was founded my pioneering liberation-theologian Gustavo Gutierrez and is named after the original champion of indigenous rights in the Spanish colonies in the Americas. I have a little concern about leaving my involvements for three weeks, especially with a trip with Michi coming up in July, but I think I`ll do it because it seems a unique opportunity. The sisters here are sharing the cost with IWM.
That`s it for now -- have a great weekend!
TRANSIT STRIKE
This past Monday, public transit vehicles -- taxis, combis (minivan buses), colectivos (fixed-route cars), and buses -- held a strike in response to a proposed tariff hike on their licenses and registration. The first impression was of quiet, much less noise reaching my room as I dressed to go running. As it got light, the non-working drivers set out lines of good-sized rocks across each intersection of the paved street at our corner, and growing crowds gathered to `police` the strike -- burning tires basically prepared to throw rocks at any car deigning to work. The ubiquitous motorcycle taxis were not actually a part of the strike, but there were few brave enough to test it. Emily witness some that still worked get parts ripped from them by groups of people either party to the strike or maybe just taking advantage of the opportunity to do damage. And, there were just a lot of people in the street, either walking to work or just taking the day off because they could not get to their jobs or classes. I walked with Emily and Nicole to work in the morning because there were no Motos to be found and it felt a bit dangerous. By evening the tension had settled (maybe post-lunch lethargy), and the drivers settled with the government in some form and we were spared the planned second day of the strike.
SOCCER
I was invited by three friends from my choir (Alex, Yuri and Juan Carlos) to go to an afternoon soccer game of the local team, Josè Galvez, playing a team from Chiclayo, to the north. Nicole, who was an avid soccer player in the US and has impressed a number of guys with her skill on a couple occasions (girls don`t play soccer here), also accepted the invitation to come along. I enjoyed the afternoon a lot, and Chimbote won 4-0 to boot. There were about 50 males there for each female, and most of the women were involved in selling food -- so it was actually a good thing that Nicole was there with four Peruvian guys so that she wouldn`t be harrassed as much. Groups of fans (from various neighborhoods, like fan clubs) argued a bit with each other (and with seated fans who complained about their view being blocked) over space to hang their banners from the chain link fence that surrounded the field, some even going over the barbed wire at the top to hang it in a better spot (guards on the field were fine with this, surprisingly). Our section was pretty low-key and the experience was quite pleasant, though the rush to get a taxi after the game was a bit chaotic (a parallel to the jam in stadium parking lots, though here people don`t generally own cars).
CHOIR
The game made me late for pre-mass choir rehearsal (I was actually the only one of us four who ended up going), but I still was in time to practice most of the songs and sing for mass, which I enjoy. The choir is an enthusiastic, high spirited group that I enjoy being a part of, but I struggle a bit with a couple areas. One, I still feel a bit of an outsider even with about four months of participation. People are friendly and welcoming, but apart from Alex and Yuri I haven`t gotten to know them real well. I also have some trouble getting a word in during choir meetings, both due to several folks that really like to talk and that they usually happen after our rehearsals (at about 11:00 pm), and I am not in my best Spanish form at that hour. I am considering ways to integrate more -- and will begin this coming Wednesday joining the musicians for their separate rehearsal, so as to learn some from them and gain some much-needed practice (and confidence) in playing guitar with a group. The second main lack in the choir that I feel (related to the first) is that it doesn`t feel like a faith community, which I think would enrich the experience for all of us. I have the idea of suggesting some scripture reflection (of readings for the Sundays that we will sing at mass) to encourage some deeper sharing within the group, which may help us connect better. One natural obstacle, common to many groups, is that the majority of members have been together for a number of years and welcoming new entries takes some effort.
MISSIONARY COURSE
The IWM director, Tere Mañon, has invited me to take a three-week course in Lima for foreign Catholic missionaries in the first part of June. It deals with the political, social, and religious realities of life in Peru and is offered by the Bartoleme de Las Casas Center -- which was founded my pioneering liberation-theologian Gustavo Gutierrez and is named after the original champion of indigenous rights in the Spanish colonies in the Americas. I have a little concern about leaving my involvements for three weeks, especially with a trip with Michi coming up in July, but I think I`ll do it because it seems a unique opportunity. The sisters here are sharing the cost with IWM.
That`s it for now -- have a great weekend!
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