All Change!

Since my last blog so much has happened. It was just a few days after that entry that my grandmother died and I was glad to have been able to spend time with my family back in England within just two days of the news that she was seriously ill.



Since arriving back here in April I have spent time in San Juan de Lurigancho and received there a wonderful welcome both from the two priests there and from the people of the parish. The parish priest there Jorge Alvarez is now 80 years old and still going strong - he has been a well known figure in the Peruvian church and in society, speaking out for greater social justice in the Country and for the rights of the poor. It was good to have spent even a short time with him in the parish of San Marcos. However, after careful thought and consideration with the St James’ Society, it was felt that this was not the right place to be. If anything, whilst there is still great poverty in the area, much of the infrastructure of parish life and of basic medical needs were in place. The St James Society does try to target places in greater need. Being in South America is teaching me to travel light and so I have packed my bags again and have moved to take the place of Fr Darren Reid who is presently back in England. The parish is one I have spoken of in previous blogs: the parish of the Risen Lord El Resucitado in Ate Vitarte.



Ate Vitarte thirty years ago consisted of little more than a few streets which had sprung up around the main road running east of Lima, the Carretera Central. It was an area blighted by the years of terrorism in the seventies and eighties and finally has emerged as an area where people have moved searching for small plots of land often perched on the hillside where they can start to build a home.



Home building is a long process a long way removed from our ideas of the ‘starter home’. The land in the beginning is simply ‘invaded’ but, in order to achieve later recognition from the local authority, people need to form themselves into a group and devise a ground plan for the proposed plots of land. This is important too as eventual supplies of electricity, water and drainage will depend on this early recognition. The early structure of houses consists of woven wicker panels with perhaps some plastic sheeting to cover. Fortunately it very rarely rains here as can be seen from the barren landscape. It may then progress to a wooden structure and from there to a single storey brick building. Many of these brick houses have steel rods sticking out of the tops of the walls ready one day to build a second storey. In an area thirty years old many of the families are just reaching the stage of completing a two storey simple home. A long and arduous task and on that stands in stark contrast to the ready made homes we are used to.



It was a great joy to be celebrating mass with the people here again. The same joy I remember from my first visit back in January. In total there are 7 chapels in the parish and two places where Sunday mass is celebrated outside in the local park. Obviously some communities have mass just once a month and two of the chapels are cared for by priests of a religious order. Some communities have been established for some years now while others are celebrating their first anniversary of existence. What characterises all though is the enthusiasm of people in their faith and in their lives.