Dancing in the Streets

I´ve heard that expression before but this past week in Cusco is probably the epitome of that saying.  On multiple days, the street just above our center was a dance floor.  We could hear bands playing, car and bus horns honking and traffic on the street below our center was backed up due to the street above being shut down to traffic.  It was crazy.  Finally one morning, as we had no one at the center, we decided to go see what all the noise was about.  For 45 minutes we watched as group after group of dancers went by.  And that was only a small segment of the whole procession!  At one point, the parade of dancers was backed up and a group had to wait to go on.  I asked them how far they were going.  I was amazed when they said San Sebastian, a neighborhood clear on the other side of town!  I googled up the distance and it is 4 to 6 kilometers depending on what streets they used.  4 kilometers would be 2.5 miles.  Some of the dancers were wearing really high heels as part of their costumes.  I think there were some pretty sore feet that night.  Here are a few photos I took as we watched this cultural tradition that occurs every June here in Cusco.

 All ages participated, adult men and women, teenagers and even children.  And they all took seriously the performance of their dance.

 Each dance and costume represents a different region or area of Peru.  The people here seem to know what dance goes with which region, but there are so many it is hard for us to keep track.

 These women are wearing costumes and performing dances typical of the Cusco region.

 The dance above originates from the jungle area of Peru.

 This one, above, was new to me.  I had never seen a costume with hats that look like haystacks and sleeves longer than the arms of the dancers.

 This one above was quite interesting as each dancer carried a stuffed animal of a llama on their back and wore these knitted masks on their face.  This group even had a donkey carrying on its back offerings to the saint which was being carried behind it.

Not sure which saint this represents but we did see this one at the Corpus Christi celebration as well.

Masks were pretty common with a lot of the dances.  Not sure why the one above is a back mask, but there were a number of groups using them.  

 The dance above is called, doctorcito, and they represent doctors.  They carried these books and would hit them with their small stick as they danced.

 Above, these teenage boys were very intent on performing well their dance.

 Many of the masks had very long noses.  I am not sure what they represent.  At one time someone told me the long noses were used to represent the Spanish race and distinguish them from the inca people.

 The bands all wore very colorful costumes.  This band´s jackets were a very bright pink.  I don´t even think the photo does the color justice.  Other bands wore purple or mint green shirts.  Not your typical band colors in the states.

 Above, this group´s costumes represented the bullfighter.  They even had small kids acting as the bulls.  It was a pretty fun dance to watch.

 These costumes were gorgeous!  And look at the braids, how they weaved gold ribbon down through their hair.  Very colorful.

 The orange costumes and the derby hats above are the costume from the region of Puno and have more of a Bolivian flavor.

These young girls amazed me how they could dance and march wearing the size of heels they have.

As for the missionary work...

We started out the week having a FHE with a family we have gotten close to.  Empe Dolmo is a return missionary, single mom with two teenage kids, a girl and a boy.  She works as a seamstress/tailor and has a shop of her own.  She works way too hard, starting early in the morning and going until 8 or 8:30 at night.  When we first got here she worked alone, but she has so much business that she now has 2-3 assistants that come in sew for her.  Whenever we visit her she constantly has people coming and going.  She has done some work for us as well.  She is as sweet as sweet can be, but she is inactive!  She has been disappointed by an ex-husband who was a return missionary and didn´t live up to the expectation that comes with that classification.  He hasn´t been there for his children.  She has been disappointed by church members and leaders who she feels have judged her and have not given her the support she needed.  Sounds way too familiar and hits a very personal nerve for me.  I have tried to share with her what I have learned and how important it is to not let the actions of others jeopardize her salvation.  We have extended nothing but love and support to her and her children since we have been here.  But so far no movement in her coming back to church.

We did a FHE lesson on faith and showed the very powerful self-reliance video used to teach this principle.  Here is a link to watch this 5 minute presentation about an experience a young girl had in the Phillipines as she exercised faith to solve a financial challenge her family was having.

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-06-1110-pure-and-simple-faith?category=principle-1-exercise-faith-in-jesus-christ&lang=eng

We then invited this sister to come back to activity.  The temple dedication for the Trujillo Peru temple is soon and she is not worthy to attend, but in 3-4 years will be the dedication for the Arequipa, Peru temple and we challenged her to be worthy to participate in this event and promised her we would pay for her transportation to Arequipa so she could be a part of that if she would make herself worthy.  She was touched and said she would work towards that.  Hopefully, she means it.

We hit the year mark as missionaries on Tuesday, June 9th.  So hard to believe that a year ago we were set apart and entered the MTC as green as could be, not knowing a thing of what we were expected to do as Self-Reliance/PEF missionaries.  With a year of experience under our belt, we can now talk for hours about the topic, help anyone set up an account on LDSjobs, present workshops on Self-Reliance and Perpetual Education Fund, present firesides as well, train leaders, facilitators, volunteers and run a self-reliance center and we do it all in SPANISH!  Dave´s language ability has improved tremendously.  I have watched him go on and on in Spanish to members and non-members alike.  I have even seen him speak extemporaneously, all in a language that was pretty much foreign to him a year ago.  My Spanish as well has improved and I now feel comfortable in almost any situation.

We visited the new restaurant that has opened up in the Ponce local.  All the renovations have been completed and they have been opened for business for a couple of weeks now.  One of my PEF students has even been hired to work there.  She had set a goal to obtain employment and within a week had gotten this job.  She is a very sharp gal.

This is their placemat, but it shows the name of the restaurant and the type of food it serves.  Pan means bread and Kracio is their last name. " Donde lo típico se come con pan" means "Where the typical is eaten with bread".  They have a very small menu.  They only offer two types of sandwiches, a lomo saltado sandwich and a chicharron sandwich.  Lomo saltado is a very typical Peruvian dish but it is normally served with rice and french fries so to put it on a sandwich is unique.  And chicharron is pork and it is a very popular, well liked menu item.  They also serve brownie with ice cream.  We went to try out the brownie dish.  It was ok, but still didn´t measure up to what we consider a good brownie back home.

We really want to see this member succeed with his business.  Not only will it help him, but it will help the Ponces as well and if he can hire other members of the church, it will be a help to them.  He needs to attend the business workshop, but currently we have no group meeting for that workshop.  We set up a time to consult with him and will let you know what happens.

This weekend, our manager, Carlos Hale came in to Cusco and we had training set up with both the Cusco stake and the Inti Raymi stake leaders on Friday and Saturday nights.  This training was with the Self-Reliance committe members.  The committe is made up of five people: the counselor in the stake presidency assigned to Self-Reliance, the SR specialist, the high councilor assigned to SR, the bishop assigned to SR and the stake relief society president.  The SR committe is the one responsible for making an action plan and implementing the SR program in their stake.  They should be meeting regularly.  This has not been happening at all and I´m pretty sure none of the leaders were even aware of this part of their stewardship.

We held a two hour training with each stake and set up a follow up date for their first Self-Reliance committee meeting.  They all expressed a desire to meet and make things happen, but I am learning that saying and doing are not the same thing in the Peruvian culture.

With only six months left in our mission, our focus is on training the members themselves to do what we have been doing.  We have been told that there are no plans to replace us with another SR couple missionary anytime in the future.  We are it.  We have been told that the goal is for each church unit to become self-reliant in regards to implementation of these programs.  Seems like an appropriate goal - to be self-reliant in self-reliance.

Spiritual Thought for the Week:  "...one of the salient characteristics of the Savior: His love and compassion for the downtrodden, the weary, the weak, the suffering.  Indeed, these acts of compassion are synonymous with His name.    The Lord declared in a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith: "It is my purpose to provide for my saints..But it must needs be done in mine own way".  The Lord´s way consists of helping people help themselves.  The poor are exalted because they work for the temporary assistance they receive, they are taught correct principles, and they are able to lift themselves from poverty to self-reliance.  The rich are made low because they humble themselves to give generously of their means to those in need."   If the Savior were among us in mortality today, He would be found ministering to the needy, the suffering, the sick.  Following this example may be one of the reasons President Spencer W. Kimball said:  "When viewed in this light, we can see that [welfare] is not a program, but the essence of the gospel.  It is the gospel in action.  It is the crowning principle of a Christian life."

Joseph B Wirthlin, June Ensign 2015  "Helping Others in the Lord´s Way"