Fiesta San Pedrito, etc.

Greetings from Chimbote! June 21-29, Chimbote was in the midst of a weeklong celebration of its patron saint, the fisherman St. Peter, which falls on June 29. Officially in the church, St. Peter shares a feast day with St. Paul, but the great evangelizer of the gentiles takes a second seat in this port that lives on the fishing industry (the resulting odor is the `smell of money`, as I`ve been reminded many times). All week there were parades of various sorts downtown, at least three separate artisan fairs, concerts and music shows. It culminated Sunday and Monday, June 28-29, when a group of us took in a concert and fireworks downtown, and then waited three hours with a group of youth from the parish to climb aboard a fishing boat in the bay early morning for a maritime procession following the image of St. Peter. Last year it was a unique experience, with maybe 30 large and small boats, loaded with people, following the lead boat to the mouth of the bay, where the bishop prays for blessing on the bay and the people of Chimbote. Already very polluted and receiving more daily from the city sewer system, fish factories and steel plant, the bay needs all the help it can get. A friend was commenting to me recently that even if the pollution entering the bay was halted now, it would take 100 years for the bay to naturally recover from the past 50 years of human abuse. Unlike last year, however, we weren`t ever allowed onto the pier because there were apparently fewer boats this year – so we returned home tired and disappointed (though a plate of ceviche on the way home brightened our mood a little).

Anyway, Monday the 29th is a national holiday to celebrate the feast, and so we canceled English class and I had the first completely free evening since April. Very tired, I took a nap and then Corina and I watched a movie on the laptop of Julie (her sister, Beth, was here for a visit and brought it with her). We watched Juno, which I enjoyed, though I was surprisingly struck by some common US scenes that have been unfamiliar to me these past couple years (especially since I rarely watch movies here): nicely paved residential streets lined with grass and trees, well-equipped and modern high school science classroom, etc. Watching a video felt like something I used to do in a former life.

PROTESTS IN THE PERUVIAN JUNGLE
I´m not sure that it reached international news agencies, but during the first part of June there was substantial unrest in the Amazon region of Peru – demonstrations and protests by the indigenous communities of the area that turned violent with the intervention of the police and military. To be honest, I don´t know the blow-by-blow details, but the result was 50-100 police and civilians killed, and all over Peru – including here in Chimbote – demonstrations were organized in solidarity with those in the jungle and to protest the government´s handling of the situation. The complaint, as I understand it, is two-fold: total non-inclusion of native interests in the formulation and signing of the new trade agreement with the United States, and a new law that makes it legal for the government to seize local land in order to harvest mineral and oil resources. I believe the protests were successful, at least for the time being, to the extent that an agreement was signed with the government and the offending law repealed.

PROGRESO MARKET
Our unique but not-so-modern-or-sanitary mercado Progreso has taken a couple of blows recently, but remains stubbornly resistant to change. First, the city has plans to relocate the vendors (small and larger scale, receiving daily shipments from surrounding rural areas) to a newly `constructed` market site near the stadium and bus terminal. Unfortunately, the site is not finished and lacks basic services, `pure sand` they tell me, and despite a few days in which there were very few vendors in the market area (really a taken-over street) and a lot meandering the streets, the market returned to normal within a week or two. I don`t know if the city has given up or is just waiting/regrouping. It would be back to normal, that is to say, were it not for the replacing of the sanitary sewer system in the area, huge trenches and mounds of dirt forcing stalls to cram the street edge, the shoppers clogging the various catwalks and climbing up and down the smaller mounds. Even this disturbance is subsiding as of early July, the larger trenches mostly filled back in and only a small number of stalls remaining relocated.

JUMIFRA UPDATE
Our youth council continues with 10-15 people at our weekly meetings following the Sunday 7:30 pm mass. Following the Pentecost Vigil at the end of May, we organized a smaller scale celebration of Fathers` Day – the new theater group at the parish (of which I am a member) presented an original short play at the end of the morning mass and then JUMIFRA organized and prepared a free breakfast in the hall afterward. The 16 members of the theatre group – ranging in age from 9 to mid-50`s – had a blast preparing the play and we were all happy with how it turned out (I played an evil spirit). We have our regular meetings/rehearsals on Sunday mornings from 10-12, and it helps me with my Spanish in addition to being fun to hang out with a very positive and enthusiastic group of people. Sister Katty is the director.

We in JUMIFRA (Franciscan Missionary Youth) are also preparing to purchase our own identifying polo shirts, and at the moment we are in midst of plans and fundraising for a weekend trip to Cajamarca – the reputedly-beautiful city in the northern mountains and the site of the infamous capture of the Inca Atahualpa by Francisco Pizarro and his fellow conquistadores. Though each person is contributing a portion of the cost, we are also organizing a 150-plate barbecue fundraiser lunch for July 25th that we hope will cover the remainder of the costs. The trip is planned for August 21-24, Friday night 9 p.m. to Monday morning 6 a.m, including two nights on the bus, one night lodging, and two days exploring Cajamarca and the surrounding area. Each person is given 10 tickets to sell ahead of time for the event, and we`ll cook most of Friday evening and starting early-morning Saturday. Such fundraisers, usually Polladas – featuring a large portion of chicken – are quite common here for organizations but also for families who need a sum of money to meet an unexpected or out of the ordinary expense, such as hospitalization of a family member or house repairs/construction. The trip – besides being a chance for all of us to see Cajamarca, only a couple of the group have been there before – also will be a time to share together as a group before I leave, so say goodbyes and hopefully solidify for the future.

It appears that, unfortunately, my goal of achieving a larger-scale survey of youth in the parish neighborhoods will not be realized – at least not in my tenure. I went out one weekday morning with Roger, but we only had minimal success finding people at home and we kind of got discouraged. The size of the undertaking coupled with with my imminent departure have made me accept that we won`t arrive at the vision I`ve had almost since arriving – a more comprehensive network of visits and personal connections with young people who live in our community. Still, the small-scale experience we achieved was a positive one.

YOUTH CENTER PROJECT
Our project to open a youth center at the parish continues forward but in an alternate form. In order to avoid the substancial cost of sustained house rental, Fathers Raùl and Carlos at the parish suggested that we instead pursue construction of a second floor to existing classroom space, with the addition having its own entrance to the street and being dedicated solely to serving youth of the community. In the meantime, we would do some small-scale remodeling to four existing, non-used rooms on parish grounds in order to begin a few of the proposed programs of the youth center on a smaller scale. Those of you who offered to financially support the original proposal have liked the new idea even more, so I have been involved in climbing onto roof and taking measurements as first steps to developing construction plans. I also have prepared pencil/ruler drawings to scale of the existing rooms that we hope to modify, a phase of the project I hope is underway before I leave in a couple months.

CONFIRMATION
I continue as a co-leader of one of two twenty-member confirmation groups with Consuelo, a recent high school graduate who was confirmed last year and who I also know from her being in our choir. It is going well, again having to lead a group gives me valuable practice in speaking Spanish strongly and loudly – sometimes I feel successful and sometimes not. We meet with the other leaders (Courtney, with friends Yuri and Alex) on Thursdays to plan and our meetings with the kids are Saturday evenings 7-9 pm for lessons and Sunday evenings at 6:00 – we do a couple games, prepare for mass, and choir directors alternate in rehearsing the Mass songs with the kids so that they can participate more. I have taken on the role of typing up and copying songsheets each week, which I then distribute to the choirs and to our confirmation youth. In addition to a booklet guide to Mass prayers that I developed and that we hand out to the group each week, I think the song sheets help them participate more actively in the Mass and to know a bit more what is going on (the general congregation does without any song guide – the songbooks are for sale in the office but few actually buy them). Of course, the choirs hope to gain new members through their colaboration.

This Sunday, 9-1, we confirmation leaders (they call us `animadores` here – animators) have organized a morning of good-natured competition among parish groups – the two confirmation groups, the two youth choirs, last years confirmation group, theatre group, etc. Besides a cheer and choreographed song competition (change lyrics to fit your group), there will be relay races, volleyball, and soccer. Added to a choir retreat 3-6 in the afternoon, and singing with the choir at Mass plus JUMIFRA meeting at night, it will will make for a fun, long day.

MISCELANEOUS
I continue to enjoy and progress slowly but surely on the guitar, learning to pick out some lead melodies and to strum a couple new rhythms – cumbia and marinera. I have made general arrangements for a month of traveling after I depart from Chimbote the second week of September.

I fly to La Paz, Bolivia on September 12 and plan a loop south through the Bolivian highlands, turning east in northern Argentina to visit the famous Iguazù waterfalls and the well-preserved Jesuit missions at San Ignacio Mìni. Then, a swing south to spend a few days in Buenos Aires, visit to Corvallis friends living in Còrdoba, and finally a cross into Chile where I will visit longtime friends of my folks in Temuco before returning to Santiago and an October 10 flight back to Lima. From there, two last days in Perù before a day-long flight to San Francisco and the United States on October 13.

In addition to ongoing English classes each night at the parish, I began in June going one Monday morning each week to teach a conversation class to English-education students and the National University of Santa in Nuevo Chimbote. The hour and a half time together goes quickly, but I enjoy the new setting and they value the chance to interact with a native speaker.

With my departure from Chimbote now less than two months distant, thoughts of how my girlfriend Susan and I will handle the separation are more frequent. I have found that in these last couple months, getting to know her better, I like her more and more – which on one hand is exciting and on the other hand complicates things. I am praying that God will guide us through this time, and am thankful to have met and had the chance to get get to know her in these months.

I wish you all a beautiful day, God bless.