Holy Week and the choir

Just after I wrote my frustrated rant about not being part of this community, things began to change in that respect. Since I have never been one to walk up to random people on the street and make friends with them, I started asking all the sisters for ideas on how to meet people. We agreed that the church choir would be a good option. Then, a few days afterwards, Sister Denise brought us to visit a friend of hers, Elisabeth, who teaches at our school. We spent a lovely two hours at Elisabeth's house with her, her husband, her father, and her one-year-old baby. Peruvians are all extremely warm, gracious hosts; Elisabeth served us Coke and crackers and we talked about the school, Peru, the US, travel, etc. They were such a cheerful family and they invited us back any time. It was nice just to feel invited somewhere! Also, I found out that at least the older and more "finished" houses around here do have running water, electricity, a TV (but no air conditioning or heat, like most of the country).

The same week, I finally got connected with the church choir. Catherine and I had planned to go to Ica for Holy Thursday and Good Friday, but the friend who was going to be our ride called two days beforehand to cancel, and so we were left disappointed. Catherine took another trip back to visit Tony's house in Chaclacayo for a day and a half, but I stayed around because I wanted to see how Holy Week is celebrated here in Delicias... and it turned out to be a great thing that I hadn't left. On Good Friday there was a Via Crucis ceremony in which the fourteen Stations of the Cross were represented by fourteen people in the neighborhood who are ill. The procession left the church and walked around singing to all of the fourteen houses, and at each one there was a prayer and a song with the sick person and their family coming to the door of the house. It was really touching to visit these people, mostly elderly women, and to see the face of God reflected in them and their suffering. It was also a three-hour-long opportunity for me to meet the leaders of the choir. I asked if I could join, and the next day I found myself in rehearsal for the Easter Sunday Mass. It was the most fun I have ever had in a choir that can't sing in tune to save their lives! (The director is talented, and did a beautiful solo song with his guitar for the meditation at Easter, but the group as a whole has major issues. If you think this is just my musical elitism talking, Catherine will tell you how painful it can be in Mass sometimes.) Everybody was really warm and welcoming, asking me where I was from, what I was doing there, etc, and inviting me to sing with them at the Wednesday and Sunday Masses. I was thrilled to have another thing to do, plus a way to meet people and use my interest in music. Teresa had told me earlier that I could be of help to the choir, and I was a little hesitant to go in and try to teach them things "my way," but I never understood what a gift I can bring to them just by singing and playing in tune. I'm planning to teach them one of my favorite church songs that I've found a Spanish translation to in the sisters' song book.

The Easter celebration here was one of the coolest things I have seen yet. It combines a nighttime vigil with a Sunday morning Mass. We started at four o'clock in the morning on the big soccer field across the street from our house. The priests and the altar were in the middle of the field, and the people stood all around on the concrete stadium steps, each person with a candle. There was a huge bonfire, out of which the priest lit the Easter candle, and the youth group did a great dance around it to Andean pipe and guitar music; somebody had made a very precarious-looking tower out of sticks and mounted fireworks on it, which went off one after the other in white spirals that spun and then went out and little rockets that didn't go very high--the technology was "más o menos," like that of the microphone and amplification system, but the people loved it. From the Easter candle, the priest passed the light to the people, and in the dark as we waited for the Resurrection and the sunrise, the whole stadium was lit up with little hopeful golden candles. By the time the Mass ended, the sun was up and it was Easter morning! Afterwards, the other house of sisters came over to our place, and Catherine and I cooked everyone an American pancake breakfast... the only bad part was that we were too full later when we went over to their house for a Peruvian lunch of ceviche, chicken and rice, and fruit salad. It was a great day and a great weekend.