Vacation 2011

Here I am with one of the many new friends I met on vacation. Luckily this is the only one who wanted to kiss me! I saw many llamas, vicuñas, and guanacos all throughout my trip.Some were at tourist locations, but the majority were in the countryside as I passed in buses. Vicuñas and guanacos are wild animals taht roam around like deer. Most llamas were in groups being shepherded around by campesinos.



I have dozens of flower photos, this one was taken near the Butterfly House, just outside Agua Calientes. The Butterfly House is an interesting environmental project, they only capture and release butterflies of the same altitude.

The below photo was taken during a tour of Arequipa. I can't remember if it is actually a mountain or a volcano!

Fall looks like Spring after the Rainy Season

Yesterday was the first day of Spring in Bolivia. It is also El Dia del Estudiante, El Dia del Amor & de la Amistad. A sort of Spring, Valentine's Day, Friendship and Students Day all rolled into one. I think Bolivia has more specialty days than even the US, even with all our greeting card days. Some like friendship day seem to come around more often than once a year! (It is always good to celebrate your friends.. Hi Jan!)





After our reflection and prayer time last night, our mission group decided to head out for pizza. A treat we had been hoping for for weeks, a treat because it is not a cheap food item unlike the 4 cent oranges I bought this week! With the list of celebration days above, we slowly realized the error of of ways, checking out 4 different pizzerias with hour waits. We will wait until our next reflection to indulge.

So as all of you head into fall with cooling days, rain, leaves changing color and falling, pumpkins, cider and the rest (yes I grew up in the northeast), you can imagine us heading into Spring. Yet most of your images would be off for a Bolivian Spring.




First of all there is no rain, no crocus pushing up from the last melting snows. No wild bursting rushes of flowers or flowering vines. During these previous months of winter, people have been cutting back their still flowering trees, bushes and vines. But without August and September showers there simply are no flowers.

We just keep getting increasing heat until Advent time or until the showers begin and with it a coolness that does not become Summer, especially knowing I am so close to the equator. The rain brings to the dirt caked landscape mud. Slowly without being aware, because you are looking at your feet to avoid the mud, or to prevent tracking mud indoors, a spring comes.





The brown landsacpe has turned green and wildflowers and plants bloom and you look at your calendar and it is actually March! Strangely the Spring sensation lines up more with the traditional Spring of the Northern Hemisphere. All the pictures in this blog posting are from March of 2011. I left the original title, I just never had time to write a post at the time, and as Spring just started I thought they were more appropriate to this date.

I am interested in the celebration of Spring here, I guess it is the Spring equinox really. Very little of my northern image of Spring lines up. Certainly the days are warmer as well as the nights. Rainy season use to begin here in November, and thus the planting began in the countryside. The rainy season has pushed it's start into December, January and even as late as February some years, making it difficult for the planters to seed their fields.




Environmental change, global warming, and even El Niño/a have been sited as possible causes for this change. I hear this year the rains will begin earlier according to the old people who read the signs of nature (or should I say back to normal rhythm). I am interested to see if they will predict correctly. Interestingly in the last week we had sprinkles and many cloudy days, which for me is a great relief to the intense sun at over 8,500 ft.




Another seasonal difference is that we also have a windy season which had just extended itself from August into September this year. The wind usually comes more frquently in the afternoon with a strength to blow your clothes off the drying lines. As it is also still dry it feels more like dust storms, which blow sand and dirt right into the houses through all the cracks of poor construction and non existent door thresholds. Another reason to get your clothes in as soon as the dry, which is pretty fast here in Cochabamba.



I usually write my entries at home and type up at internet, I did so yesterday. Last night it snowed in the mountains, and was still snowing as I made my way into the city. I reflected that so many people here have seen snow in the distance and right now can even see it snowing, but they rarely get a chance to touch it or walk in it, as you would really need to make a mountain trek to it at 13,000ft and on up. This snow will certainly help any Spring planting (snowmelt), maybe the predictions are already starting to happen. Today we feel the cold of the snow, in the past I could even smell it blow down from the mountains.

Reunion in Bolivia

In the fall of 1999, I entered orientation with the Franciscan Mission Service in Silver Spring MD. We were the 14th or 15th Orientation Group. We were a class of 6 and 1/2 as we called Annamaria, who was 3 months old when she came for orientation. Pictured above is the reunion of 4 and 1/2 though, that half is obviously full grown now! (from left to right, myself, Diego, Annamaria, Lorena and Peggy)

Five of the six were missioned to Bolivia. The sixth, Tom, worked in El Salvador then in Colombia. Both Peggy and Debbie committed to a second 3 year term after completing their first three years. Lorraine (aka Lorena) was already in her second term when we met in orientation. I returned in 2010 for a second term. I was the only one of my group not to complete my original 3 year comissioning due to serious health problems.

Peggy returned to Bolivia independently this year, and is working with Franciscans International here in Cochabamba, the offices are located on the corner of the same block, in the Franciscan Peace and Justice Center.




As you can see we literally renuited right on the steps of San Francisco (The Church of Saint Francis). It would have been great if Tom and Debbie could have made it too!! Hopefully we can all reunite at the next FMS returned missioner retreat that takes place about every three years in the US. I often think of Tim and Cecilia who I was in mission with briefly toward the end of my time in Bolivia, and who hosted me for a later visit after my recuperation. They are in mission again with FMS, but this time in South Africa, they inspire me with their blog and email newsletters.




The man behind the first two photos is pictured in the third, Fr. Ignacio OFM. Brother Iggy as we know him is a major support for all the FMS missioners spanning 3 decades!! (90s, 00s, & teens!) Iggy knew Lorena before she met and married Diego in the 1990s. He has been working and living in Bolivia for over 30 years. My first time in Bolivia, Br. Iggy was living in La Paz, but he always made time to check on those of us who were in Cochabamba. He has also organized various retreats for FMS lay missioners over the years. He also likes to connect people together, from various walks of life. I had the privilege of meeting his two sisters when they came for a visit.

I Am In Bolivia

I know I am in Bolivia

When I see a truck fly by with wooden sides & 30-40 heads sticking up over the cargo area.

When I see people throw trash out the bus windows.
When a vendor doesn't have change for a small bill.
When no one gives up their seat on the bus to the old lady who just boarded the bus.
When I see a dog taking itself for a walk.
When I peek in an open doorway on a dirty desolate street and I see an oasis inside.
When I arrive at the International Airport and my 1/2 hr flight to Cochabamba gets canceled and there isn't another flight for 12 hours.
When it costs more to make a local call then to call the US.
When friends get robbed or assalted going to or leaving church.
When someone cuts in front of of a long line of people waiting.




When I see incredibly majestic mountains almost surrounding me in the distance and yet close up is severe poverty and dirty streets.

When I had parasites in my stomach.
When you just need to pick up something simple and it takes hours (and many walking miles) to locate.
When there are blockades on the road preventing you from going to work.
When there are strikes.
When you must say good afternoon and not just hi!
When you can buy a banana for 2 cents, a red bell pepper for 5 cents, and a pound of tomatoes for 8 cents (note in season!!)






When the exterminators come on motorcycles. (see above)
When a motor cycle passes with a family of 5 without helmets, and carrying shopping bags.
When children's education seems to be memorization and poorly done.
Yet the same children learn a higher level of practical items above their US counter parts.
When it snows in the Bolivian summertime.
When 30% of the people you know have lice.
When 35% of the children you know are malnourished.
When 90% of the children have parasites.
When you can still see children playing with marbles and wooden tops with strings. (see below)

An Eye on the Neighborhood

I like to keep my eye on the neighborhood or maybe I should say the properties that surrounds the Center here at Tiqti Sud, since currently there are no neighbors.



I keep my eye on the cacti up the hill, where the sun currently rises. Are the people picking prickly pears called "tuna" here, or are the children playing war games, where they take machetes to the cacti? Are the women harvesting bugs from the cacti to make homemade lipstick? What are the goats eating today, will any dogs be attacking them? Will the walking ice cream vendor pass on the road above the cacti or will he come down the path that switchbacks through the cacti?



To the west is a company (see photo above) that wholesales building supplies, but looks nothing like Lowes or Home Depot. A team of 4 -12 men (see photo below) bend rebar in half and stack it in another place. Two men hold one end, and two or three others run the other half around until the two ends meet. Then one or two guys walk the bent piece to the new pile. The guy at the tip has to do a lot more running than the others! I woke to this sound early one morning about 2 or 3 AM, when I first moved to Tiqti and I was worried that someone was robbing the company. It took me twenty minutes because of the dark to figure out they were just working. I since found out that the men like to work this night shift so that they are not out in the strong sunlight all day. I really don't check out this direction much, only when I hang out my clothes to dry.





To the south or down the hill (see photo below), nothing much goes on. I just found out they will be putting a road along this southern wall as the neighborhood becomes more developed. The Center's upper patio does give a good view down to the 4 lane highway below, where I can look out to see if there is a strike or blockade affecting the flow of traffic.




To the east or what I think of as the east because I first saw the sun rise from this direction, are many property lots (see photo below). The closest ones to the Center have been sold, and bulldozing has changed so much of the topography, that a surveyor has had to come in yet again to remark the property lines. I met the surveyor because the dogs were barking (rural doorbells!!) and the man seemed suspicious, closely passing our northern and eastern walls, so I went out to talk to him. He explained to me that the various owners were fighting over the boundary markers, because of all the bulldozing.







I met the woman whose lot has become the garbage dump of the neighborhood. I can't understand why, as the garbage pick up comes each Wednesday and Saturday morning. Two men arrive with a 3' X 6' metal basket framed cart, they start up hill and let gravity bring the load to the highway, what happens from there I don't know!! The first time I saw them the skinny guy was in front acting as a human break! The garbage was piled over 6' in the air!

I met another woman and her family when they came to visit their lot, which is located next to the "garbage lot". Her property has three exterior walls which after the rains, transformed it in to a bit of a swimming pool, with trees in the middle. She dug a ditch along the street to detour future waters from her property. A few weeks later a road grader came through and changed up a bit of her work.

There is a nice guy that is building one lot over from our southeast corner. He first built the property walls, and then built 3 or 4 rooms on the northern wall. He just painted the "front wall" ( the one that will face the street) a mauvy plum color. It really spruces up the construction zone (the two properties below his were begun a month or so after he started.) Work has begun on another lot this week (see photo below).





I met the family that brought the three lots up hill from this man. Recently I noticed someone setting fire to these edge of this property. I went to check it out because burning trash is so toxic here because of all the plastic that gets burnt. It ended up being the father of the 3 siblings that brought the 3 lots, he came to burn some grass and weeds.

I learned from him that no one should take a nap under the Molle Tree, especially a child because the devil will enter their souls. There are quite a few of these trees on his children's lots. He also informed me, strangely enough, that you could take the branches of this tree (with leaves attached) and boil them, and add another ingredient and after it cools you coat your legs with it and you will be cured of a certain (I forget what) infirmity. I guess I should have taken notes.

Other things I have "learned" in Bolivia is that if you rub a child's kneecaps they will learn to walk more quickly. If a child doesn't master walking fast enough you can bathe their legs in cow's urine and that will cure whatever ails them! If a child is sick it is because something scared them (which I figure could be true sometimes but not all of the time), not because they sat next to a sick child at school.

So there's a quick view of the neighborhood, and my eyes taking everything in.

Church Interiors Photo Essay

 

Side altar

I just wanted to share some pictures of church interiors that I have taken over time. Only the one in Tiqti has the modern look (see previous blog entry for photo). I need to take one of the San Carlos Church as it mixes old with new.

 

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Church at Plaza Principal Tarata

 

Detail of the altar above.

 

The Church at the Franciscan Retreat Center at La Angostura

This was said to be a replica of the church in Copacabana, that I wasn't allowed to photgraph. I believe just the statue of the virgin is the replica because, the church was far more impressive.

Somos Una Familia Parroquial Unida En Mision

 

(Above)Inside of Tiqti Chapel

The title to this post translates roughly to: We are a Parish Family United in Mission. It is a phrase we use to describe my parish, San Carlos, here in Bolivia. Last year we were focused on the idea that we are all on mission. I may have shared this in an earlier post, or email newsletter, or just in individual letters.

This theme was more deeply focused and examined on an all day retreat that about 100 people from my parish participated in last year in May. We traveled to the Franciscan Retreat Center in Tarata, which is about an hour away. We participated in workshops that put us together in mixed groups from the parish. Our final workshop we joined with people who have similar work, and prepared statements on what we were willing to commit to for the next year.

 

Lintel of Doorway into Retreat Center

A week or so later we had a special mass we were all pledged to work as missioners in the parish. I wrote at the time of the irony that I felt to have traveled all this way to be a missioner and yet everyone in my parish was now missioners!

The third Sunday of Lent this year, culminated the year of focus on mission. All the churches in the diocese were invited to the International Fair Grounds in Cochabamba for a "Fiesta of Fraternidad". All the churches were to suspend their masses for the day and everyone was invited to mass at the fairgrounds. I would guess that there are over 500,000 Catholics in the Cochabamba area. They planned for 7,000 people to come and over 10,000 were in attendance. Crowd wise I felt it was far larger than SOA protests!

We were invited to spend the whole day celebrating and creating community. It was a bit like a Clearwater Revival (without famous artists!) There were areas for folk dance performances, theatre performances, concerts, kids play areas, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and more. Each church staked out an area to gather their people, some just to eat lunch, others their personal celebrations, dances and music. There was even a mariachi band that played one song, of the Mexican Folk Dances I learned to dance to out in Colorado!

There were various contemporary catholic rock bands and it was great to see so many folks dancing about and singing to the songs. It amazed me to see so many different groups of nuns; I believe a majority of who were in their habits.

Archbishop Tito was the main celebrant at the mass, there was a representative from the Vatican present. Padre Honny from my days in Sacaba was on the main altar too! There were dozens of other priests concelebrating the mass. It was the quietest Bolivia mass I ever went to. You could hear children [playing in the distance, and the birds twittering in the trees.

Archbishop Tito besides giving a sermon related to the Sunday readings, which focused on thirst of all types and incarnation of Christ, made connections to the theme he wishes we would work towards in the coming year(s). He challenged us within our parishes to create various groups that would create space for fraternity, and within those brother/sisterhoods to be communion or body of Christ to each other. We are to move into the 1st phase of the pastoral plan that orients our road to permanent mission of our parishes.

During the mass a group of people "brought symbols of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit" forward. I was waiting for the first symbol, when someone raised up a styrofoam cut out of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. Then seven people released seven white doves. They flew round, split into groups, and one group of about 4 doves returned to the rooftop of a tent near the altar, guess they didn't want to miss the rest of the mass!

All in all I think it was a great day that should be repeated at least once a year. Positive notes, absence of commercialism, alcoholic beverages, and usual Bolivian trash (the young folks were picking up what was dropped.) People really seemed to enjoy themselves and there wasn't time to see everything!