Domingo de Ramos

Palm Sunday marks the first day of the Holy week, which is a huge deal for everyone in Ayacucho. Rudy, the program director for CCS, has been proudly bringing in every newspaper article that he can find about Semana Santa in Ayacucho. One paper proudly reported that the festivities here are among the best in all of the Spanish speaking countries in the world.

From just today I have to say that I agree with them. I started my day with going to Catholic Mass at the church in the Plaza. As we were sitting through mass, huge fireworks were going off outside making the whole church shake. It was an utterly frightening experience. I was confused as to whether I was in a war zone or a holy zone of a church. After about the 4th huge explosion, my roommate Kate and I decided it was time to leave.

As we were exiting the church we happened onto a parade going through the plaza. This was just the start to the day.

After lunch we took a taxi to a street party near the airport. Street party does not

explain the madness of the gathering. We pulled up along side dozens and dozens of llamas and donkeys decorated for the procession that

would start from here. We made our way into

the street party and were pleasan

tly surprised with the beer tent. Here in Peru, a 3rd w

orld country, they had a whole tent full to the top of FREE beer and chicha. We quickly figured

out that you go and ask for a bottle of beer and a cup. Then walk around and find n

ew friends to drink with. The tradition is to get a beer, then invite others to drink with you. Let me tell you how easy it is to make new friends when you are some of the only "gringas" and have a full beer in your hands. We were given Peru

vian flags and waved them proudly as we met our new friends and danced and drank together. We even met the Mayor of Ayacucho, he is Rudy's cousin. It was a fun gathering of all the towns people dressed in traditional dress ready to parade from the Airport all through the town and end in the Plaza.

After a few hours of fun we staked out a spot on the street to watch the parade. The parade

included all the decorated llamas, donkeys, horses, bands and dancers. We watched most of the parade go by then joined in. We followed the parade into the town Plaza and as we got near the Plaza we caught up with some of our new friends we meet at the street party. They invited us to join them in the parade. So Millie and I joined in. We paraded through the plaza, and all you could hear is "Mira, gringas" we were the only people in the parade that were not

dressed in traditional attire which did not help us

to blend into the procession line. We processed and danced in the plaza having a grand ol' time.

After the parade we were told that Jesus would be coming to the Plaza on a donkey. So we found a seat on the curb and waited and waited and waited. It has been a month that I have been in Peru and I still don't have the time down right. We were told that Jesus would be entering at 4pm. Well we should have known to not believe that and add 2 to 3 hours to that and that is when it would actually start. Somehow we attracted all the children in the area to come and hang out with us while we were waiting for the grand entrance of Jesus. We passed the time teaching them English kid songs and they tried toteach us Spanish kid songs. Finally at around 6pm Jesus made his entrance on the donkey. I had pictured in my

head someone would be dressed up like Jesus riding the donkey into town. Well that wasn't the case. Jesus was a statue that was placed on a donkey then surrounded by Army and Police men and women protecting the statue of Jesus. Only in Peru would this happen. Somehow in the midst of trying to get a good picture, Millie and I got swept into the procession. The best way to describe the experience is that we were apart of a Mosh Pit for Jesus. We got in the procession easy enough but could not get out once we were being smashed and smooshed as 100s of Peruvians were fighting to get as close as possible to the Jesus statue. Luckily though the procession only went half way around the plaza and ended in the church. This was our escape and we took it. All in all today was the best way I have ever started a celebration for Easter.