I can hardly believe yet another week has flown by since I last blogged. The time here is just zipping by SO fast! Holy Week was full of church services galore! Wednesday evening was 3 hours, Thursday evening (foot washing) was 2 hours, Good Friday....well, we didn't make it, but it was an evening mass and it lasted 3 hours. No mass on Saturday, but on Sunday, we got up at 3:30am for a 4am mass. It was outdoors, and there were about 1500 people there. It was 2 1/2 hours long, and Fr. Jack did around 40 baptisms. As mass was concluding, the sun was coming up, and it was just incredible! We were standing there waiting for the final blessing, when 9 white doves flew right over us.....awesome!!
Good Friday is their "holiday" for Easter. Almost everything in town was closed down. I found a market that was open, and bought ingredients for knoephla soup. I made 2 large kettles of it, and it disappeared almost instantly! Braeden had 7 bowls of it, and Bridger had 5!! It tasted different, of course, but was a great try---nobody complained!!
Saturday the kids were all outside playing soccer, volleyball, basketball, etc......that evening Brookston and Braeden went on a date with 2 girls to a movie. They of course had an adult chaperone, an aunt of the girls.
Sunday after mass, we of course took a nap and then Julio took us out to his family's farm. We were able to see the milk cows that they milk by hand. Braeden decided to milk his one last cow of his "career", and amazed the family with how good he was at it! Then we started exploring the fields. There were vast, lucious asparagas fields. I thought I died and went to heaven! We cut some to bring home to eat........In Peru, they don't eat asparagas.......can you believe it? They only grow it for exporting--they thought I was crazy! We cut down some sugar cane, and the kids were sucking the sugar out of the stalk. Some of the family members climbed some trees and knocked down fresh fruit for us....prickly pear, guava, and some others I can't identify.
On our way in and out of the "farm" territory, there are military guards with rifles guarding the entrance to the fields. This is to keep the "invasions"...or "squatters" from moving in and setting up homes, and also to keep the theives out.
On our way back to the city, we saw people working in the rice fields......now I've never even thought about how rice is harvested.....what a process! We stopped along the road and talked to some people who showed us how they slam the rice stalks onto a rock to get the rice off the plant....to my surprise, it looked like wheat....then they showed us that you have to take the outside "bran" off the grain of rice.....a lot of work! So in this country, where they eat rice with every meal, I would guess there's plenty of work harvesting and preparing the rice!!
Since we are in the desert, we saw how they do irrigation trenches. The water comes from the highlands of the Andes Mountains, flows into a river, and is then routed towards the fields. Pretty incredible. The fields all have trenches between their rows which allows the water to nourish the plants. On our way home, some cops stopped us on the highway. They walked up to the vehicle, and Julio handed them 2 soles.....the cop said, "Oh...Gringos!" and walked away. I was perplexed, as we had done nothing wrong. So here's the scoop.......we already knew the police are corrupt in this country, but I hadn't thought much about what that meant......apparently they just stop people and demand money, or they will write you up for something....kind of their word against yours. My response was...What the H***!!!!!! Can't trust anyone. I mean anyone.
Sunday afternoon I took Brinley and Bridger and 2 of their friends to the movie Dragon. It was in 3D, but of course they didn't have glasses for us. It was also in Spanish, but the kids followed it pretty well....they loved it! Following the movie, for a special Easter treat, we found a pizza place and gorged ourselves on pizza. We brought left-overs home for the rest of the family.
Monday was homework day, me visiting the social workers, and ice cream with Sister Peggy downtown. She had called and wanted to take the kids out for an Easter treat.......it was a nice outing. I signed up for a Spanish class at the University of San Pedro. It's a professor who teaches in Spanish, so my first class was quite taxing on my brain. Today I will do my assignments and return to class at 4pm. The class is only 2 weeks long, and costs 100 soles, or about $30.00. Katina and Bridget, two long-term volunteers at the parish are also taking the class. I'm sad that I won't get to practice much, as we will be leaving in just 2 weeks from today.
So that's pretty much all for now. Will add some pictures soon!
Until next time.......
Collette
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