San Franscisco Beyond the Equator

Hello, and welcome back
to Peruvian church week.

This Fransiscan church in Lima has survived
earthquakes across three centuries.
Most memorable were the catacombs
beneath the church
with bones out in the open,
femurs and skulls and such.
My visit was, oh, ten years ago,
but if memory serves me
the bones were not sorted by person
but by type of bone.

My south Georgia relatives
would have been agog at the sight.
In south Georgia,
you mummify your relatives
and carefully place them in silk lined boxes
and bury them within concrete underground vaults.

Burial is really about culture
more than anything.

I kind of like the idea of getting all stirred together
with the rest of the community of faith
and stored in bins underneath the church.

My old guidebook notes
that there are roughly 70,000 people
laid to rest in the San Fransisco catacombs.

In south Georgia, you can share a graveyard,
but your plot is a space reserved for one.
We're such an individualistic society,
even in the way we bury our dead.