Chronicles of Farmia: A Wider View of Chimbote

Today (Sunday), a day of rest (as well it should be! Many people are shocked that anyone would not make it a day of Sabbath... something US culture unfortunately doesn't get), began with another Apex juggling presentation after morning Mass. Very shortly after our show, while everyone was in the courtyard, Jack went back to our dormitory to get something, and was bitten by one of the dogs the kitchen staff keeps here! Completely out of the blue. That wasn't a great way to start the day and needless to say Fr. Jack and his staff were very upset by the situation. In the end, Jack the Adventurer was OK... a small wound, some torn pants, and a bruise.

Then it was off to the nearby mountain, where a gigantic cross overlooks the entire city. (Pictures soon to be uploaded... Keep checking!) The ride up in a packed mini-bus was even more intense than drive to the top of Mt. Evans outside Denver. Sheer drop-offs from a single lane gravel road with no guardrails. It proved to be a bit much for Joia, so we tried walking the rest of the way to a chapel beneath the cross and a beautiful panoramic view of Chimbote. (Again, pictures to follow shortly!) Even the walk was intense (no trees, no vegetation, no shade, gravel roads in a stone mountain), and Gene escorted Joia down the hill. Jack and I continued the climb to the top on foot (evidently his dog bite wasn't a problem). The view was worth it...

The cross had been the project of over 27,000 youth over several weeks. Fr. Jack told us of how Saturday after Saturday... even before the road was widened to what it is now (still only one lane today... it must have been just a foot path)... 1,000 people lined the way to the top creating an assembly line. In buckets the size of tin paint buckets, they would pass a bucket of sand, a bucket of gravel, a bucket of water, and a bucket of cement until they had made this huge cross that can be seen from anywhere in town. They used to have massive processions (20,000 people as recently as 3 years ago) to pray the Stations of the Cross every Good Friday where the people would walk all the way to the top, stopping along the way remembering the events of Christ's Passion and praying!

After the sketchy descent, Fr. Jack again joined us, taking us past the dump the the cemetery for the poor. The place is sand and the tombs are on right on top of one another. Each grave is marked by a simple wooden cross, except for the very few families that may have gotten some more money along the way and could dress it up a bit. It mostly looks like a huge sandy desert of makeshift wooden crosses.

We drove through the neighborhood bordering this part of town, and Fr Jack pointed out that anywhere else in the world that location would be prime real-estate. There was a breath-taking view of the bay and the ocean... islands in the distance... but even more breath-taking, and the reason it's the hill by the dump and poor cemetery, was the toxic orange cloud floating over from the iron factory. We then passed what appeared to be an ancient temple or adobe building of some sort in the side of the hill. Again... "Any other part of the world, this would be a MAJOR tourist attraction... That structure is pre-Inca! Hopefully some day it will be restored and its story will be told as it should, but for now many of the adobe bricks have been taken to build the houses here."

We saw a bit more of the city today, and I don't mean just from the mountain top. Not everyone in Chimbote is poor (we are just here to serve the poorest of the poor, and that's been our perspective so far). Fr. Jack pointed out where there is a house as big as any you would find in Denver... it just happens to be owned by the local drug-lord. They have a big, beautiful cathedral (built by the Italians), clubs, shops, markets... Some people seem to be fairly well off... but there is a HUGE seperation between the haves and have-nots. Very few feel any sense of solidarity. There happens to be a circus in town, a stretch down the road from the Church with tigers, jugglers, tight-rope walkers... the flyers said it was Barney and Friends (yes, the purple dinosaur)! I sure every upper and middle class home has a television. Even many of the poor have gotten their hands on a really old black and white TV (sometimes requiring a spoon to change channels). In one home we visited earlier in the trip I heard familiar cartoon sounds. When I looked at the TV, it was SpongeBob Squarepants in Spanish. Do you think the writers and creators of that show have any idea of the reach of their influence?

We went to a fantastic park for lunch. This place was called "The Lungs of Chimbote." It had a nice restaurant, more vegetation than we've seen since arriving in Peru (big trees, grass, shrubs... the works), an ampitheater, rides and games for kids, penguins, monkeys, and I'm sure much more. We stopped at a market on the bay on our way back to peruse the local crafts and support the local economy. The day ended back at Our Lady of Perpetual Help with rest, great conversation, and Mass.