Road side repairers.

This is not an open grave!
These road side repairers are all along the side of the main road up our end of the valley. They have a ready market up this way due to the state of the roads once you leave Av. Independencia, the main road up the valley. The rocks and ruts play havoc with all parts of your vehicle, especially the mufflers. Even the infernal speed humps send you crazy. They are strategically placed to make sure you stay within reasonable speed limits. They may also be in place to ensure that you need weekly chiropractic treatment!
First of all find a suitable spot and dig yourself an inspection pit, it is far easier welding standing up! The white powder you can see is used as a form of flux while welding. The concrete blocks are a constant reminder of the terrorist times. They were placed to try and protect the electricity supply. One of the favourite tricks of the Shining Path was to destabilise the area by causing massive blackouts.

You need a ready supply of reconditioned mufflers. They could be the ones that were cut off yesterday, repaired and given a nice coat of blue paint!

There are always plenty of willing helpers ready to offer advice about the job at hand!

Santa Rosa Feast Day.

Today all of Lima will be celebrating the Feast of Santa Rosa, the patron saint of Lima. Groups from in and around Montenegro also gathered to celebrate in style. Processions arrived from various districts carrying their decorated statues of Santa Rosa. It made for a most impressive sight.

Father Kevin McDonagh celebrated the open air Mass and would you believe it - but it just happened to be the first sunny day for months!

The Offertory procession.

At the conclusion of Mass the various groups head off to process down the main road. Some of the traditional costumes were spectacular - and worn with great dignity and pride.

As the dances made a last minute dash to join the street procession it was just all too much for one member of the congregation!

The procession takes to the main road amid plenty of colour and noise, in fact each group seemed to have their own band. Not to mention plenty of people willing to set off more rockets.

I wonder if this gentleman wished he would have preferred to learn the flute or drums, may have been a little easier!

Some of the rocket lads.

I have found some at last; these are some of the culprits who constantly send off these exploding rockets night and day. These boys appeared at today’s Santa Rosa feast day Mass. They had followed one of the many processions which arrived for the Mass and while on their way they were continually setting off these mini explosions. All part of the celebrations!
The trouble is they use them for all forms of celebrations – feast days, birthdays, weddings, baptisms, you name it. And the time of day or night seems to be of little consequence.
I suppose I have to admit that after a few months you tend to get used to the noise! I also need to reflect on what I was like at their age because I don't think the actual time made any difference to us.

Their plan of attack is simple, one carries the rockets and the other looks after the matches and the rocket launcher - an empty beer bottle. The Dog? Well you just hope that it gets its timing right and departs the launch pad before it is too late!

The boys cannot wait until Mass is over and then they can get to work again!

Our second round of lessons come to an end.

Last night we completed the second round of lessons, another three months have flown by and the supper and certificates were prepared for the night.
When we began this second group on 27th May we had fourty-four names registered as interested persons. In reality we presented twenty certificates and our average nightly attendance over the three months was fourteen! Nevertheless, all who attended seemed to benefit from the experience of coming to grips with basic conversational English.
I can personally understand their difficulties as I continue to endeavour to come to grips with basic Spanish!

Our last lesson gets under way with both class work and small group work. All of our students loved the small group work, especially when they were pitted against other groups in competition mode!

For your interest some of the basic topics we initially cover in the thirty six lessons are the alphabet, numbers, alphabetical order, days, weeks, months, colours, signs and symbols. We then move onto conversations based on questions and answers, responding to simple instructions, short conversations based on specific topics, shared readings and the basic principles of grammar. All of the time we are stressing two aspects of the course - look and listen.

This group contained two ‘family affairs’, the first was the brother and sister combination of Carolina and Hector and the second being a mother, father, daughter combination of Yolanda, Marco and Trinidad in the grey top. All these five people were very regular members of the class.

Some of the certificates being proudly displayed by the individual recipients. They were presented by one of our Columban priests from the Motupe Montenegro parish area, Father Jovito. Moving from left to right in both we have in the top photo William, Jessica, Evelyn, Lupe, Maritza, Carolina and almost Shirly. Below we can see Yolanda, Marco, Hector, Mari and David.

Marion prepares the supper in readiness for the arrival of the class while William and Jessica proudly show off their certificates.

The cake, Peruvians seem to love these massive, coloured cream covered sponge cakes. The bigger, the better! The dreaded Inca Cola has also made an appearance, another love of people especially when served at room temperature.

Supper is served.

Building report - 27th August.

Every day we go up to view the work at Pedregal Alto the fog seems to be thicker, this shot was taken at the exact same place as those I took and added to the blog on 14th August!
This little girl appeared from the thick fog, checked us both out and then disappeared again!

The 'brickies' have begun their work on one of the side walls of the main community area.

All the workers were going flat out until Marion arrived with the freshly baked banana cake and Inca Cola!

The wheelbarrow man has finished filling in the kitchen area.

The third section of the building is taking shape, the toilet block on top and a storage area below. The steel reinforcing rods are all individually wired together. As soon as this is finished and the foundations are poured then they will begin to fill in this space - again by barrow!

Now for the Montenegro parish bingo.

Welcome to the Montenegro parish grand bingo. It did not seem as big as the Motupe bingo, nevertheless, the crowd seemed to have just as much fun.

The hot food stall is always a winner - you are able to purchase varying combinations of chicken, spaghetti, potatoes and rice all covered with 'hot' salsa.

The Panchos, or sausage sizzle, took a fair time to get going and Jeny seems to be the only one doing any work! I know for sure that the lads spent hours trying to get the fire going and I would hate to think how much kerosene was used in the process.

The crowd really took to Tombolo. You buy a ticket and that number corresponds with your prize. The Sisters from the local Fe y Alegria College organised this activity and apparently they receive wonderful financial support from the other Fe y Alegria Colleges around Lima. This allows them to build up a terrific array of prizes - and once again all for S/- 1.00.

Carlos calls those elusive numbers.

As expected the crowd built as the afternoon went on, remember the better prizes are last to be drawn. Padre Jovito, he is the one in the yellow short sleeves, does not look too impressed with his numbers!

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!

¡Sorpresa! ¡Sorpresa! ¡Sorpresa!
She has done it again! The lady champion of fundraising has hit the Montenegro Parish Bingo with style.
The first task was to purchase one hundred and eight plastic containers from China Town in Lima and then proceed to fill them with an assortment of goodies to form the basis of a newly invented game for the young children called - ¡Sorpresa! ¡Sorpresa! ¡Sorpresa! – Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!
Each container was numbered and wrapped in coloured paper so that nobody could see the contents. They were divided in two categories – boys and girls. On paying S/- 1.00 you pick a pop stick with a number on top and then collect the corresponding container – great fun. The reality is that each container ended up costing far more than the ticket price! That may be another reason why it is called ¡Sorpresa! ¡Sorpresa! ¡Sorpresa!
The goodies are almost ready to transport to the bingo site.

Marion, Alfredo and David setting up our little corner. Our only worry was getting the bookcase from home: carrying it down the locals thought that we looked like a pair of undertakers going to the church!

Marion makes an early sale.

Luke does the rest. Only about a hundred containers to go! However, why did I ever doubt, they all went.

Great day at the bingo for the children.

The children were fascinated with everything and really enjoyed themselves, the pictures tell the story better than words!

The Montenegro parish dance group.

The young people, or jovens, put on an amazing display of traditional dancing during yesterday's parish bingo. They are part of a parish dance group and really take their dancing very seriously. It is great to see their enthusiasm.