My first impressions of Lima.

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  Lima, Utah, Peru
Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Good Wednesday Morning,
This will be brief, today Father Moe Schroeder and yours truly will be journeying 200 kilometers
down the Pacific Coast to a place named Chincha.The Oblates have a Parish there and Fr. Moe,
as the Superior of the Oblate Delegation has a meeting with one of the men in Chincha. Moe tells
me that Brother Blaise MacQuarrie OMI a Canadian is in Chincha. One person I will understand
if he speaks to me in English.
My first commercial transaction happened this morning. After mornign prayer (Lauds) and Mass
Moe sent me out on what is certainly the main thoroughfare to purchase 2 vasos (glasses) of
orange juice from the lady and her four year old daughter who squeeses oranges to make fresh
orange juice. A couple of glasses came to 2 soles. One sole is close to thirty cents but I could
be way off. This is the strawberry season here, so we had pancakes, fresh strawberries and of
course freshly squeezed orange juice.
The streets are packed with people, vendors of about a million different things. Anything one
sell to make a couple of soles. I was asking Moe where most of these people, the answer,
up on the side of the mountain in one of those tin shacks. Unbelievable what some of these
folks have to do to make ends meet.  Now the thrill of a life time is a ride on a bus, more like
a dodge  van, and there are hundreds of them all painted in different wild colors. There is the
who certainly spent several years on the Grand Prix circuit. One mode of driving, pedal to
the metal at all times. Now the driver has a helper who hangs out the door and shouts where
the destination of this flying machine is supposed to end up, and takes your money sometime
during your ride. How he keeps count of who got on and where they are going, and how much
they should pay if is a mystery, Like the writer for the New Yorker wrote: 'the public transit
system in Lima is really just to see how much a person can really put up with'. The litttle buses
are racing up and down the main streets, leterally inches from each other. The drivers just  lean
on the horn, while his buddy just keeps yelling the destination. I thought we were going to crack-
up about every five minutes. Buses are the main eay of travel, nobody, in there right mind would
drive a car.
I resided at the Oblate Provincial House, which is part of an entire city block.  The French
Oblates, from Quebec where in this section of Lima, which at that time was a very poor section
of the city, mostly slums I'm told, and the Oblates founded "Jesus the Worker" trade school.
Today 600 students are studying and learning all kinds of trades. This all started in the 50's and
60's. 
 I am now going to try and add some photos from Sunday. no garantees folks. Sorry techno problems/

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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