October 15, 2005
Hello family and friends!
Today we enjoy a beautiful spring day in Alto Trujillo. The
morning generally greets us with haze and fog, but by mid-day we
usually have sun and warmth, which happened today!
The Peruvian church celebrates Señor de los Milagros during
October. I compare the nature of the festivities
with Our
Lady of Guadalupe, except we started celebrating it a
full month
ahead of the actual event. We have a traveling image that is
making the rounds in our neighborhood which includes a nightly rosary.
We hosted it last Monday night (to see the pics click
here).
Sometime at the end of October we culminate all the
festivities
with a huge procession throughout the parish neighborhoods
(population-110,000 people).
Hannah continues to settle in. We were finally able to
purchase
her "buzo" or pseudo school uniform last week. It makes us
feel
more a part of the neighborhood now that we have a school kid with the
right clothes! The students don't wear their buzo everyday,
only
on special occasions and field trips, although some children wear them
more frequently. Hannah wears hers sometimes, but she still
really enjoys her "signature" pink colors.
Ralph and I are teaching English classes to teachers (three days a
week) and to 323 students (all in one morning-whew) and we've started
to work on some very small gardening projects with the
people.
Everyday is a new adventure. We're also teaching a composting
class to the teachers and older students at the Fe y Alegria School.
Our main forms of transportation are either bus or collectivo.
The collectivos are sedan-sized passenger vehicles
(space
for 5 people including the driver) that drive routes. To
maximize
their money earned, the collectivo drivers jam their cars FULL of
people. It reminds me of the late 60's when world records
were
being made by stuffing people into Volkswagons-except that was for fun!
Yesterday, Ralph and I rode in the back seat with 6 other people and
there were 5 people in the front seat. Imagine - 13 people in a car
designed to hold 5!
Have a great week! Let us continue to pray for one another
and
the poor of the world.
Ralph and Theresa May