Lima Celebrations, Intermurals, and More!

The image of El Señor de los Milagros

This past week, the big event in Lima was El Señor de los Milagros,which translated to English means Lord of Miracles.  The centerpiece of this celebration is the procession of a mural of the crucifixion.   It was incredible.  The streets of central Lima were teeming with thousands of people who came out to observe the festival.  Some estimates of the number of people who participate in the procession are in the hundreds of thousands, making the streets seem like a sea of purple robes. Through out the days of the celebration, flowers are thrown from the rooftops as the image draws near and the streets are adorned with huge banners of purple.  I ended up going to see this festival with a friend named Jason, another study abroad student.  On the morning that we were set to go, his host dad surprised us with invitations to watch the procession from the Municipal Palace of Lima with the mayor!  Apparently Jason's host dad is the mayor's brother.  Who knew?  The experience was incredible and completely unexpected.  All we could do was laugh at how fortunate we were: it was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences.  Topped off with fireworks shot off from the cathedral, El Señor de los Milagros is something that I will not soon forget.  After that we headed to Barranco to meet up with the other kids from our study abroad program to celebrate a birthday with burritos.  All in all it was a very successful day.

This picture just gives you a sample of
the number of people at the procession

The next day, Saturday, I started off my day competing in long jump.  Yes I said long jump... the track event that I have not competed in since junior high!  My facultdad, the School of Social Sciences, needed volunteers to fill spots, and on Thursday asked me if I would compete.  They needed warm bodies and I had had some experience, so I decided why not?!  I was definitely not the star of the event, but it was fun.  Next week I will try my hand at competing for my facultad in swimming.  I haven't competed in that for a long time either, but I am expecting to do a lot better in that because swimming is my life during the summers when I am working as a swim instructor.  After the competition, I spent most of the afternoon volunteering at the parochial clinic where I work.  Although I don't plan on going into dentistry, I love the experience that I am getting there.  I get to have a lot of hands-on contact with patients, and the doctors go out of their way to teach me and explain what they are doing.  I feel like I am really able to be useful there, and that I am learning a lot about the Peruvian health system and patient care.  The clinic is a definite blessing.

If there is one thing I have learned while studying abroad is that life in Lima if full of the unexpected.   This week has definitely stayed true to that.  Until my next update!