They day after arriving in Ayaviri, Peru, the local bishop of the prelature, Msgr. Kay Martin, invited us to the house where he and the other Sodaliths live for a meal of lomo saltado de alpaca, which is a Peruvian dish usually made with beef but in this case the more common meat is the al paca (llama.) The meat was tough, but actually very good. That day they invited me to participate in the annual church talent show that weekend, and I prepared a song in Spanish to sing as well as began rehearsing with a group of women that take care of the Adoration chapel to sing a song in Quechua (the language that was spoken before the Spanish conquest.) We performed in Quechua and I performed in Spanish in the typical dress of Ayaviri. That same weekend we also spent a beautiful day at Tinajani, a park filled with large rock formations. We also visited several times a 3 cloistered nuns from Guatemala that are living in Ayaviri (they are the first of many more that will come to live there because the convent in Guatemala was growing too large.)

Ayaviri