Our Life in Huamali

Dear Sisters and Friends,

I could not find a way to send you all our beautiful photos we took about our life and work in Huamali. So, I decided to send you some information about our life and mission work to share with you our experiences and life at the country side.

I traveled by bus from Lima to Huamali on Monday, January 22nd. The trip normally is about 6 hours, but ours lasted 9 hours because of  some street work on the way. It exists also the possibility to fly from Lima to Jauja. (a flight of 55 min.) We had to cross the mountains, about 5000 m. altitude. Our village Huamali has an altitude of about 3050 m. There are some modern houses but most of them are build of adobe. People live with there animals in their houses. Men often work in the nearby mines and come home only on weekends. Women work on the fields and take care of the children and animals. On the streets we often can see cows, donkeys and sheep. Not to forget the many dogs who belong to each house. Religious and social customs are very important and celebrated. On Feb. 2nd people celebrated ‘La Virgen de la Candelaria” Women and men came with their colorful vestments to have a special Mass and after Mass they had a procession and presented dances in front of the church in Jauja, this is the district city. Here in Huamali the people will celebrate pretty soon “Fiestas de Carnival” Also with Mass, and with parades, dancing, drinking and colorful masks and dresses. Family members who live in other cities come back to their home town for this celebration. Here the pace of life goes much slower and people live connected with their families, their animals and with the nature.

Now I want to tell you about our vacation program:

We, the Sisters in the community of Huamali—Maria Cristina, Renee, Marivel, Milvia (Maria Cristina’s Sister and her husband Hianderry), and I—hosted for about 25 days 65 to 75 children and we had different programs from Monday to Friday, from 9.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m.

The children had time for exercise and sport, they had a cooking program called ‘Mini chef” and we made all kind of hand crafts with them.

The photos will speak more than my words (CLICK HERE to view photos):
During the exercise program the boys practiced soccer and the girls volleyball. The exercise covered the first 90 minutes. Then they had some refreshments and Sr. Renee opened her little store for them, so the kids could buy some homemade ice cream, jell-o gelatine, or cookies. Then we had a variety of different programs, you will find images captured in our photos.

(Pictured right: Sr. Monika Mrosek and a young child playing with the Muppet they made.)