Estoy una Piña

Is it better to talk and talk and spout ideas and never act or to start something, but never finish? Fidel asked me one evening walking back from ASHRIEL, the Shipibo community. After I finally understood what he was asking me (he talks with a lot of jergas – slang), I was still puzzled. I didn’t know which scenario was better, I don’t like either. I answered him with the second, because maybe if you start something and don’t finish someone else may pick up where you left off. I don't know though, maybe its better to talk and not act, because a job left unfinished isn't that great either. As Luz y Vida attempts to build a Club de Niños and an youth/young adult group with ASHRIEL, I think about this a lot. We may talk about or plan something the night before, and in the morning when we arrive, plans have changed, or the person you were supposed to meet is occupied, or you have to remind them of what you are suppose to be doing. We inevitability have to hunt down someone with keys to the Director’s Office where the chairs are stored.

But, the work is good, is needed. I am with the 10-13 year olds and of the four that came the first week, two cannot read. I had made word searches for them, and at first I thought maybe they haven’t done these before. But, two of the boys were right on it, hunting down the words and circling them. When I was explaining to the others, look for this letter first, and then this letter next to it, and then pointing out the whole words, they still had trouble circling the words. I hope that this boy and girl didn’t get too frustrated and never come back.
I hope our group builds. As a result of the terrorism the Peruvians suffered in the 80s and 90s, people tend to be very distrusting of outsiders. Two of the three Saturday evenings that I’ve come for the youth and young adult group, no Shipibo youth or young adults came! The one Saturday that I missed, we had ten people come. Fidel joked that I was piña(pineapple), a jerga for bad luck. Pray that with presence and time this community will begin to accept us, and participate in the clubs. Coming from Westminster, I was blessed with a large youth group, and never realized the difficulties in the formulation of a new group.

I want to clear up somethings about the purple Catholics, as Kelly called them. Although I spent much of October avoiding the processionals, I did on the last weekend of October become one of the traffic blocking spectators with Maribel, a coworker, and her family. Señor de los Milagres (Lord of Miracles) celebrates when, during an earthquake, everything was flattened but a painting of Jesus on the cross. This painting was the only thing left standing in a fairly large circumference. Every year in October they celebrate with carrying a shrine from church to church in Lima. Catholic women wear simple purple dresses tied with a white rope as a belt, and the men purple ties. A dessert made especially in Octobers for this is Turrones, a shortbread type cake creation, with a lot of caramel and candy type things in between the layers, quite delicious. During the month of October earthquakes are frequent. We had one big one, and several small ones this year! The Lima-ites joke that this is in remembrance of the miracle. As we approached the massive amounts of people surrounding the procession, I recognized the hallelujah chorus that the choir was singing. Now, it didn’t sound as spectacular as it does on Easter mornings at Westminster, but it was so beautiful to hear, here in Lima.

Thank you for all of your comments and support.