Weekend Recap

Friday was a really great day. Marcelle and I finally got our dresser so we were able to unpack our suitcases and start to really settle in. Friday afternoon was spent unpacking and decorating our room. Now it really feels like our own place and I have so many beautiful faces of loved ones around the world that keep me company here in Chimbote! Todd baked brownies for English conversation which we have at our house every Friday night and they were delicious. We had a really large turnout for English conversation which was great and I was able to meet even more people, a few of whom speak pretty good English because they are studying it at the University. One of the English students helps with a music group of young boys and they surprised Todd by coming and performing some songs for us all. They were wonderful and I was pretty impressed with how good they were for being probably between 8-12 years old.

Saturday was filled with lots of cleaning and preparing for Todd’s despedida (going away party) at our house that night. The most disgusting was definitely the bathroom out back. Todd and Courtney were rock stars who cleaned up the grossest parts. I cleared away all the spider webs which were everywhere outside and inside. Our friends Roger and Anthony also came over to help with cleaning. I had my first Confirmation class Saturday night from 7-9pm. I think it went pretty well. There are over 30 youth in Confirmation so it will take me a while to learn everyone’s names, but they seem like a good group of kids. A lot like kids their age in the U.S. They love talking to one another, but are hard pressed to talk in a large group setting. They all have cell phones that are going off and forget to bring their notes or notebooks. But they are smart too, and have a lot of energy. I’m excited to become more a part of the planning probably for the next cycle of Confirmation. For the rest of this group’s time I will probably mostly be assisting here and there and getting a sense of the program. Although I do hope we do a retreat with the Confirmation students and I can help with that because I was part of the planning team in high school for the Confirmation retreat at my church.

After Confirmation I came back and everything was pretty much ready to go for the party. It went from about 10pm until close to 5am but I went to bed around 3:30am because I had to get up for the theater group reunion (meeting) the next morning at 10am. The party was a lot of fun and mostly consisted of visiting with people by shouting because the music was so loud and lots and lots of dancing. It is kind of humorous to me because for each song you wait for someone to ask you to dance or you ask someone (but there are always pairs, no dancing alone). Then after the song is done everyone goes and sits back down and repeats the same process. The music was mostly salsa, cumbia, meringue, a little regaeton, and whino (which is a Peruvian music and dance style). Being new and being a gringa I had no shortage of dance offers and so after a few hours was exhausted and glad to see the party starting to wind down to people just hanging out but with less dancing. It was really a beautiful celebration though and full of lots of moments of gratitude to be in this place, listening and dancing to music with the people gathered together in our backyard, speaking Spanish, laughing, and having a great time.

Sunday I was pretty tired from the party but enjoyed the theater group meeting because it was another despedida for Todd. They invited Marcelle and I to play a few short flute duets and others performed songs, dances, and theater skits. They were the first despedida to have a piñata which I think made it the best  I’m excited to get involved and perform with the theater group. It is led by hermana Kati, a young Incarnate Word sister and has all ages participating. They prepared ceviche which is probably the most popular Chimbotean food – a raw fish dish marinated in onion and lime usually served with potatoes on the side and/or yucca. Its pretty good, but also usually pretty spicy. If anyone comes to visit, ceviche is definitely a must for food you will eat before leaving. The Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word invited us all over for lunch as a going away for Todd and a welcoming for Marcelle and me. It was great to visit with all of them at once (there are 6 here in Chimbote) and lunch was delicious. Then I had Confirmation again that night at 6:30pm, mass at 7:30pm, and JUMIFRA meeting after mass. JUMIFRA is the youth council of the parish and are currently busy planning the opening day’s events for the 2 week celebration of 800 years of the Franciscan order and 20 years in Chimbote. I would say right now we average about 3-4 meetings a week trying to coordinate and plan everything and are still behind schedule according to U.S. standards. But I’m told everything always comes together at the last minute so I guess we’ll wait and see.

I’m visiting a number of different places this week so maybe next week I’ll let you know about some of the other work being done in Chimbote.

Peace and Love