After the tour, we piled into pick-up trucks and vans and drove to the villages around Piura (pictures to follow). There are much less materialistic tendencies here. Homes are literally constructed out of materials that they can find lying around (bamboo, plywood, tin, cardboard); the irony of it all is that the people here are so much happier. There is no competition for the newest electronics, clothes, or cars; people are content with their life and their meager possessions. It is a lesson that I hope to take with me for the rest of my life.
Traveling on we made it to the hospice center (which Padre Joe built – a running theme as you will come to see). While some of the clients are there for hospice care and will pass away in the coming weeks, some are also there for palliative care because they do not have any family or they need continuous support (ie: fibromyalgia). The layout of the center was very similar to that of the nursing home with the chapel at the center. We met the self-proclaimed “king of the hospice” who was the first patient admitted (four years later). The bittersweet story behind the founding of the hospice was that a man at Sacramento Santisimo’s sister parish in the US was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and he dedicated the remainder of his life to raising funds for a hospice center in Piura for people in similar situations.
Next to the hospice center a new school has been erected. It costs students 70 nuevos sols (Peruvian currency) to attend per month as opposed to 300 at other schools.
Our final stop before lunch was at Vida Nueva, the men’s drug rehab facility. Currently there are 12 men participating in the program having been in it for anywhere from a month to 1.5 years. The program is voluntary and the men can leave if they so choose; it is also based on the twelve-step program. The first three months are dedicated to detoxing; the next nine months are focused on psycho-social therapy; and the next year focuses on reintegrating into society and developing job skills.
After lunch and a siesta, we went to Madre de la Redentor, the girls’ school. This by far, has been the highlight of my two-day trip. The school is dedicated to girls from the country and rainforest who are getting out of potentially dangerous situations (ie: domestic violence). At the school they are taught trades along with classes, so that they will be able to support themselves once they become adults. The girls LOVE having visitors and the second the van doors opened, they were clinging to every limb of our bodies. My two new buddies are Layla and Nora both 14 and best friends (pictures to follow). As a group we danced and sang to Shakira, Justin Bieber, and the Macarena. The girls also performed traditional Peruvian dances for us. It was an incredible afternoon.
Now, more on the election: today was voting day. Everyone over 18 is required to vote and they do so by inking their finger (this ensures that there are no double voters). What our sources here at the parish told us was that neither of the candidates is ideal. People seemed to vote against the person that they didn’t want in office as opposed to voting for the person whose platform they believed in. Keiko (the former president’s daughter) lost by a small margin of votes; this means that Ollanta won. People were concerned that if Keiko was elected she would pardon her father, however, Ollanta is referred to as a “Chavez sympathizer,” which concerns residents because of his militaristic and dictatorship tendencies. As Padre Joe said tonight at mass, “No matter who is elected, pray that they do good for the Republic of Peru.”
The clinical portion of our trip starts tomorrow (unfortunately), so we will be beginning our actual schoolwork and tourist-time will be put to the wayside. Given this, the blogs may or may not become less frequent depending on my energy and homework level… Love to you all.
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