News - Prelature of Ayaviri - Bishop Kay Martin visits Sandia

Ayaviri, August 16 - These last few days Bishop Kay Martin has been visiting various villages in the Regional Vicariate of Sandia. Sandia is the easternmost province of the Prelature of Ayaviri. A large part of its territory is jungle and it shares a border with Bolivia. In order to reach this beautiful province the Andes mountain range must be crossed.

The visited began with the village Cuyo Cuyo where the Bishop had a cordial meeting with the Parish Council and was shown the parishes facilities. He later visited Sandia, the province's capital where he met with the region's priests, Fathers Leonidas, Venancio and Gabriel, with whom he discussed the Vicariate's social necessities, problems and possibilities. The following day Bishop Kay Martin got to know this provincial capital of 12,000 inhabitants. He visited the hospital where he was present at a confrontation between villagers from Queneque and their mayor. Both the Bishop and the Parish priest, Fr. Leonidas sought to calm the crowd's unrest which was fuelled by a small number of agitators. Thankfully the situation didn't escalate to violence and all were calmed after a few hours.

Later in Masiapo the Bishop visited the Corpus Christi parish where he conversed with the parish priest, some locals and then visited the Association of Coffee Workers and the village school. He lastly arrived at the village of San Juan del Oro where he met with the mayor and discussed diverse aspects of the village's reality.

On the way back to Ayaviri Bishop Kay Martin stopped in Cuyo Cuyo to celebrate the Eucharist with the parishioners. With the completion of this trip, our Bishop has now visited the majority of the parishes in the Prelature.