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!