Harbaugh first visited Piura in 2009 after hearing a friend describe his own experience with the Most Blessed Sacrament Parrish there. The 49ers coach has been going back ever since, and he even missed a rookie minicamp -- gasp-worthy when it comes to control-freak NFL coaches -- to go this year. He used the word "transformational" three times in a recent interview in describing the effect of the visits.
Asked how he's been transformed, Harbaugh hesitated a bit. "In some ways, it's a little uncomfortable talking about it," he said. "The scripture says, 'Don't let your left hand know what your right hand's doing,' you know? On the other hand, it's so good. It's not only been a great experience for me but my friends that I want to tell people about it. I feel like I should share this. I'm lucky to participate and be surrounded by so much good."
Harbaugh goes with a group of friends - contrary to what he's said in the past, he has several - and each of them sponsors a child in the town north of Lima where 60 percent of the population lives in poverty and 20 percent is in extreme poverty.
In Piura, Harbaugh is known not as Jim but Diego. He's not sure if it's because Diego is Spanish for James or because during his first visit was decked out in University of San Diego gear. He said he was being taught how to build houses during that initial visit when the locals started calling him by his alternate name.