None of us in the house have had any visitors all year with exception to visits by past missionaries. These last two months we have been making up for it. The first week of June, Emily’s brother came followed by my friend Ray at the end of June and now at the end of July we are finishing with a visit by Kelli’s sister and cousin.
In my two years of service, Ray is my first visitor from the U.S. to brave the rural conditions and come to Chimbote! I asked him to write a guest blog. At this point in my stay, I thought a fresh pair of eyes would give you some insights that I might otherwise over-look. Ray came during the Feast of San Pedro. He writes about his experiences below.
FEAST DAY OF ST PEDRITO IN CHIMBOTE by Ray Depta
During the month of June I visited the Missionaries of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word in Chimbote Peru. Chimbote is a good seven-hour bus ride North of Lima in the desert that is the Western coast of Peru. Sister Juanita informed me that this region is the wealthiest in natural resources in Peru, but the locals see little of the wealth. There lies the justice at issue in Peru. Never the less, I was blessed to see the good work done by the volunteers and by the sisters. The volunteer’s work with the youth in the parish, teaching them to read and write as well as sing in the Church choir and recreate playing volleyball. Also, there is a hospital for terminally ill cancer patients and the volunteers visit the homes of the sick and elderly who are in hospice. Despite the poverty and suffering, there is a sense of acceptance to the people. However, they also know how to enjoy life and celebrate.
I was blessed to be in Chimbote during the feast of St Pedrito (An affectionate name for St Peter) the patron Saint of Fishermen. In all my years in the USA, feast days have been celebrated most by an announcement at the beginning of mass. Perhaps, St Patrick’s Day is an exception in the New York area. What I witnessed in Chimbote revitalized my enthusiasm as a Catholic and taught me the true meaning of a Catholic feast day.
The celebration began a week before I arrived with a mass at the Cathedral. A novena was begun. On the eve of the feast day people came from all around the surrounding region to celebrate and sell their wares. As we strolled through the city park, a carnival was occurring on the Peruvian scale of the great Texas State Fair. Carnival rides, food and craft booths, music from a live stage filled the park. In the main square in the center of Chimbote that evening, the streets were packed with people as fireworks and live music went on until 3:00 in the morning. The Peruvian Idol contest winners, a rock and roll band with an 80’s flair started off the proceedings and later two well-known salsa bands, one imported from Puerto Rico entertained the masses.
Early the next morning, thousands of Chimboteans went to the waterside in hopes of getting on a commercial fishing boat. The peasants used small rowboats to make their way to the larger vessels. I was one of the lucky ones who were invited to be on a private commercial ship. We headed out to the middle of the harbor to meet with almost two-dozen other ships all loaded with hundreds of citizens. A brass band played Peruvian music throughout the three-hour journey and a man shot off an endless supply of bottle rockets to add to the celebration. The other boats had bands as well as at times they all played in unison or added to the cacophony of sound. Out in the harbor, the Bishop of Chimbote and a figure of St Peter that had been dressed up in a royal cloak and processed from the Cathedral to the water now boarded our ship and went to the front of the boat. At this time, our ship led all the ships as our armada headed out to sea to the fishing areas in the ocean. Out there, all the boats came to rest and the Bishop led a Benediction over the fishing waters. How fitting I thought that we celebrate this feast day in this way. I was reminded that not only is St Peter the Patron Saint of Fishermen, but that we as Catholics are all called to be Fishers of Men.
We eventually headed back to the harbor where the Bishop and the Figure of St Peter disembarked back to the original ship and headed back to the mainland. St Peter was processed back to the Cathedral in a miniature fishing boat carried on an ark. The celebration continued all day on this holiday. Parades of Peruvian dancers in native costume added to the festivities. As I witnessed all of this, it made me proud to be a Catholic. It was such a privilege to share this great feast day with the people of Chimbote in a Catholic country where every city park that I encountered in Lima had a statue of Mary. I love our Protestant brothers and sisters, but in this place, their well-meant evangelical outreach felt more like a divisive invasion into the solidarity that is Peru.
May the lives of the good people of Chimbote continue to be blessed in the many ways that are foreign to us who are numb to the material goods that overwhelm us. May the good works of the Missionaries sow the seeds of faith and love in the people there and renew their hearts in the spirit of Jesus Christ. I thank the Lord for this blessed experience during my visit to Chimbote and the hospitality of the sisters, the volunteers and the local people who I met.
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