A view of the San Felipe sector of Sicuani where we live
Some of the neighborhood children pose in front of our house


Sister Eileen with some children in an outlying village of the Andes mountains. Notice that the sandals on the kids are made from old tires

Christmas, 2005 from Sicuani, Peru

Hi everybody,
Blessings for Christmas and the New Year. Because we had lots of people from the USA this year, and one of them, Elizabeth Larson, volunteered with us for 10 months, The mountain chapel and the little black lamb is an article that describes a little of our life, here, as seen through the eyes of one of her friends. Life in Sicuani continues to witness the "One Hundred Years of Solitude" as depicted by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Colombian writer who won the Nobel Prize in literature some years ago describing the Andean culture. The other day, a young mother was struck by lightning in one of our mountain communities. The village council didn't want her buried in our cemetery for fear that the lightning would follow her to the grave and kill the crops in the surrounding fields. Tomasa negotiated with them, taking bread and bananas as a good will offering. After much discussion, the burial was approved. Usually, funerals are celebrated with the casket closed, but, a few months ago, the little window at the top of the casket was left open and as I sprinkled the holy water, I had to cough back a chuckle. The corpse was wearing her little sombrero... .all set to travel!!!!

Actually, it has frequently occurred to me that a sense of humor is definitely an asset in a culture that needs to live spontaneously for lack of guarantees for tomorrow. This year's Palm Sunday liturgy, which took place on Saturday evening is a case in point. Our youth group had organized a Passion play for Holy Week. We had planned to go around the neighborhood for an hour before mass, with "Jesus and the 12 apostles". However at 6 PM the donkey couldn't be found so, we began the solemn procession with the cross and 2 big palms being carried at the front, singing hymns on our way. About halfway down the road, we heard a big ruckus behind us and lol not one, but two donkeys, came galloping along with "Jesus and the 12 apostles" all decked out, running behind them. We waited for them to get ahead and for "Jesus" to mount one of the asses, and went on our way as if it were all part of the plan. Of course, the donkeys had to stop and graze every now and then so, I tried to rise to the occasion and do a little meditation on the meaning of all this. A nice crowd had joined us by the end of the procession so, we all trekked up the hill for the rest of mass.

Our orphans, Rufina and Victor are now young adults. Rufina's two little boys are 2 and 3 years old. She and Valentine are very poor but they seem happy. Recently, we helped them get some potato seed and they promised to share the harvest with us. With donations, the little boys are warmly clothed. Victor is a senior at Holy Name HS in Reading, PA. His sponsoring parents, Joanne and David, are a blessing for him. He'll go to Marywood next year.

We received another grant from Germany to put up the 6th Andean chapel in our area. As luck would have it, the coordinator of the NGO in Germany came to see the one we built last year. On the way out to the community, the pick-up got stuck in the mud. As we scaled the hillside, hauling rocks to put under the wheels, Javier, the visitor, asked if we had any other needs. I mentioned that a motorcycle would be good for a catechist from town to reach one of the remote villages on a regular basis since a priest only gets there once a year. So, he said yes to that suggestion, and I wrote up a description of the need. The donation just arrived, thanks to a parish in Europe that did a fundraiser. Thanks, too, for all your kindnesses to our little mission. We're all in this together. May you be blessed at this beautiful time of year.