Holy Week

Possibly one of the biggest deals of the year, Holy Week came and went here in Tacna with a lot to do. Despite having Thursday and Friday as holidays, I feel like I did more and slept less last weekend than I have all year so far.

It all started last week with a Friday night reconciliation service and then an early Saturday morning hike to climb the nearby sand dune. It was a small pilgrimage of sorts, and here is the evidence (look how tired my homeroom students look at 3 in the morning. If only they were that calm in class.....):

Wednesday with our first volleyball game as Team Habitat Forever in the local tournament. And though it pains me to say it, we are horrible. With all of the neighborhood out en masse to watch, we certainly provided a lot of entertainment with our inability to set each other up and numerous shots to the face. Oh well.

Thursday I took a nice little trip with my goddaughter (I was the padrino of her first communion, so it`s not quite Godfather-like, though she insists on calling me Padrino all the time) and her mother to visit the nearby valley of Tarata. There we did some walking around and for me it was super special to see Leslie enjoy the outdoors and the change of scenery. She had never travelled outside of Tacna before, so it was very special for her. We also ate some delicious fruit and I bought lots of yummy manna - kind of like big, sweet popcorn.

Friday I went to my host family, and since we are in a super Catholic country, there is no meat to be found in the entire country on this day. We feasted on some fried rice with seafood and some fried calamari - all homemade in the house. Then I returned to Habitat for some Viacruces, or stations of the cross. Although it was not as intense as last year, it still involved some scenes of cruifixtion and some carrying around of a big cross (see photo).

Saturday night I participated in an all-night vigil with the kids of the youth group with whom I worked last year. I have not had a chance to work as much with them since it is out in the neighborhood where I taught, but it was great to share this special time with them. We went to the vigil mass and then had some reflections, watched Passion of the Christ, and had a little celebration for the Resurrection. I got very little sleep though, and was very exhausted all Sunday. Easter was a food-filled day as we invited the neighbors over for breakfast and chatting (see below), then I went to my host family`s for lunch and chatted some more, and then I came home to run (to make space in my belly) and nap before a community dinner of quinua risotto (very very delicious creation made possible by Cara).

So, all in all, very busy and very enjoyable - but what more can you ask out of life?