Spanish Lessons...

Why do spanish programs teach worthless spanish?

I have yet to see a horse here, yet I know "caballo" better than any other word.

Also, I don't talk about people playing the guitar that much, so why do I need to "toca la guitarra" so much?!?

Ahhh, I will never learn!

Maybe I'll meet a guitar playing cowboy soon...?

Loneliness

Last night I ended up getting sick. I ate at a questionable restaurant for lunch yesterday and paid the price. Luckily, I didn't get as sick as some "gringos" that have passed through here, but none-the-less I was fairly miserable all last night and most of the day today.

Even though I was feeling ill, I woke up and headed back to the shanty towns to meet another Peruvian American who was considering working with the CLM. He had just come back from 2 1/2 years in Africa with the Peace Corps. He had a lot of interesting experiences with a tribal village there. His focus surrounded providing basic health care, and as a graduate from Brown in Economic Development, he was fascinated with the operation that is currently underway in his home country.

The guy that picked me up to take me to the shanty towns spoke english, but spanish and portuguese were his main languages, and the Peruvian American we met up with brought his Brazilian girlfriend. So I spent most of the day listening to conversations in portuguese. While the language is similar to spanish, I still had little to no idea what they were talking about 95% of the day.

Today was the first day I really felt lonely. I think part of it was how ill I felt, another part was how lonely it can be when you can't communicate with anyone. For someone who is used to developing a few deep relationships, it's very difficult to have many shallow relationships held back by a language barrier. Knowing so little spanish, I can't really make a connection about who these people are and what they're about until I learn more spanish. It's certainly giving me more motivation, but it's also very discouraging. There are some points during the day when I get frustrated and think I will never learn this language and I end up speaking english to the few english speakers around here.

Political Mudslinging Must End

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=14732


Proposition 8, an amendment to the California Constitution to define marriage between one man and one woman, caused quite a stir both in California and throughout the world. People in Peru have even asked me about this issue!

The issue that should concern all Americans, regardless of where they stand on the issue, is how we as Americans have responded since the Proposition was passed:

• Mormans have been targeted and malicious lies spread about their faith
• Individual donors have been targeted, sent death threats, and have been intimidated over the phone
• Extreme political activists are trying to take away the tax-exempt status of the Church

First, let me say that the GLBT group has faced unprecedented discrimination in the past. There is no excuse for physically, emotionally, or verbally targeting a group with hate. Absolutely unacceptable. Yet, that is exactly what vote "No" supporters are now doing to supporters of traditional marriage.

As a nation, we seem not to be making "progress" here, but rather just shifting power. Instead of learning from the mistakes of actions from the past, an old form of hate is re-engineering itself.

Clearly, this is a contentious issue, with people feeling passionate on both sides, but this win at all costs, even with the destruction of friendships, respect, and faith in this country has to stop.

Most Americans agree that the health of the family is in jeopardy, we typically agree that values and respect are being lost, and even though we may disagree on certain values, we must agree that there is a natural law of principles that we must all adhere to in order to sustain our culture, engage in political debate, and form public policy.

Forget about losing our place as the Global Superpower, if we lose these principles, we lose our civilization.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv72urCWJcU

My first projects...

The last few days I've been working on fundraising for the Catholic News Agency (CNA). I've given myself a quick crash course on this database and jumped right into trying to identify charitable trusts that may fall in line with our mission. It's been interesting to learn how non-profit groups like CNA raise funds and try to grow their ministry. Conversely, it's facsinating to learn how charitable trusts change over time. They typically start out with a well defined purpose and set of principles, but as time goes on, and new generations inherit the decision making, they drift away from what their founder believed in.


After our daily Angelous Prayer, I met with my boss and we discussed a host of strategic items that we need to accomplish over the next year. I can't go into details, but it may include a couple of trips to the US for some "International Catholic News" panels at various universities. Needless-to-say, I have a lot of planning and research to do in order to get these things in line.

I was also asked to use my American accent for a podcast tomorrow. For what? I don't know because I couldn't understand all of the Spanish!

More to come on that...

Also, I found out today that Kobe Bryant is a recent convert to Catholicism. Apparently after his rape trial, instead of his wife leaving him, she forgave him and promised to stay with him as long as he changed his life and re-focused it on God. Consequently, he started going to church and became a Catholic. It could explain his maturity in the last few years...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik1EqpUOe9Y

I ate lunch today down the street at "El Patio," and while I was eating, I wondered, "Hmmm...this juice doesn't seem freshly squeezed...I wonder if they made it with tap water..."

What does this mean? It means I'm starting to feel sick...hopefully my next entry won't be describing my sickness...

Venturing out on my own...

Today I decided to take a little trip on my own. I don't feel comfortable with my Spanish yet, but there's only one way to improve it, practice. I've found that it's acutally easier to speak to strangers in Spanish then it is to the people that see my on a more regular basis. Maybe it's just my pride.

So I walked down the street passed the church and took a little walk down the beach. I've never seen so many couples holding hands, and many of the women had roses that the men had purchased them.

I walked around for a couple of hours, ordered some lunch, and checked out some new stores.

It's amazing how tired I get here. Probably because I'm trying to learn a new language, and my little brain just doesn't handle it well. On the bright side, in four days, I can already tell that my vocabulary is expanding. Hopefully, the next time we speak, I'll be able to do more than just speak simple sentences!

Warning: Non-Peruvian Post "Lies, damn lies, and population control..."

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=14730

I thought this article was fascinating. I bought a book a few months ago entitled, The End of Poverty. This book was purchased because I thought I could learn a few things about erradicating poverty before coming to Peru. One of the main theses of the book was that by reducing the birthrate in developing countries, we can increase their economic prosperity. This could only be accomplished through the use of artificial birth control and abortion on demand.

The book went on to describe how families with fewer children could spend more time working and educating themselves to become more "productive" in the workforce.

While families with fewer commitments do have more time to educate themselves, there are serious consequences to this approach, many of which were predicted by Pope Paul VI in his Encyclical Humanae Vitae (On Human Life).
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html

1. Higher divorce rates
2. Increased domestic abuse
3. Lowerr birth rates
4. Increased unwanted pregnancies
5. Earlier sex and with more partners
6. Increased abortions

A prophetic excerpt from 1968:

Consequences of Artificial Methods
17. Responsible men can become more
deeply convinced of the truth of the doctrine laid down by the Church on this
issue if they reflect on the consequences of methods and plans for artificial
birth control. Let them first consider how easily this course of action could
open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral
standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and
to understand that human beings—and especially the young, who are so exposed to
temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to
make it easy for them to break that law. Another effect that gives cause for
alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may
forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and
emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the
satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom
he should surround with care and affection.

Finally, careful consideration should be given to the danger of this
power passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the
precepts of the moral law. Who will blame a government which in its attempt to
resolve the problems affecting an entire country resorts to the same measures as
are regarded as lawful by married people in the solution of a particular family
difficulty? Who will prevent public authorities from favoring those
contraceptive methods which they consider more effective? Should they regard
this as necessary, they may even impose their use on everyone. It could well
happen, therefore, that when people, either individually or in family or social
life, experience the inherent difficulties of the divine law and are determined
to avoid them, they may give into the hands of public authorities the power to
intervene in the most personal and intimate responsibility of husband and wife.

It seems counter-intuitive to think that something created to eliminate unwanted pregnancies and give more "control" over our bodies, has actually given us less control. What was the rationale of the Supreme Court for legalizing abortion? Since we have legalized birth control, we must offer a "safety net" when "the pill" fails.

Some may read this and note that we have almost 7 billion people in this world, and well, we need population control because we don't have the natural rescources to take care of all these people. Well, that is a real concern, but it's not entirely true! If you have read the book, Made to Stick, you are aware that certain urban legends somehow become viral and spread, regardless of their validity. For instance, humans actually use more than 10% of our brains. If we used only 10%, then brain damage wouldn't be as difficult to overcome.

I encourage those of you who would like to learn more about population control, and the objective approach to figuring out how we can value human life AND live sustainably, to check out this website: http://www.pop.org/

Peru Bus Accident

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/01/10/peru.bus.crash/index.html

The stories of me in this bus are grossly exaggerated. It's deffinitely a sad story, but based off of my experience with Peruvian drivers, I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.

Many of the people here do not learn how to drive like we do when we have a learner's permit. Instead, they buy a car and essentially just start driving. They have to pass a "test" to get a license, but I doubt it's anything like we take.

The most concerning manuever I've seen so far occured when we were at stop light, and when the light turned green, everybody that wanted to turn left, just started going, even down the wrong side of the street. This continued until oncoming traffic decided it was their turn!

The Shanty Towns

So I got my first look at what real poverty is today. The people that live in paloma have no where else to live. They have built their homes on mounds of sand, have basically no education, little food, and no health care. These are not lazy people, in fact, they are extremely hard working and creative with their work. They are very good handicraftsmen!





Water is a huge problem here. They actually don't ever get rain. Don't believe me? Look at the expensive equipment that was donated that they leave outside. There's no threat of rain. They will even leave stacks of paper outside!



I was also able to visit the CLM's clinics. They were incredibly impressive. Unlike in the US, they treat the entire person. All doctors and nurses must be trained to understand the human person as God sees them. What this means is that they don't just treat symptoms, but they treat the person, nurture their soul, and help them to see themself in the big picture of God's creation.

One of the most impactful places in the clinic was the pregnancy crises center. While Peru is a very Catholic country, there are so many people that have no Catholic formation. There just aren't enough workers in the field here to teach and form them. As a result, there's a good of women that get pregnant out of wedlock, and because they're poor they can't afford to have medical care. In response, the CLM set up this pregnancy center.

The pregnancy center teaches the mother at a very early stage about the sanctity of life, explains what's going on, and helps them to understand what an amazing gift this is. Legally, they must inform the women of all their options, and while abortion is illegal here, it is not very difficult to find a private doctor who will perform one illegally. Some women even come to the clinic after a private doctor has recommended an abortion. I'll share one story that I heard today about such an instance:

A woman two years ago went to the state hospital after discovering her pregnancy. She was examined and informed that her baby would not survive birth and encouraged her to abort the child. She was very uncertain as to what to do and by a recommendation from a friend, came to the CLM clinic. They took her in, provided a medical exam, and confirmed that the child would have a complicated birth, but also lovingly taught the mother about the beauty of every life, even a life they may not survive long.

After 7 months, the mother decided to have the child. She had a daughter that survived 3 days, was baptised and named Guadelupe. She asked the doctor and the nurse to be the God-parents and absolutey fell in love with her little girl. Even though the child only lived for 3 days, she praised God for the opportunity to have this child and 2 years later explained that if she had the abortion and later discovered all she knows now, she would have never been able to live with herself. She's now a huge advocate of the clinic!

Other services provided by the clinic is a daycare facility. The purpose is twofold. First, to provide the children with early Catechesis. Second, to give the parents a safe and productive place to leave their children to attend work. I asked if the children begin exclipsing their parents knoweldge, and sure enough they do, but the CLM also provides classes for parents so they can support their children during their development.

Finally, the clinic also provides psychological support for children and their parents. This is a place where parents can bring their children (or vis versa) and have sessions with a psychologist to find out why a child is acting up. They also teach children how to appropriate communicate and express themselves, again with the understanding of what the human person is in God's Creation.

The children I met were extremely well behaved and happy. It was amazing as to how simple this operation was, yet creative and effective! My first thought was: Boy, we could use this in the United States!!