Donated items for Padre Roberto's parishioners

Parishioners of the Prince of Peace Parish churches in Lewiston have generously donated numerous rosaries, icons, prayer cards, crucifixes, and other items for us to bring to Padre Roberto for distribution to his parishioners. This photo is a small sample of the items collected.

Pictured here helping sort out donated items being brought with us to Bolivia are seated on the floor Martha, Madelyn, and Jen. Rob is standing. Seated on the sofa are Betty, Matt and Norm. Diane was sorting in the other room and Larry took the photo. Sorting and packing through all the items took the group over 45 man hours. We filled 9 extra suitcases. Yikes!

Meet the staff. A team beyond compare!

Pictured here is Father Robert Lacasse, OMI. Known to his parishioners as Padre Roberto. Raised and having attended schools in Lewiston, Maine, Padre Roberto is the founder of the Santa Cruz Soup Kitchen. It can be said he is the "Founding Father". During the school year he makes every effort to have lunch with the children at the soup kitchen. Next year Father Lacasse will be celebrating his 50th Jubilee as a priest. He hopes to come back to the Lewiston area to celebrate.

Also, sitting at the table with Padre Roberto is Sister Lida, the administrator of Santa Cruz Soup Kitchen. She is in charge of buying the needed food after she and Dona Benita plan out a menu.

Dona Bonita, serving beverages, is the Santa Cruz Soup Kitchen cook. She is also in charge of planning out the menu with Sister Lida and keeping inventory. She was instrumental in helping Padre Roberto furnish the soup kitchen.

Sister Rose, in the background serving the children has also been instrumental in helping Padre Roberto with the organizing of the soup kitchen. She helps Dona Benito with the cooking and serving.

Preparing for our visit to Cochabamba!

In 2006 we were invited by Fr. Roberto Lacasse to visit his parish in Cochabamba, Bolivia. It sounded like a great idea; soon to be a great reality. We are leaving for Bolivia on August 1st and returning to the States on August 10th. Hopefully, we'll post daily updates so you can follow along on our journey.

Little did we know the challenges we would face in coordinating such an undertaking.

After many months of planning and promoting the trip; we are nine traveling companions who have been bonding and anxious to share the memories of our upcoming adventures. Our group will be introduced as we move along.

Betty, God bless her, has tirelessly researched and coordinated what we had to do and get in order to be able to travel to Bolivia. She found we each needed a passport, visa, and several vaccines from yellow fever to typhoid and more. She also researched who was authorized to give these shots and provide travel papers.

Our biggest fear was not being able to get our visas on time. Until two years ago one did not need a visa to travel to Bolivia. Finding out what the Bolivian Consulate's office required and providing them with the necessary information was a challenge for us since for most of us this was a first. Fortunately, Madelyn, who has had traveling experience with these issues joined our group and has helped put our minds at ease.

Asking for donations of religious items from the Prince of Peace Parish churches the response has been overwhelming. This Sunday, the last Sunday before departure, we are getting together and sorting through the many items. We hope to have photos showing some of your donations.

Padre Lacasse has been busy on his end finding accomodations for us. It sounds like he has quite the itinerary for us.

This week will be busy packing, sorting and preparing.

Comments, Observations and Why?

I thought I would add a few photos of Cochabamba outside of the Santa Cruz soup kitchen to give you an idea, although only a small one, of how different life is from ours. Although poor, hungry, and having limited clothing, the people here are very happy and proud. They are not materialistic as we are because they haven't been exposed to luxuries and spoiled like us. In a way I envy them for not knowing the spoils that surround us. Isn't it sad when we worry about whether our Ipods, cell phones, computers, cars, etc... will function and yet so many in our world, including here in the U.S go hungry and without basic necessities. We have learned to block it out. We have become desensitized to people hurting and starving.

Here in the U.S. we have programs and resources which help a little. Unfortunately they don't solve or eliminate the problems completely even though we like to try to convince ourselves that they do and therefore we don't feel the need to get any more involved in helping our fellow neighbor, because the government will take care of them. We also have those who like to bleed the system and not help themselves.

In places like Cochabamba, Bolivia there are no resources, programs or government help. The help they receive is from each other and us through church programs. The following are photos of the street life in Cochabamba. Note there is no refridgeration for the eggs, fish, poultry, pork and meat.

One observation was that of a man sitting on the sidewalk selling fish. The fish was placed on a tarp on the sidewalk while he sharpened his filleting knife on the curb.

You will notice that most merchants sitting on the ground and many of their items are on the ground level. Some did have a stool or other small chair if they were lucky.

Another observation we all made is that there seems to be plenty of food for sale and plenty of people to consume it, but very little money to purchase the food. Where does it all end up? Rotting? Wasting? Why?

The people we met at the Santa Cruz soup kitchen did not waste anything. They even salvaged the bones from the chicken after we ate.

The purpose of these photos is not to exploit or embarrass anyone, but rather to show the need for all of us to care.

You can double click on any photo to enlarge it.