La Virgen María

Being a country with 500 yrs. of Roman Catholic heritage, Peru has many festivals celebrating apparitions of the Virgin María and each neighborhood´s resident statues of her, such as La Virgen de Chapi, Santa María de la Caña, Santa María del Carmen, etc. Recently it was our neighborhood´s turn to celebrate. A special float with a life-sized statue was paraded through the neighborhood and announced with firecrackers that sounded like rounds of heavy mortar fire! Sadly, this is a close as many of our neighbors ever come to worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ in any church.