¡Aventuras de Perú!: Time to Celebrate!

"Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday, and celebrate just living!"

This morning I was awakened not by a rooster, but by a marching band! We were told that the soldiers at the nearby military base are practicing for Peru’s Independence Day festivities on July 28th (we unfortunately will just miss this). After breakfast, we all hopped in the vans and trucks and headed to la iglesia de San Jacinto for Sunday mass. At the end of the service los campesinos (farmers) of the town brought up 6 huge bags of rice as an offering to the church signifying a successful harvest. We found out after mass that it was National Farmer’s Day, and that we had been invited as guests of la parroquia to a fiesta with the campesinos in a neighboring pueblo (town), La Legua. One of the missionaries that was also with us told me that we had been invited because Padre Joe, the priest of Santísimo Sacramento, had given the farmers a loan 5 years ago to begin planting rice in the region. Today, their crop has developed to such a high quality that they are exporting the rice to other countries in South America.

Los niños welcoming us!

La Iglesia de San Jacinto

Completely legal. :)

After another short drive through some extremely dusty roads (luckily I was riding inside with mi amigo nuevo - our driver, Vidal), we ended up at a small fenced-in compound, that I believe is usually used to store rice and various equipment. We were joined in the compound by about 20 farmers, their families, and a very outgoing MC - the “Don Juan of Peru,” as someone coined him. He invited one of our professors, Darlene, to help give out various awards, including ones for the top winners in the farmer’s fútbol league. Next, he proceeded to sing a few songs for us and picked about ten of us to stand up in front. Not knowing what was in store for us, he had 10 campesinos also come up front and had each of them pick a girl to dance with. We all went along with, and it actually turned out to be a lot of fun! My partner Juan was quit the gentleman, lol. (We found out later that our MC was actually one of the winners of Mexican Idol, and that we might see him again at other fiestas.) For lunch, we were served carne, arroz (no surprise there), and zupa de novios (lovers soup). After the fiesta, we were supposed to go to a girl’s school; however, some of the DE’s were feeling sick, so it was decided that we would postpone our visit.

Darlene handing out the first place trophy!

¡Almuerzo!

He was quite the swooner.

When we got back to la parroquia, we finished the final preparations for La Fiesta de Cumpleaños for Erika, the mother of Marquette’s adopted family! We have been paired with this family for the past couple years through the parroquia's family-to-family program, where it matches a U.S. family with a Peruvian family (often single mothers and their children) that is need of some extra help. For just $25 a month the family receives a large package of food to help them make ends meet; however, the generosity and relationship between these families often extends far beyond the monthly donation to help build homes and send the children through school. Anyway, the party ended up being a huge success! We played musical chairs, ate pizza and cake, and gave Erika and her beautiful family regalos in celebration of her 30th birthday. :)