Sorry it’s been a little while. Life has become full with less time to sit and write. This weekend marked the end of three weeks of festivities at St. Francis parish celebrating 800 years of the Franciscan order and 20 years of Franciscans in Peru. I helped with a number of events and tried to attend as many as possible. Below is a run-down of the events.
The whole celebration started September 27th with a morning of recreational games and music for the whole family. Our youth council and confirmation kids were in charge of this event, so I had lots of meetings leading up to the big day trying to make sure we had everything prepared. Well, organization and preparation are not what Peruvians are known for so up to that morning I wasn’t sure how everything would run. We would have been good to go if the electricity would have worked. The event was outside in the plaza by the ocean and for whatever reason the electricity did not work; so we had 2 choirs and a group of animators from Periacoto (a Franciscan parish in the mountains) all ready to go but no sound. Yet, it was a beautiful day and we made do. I think all those who came (which weren’t many outside of our own youth) had a good time but I know the padres (priests) were upset because it had cost quite a bit. That afternoon there was a blessing for pets and people from the parish brought their cats, dogs, rabbits, and even a guinea pig (although they mostly eat them here) to be blessed by one of the Padres. It was a lot of fun to see all the kids with their dogs and cats and to see actual pets in Chimbote, since there are so many wild dogs who roam the streets. St. Francis loved all of creation and this was a great way to encourage and celebrate caring for animals.
Then we were supposed to be opening up a photo display in 3 different locations the following day, Monday, but the displays were far from ready. So for basically the next 48 hours I worked with Padre Carlos and another woman, Juanita, on preparing the photo displays and setting them up in their locations. By Tuesday evening everything was finished, so only two days late. Either I didn’t understand or Padre Carlos failed to mention that that evening (Tuesday) we were having a reception to kick off the photo display. I thought we were just putting a few finishing touches on the display at the cultural center, so I showed up in my overall jeans, black t-shirt, sweatshirt, and winter cap. Everyone else was dressed in their formal Franciscan robes or nice clothes so I asked if they had an event afterward and they said a brindis (toast). I soon found out we were all going to the brindis. I was a little embarrassed, but everyone was very kind and no one cared what I was wearing; they were just happy I had helped with the photos.
Wednesday they had a panel forum on life and caring for creation, which I was not able to attend because I was sick and resting.
Friday night we hosted a rock concert in the same plaza as the events on Sunday morning, but thankfully this time the sound worked! About a week or so before the concert Padre Raul told the group EXODO (a band from our parish who was in charge of the event) that he wanted one of the missionaries to be an animadora (kind of like an M.C.) for the event. Courtney is in the band EXODO so she couldn’t be an animadora and no one else wanted the job, so I reluctantly said yes on the condition that I had a script. I was still settling into life and not sure what to expect as well as being concerned about the language difference. Well, Friday night comes and no one has a script for me, but they all seem to have a lot of confidence I will make a great animadora. There are three other guys who host the concert with me and it turned out great! I had a lot of fun and after the concert (and actually still to the day) everyone said I had a lot of energy and did a great job! (although some also said they couldn’t understand a word I said ☺ ) So I can say that in my first month in Peru I helped host a rock concert downtown. I’m also starting to expect that everything will start late. The concert was scheduled for 7pm and our first band didn’t start until about 8:30pm. But it was great and aside from being cold (with the wind from the ocean) everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
Saturday we hosted a marathon from Nuevo Chimbote to Chimbote. I’m really not sure how long that is, but it wasn’t a full marathon length. It started at 8am so I didn’t attend this event either, but it sounded like a success. Also on Saturday was a poetry contest. I attended this, but since it started about 2 hours late I only heard 3 poems before I had to leave for Confirmation that night. Also, the participants never showed, so other people just read the poems that were submitted. Everything had to do with the theme of creation and St. Francis’ Canticle of Creation.
Wednesday (the 30th of Sept.) contained a painting contest and I was pretty impressed with the paintings of both students and teachers. Most of the people here seem to be very gifted in the arts, whether it be music, dance, drawing, painting, theater, or singing. I love it!
Friday morning we had a jornada de limpieza publica which I thought meant we were just going to go around and clean up the streets etc. It was actually more of a march through the streets. Three different schools showed up with their students and everyone had made signs about respecting creation. The most beautiful thing was that all of the posters were so different and truly represented a consistent ethic of life and respect of all creation. Whereas I thought ok, we are focusing on the environment, these students saw the connection between all life and their posters reflected it. There were posters about not littering, not polluting, as well as posters against abortion, against domestic violence, about respecting one another, caring for animals, etc. A great event to have considering it is respect life month. One of the schools brought a band as well so music accompanied our march through the streets, raising awareness and picking up trash along the way.
Friday afternoon there was a program for children in honor of national children’s week (semana de los niños). There were balloons everywhere as well as Disney princesses, Backyardigans (Megan and Beth this made me think of you and Geriana, Ariel, and their siblings), and of course pooh and barney. Lots of singing and dancing and dinamicas provided the kids who came with hours of entertainment and fun.
Saturday was the choir contest held at the Catholic University ULADECH. There were five choirs who participated, but since this also started late and I had another event at 7pm I only heard the first 3 choirs. I also had my first visitor to Chimbote on Saturday! A girl that I went to SLU with, Shannon, is currently living in Lima for a couple months and came to Chimbote on her way to another city. So she met up with me at the choir concert and spent the night. It was fun to have a familiar face and to catch up with Shannon on what she’s been up to. On Saturday night our theater group from the parish performed some scenes from the life of St. Francis. It turned out really well! Everyone did a great job and we had lots of positive feedback. I was a blind person who was cured, and someone who received the good news from one of the Friars.
Sunday was the actual feast day of St. Francis of Asisi so we had a big mass in the morning followed by a small procession around the block of the Church with a statue of St. Francis. The nine days leading up to the feast day were part of what’s called a novena. This means there are nine masses, one each day, leading up to a special celebration.
Finally to wrap things up we had two big events this past weekend. Friday the 9th was a celebration with the whole Franciscan family commemorating 800 years of the Franciscan order and 20 years in Peru. Priests came in from Lima and Periacoto, and the archbishop of Chimbote said mass that evening. There was a charla (discussion) in the afternoon, followed by mass, and then performances of dance, music, and theater. The group of youth from Periacoto did an incredible job as performing two dances: one from the mountains (sierra) and one from the jungle (selva). Our theater group performed our skit again on the life of St. Francis. It was a great celebration of St. Francis and Franciscan spirituality with the whole community gathered together!
Then on Saturday I attended the second annual Franciscan youth encounter. It was from 8am-5;30pm and was similar to youth rallies I have attended in the U.S. We were split into different groups, each with a name that corresponded to St. Francis or the Franciscan order. There were 4 different talks in the morning as well as time to get to know the people in your group. While joven here usually means anyone between 15-35, most of the kids were around 15-17 years old. About half of my Confirmation kids came and there were lots of different parishes represented. Many Franciscan sisters helped plan and organize the event and were wonderful to meet. In the afternoon we had dinamicas, dances, and then ended with a mass where all of the kids received necklaces with the letter T (not a cross as I was corrected, but the letter Tao which is a Franciscan symbol). I thought it was a successful event and hope to help form a group of Jovenes Fransicanas (JuFra) at our parish.
So, that’s just the parish events that have been going on. I’m getting involved in a few other activities but I’ll start another blog for that. This one is pretty long already!
paz y bien (that’s the motto everywhere around here with the Franciscans)
p.s. I wanted to include some pictures, but my computer doesn't like me. So I'll try and work on that.
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