Fiesta de San Francisco

Greetings! Before beginning, an editor`s note: Courtney is not from St. Paul, as I mistakenly indicated in my last entry, but from Minneapolos. Apparently there is a rivalry between the two cities, and she wanted to make sure I knew the true site of her origin. I hope that by writing a bit more often, I can avoid the extra-long entries such as last week`s and give a few more details along the way. Within the next few days, I`ll post photos of some of the events described below, but for now a summary...

FIESTA PATRONAL
Last week and weekend was occupied with activities surrounding the parish celebration of its patron saint (St. Francis), and with the parish run by Franciscan priests, the feast holds even more weight. As they do each year, we first had a procession through some of the parish neighborhoods carrying the large platform with the image of St. Francis, accompanied by a band and various parish groups (Confirmation, choirs, prayer groups) and a number of students from the public high school (Santa Marìa Reyna) across the street, many carrying signs. As happened last year, I was drafted to take shifts helping to carry the image, and my memory of the moments of marching through the evening streets, alegre music, watching out for dips in the dirt, the people watching from the houses, is one that will stay with me and return, I hope, each year at this time. In addition to the normal parish festivities, this year a young man named Elmer, who grew up in the parish, was ordained at a Mass on Saturday the 4th, the actual feast day, with a lunch and entertainment following. Youth of the parish were in charge of decorations and of organizing the entertainment for the 500 people who were to attend. Each night during the week about 10 of us gathered to cut out stirofoam letters, paint, etc, and then arrived 6:00 am Saturday to sweep, blow up balloons, make a balloon arch, etc. Our English class performed a song (Here I am, Lord) in English and several of the members helped serve food. They were nervous, but did pretty well -- Jane, Courtney and Julie joined the singing and Jane also performed later with the parish folkloric dance group. Several other individual youth and my choir also sang. We finished the day tired but satisfied. The Saturday ended with a birthday party of one of the girls in my choir, which I departed from `early` at 1:30 a.m. very sleepily.

ONE YEAR REFLECTIONS
On Sunday we rested a bit before going with the confirmation group to a multi-parish youth rally in downtown Chimbote, 3-9 in the afternoon/evening. A few short talks and testimonies, lots of music (with associated actions and dancing) and finally a festive mass to close made for a fun event which was also valuable for me in a reflective sense as I evaluate my goals for the coming year. A few main general goals/plans as to what my next year here might look like...
1)Neighborhood intra-parish youth communities and home visit initiative -- I envision working with current leaders and group members to make personal contact with more youth in the various sectors that the parish serves. Having made personal contact these next three months, I picture inviting them to a retreat during the summer (Jan-March) for the dual purpose of spiritual growth and motivating the formation of small fellowship communities that will continue meeting afterward in their neighborhoods. These small groups would then be a base for continued growth personally for the youth, but also for initiatives concerning the environment, local social change, parish events, etc. As a start, I went out the weekend before this last one with Lenin and Nelly and we had some good conversations with about 12 young people over the course of a couple hours, using a form of our earlier survey which I have modified to provoke a bit of faith-based conversation and discussion.
2)Inter-parish networks for change -- The experience of meeting with youth leaders from various parishes in advance of this weekend`s rally, and seeing the success of the effort (400-500 youth for the first time event), inspired the idea in me to work toward building relationships between these leaders/groups and those of our own parish, especially around issues of common concern (again, pollution comes to mind) as a step to more coordinated church-based effort to effect actual social change. In addition, I believe that if youth see that their church in truth takes real-life problems seriously and is working to improve the world, they may be more likely to see it as worth investing their time in becoming involved. A start would be to go with members of our youth council to visit leaders from other parishes, and then meet together with those who are interested to come up with a common vision. I know the diocese here has monthly meetings for youth workers, but I don`t see much real connection or coordinated efforts.
3)Continue to offer English classes, which can empower and create more opportunities for those who apply themselves to it but has the side benefit of being another way to connect with the parish.
4)Continue to take advantage of opportunities to learn and grow in musical endeavors: guitar, flute, etc. I am learning a lot from Roger and am excited about the opportunitiy to develop this part of me. Julie commented to me in her first couple weeks here about how musical a person I am, which struck me because I have never seen myself in that way. Here, though, I feel more freedom to explore and do what I can, even if I will never sing amazingly.
5)Accompany the confirmation groups, and attempt to initiate a program of follow-up for those who are confirmed, a plan for helping them continue to meet and build on both the fellowship, personal growth, and parish involvement that have definitely grown during their experience of preparation. As in the US as well, it is such a shame to lose that by forgetting about the confirmed youth as soon as the ceremony is over. I hope to take some time to brainstorm and formulate a strategy.
6)Corvallis-Chimbote confirmation interchange. I have had our kids here in the confirmation group fill out forms about who they are, what they like, their impression of their country and of the US, etc, and have had our advanced English students help me translate them. In these next few days I will be sending them via email, with electronic photo, to the confirmation youth in Corvallis -- who are working on a parallel intro-form in English. After translating to Spanish, we will have the first step of a cultural exchange and hopefully continued contact between some of them, to encourage the realization of the larger body of Christ and how people in another part of the world live.

Well, I realize now that though this entry does have more details, it is no shorter than the last one -- sorry! As always, thanks for reading and God bless.