The crew made it into Lime on Tuesday safly but late. We were all to the hote by 2am.
Slow morning of food, email, chaging money and then a 6 hour bus to chimbote.
Most of the group was in first class on the first level of the bus. Three of us were in sterage, which was very nice. Peru has one of the best bus systems in the world in my mind. Food, movies, nice seats, and bingo in which you could win a free bus ticket.
We were greated warmly by Fr Jack Davis at the bus station and wisked to parish for dinner and orintation.
Today was a very long but very good day. A number of us joined the parish for vespars. I saw many familar faces form my last visit and we were welcome with hugs and kisses on the checks.
It was looking to be a beautiful day. (It is summer here and the temp was in the upper seventies)
After breakfast we took a tour of the all the parish projects and so homes. It is hard to expain the level of poverty that is here. Dirt floors, thatch wall, and $1 a day income. That doesn´t do it justice. Even if you saw a well crafted documentry you would have no idea what it is like. To walk into the homes. Stunning.
The afternoon was filled with take apart two of these homes which are in need of repair. It took about 2 hours to pull things apart. The plan in to go back in and build new walls and roofs on Saturday. It is amazing that you take a home that is falling apart and make it look worse, but we managed. There was so much dust in the roof that as well pulled things down dust and dirt went ever where. I was under the roofs we were pulling apart and ever inch of skin not covered was black with dirt.
After dinner we went to mass. As mass progressed we had more kinds climbing into our laps and holding our hands. It was touching.
The rockstar of the trip has been Jack Farmer my almost 6 year old godson. Today while we were working on the houses, he played soccer (a sport he doesnt know) with a bunch of boys his age. It was fun to watch him try and figure it out when he speaks no spanish and they spoke on english. At the end of the game all the local boys insisted on us taking a team picture with Jack in the middle, holding the ball.
One traveling in our group pointed out the fact that none of the kids comment on brads hair be all wanted to play tag, hide and seek, and juts running around with jack. He has handled this so well. He is way overhis head with food to eat and getting to do what he wants. It has been a lot of fun to have him around.
After mass we sat in a circle and talked the day and what is running through our heads.
At is all questions and no answers.
Where is justice here?
Way are able bodies people watching us do work?
How to I take this home to others?
How do I not feed depressed in so much suffering?
How can I go back to my life worring about what I worry about when there is this?
How come I was born in the US and not here?
All questions, no answers.
There have been tears and lots of being twisted around. Hopefully it if for the better.
And this is just day one in Chimbote.

In Peru.
Flights good.
Managed three taxis in a language I hardly speak.
One team member in this AM. The rest of the crew wil be tonight midnightish.
Long bus tomorrow to Chimbote.
Details to come then.

In January I am heading back to Chimbote, Peru. You are more than welcome to join me.
Please e-mail if you are interested (email: gene at monterastelli dot com)
DATES
Jan 15 – arrive in Lima. Most flight from the US get in about midnight. (I will be outside of customs/immigration waiting for you)
Jan 16 – morning bus to Chimbote; afternoon/evening touring the area and meeting staff
Jan 17-21 – in Chimbote working at the church, seeing the city and surrounding area (including a day at the beach). Types of work could include (but not limited to) building projects, working in schools, at an aging home, and at medical centers.
Jan 22 – mid morning bus to Lima; evening in Lima
Jan 23 – tour of Lima (including a visit to St. Rose of Lima)
Jan 23 – late night flight home
Jan 24 – arrive home
If you would like to come early or stay late to see the wonders of Peru, you are more than welcome to.
COST
You will need to book your own airfare (more details to come on that in next few weeks). In addition you will need to pay $300-325 dollars.
This will cover:
* All housing in Lima (hotel) and Chimbote (parish dorms)
* All ground transportation
* Most meals (not included are dinners in Lima, and the few meals we will go out for in Chimbote. Most large meals in Peru will be less than $6)
* All supplies needed for the work we will do at the parish
* Tour around Lima.
When I was in Chimbote in May I spent less than $80 and $30 of that was in tips to two can drivers who had to endure a group of high school students singing musicals for three straight hours.
NOTE: This is not an organized trip. I am not getting paid in any way for my time or effort. I am doing this because I think you will love the experience. We are traveling as fellow travelers. I am willing to help out to insure that you as good as time a possible. We are doing this together. I am not leading you. You must be at least 20 years of age (or traveling with your parent/guardian).

Stilling trying to find which way is up. Was home for 30 hours before flying to KS for a week of work here.
Some how managed a 2 hour nap this afternoon (which was needed).
Lots have asked how they can help with the folks I visited in Peru. There are a few ways. You can give a onetime donations or you can give a monthly donation that would be paired with someone (or a family) specifically.
Donations can be made by sending a regular check in US dollars payable to Fr. Jack Davis at:
Fr. Jack Davis
Parish of Nuestra Senora del Perpetuo Socorro
Apartado Postal 134
Chimbote, Peru
If you would like to do a regular monthly donation, send me a note and I can point you in the right direction (I don’t want to put e-mail address on-line for spamers).

Made it to my place by 130p today. Since being home I have managed a shower, two naps, picking up mail, and eating a little.
BUS RIDE
With the strike the plan was to catch the 1030a bus from Chimbote to Lima. I was up early and went on a 6am with Padre. He walks to exersize a little, bring a start to the day and say “good morning” 65 times.
Just one more way to stay present.
After the walk I grab a little breakfast and then encouraged the chicos to be ready for our 930 trip to the bus stations.
Hugs and kisses good by to the staff and off to the bus station.
Once at the station we found out the bus was going to be 90 min late (which really means 2 hours). During the strike, the strikers created road blocks out of boulders all over the state. Because of this, the bus got a late start. Since we were the third stop it was way behind.
The bus was by far the nicest I have ever ridden in Latin America. We were served a meal, they showed two movies, and we played bingo for a free bus ticket. To be honest it was the nicest public bus I have ever taken in my life.
It took close to 6 hours to get to Lima. Our ride was waiting for us at the bus station and it was off to the airport (45 min away).
LOS CHICOS
To get to the airport we were in two vans. The group I was with sang the whole way to the airport. Beatles. Liturgical stuff. Lots of show tunes.
In that moment I realized how much I had grown to really enjoy them.
I found myself on a number of occasions at the parocia referring to them as “my chicos” when talking to other volunteers and the staff.
It was a real blessing to spend the weekend with them.
SOCKS
Once we got to the airport we check in, grabbed a meal. I think I was the only one who didn’t eat at McDonald’s or Papa John’s.
Passed through security.
Since I was on a different airlines, we said our good byes.
Jumped on the plane. My flight to Houston was at 1140p. When the stewardess came around to ask my dinner choice before take off, I said, “If I am awake, a glass of water would be great.”
The next thing I knew I was waking up one hour out side of Houston.
Breezed through customs.
Jumped on the flight to Baltimore.
Once seated I changed my socks. I had been wearing hiking boots for the last 24 hours (minus the few hours I slept on the last flight) and had packed extra socks in my backpack for just this.
I can only image what the guy next to me was thinking as I did this.
DID I LEARN NOTHING?
So I have this ridicules beard. I haven’t shaved in over 10 days, but I can’t really grow facial hair.
It is patchy, like I have been attacked by a can of Nare.
I kinda like the beard and thought, “You know I should get a beard and mustache trimmer. Maybe I can make this shag look respectable.”
On the way home from the airport I stopped at WalMart to buy one. I dug out my cash (money from before the trip and money from the trip).
I was sorting through the cash to see how much I had, and thinking how much I would be willing to spend on such a device.
It all hit me once.
What was I thinking. I might use something like this 10 times in the next 10 years.
I don’t need this. This money could be used some much better.
Standing in the middle of the parking lot, I felt like such a fool.
I am such a work in progress.

The strike didn´t break, so we spent one more day in Chimbote.
It was a very low key day. The choicos visted a home for mental disable women which is run by the little sister of the poor.
I stayed behind and work with a volunteer who is heading back to England in July after being here a year. We spent some time on what the transition was going to be like and what she would be doing next with her life.
The afternoon was quiet. A group of kids from the neighborhood came over and the chicos taught them how to play baseball (sort of). There was lots of napping and packing. I don´t think the group could have handled much more.
We were thanked and blessed at mass.
About 1030 Padre and I went to visit a very disturbed young man. He is 33. Was abused as a child and hasn´t been the same since is monther´s death 12 years ago. Padre calls him his biggest cross. After living here for a week that is profound statement.
I talked with him a while, we did a little work, and we prayed.
Please keep Calvin in your prayers.
Bus at 1030a today. Dinner in Lima then off to the airport for a late flight. Should be at my home by 2p on Saturday.
Many have asked about making donations. I will post on Sunday on all the options you have. Also, I am thinking an adult trip down here in December. Keep an eye for more detail.
Pray for safe travels and the people of Chimbote.

The days are starting to get a bit of a rhythm here. Breakfast, work, lunch, nap, work, shower, dinner.
We worked at a few houses yesterday and started work on a day care. Lots of hard labor. A group of us spent three hours just picking rocks large and small to clear an area for playground.
For some in our group is was the best day of work because they felt like they had really done work. Progress could be seen. Work lasted more than a couple of hours. There was direction.
Work is done in a much different fashion. Little is done efficiently. Lots of waiting as one thing needs to get done, when if done in a different order everyone could be working more and faster.
It is an interesting lesson to process. To feel useful in a place that is so inefficient.
GOOD BYE?
They had a small going away party for us last night. Two choirs sang. One was filled with former gang members. Padre told us that 15 months ago these guys were on national TV drunk and/or stoned talking about how they like to kill people.
Last night they were singing songs about the Word of God to a bunch of American kids.
We are suppose to be packing up this morning and heading to Lima for a day of sightseeing before fling home tomorrow night.
Yesterday and today there had been a regional strike (Pare Regional). Meaning nothing was yesterday or will be today open in the whole state. Therefore there is no bus for us to catch today.
Our group has taken it all in stride.

MOUNTAIN
After breakfast yesterday we went the near by mountain to look over the city. The path up the mountain is also the way of the cross. They have all fourteen station on the way up to the small chapel.
Each year on good Friday 20,000 people make the walk.
At the top is a beautiful little chapel that from time to time Padre takes youth on retreat two. For there you can see the whole city (400,000 and no building over 6 stories), the bay, the islands at the edge of the bay and all the fishing boats coming and going. There is also sand and nothingness as far as the eye can see.
A FIRST FOR ME
After a stop for lunch on the way back to the church we headed in to homes. We were broken into small groups and each group had a local social worker with them. The social worker took us into a home to see how the people in the barrio live. Thatch wall, dirt floors, sharing bed rooms, a radio, cooking with charcoal that is toxic.
You can´t call moments like this good, or fun, but it was eye opening.
Then our group visited a battered women´s shelter. Three rooms. Two had families (mothers and their children) and the third had a thirteen year old girl. She had the sweetest smile, was a little embarrassed that we saw her unmade bad. You wanted to just hug her.
Then in a moment it all struck me. Her full circumstance. 13 and no were else to go. It wasn´t that she was receiving poor care (the care was great), but that she had to be their.
It was the first moment I almost lost it into tears on the trip.
CHICOS
The students we travel with continue to do great. They are mixing well with each other, and good fun to be with.
The main reason I came on this trip was to see (and maybe help) their transformation. But I wonder if my expectations are too high.
One moment they are getting it. We are walking out of a house in which we have learned that for $180 the family would get a stove and burner so that they would not be cooking with toxic bricks. By the time we are back to the church they have a plan to raise the money.
The next moment they are commenting on how much money an artist made off them today, when he came by to make paintings for them. Almost as if they were taken advantage of (the painter received $60 for a days work).
In those moments I know I need to catch myself. I need to remember I am still learning. Need to remember that I don´t have all the answers. Need to remember where I would have been at 17 in this context.
The hope of a trip like this is to change perspective a little. To open the eyes just a little.
If that happens, then maybe we will all be open to acting with a little more love the next time we are confronted with Body of Christ, not just in poor, but with everyone in our lives.

That is the way everyone is treated here at the church, with dignity.
The only way to describe it is through an example. Miguel is a young man who has a very rough home life and has some mental challenges. If you were to walk into any mass here at Nuestra Señora del Perpetuo Socorro you would think he is directing the choir.
You would think this because he is standing in front of the choir waving his arms, in time, with perfect rhythm.
But he is not directing the choir. That is done by the man play guitar.
In most context Miguel would shot off. He doesn´t belong.
Not here. He is causing no trouble. He is not in the way. Why takes his joy? Why cause problems?
Just meet him were here is.
Show him that he is loved.
It would drive me crazy to have this going on in the middle of doing something “important”. I would want to stop it.
Not here.
Not when he is seen through the eyes of love.
Lesson from Easter Monday: How to give dignity, or more precisely how to see people with the dignity they deserve. It is isn´t something you give.