Veinte de Octubre

This morning I went with Fr. Ken and Dennis (a Maryknoll Lay Missioner) to mass in one of the rural cepillas (chapels) on the far southern end of town where the Quechua are busy buying land, community organizing and claiming their way of life in a little village called Veinte de Octubre. The mass itself was at a little chapel called Nueva Vera Cruz and the small gathering of people there reminded me very much of Oglala's Our Lady of The Sioux on the Pine Ridge Reservation where I used to go to mass . One thing that stood out to me was the Our Father song Nuestro Padre. This was sung (in Spanish) to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence." I am told this is a popular Latin American tune to set the Our Father to!

Ken is living with a Quechua family to learn the language and plans on moving into a home of his own in the up and coming community of Veinte de Octubre. The community is a gathering of Quechua people (with a few exceptions like Ken) who are coming together to buy their own pieces of property for the first time and begin lives as people and families with their own community leaders, community organizing and of course, Quechua cultural values. This is a photo of what the new homes look like right now. (Many people have not yet moved in as they are trying to get electricity hookups up and running.):


The houses are simple structures of brick and I think mud, and the people are very proud and happy with their new homes which have an outdoor latrine and often times a fence of some sort.Veinte de Octubre is situated pretty high up the mountain and without running, the people must venture down to the bottom to wash clothes, some bathe, and bring water back up the mount. Community organizing efforts initiated by the Veinte de Octubre community saw to it that a foot bridge was built to connect the community to the outside road leading into Cochabamba. (There is no vehicular bridge across the river which meant the the taxi driver who brought Ken, Dennis and I to Veinte de Octubre backed up for a running start and then gunned the little 4 door sedan we were riding in into the water...water came about 3/4 of the way up the car and poured in the driver's side window....I thought we were in for, but somehow we drove out of it...albeit a little wet.)
These women are friends of Ken's that he has grown to know well from living in their community. They teased him terribly about his poor Quechua skills although they spoke Spanish too, which makes me wonder what teasing they must have had for my pronunciation!

This is the one room school house that was being used for elementary school children. It is situated a little lower on the mountain and many children walk 30-40min. (downhill) to school and then return home (yes, very steeply uphill) in the afternoon. A new school is in the process of being built by a Spanish Jesuit (forget his name) which will be a more spacious and sound structure. Once the facilities are complete and teachers are lined up, the state will fund the school.

The Quechua community are a happy community living very simply but with much pride and much laughter. The community organizing efforts are strong and have proven to be effective with the recent foot bridge addition as well as the promise of electricity hookups being available soon down the road.