Giving up being a caterpillar

I feel like there is so much to say yet so little to say. First a little business: if you are interested in calling me, feel free (I think it’s pretty cheap on Skype) but don’t leave a message if we don’t answer because we don’t know the password to our voicemail! My schedule is unpredictable, so it’s hard to know when I’ll be in the house. Second, we have a program blog for Incarnate Word Missionaries and this week my community is writing about our experience, so please visit and read! The website is


Since my last post, we have spent most of our time visiting various important places around Chimbote, including many possible service sites. I’ll share some highlights…

I got to accompany a nurse and doctor with the Hospice program (started and run by the sisters) on their home visits one morning and another morning we accompanied Marcela (community mate) on her house visits. She is currently working with a division of hospice that provides in-house care for individuals with chronic health problems, while the nurse and doctor were visiting individuals with terminal illnesses. It was a powerful experience; as much as I like to think I can handle just about anything, it would a long take time for me to be completely comfortable doing the work that Marcela and the other nurses do. Many of the people they visit have large, raw bedsores that need to be cleaned and bandaged. Many of them need to be bathed and have their toenails cleaned and trimmed. Many need help changing their incontinence briefs. To some extent, this is much more normal in Peruvian culture because of greater comfort with the human body here, but it is still very intimate work. I understand that the work of the nurses here is probably similar to that of nurses in the U.S., but many of the material and medicinal comforts available to patients in the U.S. simply don’t fit within the budget of most families here. The gentleness and respect of the nurses is certainly aiding these individuals to live and die with dignity. We also got to talk a bit with their families while they were receiving care, as most of the hospice patients live with a daughter or son. One man we visited lives alone, and I imagine that Marcela’s visits are a great comfort to him.

We also visited la Comisión de Justicia Social (Social Justice Comission), which is an office within the Diocese of Chimbote. They are involved in a variety of projects, including education and discussion surrounding the terrorism of the 80s & 90s and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations for ensuring that it never happens again. We attended a workshop with a priest here in Chimbote who is very passionate about eliminating discrimination and actively working to establish a peaceful, just society instead of passively enabling the oppressive structure of the status quo. We also attended a workshop presented by la Comisión in our parish about voting responsibly in the upcoming elections (October 3). With only my limited exposure, it seems to me that the majority of the general population is pretty indifferent toward the political system because they are so jaded by the lack of accountability. It seems that few people actually believe their representatives are going to follow through on their promises. This indifference is complicated by the fact that there is a penalty for not voting, so everybody votes despite disinterest in the outcome. So, there is a great need for voter education and empowerment.

Another possible service site is with the congregation of Sisters of the Good Shepard. They provide various ministries to women working in prostitution, including home visits and tutoring for their children, among other things. We attended a celebration there this weekend to celebrate the life of one of their sisters who was killed by the Shining Path while working in the mountains. It was a great opportunity to meet many women and children and begin to build relationships.

Other opportunities are within the parish, and I am very excited about them. We met Frey Tino, a Franciscan brother in our parish who is involved in la Comisión and also teaches Confirmation classes. We also met Padre Miguel, a Franciscan priest from Germany who runs a program for children who work in the streets. They have a home for children a few minutes outside Chimbote and we will be visiting that ministry on Monday. There are also opportunities to get involved in catechesis for First Communion or for the youth between First Communion and Confirmation, in the youth theater program, in the choirs, etc. On Tuesday we will visit CECOPROS, a communications office within the Diocese, and sometime this week we will visit la Casa de la Mujer (Women’s House) to learn about their ministries.

Besides visiting the various sites, we also spend a lot of time in our community house. I have three community mates: Marcela, who is in her thirties and is beginning her second year as an IWM; Kelli, another new IWM fresh out of undergrad; and Catalina, a volunteer from Catholic Medical Mission Board who recently finished nursing school. We are slowly but surely becoming more comfortable with each other and establishing the foundations of our community.

I’ve also been spending a lot of time in prayer and meditation, hoping to continue to strengthen this throughout my two years here. A joy of this ministry is that we build our own schedule, so we are strongly encouraged the set aside times for personal prayer and reflection in addition to our service sites and community time. This has been invaluable for me! As I have written before, embracing this life is still challenging even though I know it is what I want. There have been moments when I just wonder why I didn’t stay in the U.S., live near the amazing friends that I already have, and work with some of the numerous individuals who are oppressed and marginalized in the U.S. Somehow facing the challenges in the U.S. was so much easier and more comfortable with my support group only a text message or short walk away. I know, though, that the growth and change that comes from stepping beyond that circle of comfort is unimaginable and necessary. I was reminded by a book given to me by a very wise friend, Hope for the Flowers, that in order to reach your true purpose and potential, “you must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.” I must understand that while what I had was already good, there is something deeper, some new understanding of God’s love in the world, that awaits me. I have already seen many signs of God’s love through the people here, and I can’t wait to continue to learn and allow that love to flow through me in new, exciting, and sometimes scary ways!

droplets of learning, observations and activities

I´m sorry I have no pictures with me today but I will post some soon so you can see my new home!  Here´s a few tidbits to give you an update...

-The trip from Lima to Chimbote was loooong.  A large portion of the highway is getting redone so we were in a charter bus on a dirt road weaving through huge sand dunes, at times beautiful and at times seeming so desolate.  The rest of the trip was a highway with the coast on one side and sand dunes on the other, and there were small smatterings of tiny homes interspersed with huge haciendas (farms) of corn, hogs, strawberries, etc.  I saw a couple fields being tilled by a single farmer pushing a plow and lots of little fruits being hand-picked.  There were also a lot of hog confinements right along the ocean, and I wonder if the waste is going directly into the water, but I don´t know.

-Chimbote and the house are wonderful!  Our house is HUGE, and I am settling nicely into my room.  I have a very large window that overlooks the street, and this morning I spent several hours cleaning a thick layer of dust of the window and scrubbing the drapes!  We wash everything by hand, so it was quite the process, but I love being out on our rooftop washing and hanging clothes.  It was a very good time to be alone with my thoughts and the sounds of our neighborhood. 

-Most vehicles on the streets are modes of public transportation of a few variations as it is one of the biggest employers in the city, after fishing, of course.  We did go down to the ocean and try Chimbote´s famous ceviche, a raw fish dish with garlic and lime and some other garnishes.
-Kelli and I made our first friends!  Jefferson, 10, and Nayeli, 9, caught us leaving the house today and we have a playdate scheduled for tomorrow afternoon :)

-Marcela (third community mate) is attempting to teach us how to get everywhere.  She is a wonderful guide, but only the busiest streets have signs and the smallest don´t even have names, so it will take a little time.  I think I´ve got the ones directly nearest our house down, and I can find my way to the church (San Francisco/Saint Francis.. that´s our parish, but there are many others in the city that we will hopefully visit in time) and the sisters' house. 

-We went to Mass last night and it was great.  The music was really good, and there were a lot of people there for Mass and even for adoration beforehand... on a week night!  Of course the gospel reading was the infamous, "The poor you will always have with you."  Bleh!  Well then, I guess I will always be with them!  It´s a good reading though, lots of room for interpretation ;)

-My goal right now is to soak up, observe, ask questions, meet people, be open.  I am working to avoid judgments, conclusions, opinions, preferences.  In the next weeks, I hope to establish habits of active days, times for prayer and reflection, earlyish nights and early mornings.  We have yet to visit many of the ministries that are available to volunteer with, and we will likely start doing so next week, but the idea is to take is slow.  We want to become familiar with the community and have time to discern the options before commiting to a set schedule with certain sites. 

-Chimbote is a city.  I´m sure our neighborhood and the church community will get smaller once we get to know more people, but right now it´s a little intimidating.  There is very little structure, and at times I am tempted to feel entitled to a grand welcome or something.  It is far different from entering into a small community like Majagual, where everybody knows you are there.  I have found this to be just a little difficult but only for short moments... then I give myself a reality check.  I am in Chimbote, Peru! This is finally my life! Praise God.  Smile.  Enjoy.  Be.

I hope you feel as blessed as I do.  Peace and smiles to you.

learning to dance to the beat of the Peruvian drum

Well I've now completed by second complete day in Peru, both of them spent in Lima.  It is a fascinating city, a disturbing combination of neatly-trimmed and manicured parks and half-finished cement block homes tightly lining most of the streets.  Areas of the city are very attractive, and we enjoyed a nice walk along the ocean and through some nice parks where there are bike paths, young professionals walking their dogs, and diversity.  We attracted very little attention in that part of town.



 People tell me one of Peru's trademarks is its food, and I find that to be true so far!  We've had a couple of traditional Peruvian dishes... pollo a la braza (which is basically fried chicken with french fries), aji de gallina (a delicious chicken sauce eaten over potatoes with a boiled egg and olives), and mazamorra morada with arroz con leche (a sweet purple corn and fruit sauce served with a rice pudding-type thing).  I'm loving it, but perhaps my hips aren't!  Ha ha.

We have also been getting to know some of the sisters -- Rosaleen, Pilar, Adriana (a novice), Juanita, and others.  They seem to be a very vibrant, committed community with a deep, rich history with the people of Peru.  I hope to learn much more from them as time progresses!

There are many sites around Lima worth seeing... churches, parks, museums, but I think one of my favorite activities so far was visiting the community of sisters in Lurigancho, a district in east Lima.  First of all, it was a wonderful celebration of Rosaleen's birthday, and I really enjoyed spending the afternoon with their community.  It was a perhaps profound moment, though, when Adriana was giving us a tour of the house and took us out on their balcony and then up to a higher roof, where we could see the whole neighborhood.  I can't describe it, but you can see the picture (and there's a couple more on facebook).  The reality in which this community of sisters is submerged cannot be forgotten from this vantage point.

As we were walking to catch a bus to go home from the party, we stopped at a monument there and Rosaleen told us a story.  I don't want to shortchange the immensity of the event by describing it briefly here, so please forgive me for not giving it due detail and emotion, but I think it offers a very slight taste of Peru's historical reality and the presence of the sister's and other members of the Church within that reality. Seven people were killed in that place by the police in 1989.  One of them was an Incarnate Word sister, the rest were inmates from the prison who escaped in protest of poor living conditions. They took the whole ministry team hostage, and the police opened fire on them (knowing they were unarmed).  The sister was the first one shot and killed, and after that they men from the prison put their other hostages on the ground and covered them with their own bodies to protect them; no other hostages were killed. Six of the nine men from the prison were killed.  Even after a life hardened by who-knows-what kind of upbringing and life in one of the most notorious prisons in the world, these men had the compassion to protect their hostages.  I have yet to reflect more fully on that event.

We have one more day in Lima tomorrow, when we will visit a couple of museums, including a museum of national history, which I am very excited for.  Then Wednesday we will head to Chimbote!  I may add a brief update on tomorrow's happenings but if not my next post will be from my new home six hours up the coast!

Peace and unrest to you.

At last...

Well, I am now in Lima, Peru!  Our flights yesterday went very well; we had a close call in Mexico City because we didn't realize we had to leave through immigration and customs and reenter through security again but luckily we got to our gate as they were boarding.  The flight down was long but without problems.  Sadly it was dark so we could not see the ocean as we flew over and landed in Lima, but as we were coming in I could see very tiny lights from boats below that were basically indistinguishable from the stars.  It was very cool. 

Today we are off to see all the sights of Lima!  More soon.

Peace and laughter to you.

a plan unfolds

I am excited to share with you all that our visas are ready to be picked up in Houston and we've purchased our tickets to Lima.  I'll be flying out of San Antonio next Friday, Sept. 10.  It's a little hard to believe that after all of our waiting and (attempted) patience our missionary venture to Peru is becoming a reality!  I am ready to dive head-first into the radical change and challenge that awaits.

"See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving.
For in truth it is life that gives unto life - while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness."
-from "Giving," in The Prophet, by Gibran Khalil Gibran ... read the entire poem here