Señor de Qoyllurritti - A Pilgrim's Journal

The test of this post is a (slightly edited) transcription of  my journal entries for the pilgrimage to Señor de Qoyllurritti. I don't think I'll ever be able to fully explain the pilgrimage, at least not without making it many more times. But I hope this will give you a sense of the whole thing in all its music and dancing.

The image of Señor de Qoyllurritti

The Camp

Women Shaping Politics Across the Americas

It's been a good week for women. In the States, Hillary Clinton made history as the first female major party candidate for the presidency. In Peru, Keiko Fujimori lost to Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, which is good for all women who are against forced sterilization.

The presidential race in Peru was exceptionally close. Right now the count stands PPK 50.13% to Keiko 49.76%.* Peru has no electoral college, so the presidency is won based on the popular vote.

One thing that helped PPK pull ahead was an 11th hour message from ex-candidate Veronika Mendoza. She won the southern Andes in the first round of elections, in part because she is orginally from there. In fact she is a native of a town you know well by now - Andahuaylillas. On June 1, she recorded a message in Quechua, "Keiko Manan Atipananchu,"** urging supporters not to leave their ballots blank, but to vote for PPK against Keiko. The message was played on radio stations and distributed across social media. And plenty of analysts are saying it was probably a deciding factor in the race.

So there you have it, a woman form a small town may have decided the next president of Peru.

*There is less than 1% of the vote left to be counted, including votes from very rural areas and votes from Peruvians living outside the country.

**Keiko manan atipananchu is the Quechua for the anti-Keiko cry of "Keiko no va." It literally means "Keiko doesn't go," but carries the same basic sentiment as "Never Trump."

Quarterly Review 6 - Video

It helps, now and then, to step back

and take the long view.

-Prayer Honoring Pd. Oscar Romero

Last quarter I introduced a new element to the Quarterly Review – the video. It's a chance to step back and see what's happened in the last three months.

The song this quarter is “Rather Be” by Clean Bandit.* I love this song from the first time I heard it because it's not often that you hear a real violin on a pop radio station. Clean Bandit's whole sound is a cool mix of synthetic and acoustic instruments. Anyways I picked the song for a very specific reason.

After an evening of hanging out with my friend Bobbi and his family I wrote to another JV about the night: “... I had that feeling of rightness, or peace, that you get every now and then (you get those right? Or is that just me?). Just for that moment I felt like I could live here forever.” I can't live her forever, nor do I want to. But for now, there's no place I'd rather be.

Key events this quarter include:

Peruvian Elections - Round 2

Peruvians vote today. They're picking between two candidates who are neck in neck in the polls. Let's pray that all Peruvian voters consider their vote carefully, and that the electorate chooses the best person to lead the country forward for all Peruvians.

Quarterly Review 6

Quarterly Review 6

On the wall on the second floor of our home is a post it with a quote from Pedro Arrupe, SJ. It reads “una experiencia no reflexionada es una experiencia no vivida” - “an experience that is not reflected upon is an experience that is not lived.” Part of my nightly prayer involves review and reflection on the day, but a broader perspective can reveal themes that are missed. Sometimes we need to step back from examining the trees that make up the days and take in the forest of our lives. So every three months I'm stepping back, looking around, and mulling it all over.

The last three months have seen the beginning of the work year. By now I've settled into my routines and started all the long term projects I was tasked with when Pd. Eddy told me about my job for this year. I've checked some things off of my Peru Bucket List, and have started to prepare for my return in Boston in 2017. In the first three months the JVC values of Community and Social Justice were the most powerful. In this quarter the most salient value has been Spirituality. Here are the themes I see:

• Andean Spirituality
• Happy at School

Happy Important Date to Erin and Me

18 months (aka a year and a half ago) today Erin and I stepped out of the Cusco airport and into the very bright Andean sun.

This experience is entering it's final quarter. Keep us in your prayers as we try to be present to our lives here and prepare for our lives next year.

Doctors' Visit 2016

The doctors were back this year for a week and a half. I sat down with Hermana Vilma before they came to discuss maximizing my free hours at school so that I could help translate. “No Benjamín,” she told me, “this is an important use of your skills. I'll take care of the classes, you go translate.”

So an hour after I arrived in Andahuaylillas post-Qoyllurritti hike, I made my way over to the parish and the makeshift clinic to help translate. It was a better experience than last year. I think the group was better prepared than they were last year. I spent a lot of my time translating for two dentists who were performing extractions. They were especially good to me and taught me some useful tricks.*

No trip is perfect, and once again the group was not well organized when it came to the logistics of things like food. The parish staff came to me plenty of times asking what the deal was with the doctors' next meal.

My favorite day of working with the doctors was Saturday May 28. I went with a small group of them to a rural community called Churubamba. Churubamba is located on the back of Qoriorko, the mountain that I climbed with Lauren LINK. It's about 90 minutes of driving to get there. We rode in the back of a small truck. In Churubamba we only saw a few patients, but spent a lot of time with each one. Every single visit involved Quechua-Spanish-English translation. The last patient we saw was an 81 year old woman with terrible teeth. The dentist with us wanted to pull them all out, but the lady insisted that only one tooth was bothering her. After 15 minutes of cajoling she agreed to let the dentist pull the three worst teeth if, and only if, it didn't hurt when the first of them came out.

Fear of the dentist is a pretty common thing. But I've never seen anyone so afraid during dental work. It was clear from her teeth that the person who usually attended to her teeth was better at breaking them than he was at pulling them out cleanly. I can only assume that she'd experienced a great deal of pain at the hands of “dentists.” It was a wonder she even allowed the dentist with us to look at her mouth at all. After many tears all three teeth were out.

Working with the doctors gives JVs a chance to see a different aspect of normal life here. Healthcare is definitely substandard. The local clinic has been doctorless for the last month. The national health insurance definitely pays for mammograms but no one was sure if it would pay for cancer treatments. It's also a good source of reflection on the different ways to serve – a 2 week clinic is very different than 2 years of living here. I don't expect that any international service I do in the future will be as long term as JVC has been, so it's important to think about other models of service.

But most importantly working with the doctors is another way to serve. It is a way to serve people besides my students. It is a way to hear and validate people's pain. It is a way to help some people find relief from their pain. It is a way to demonstrate my apostolic availability to the people of Andahuaylillas.

*Did you know you can make a mouthwash with a 1 (Hydrogen Peroxide): 2 (Water) solution? They suggested to a man with inflamed gums.