Sponsor Letter 3

¨¡Cristo resucitó aleluya, venció la muerte con amor!…Christ is risen, alleluia, conquering death with love.¨ Happy Easter! I hope you are all filled with the same joy as we are in Barrios Altos as we sing this song.

As of April 18^th, I have now been in Peru for seven months. Summer is slowly melting into fall, and I am in the midst of my first Holy Week outside of the United States in a country rich with tradition. Before Lent begins, Lima has a Mardi Gras of sorts referred to as Carnival. As parades are the key ingredient for Mardi Gras, water is the defining factor of Carnival. For the four Sundays leading up to Lent, Lima is transformed into a water war zone, and I think it is safe to say that Coronel Zubiaga (our street) is the frontline (for all fiestas, for that matter). More or less, everyone piles into the street with their kiddie pools, grills, and weapon of their choice: water balloons, buckets, pots, etc. The mission is to ensure that passes through your territory dry. No worries…we took full advantage of our barricade, aka our roof overlooking the street.

Carnival

The passing of Carnival signaled the coming of Lent, a time of meditation and preparation for the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. As a community, we have been trying our best to live out this Lenten season with the consciousness that we are in the midst of the most important part of our liturgical year as Christians by explaining to the kids (when they are calm enough to listen for 2 minutes) what exactly Easter is… what exactly Holy Week is, more than an excuse to cancel classes for a few days. Every Friday we walked them through the Stations of the Cross (14 meditations retracing Jesus’ walk to Calvary) in our patio and on the street and on Good Friday accompanied the procession around the neighborhood with our parish.

Stations of the Cross

Just between the four of us (Ceci, Jessi, Benja, and myself), we have been participating in the different activities in our parish and central Lima, but more than anything I think we have all been trying to really embrace the contemplative part of our mission: daily mass, our hour of adoration, morning and night prayer, the Rosary, different books and articles, and all of our conversations in between (let me say how grateful I am to live in a community where we all marvel and struggle through all of the above together).

The Community: Charlotte, Ceci, Jessi, Benja

In my personal pray, I have been pleading to learn how to accompany Christ in his Passion. I think His response has been that I need to contemplate “humanness”…my own humanness, the humanness of those around me, the humanness of Christ, and that they are all intertwined… because as much as I can’t seem to wrap my head around it, God, omnipotent and omniscient, became human in the person of Christ, whom experienced extreme joy and extreme suffering, all of the sake of love… all so that His sons and daughters could have a relatable Father.
Our founder, Father Thierry de Roucy shared these words with a group of missionaries before they departed:

God loved you first and before anyone else. He knows you like no other and knows the best way to satisfy the thirst in your heart: it’s to give yourself without saying, it’s to search for Him night and day; it´s to discover in the face of your neighbors the meaning of your own existence.

As I have not properly done so before, allow me to introduce you to some of these faces.

Chano: Heart´s Home Santa Rosa de Lima All-Star. Known and loved by all, Chano is 23 years old, mentally handicapped, and our daily joy. While he has a family that lives about two blocks from our house, Chano more or less lives in the streets off the generosity of the people (he washes dishes in the market next to our house in exchange for food). Chano´s vocabulary is limited to a few muffled words, sometimes making his comprehension questionable; however what we are sure of is the when it comes to the Church, he understands better than most. He reverently follows along during Mass, genuflects upon entering our chapel, and tears up at the mention of the Virgin Mary, better known as ¨madre.¨

Ceci, Chano and myself

I offer you this little story to sum up the wonder that is the life of Chano. On Palm Sunday, we went to the cathedral in the main plaza (a good 30 minute walk) to pray the Rosary along with the Bishop and Cardinal of Lima, a handful of dignitaries, and thousands of other locals. The best comparison I can think of to provide a mental image is a political rally of sorts… the Bishop, Cardinal, and other important folk were on the stairs of the cathedral enclosed with a barricade. Next was about five rows of members of the guild of Señor de los Milagros (think Knights of Columbus, and if you are still confused insert the civic fraternity of your choice…the Lions perhaps), and then finally the commoners like ourselves. At the conclusion of the Rosary, I was intently listening to the Cardinal as he offered a brief reflection and blessing when Jessi tapped me on the shoulder frantically repeating ¨Chano! Chano! Chano!¨ That´s right….someway, somehow, Chano made his way downtown, emerged from the crowd, made his way up to the barricade, and the Cardinal laid his hands on his head with a blessing!! We started flailing our arms to get his attention, and he came charging toward us literally in a state of pure euphoria. We all basked in the glory of the moment for about 20 minutes and then all made our way back to the barrio……..Chano……enough said.

Dona Lucy

Señora Lucy: Because of Señora Lucy, I really have no idea how much vegetables cost. During my first month here in Lima, Lucy began to sell vegetables about a block from our house. In all honesty, for a long time we never exchanged many words with her, strictly business, but we soon started to note that for 1 sol ($0.35) we were returning home with a more than sufficient supply of vegetables. In addition to her absurdly low prices, she always gives us an added bonus of limes and rocoto (typical Peruvian hot pepper); attempting to politely refuse her gift or offer her more money is taken at great offense. In the past few months, we have begun to exchange histories a little bit, but never anything too profound. I think more than anything, there is a mutual appreciation of the presence of each other. Lucy’s love is simple; it’s handing us a bag of triple the amount of tomatoes we asked for, ordering us ¨Toma, no más…just take it.¨

Abuela Betty, Charlotte, Alejandra, and Jessika at Kiara´s Quince (15^th Birthday Party)

Abuela Betty: I am currently sitting here in her house writing you this letter. As ¨abuela¨ means grandmother, she is exactly that…her house is the go-to house to plop on the couch and not worry about a thing. One of her daughters, Marlene lives with her with her 3 children and her other two daughters live within a two minute walk. We refer to them as ¨las mujeres ponderosas…the powerful women¨ as they are always together (more often than not I run into them in the market in the morning and they offer me tips to enhance my attempt at Peruvian cuisine.) Moreover, Betty´s granddaughter Kiara (15 years old) is one of our most faithful friends and hopes to leave on a Heart´s Home mission in a few years.

Frachesco, Jean Pierre, Gerardo, Gian Franco

Los Niños: The mutual source of all joy and angst, as all you teachers reading this right now can attest to. It seems just about every week a new handful of kids stumble into the house, always with the typical mix of well-behaved subdued children and those who are a bit more rambunctious. The later never fail to give me a run for my money as I try to maintain some sort of order, but their personal problems which I have briefly told you about in previous letters are always in the back of my mind. Moreover, any angst that I might have (instigated by the kids or anyone/thing else) quickly flees my mind as I turn the corner onto our street and they come running toward me armed with hugs. A recent newcomer, Nayara, seems to know exactly when I need her to hug my neck and say very matter -of –factly“Hermanita, te quiero mucho”…Hermanita (literally means little sister, but the term used by all in the neighborhood to refer to us) I lo ve you lots!¨
As I am in our chapel with my eyes glued on Christ in the Holy Eucharist and my ears ringing with the voices of the kids playing outside the window, it is then that I remember exactly why I am here and have a clearer understanding of ¨the meaning of my existence.¨

Arais, Charlotte, Nayara, Rosa, Vivi

I´ll conclude with more of Father Thierry’s message:

"It is a true mercy to have the opportunity to give of yourself in this way, but it is also a true mercy in which you will begin to discover the limits of your offering, the fragility of your generosity […]From the beginning, you discover a new aspect, but surely not the least, of the mercy of which you are a beneficiary consisting of learning how to beg; in other words to live continually with filial dependence on He who is the fountain of all gifts."
-¨A Marian Attitude¨, Father Thierry de Roucy, Sending Forth Mass 14 Nov 2002

With all my love and gratitude,

Charlotte