An Unexpected Christmas Visitor

I believe this critter came for a photo shoot since he didn't appear for his photo shoot for an earlier blog. Christmas Day mass was beautiful, though people are rusty on their responses, in the absence of a regular mass. All enjoyed hot chocolate and fruit bread after mass.

Christmas Get Away

On the fourth Sunday of Advent, the workers and volunteers of the Franciscan Social Center shared the celebration of mass and some informal times, before the Christmas Break. Above are a few of us posing, the group includes a doctor and two psychologists (the three other women of the group!)



A group of about 60 people came together from all the different ministries, and took an hour ride to the Franciscan Retreat Center in Tarata. We came in a bus, the ambulance, and a few private cars. As you will see the Center has beautiful grounds.




Finally a frog! Though thankfully there wasn't a plague. He was located at the rock bordered pools with fish in the formal garden. We weren't sure if it was real or not and got pretty close, the people closer assured me that the frog was alive.



We played various games, and sorry, as one of the organizers, I didn't get very good pictures. I planned most of the games, but thought it wiser to have some one describe them in plain Spanish. Despite this preparation, some things morphed into the most hilarious situations. One being, I had only planned to get people into groups, animal groups by using the sounds they make. Well people thought that to be silly and just called out their animal names. In groups, folks were to create short skits with a lesson. What I didn't know was that my collaborator told everyone to do the skits using the animal noises!



Another first to see the fruit called tumbo here actually growing. (Rick hope you like the shot!)



This is the back of the church, seen from the retreat center grounds. This is where many locals go to church, the retreat center has it's own chapel. In the mid ground is an old fashioned well, which is no longer in use. Below is a view looking down from the center to some of the walking trails that are on property.

This is the Way I Wash My Clothes

Well the truth is, George Washington, this is the way I wash my blankets. I hand wash my clothes. It is one of my favorite chores, well that is if limited to small items such as shirts and dish towels. Jeans, large towels are a real chore! A load of laundry can take an hour or two to wash by hand.

When I knew I was moving back to the Franciscan Social Center, I wanted my blankets clean. Doña Severina suggested the stomping method. I couldn't help but think of crushing grapes for wine making, it worked well but wringing out soapy water and rinse water was strenuous. By the end of the day the "solar dryer" completed the work. (solar dryer is synonymous for clothes line) I had to add the hint, as my friend JC was disappointed not to view some new technology, when I used this term years ago. The old system works just fine.

I can't recall seeing many rainbows my first time in Bolivia. This time I have seen many and have found them hard to photograph. The rainbow seems to brighten up the city photo!

The Franciscan Social Center

My New Home

 

Originally a building to cloister young women entering the convent, the two story structure surrounds a small garden. A second floor balcony also surrounds the garden on 4 sides over hanging the walkway below it. Each room opens out to either walkway or balcony. This type of architecture necessitates movement of people outside, to go from room to room.

 

Johnny is the secretary/receptionist in the afternoon. He became one of my first new friends after returning to mission last year. In the mornings he teaches religion and theology to religious in formation.



A view from the second floor balcony of the chapel steeple of the Santa Clara Convent. The convent is home to the Franciscan Sisters who opened their doors, so that many groups could provide services to Cochabamba's many needy and poor people.

 

Doña Lydia is one of my favorite people who take care of the children of Mosoj Ph'unchay. Mosoj Ph'unchay is a home for children with severe burns housed within the Franciscan Social Center. Lydia works 24 hour shifts, every third day, taking care of between 5 and 12 children. She cooks, cleans, bathes the children, washes bedding by hand and so much more. For 3 or 4 hours morning and afternoon (Mon-Fri) Volunteers come in for tutoring, physical therapy, playing games, and crafts.

 

Here I am with one of the kids from the center besides a poinsetta tree. They grow over 15 feet tall. We have 14 foot ceiling and the plant grows well past the second story.

 

A view from above, Nora and I live in the second story in one corner. The children of Mosoj Ph'unchay live in a connecting corner and along the next side.

All Souls Day

All Saints Day (Nov 1) and All Souls Day (Nov 2) are holy days in the Catholic Church. The celebrations of these feast days were low key where I grew up, a mass attended by few and a possible visit to a graveyard if it were a weekend. In the US people are aware of "The Day of the Dead" celebrated by our Mexican neighbors to the South and by a large population of Mexican Americans in the US.



Bolivians have a national Holiday for All Souls Day and many workers have the day off to be able to go to the cemetery to pray, bring flowers and honor family and friends that have gone on before them. If someone has died that year or it is an anniversary year (1, 5, 10 years or so on) the family may bring favorite foods or drinks to honor the person, having a picnic or enough to share with other people.



Special small cakes called masitas and special Andean breads called T'ant'a Wawas (if the have shape or form) are also baked in large quantities. Popular shapes are people (especially of the deceased), llamas, snakes or other animals, sun, moon, and a ladder (as in stairway to heaven, popular before Led Zeppelin)



Children go about in groups offering to pray for the deceased (see above photo), knowing they will be offered, masitas, fruit or candies. The size and item depends on their ability to pray, getting a T'ant'a Wawa is a great prize. Remind anyone or Trick or Treat with a religious twist? This year a group of kids I knew collected more then they could carry home. My cultural/personal bias made me feel it was a bit excessive, then my friend Olga said they didn't buy bread for 4 months last year. The masitas became hard like cookies and they would dip them in their morning tea. Not buying daily bread represents a great savings to a poor family. A poor family of six could spend up to 5-10% of daily income on bread.



(Above) Most people are buried here in the crypts for 5-7 years, and then the remains are moved to make room for others. They can then be cremated, buried or moved to other locations. If you are poor, you cannot afford a crypt and can be buried directly in the ground.

You can also hire a roving band to play a song or two for your dearly departed. Simon & Garfunkel's tune of the Sounds of Silence has been put to a version of the Our Father prayer. This was the most requested tune and at one time I could hear it played from 3 different directions simultaneously.



You can also pay for prayers from a professional prayer person, who are present at cemeteries any day of the year for prayers. My friend Olga's father is one of those professionals. Blind since before all of his children were born, he probably makes close to 1/2 of his annual income his day. Many people who work praying in cemeteries are blind.




We sat with her dad for a while during All Souls Day, and it was great to see him in action so to speak. Usually he is a quiet presence in the home (Olga's home) a very patient and undemanding person. I was with the family a month earlier when Micky (Olga's oldest) had a graduation ceremony, and his grandfather blessed him and prayed over him very publically, even ringing his tiny brass bell. Not a common site in the US or here!

At the cemetery he would ask questions of the person requesting the prayers and seemed so interested to learn about them. It is quite a ceremony, bells, chants in 2 or 3 different languages and a dash of Holy Water, which hits who or what ever is in it's path. A toddler wandering in front of him at that moment nearly choked on a mouthful of Holy Water. Once he mixed up the person to be prayed for with the person requesting the prayers. She let him know she wasn't dead yet, and there was laughter all around, and he restarted the prayers for the correct person.



(Above) Olga is standing near the altar set up for the forgotten souls, the ones no one will prayer for that day. Of course with an altar to remind us they get prayers, just not by name! There was a larger site set up in the gravesite area, past the crypts, with banners and green grass. The cemetery in Sacaba is one of the best green spaces very park like.

T'ant'as Wawas

 

In the before and after school programs in Tiqti, on the day after All Souls Day, an altar is prepared to honor deceased children. Little flags are made out of colored tissue paper, with geometric cutouts and glued to straw cut from broomsticks. All the children bring something for the altar, fruit, masitas, flowers, candy, T'ant'as Wawas. This year there was a contest for the best T'ant'a Wawa. Streamers, palm leaves, and other items are all used to decorate the altar.

 

Here is a close up of some T'ant'as Wawas. I even photographed my first T'ant'a Wawa, (certainly not award winning) but alas I am not sure where I saved it.

 

The kids ham it up after prayers and refreshments. Altars like this are also set up in peoples homes, if they have lost someone in the last year. Neighbors come by for visits and prayers and to remember the loved one. Since people are "buried" quickly (no embalming) this tradition on All Souls Day allows people who missed the funeral to pay their respects in a formal way. I found out anyone is welcome to stop in and pray. It is one of the few times I have seen doors left open to entry gates of houses for extended period of time.

The Devotional Chicken

Here is the praying chicken photo I wanted to include in an earlier post. She is outside my apartment in Tiqti. She was actually trying to avoid the rooster. Due to her unrespectful approach to my plants I called her owner up and sent her home. I guess her prayers were answered in that she got away from the rooster.

The rooster was also sent to his own home a few months later. The only other chicken had hatched out 6 eggs and no longer needed his services. I was glad to see the blind rooster go because he would crow at 4:00 am, and he attacked plants too.

A few weeks ago I heard the mother hen making a fuss. As she had lost two of her chicks the week before, and I was the only one in the center, I went to see what was happening. A chick was caught in a bucket of water by the outside faucet. It was near drowned, I rescued it, but it couldn't stand. It was shivering and the mother ran away. So I dried it best I could in my shirt and kept it near my belly to warm up.

I tried to see if it would stand every so often. It just kept shivering and couldn't stand. When the sun came out from behind the clouds I held it up to the sun. The feathers were not drying quickly. After about an hour the mother returned and as it had been able to stand a few minutes earlier for the first time, I set it as close to the mom as I could get and it took off running feather still stuck to it's back!



Butterfly and bee, in harmony, feasting on my plants, better than chickens!

The plagues

2011 began with my usual collection of bugs in residence. There were the "no named many legged hard shelled" crawling bugs and spiders that I leave alone to help control the other bug populations.

January I began to notice my first scorpions a little larger than those of Comer Georgia, and I didn't know if they were more venomous. The spiders seemed too wrap them up like mummies so I found more dead than alive. I also noticed tiny grasshoppers in just one sector of the apartment. There always seemed to be a few, very cute, but they never seemed to grow, was it a grasshopper nursery?




Next the ants came, I could not leave a plate with a few crumbs in the sink because shortly dozens would be having a fiesta. One night I invited a few people over for dinner and games. To my embarrassment, I hadn't noticed, that the ants had invaded my apple crisp as it cooled. I banged the pie plate on the table and they came running out, it didn't stop some guests to ask for seconds!! That same night the flies invaded by the dozens. I was beginning to wonder if I was being visited by the plagues of Exodus.

At the time Joel and Lynn began to stay with me while they looked for a new residence. They were changing their mission site from Carmen Pampa to Cochabamba. Luckily Carmen Pampa is filled with bugs, so they couldn't find much difference, except when the flies began personal attacks on Joel, as he read at night.

I bought fly swatters and Doña Severina put ant poison at the front door of her apartment. My front door is on the back side of her apartment, and she has no back door. Thus my latest plagues of ants and flies were attended to.

The rainy season peaked during February, and mosquitoes took up residence in Tiqti for the duration until rainy season passed into winter (about June). For less than $5.00 I bought a beautiful lacy mosquito net and slept in peace knowing they could not get to me.

Mid February I began to have welts mostly on my arms and back, but sometimes my legs. I thought the mosquito net might help but to no avail. Fr Edwin said I probably had fleas from the dogs at the center. I thought maybe I had bed bugs, I woke up nightly scratching.

I moved to the spare bedroom with my mosquito net. I cleaned my bedding and room. My skin was improving and I decided to move back to my room. The day I completed my taxes (April 13th) I was jubilant! I attached to email and sent to Jill to print, write check and mail. I had washed my sheets in the morning and was excited to sleep on clean sheets, dried in the hot Bolivian sun and breeze. Nothing like sheets fresh from the line!!


"Many legged" is behind, hidding legs!

As I put the sheets on the bed I discovered 5 pesky vinchuca bugs clinging to the cording on the mattress bottom, fat from sucking my blood. The source of my welts confirmed. I captured them for the public health department. I went back to the spare bedroom where there were no bugs present.

Vinchucas can carry the disease Mal de Chagas, which effects many people in the Bolivian countryside. The disease weakens the heart, among other things and shortens life spans, especially when left undetected. To make a really long story short, it took five weeks to find exterminators and to schedule them to exterminate. They did come for an inspection 3 weeks before extermination.

After not one bug would stay alive in the apartment for almost 5 months! A second infiltration of ants (that had arrived two weeks before exterminators) was stopped in their tracks.

I had wanted to write a blog comparing my infestations to the plagues in Exodus. I realized I had more different ones but I still "faulted" on a few. We did have hail twice during that time, though not very damaging. I never had frogs, but then I have never seen one in Bolivia, because of location.




Cooking by Candles

Just recently I could complete some others such as darkness, when the pastor decided not to pay the electric bill for 4 months and the electricity was cut until payment was made over a week later. I felt I was back to early mission days, candles, drawing water from the "well". (My poor back) Water not just for me but for the lunch program, school program and plants.

I was visited by a new plague, mice! Which is not a good one when you don't have light! I could finally be thankful that I didn't have a first born or they might be in danger.

A special note for Dianne, Christy, Paul and my brother Jim, regarding the mice. My friend Dianne sent me a birthday card this year a copy below. A few weeks ago I brought the card to Doña Severina and her family saying I had taken a picture of the rascally mouse that is in my house. They were so amazed I got a picture of the mouse (believe me he doesn't stay still enough for his photo to be taken). They kept asking me about the helmet. Why was he wearing it? Where did he get it? and so on!! I said he was very smart and didn't want to die! By the way all our floors are cement or tile. Wood floors are rare in Bolivia, or more for upper class.

Machu Picchu

Here is the first test of the Blog. Is the above photo Machu Picchu? Most people would not recognize the shot of the mountain as Machu Picchu, but it is! The ruins of Machu Picchu are set in the saddle between the two mountains of Wayna Picchu and Machu Pichu. All the famous photos are taken from the slopes of Machu Picchu of the ruins with Wayna Picchu as the backdrop.




I made it! I can cross one thing off my ¨bucket list¨ This photo was taken earlier in the morning before the tour, after my first peek at the ruins.



One of my first detailed photos of the northeast side in the early morning sunshine.



Another early morning shot of the northeast side. There are some agricultural terraces before the drop off down the steep mountain slope.



This shows the amazing Inca masonry. Cement does not hold the stone work together, they are cut and shaped to fit perfectly together. All the stone was quarried from the top of the mountain, which is good news for the workers who came for a month or two a year, to pay their taxes through labor. There is still a major field with rocks available for expansion. (which they may need to use, as so many people have robbed rocks from this important site.)



Machu Picchu seems to be created for the ruling and comercial class, though actual facts and historical data are absent. The ornamentation and high quality of stonework point to Machu Picchu being a royal retreat or important cermonial center. People lived there for about 100 years, which looked to have been abandoned when the Spanish invaded the region. The above photo is taken of the industrial center, with the residential sector to the left fading into the distance.



My new friends from Argentina who were in my tour group. Very international group, people were from 7 different countries. My new friends asked lots of great questions, such as where did all the workers live? They atually did not live above in the ruins but further below, closer to the river, though ruins of their houses were not on the tour. Issues revolving around migrant labor are not a modern issue but ancient in existence.




These huts were located at the edge of the agricultural terraces. They have been restored as far as the thatched roofs are concerned to give a feel of what it may have been like, very few roofs in the ruins have actually been restored. (the view is looking toward southeast)




As I ended my day, I hung out on the southwestern side, many people had left and it was much quieter. Above is a detail (of the below photo) of more agricultural terraces at the edge of the community. I had never noticed before in the classical postcard shots, until a Peruvian pointed out that the mountain of Wayna Picchu looks like the profile of a head in repose. I couldn't help but notice this, it is most obvious in the photo of me and the Agentinians.

Monasterio de Santa Catalina

One of the highlights of Arequipa was the self guided tour of the Monasterio de Santa Catalina de Siena. The immensity of this historic convent was incredible. Much of the cloister was open for the public to wander around (at a significant entrance fee!) I have over 170 photo, it is quite a photogenic place, though I somehow uploaded the less colorful ones. It felt like visiting a whole separate town within the city. It seemed to go on for blocks, there are at least 6 major streets, orchards, chapels, various cloisters, common areas, individual cells, bath house, clay jar laundry and much more.



The convent was founded in 1597 and constructed of Sillar, white volcanic stone quarried locally. The first, fourth and fifth photos show the use of this stone. It is considered on of the most important and impressive colonial structures of Arequipa.



This bedroom chamber is located in the (old) novices cloister. Certainly upscale to most of my bedrooms in my life time. The original nuns that entered the cloister came from rich Spanish colonial families. They lived upscale lives within the cloister walls, each having a cell that consisted of a bedroom, sitting room (with eating area) and a kitchen. Some even had a bathroom (a room with a commode). One of the historical plaques referred to the sale of one of these "cells" from one nun to another. This rich life continued for almost three centuries, until a strict group of Dominican nuns entered and restructured the convent. I can't recall if this was the time when the indigenous nuns were allowed to enter the cloister or this happened at a later date.



All the cells had kitchens that seemed large for one person. The kitchens were darkened by wood smoke (this is not a back and white photo!) and were mostly out of doors. Later the great kitchen was created and the nuns ate communally in the refectory.



Earthquakes hit Arequipa in 1958 and 1960 (again this is not a black and white photo!), destroying parts of the convent. My inderstanding is that the second story was ruined in many places, thus exists many staircases that seem to go no where. In the above photo, this section shows the earthquake damage, an entire area was left in this condition. The new convent takes up only about 15% of the space within the cloister walls. I hope the nuns can wander the historic part when it is closed to the public.



I have spoke of the immensity, it was just a maze of one room after another and then popping back onto the street. It felt like a mini retreat, very tranquil, because few people were wandering around. It was like the spirits of the ancient nuns were still hanging around and praying. There were so many flowering plants, religious artifacts, blooming trees, the light filtering through various windows, or over walls and through gates. Some cells even had little private outside prayer areas, with small altars, crosses and plants. I felt there was so much to see, at the same time I just wanted to stay put, sit and soak in the spirit. I could see why someone would choose to enter the cloister and stay without returning to life outside the walls. A very peaceful place.