Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

From Lima I wish you all a good holiday season.

I am finally feeling like I am on vacation as my mom and I have travelled to Arica and Lima post-Christmas and enjoyed the beach and the big city. Yesterday, while my mom was resting I just walked around a bit in Lima and all the people and life and energy reminded me how much I love big cities.

Of course, for all their good points, there are also the negatives. As we walked across the river from the center and into an area called Rimac, we were actually approached by a police officer who asked us if we were American and then told us that it was too dangerous to continue walking in that area and we should turn around. Imagine that happening in any American city! Then later, I took my mom back to the area that I had been walking around by myself because it was so full of energy and life (and good street food like choclo con queso - corn with cheese - and papa rellena - stuffed potato), and we suffered the consequences. As we were just walking down the street, someone came up from behind my mom and just grabbed her earings out of her ears and ran off with them. Not too much to do, and my mom handled it well, but it definitely clued us both in to the fact that we need to pay more attention.


We also walked around the center a lot, saw an interesting display of nacimientos in the national palace, bought a whole bunch of odds and ends as gifts for the states, and took a ride at night up to the giant cross on the sand dune right near the center. It was quite stunning to look out over all of Lima, and there was definitely a sense of peace and order on seeing it from so high up. But try to imagine a city of 9 million (bigger than New York), but not build vertically at all. Lima is just a sprawling, giant metropolis. And I think for that reason I really love it.

So, plans from here are to say goodbye to my mom tomorrow and fly back to Tacna to rest up before jumping in to Mes de Mision in Ite (if you can read Spanish: es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distrito_de_Ite). Hope everyone is enjoying the mid winter´s rest and the cold wintry weather!

Happy Holidays!

Even though there has been tons of holiday cheer down here lately (I have been teaching Christmas vocabulary, all the classes have put up their manger scenes - which are the big Christmas decoration down here and they are quite elaborate with all the animals, random buildings, and painted paper for the earth and sky in the background - we had a Christmas mass, caroling session, and paneton - which is like fruit cake - celebration amongst a number of the Catholic schools, etc) it definitely does not feel like holiday season.

I was thinking about it the other day and I think that the mix of warm weather (it is very sunny and warm here around mid day) and the end of the school year (which for my entire life has fallen in June) leaves me feeling very strange about the whole Christmas spirit. That being said, I am not Grinch and am as into it as anyone else. Shoot, I almost ate a full paneton (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0QGbP0pErKWS0-RdXGtCexmPNX7cN9rcbeIVSmPKm9dXYpA7FbLFkVACleoXof4h7UrfctECqPIi-rxWbXCdqKEnfG9WS5grNQy5g0OMVfPWgNx2IcPeesVvSdZOzsRYoIjEVO9ms3IY/s400/paneton.jpg)
by myself the other night.

Last week I also celebrated my quarter of a century on this Earth. The fact that I was turning 25 - halfway done with my 20s - struck me more in the lead up to the actual day. The day itself I passed in really good spirits and with just a general appreciation for life and this experience.

The night before, my host family threw me a little party with cuy (guinea pig) that was cooked how I like it (in this tasty red sauce instead of spread eagle and fried). The day of, I had my favorite breakfast of a yogurt fruit salad, and then went to school where they sung happy birthday, we played games, and I let the kids throw water on me (which they claimed was a Peruvian tradition, but I am a little suspect. It is a tradition to break an egg on the head of the birthday girl or boy, but they did not even suggest doing that). After school, I went to the house of one of the families of my students (actually my two best students) and they had a little birthday lunch for me. Later at night, we bought some beers and invited over neighborhood friends for just a little get together to sit and chat. It was a nice calm ending - exactly what I wanted - to a good birthday that was filled with eating good food. I may have had more picante (the typical Tacna dish made with cow´s stomach) than at any other point in the year down here.

Otherwise, like I said, the end of the school year is coming, so I am planning all my final tests, getting ready for my mom to come down and visit and trying to make sure the transition of Christa and Chelsea leaving and Seamus and Maureen moving in goes smoothly. We are working hard on the preparations for the going away party this Sunday, which will cap a busy weekend as I also will become a godfather of confirmation for one of my students this Saturday morning.

Hope everyone is having a happy (and most likely cold) holiday season in the states!

Photos from October Site Visit

Now you really get to see my reality of teaching in Viñani - so feast your eyes. This is the ¨classroom¨ that until yesterday I was using to teach secondary.










Here is me working with some primary students (fourth graders)












Me with some spellbound fourth graders. I like how it even has a girl nicely raising her hand in the corner. Beautiful teaching picture.











This is me with Meghan (the director, duh duh duh) on the way to my school. This is just outside our house in Habitat.











The COMMUNITY on retreat at the beach. It was a great, relaxing, and enlightening time.

Photos!

This is the cake that they bought for the occasion. I don´t know about you, but I love the taste of the Bible....

















Here is my ahijada with her aunt, Edith. Christa and I were the godparents.

A celebratory reception lunch at the restaurante campestre El Patroncito, with the ¨poor girls¨dancing with the band in the background.

Whirlwind Weeks

This time of the year is notoriously crazy down here and it is living up to the billing. I feel tired (but not down or depressed) and like there is much that I am not finding time to do (my laundry has piled up more so than at any other point in the year and my room could use a very good sweeping).

Nevertheless, I am enjoying life and taking advantage of all the interesting opportunities of life down here in Tacna. The school I will teach at next year, Miguel Pro, is having a camping trip with its third year of secondary students (who I will be going on Mes de Mision with in January) and I am excited to do that with them this weekend and travel to a part of the Tacna province that I have never seen. The school is also having the celebration of their dia familiar on November 29th and I, along with my housemates, am going to take part in the teacher´s dance presentation. We will be dancing this huayno (a traditional type of dance here in Peru): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTbtQG3o2kA

Simply fun.

A Little (Normal) Craziness

The new volunteers (Seamus and Maureen) arrived here in little ole Tacna, Peru on Friday and we spent a fun weekend with them that included going out for a welcome lunch, going to a birthday party, and then capped it off with an introduction to Miguel Pro yesterday morning. I was included in that as that is where I will be next year, and it was very exciting to feel part of something new and all the energy around having new faces and new possibilities.

I also had a wonderful weekend because I was the godfather for the first communion of a close neighbor of ours. During the lunch that we ate at their house after, I felt very calm and relaxed and enjoyed sitting there for hours just talking. I spent quite awhile in the kitchen discussing everything from love to family to cooking with Edith (the neighbor, who also offers the step classes in her house that I go to). She made some chicken in a pineapple sauce (chinese food style) and kept talking about how many calories it had and joking about it being a ¨pecado.¨ She is a wonderfully kind and humble women, and at times it definitely pains me to see these effects of, what I interpret as, low self-esteem. It is quite fun though to go to her classes because when she is leading an exercise class, she turns into a much more self-assured leader. Maybe that is partly why she focuses so much on that part of her life.

Well, the craziness arrived yesterday when I returned to school after having missed some time there on Friday to welcome the new arrivals. I found out that a student (actually, whose name is Jesus, had played Jesus in the stations of the cross that we did, and generally is known as a humble, but good kid around the school) was found to be dealing drugs. The whole story is a long he-said-she-said rumor mill, but basically it seems like he was dealing drugs and one baggie was confiscated from a second year (equivalent of 8th grader) and then the police were called in.

The whole aspect of drugs being dealt within the school and this particular adolescent falling victim to it is sad, but to me the greater issue was in how the school handled the whole issue. I believe it was right to call in the police, but in the impromptu meeting we held yesterday for an hour (while the students had no one overseeing them) was basically filled with accusations, shouting, crying, and at the end, maybe some positive decisions about how to go forward. But there was no discussion about the fact that there is no structure of discipline or plan of what to do in such situations. There was discussion about some of the greater issues we have with letting the students be relaxed (arriving late, entering the school grounds after hours and hanging out in the classrooms, not doing homework, etc), but no progress was made on that front. Also, many of the secondary teachers simply used the meeting to launch personal attacks on others or defend themselves.

I felt moved a number of times to speak, but my opinion is definitely not valued in such situations (even though I have a number of ideas, especially because of the at least semi-successful discipline setups I see at Miguel Pro and Cristo Rey), so I kept quiet. I was also going to make my big announcement yesterday that I would not be coming back next year, but I decided to leave that for another day.

Oh, and then in my after school, extra English class, a fourth grade girl just collapsed on the floor and began to pee her pants. She had not indicated any previous need to go to the bathroom and I just thought she was playing around. I felt really bad for her and for her older brother, but I tried to just help her find a way to the bathroom and then push on to minimize the embarassment.

What a day.

Post Birthdays (Not mine) Update

Yesterday was both the birthday of Cara (my community mate who came down with Nate and I) and my mom. Even though it is a day late, I will officially wish them happy birthday here on the blog (don't worry, I did also do so yesterday).

On of the most striking aspects of celebrating these two birthdays yesterday was how I was struck by the fact that this is the second time I am doing so down here. I realized concretely that I have been down here for over a year. While it has passed quickly - especially when I start to think wow, it has been over two years since I first started teaching, it has been two and a half years since the end of college, the decade is just a couple of months from being over - obviously a whole lot has happened.

As a quick recap for those who have been following my progress this year:
November: Arrive, move in with host families

December: Celebrate birthday and Christmas, old volunteers (I love calling them voluntarios viejos in Spanish because obviously we are so young and viejo is quite a harsh word for someone old here, so it adds a fun bit of sarcasm) headed out, moved into the house

January: New Year's customs and celebrating on the beach, Mes de Mision. Enough said I think (or at least in my mind)

February: Vacation time and seeing lots of Peru, silent retreat in Arequipa, whole community adventure to Puno, going to Lima to get visas, getting excited for school year

March: Beginning of school year

April: Hearing that Father Jorge was being asked to leave Tacna for Lima, Holy Week with Viacruces and solemness (bloody Jesus' everywhere)

May: Hmmm, don't remember much right now about this month except that it was Nate's birthday

June: Waiting for vacations I guess.....but no, I think we had a good retreat in here and otherwise I remember reading a lot of news about it being summertime up there in the States and being jealous.

July: Worries about Swine Flu and early vacations, Jayson's death, getting ¨Typhoid,¨ fire at my school that burned the estera, Peruvian independence day, trip to Curahuasi and Cusco.

August: Extended vacations, time in Colca and Arequipa with Nate, coming back to school and having my classes taken away because of post fire lack of direction at school, day of Tacna.

September: Another bit of a blurry month, but I did return to teaching my classes in a open-aired room with dirt for the floor, the school's anniversary and afro-Peruvian dance classes

October: Reo-Diso retreat at the beach, thinking and deciding about next year, a Halloween haunted house extravanganza, Cristo Rey dia familiar


Obviously, other things happened in here - from trips to Arica (Chile), other very life-giving retreats, and long cold winter nights and days - but I like the idea of doing this exercise and sharing this with you simply based on what I remember. It must mean these specific events impacted my mind and my time here in a particular way, no?

Who knows what this next year will bring, but at the least, I am sure it will be full of similar experiences I will remember for the rest of my life.

ONE YEAR - WOOHOOO

Well, yesterday passed my one year anniversary of stepping off an airplane in the early morning sun of a quiet, humble, patriotic and southern Peru city of Tacna. Actually, I did not feel anything particularly special yesterday. If anything I was definitely having one of those days in which I was yearning a bit for home and the organization and structure of schools (in general) in the states.

I did, however, give myself a little one year present and I went to get my teeth cleaned. The dentist also told me I have three little cavities! I have never had any before in my life, and I most certainly blame eating habits down here. Well, if I were to be honest with myself, obviously it is partly my fault, but the do love their sweets down here and you really cannot say no to anything offered to you. For one thing, it is a bit offensive to refuse whenever anything is offered to you. Also, if you turn down any sweet or food, people automatically assume you are on a diet or are worried about getting fat and will not stop talking about it. But, I must admit, that is a pretty endearing part of the culture down here.

I just wanted to update everyone that it has been one year and that I am still alive and well. The most exciting thing to happen lately was a trip I took with the youth group to do some volunteer work at a retirement home run by some nuns. I really enjoyed talking and interacting with the elderly and I think they appreciated the energy the kids brought, even if the kids were pretty much having a dance party since they had not planned out well what they were going to do to entertain the adults.

More Photos - Yay!

This is a good friend Rosa - who works selling breakfasts at the market near Viñani and who also cooked the wonderful wonderful food for us at the Reorientation retreat. She is a kind, loving woman and this was for her birthday.










Chelsea posing with Rosa while Nate feasts on Arroz con Pollo (which I also ate like three plates of and was amazing).









At the local corner store where we get a lot of our day to day needs. The womans name is Carmen and she is another amazingly kind woman who treats us very well. She also gets up every morning at 3ish to go to the market - and I went with her once in July to see what it was like (I had a lot of fun).







A day of Tacna picture (that is the mayor of Tacna to Caras left) - simply ridiculous the whole situation.












The famous artistas - as Carmen Rosa, my host mother who is to the left - loves calling us. Her sister, Wittis, is to the right of her. I had a lot of fun changing my Cusco shirt to a Tacna Pride one with some masking tape (though it isnt so visible in this shot).

Gringo For Life

I had an interesting little moment yesterday that very starkly made me aware of the fact that I am a gringo and will never quite fit in completely down here (although I do not see this as a depressing thought, but rather just a reality).

I was sitting next to my housemate Christa in the Cathedral as mass was beginning (the celebration was to mark 75 years of a consortium of religious high schools and so the church was filled with people and school kids all decked out in their finest. Each school also had its color guard complete with Peruvian flag and school banner - and these militaristic little units lined the side naves). Out of the corner of my eye, I see the local crazy man (my host mom calls him Tarzan - check out a new favorite of mine that I hear a lot down here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r0n9Dv6XnY - but he is just a sort of odd, roundish and bald loco who can be often seen around the center doing odd things) walking up the side aisle. He was behaving like nothing was amiss and he was simply taking everything in and coolly observing the whole endeavor.

He continued until he came all the way up to the front of the Cathedral and then slowly crossed to the middle aisle and in front of the bishop, who was beginning the mass. As he turned and walked back toward the back of the church, he had about a ten second staring match with someone in the front row. Just as this finished and he turned his head back toward the entrance of the church, he spotted Christa and I. In a loud (almost shouting) voice, he bellowed something about ¨ahh, allí están los norteamericanos mumble mumble mumble¨ (I could not quite make out what he said after that).

I probably blushed and was feeling very awkward. As he continued on his way, everyone turned around or gave us a good stare. In a great moment of realizing I have been making some progress on the culture shock in my 11+ months here, I had to grin just a little bit and take the moment in.

The whole experience served as a good reminder that even though I may feel like I am growing accustomed to life here in Tacna and know more of the ins and outs of the city and parts of its culture, I will always be a little bit of a celebrity or an ugly duckling (depending on how you view the foreign influence) and that is something I must keep in mind.

Back from the Beach and Reenergized

We just finished up our five day retreat at the beach with the two members of Jesuit Volunteers staff who came down to Tacna.

I feel refreshed (even though I could´ve used a little more sun in order to motivate me to frolick in the water a bit more) and filled with new ideas and excitement. We covered a lot of topics (doing a social analysis session, talking about the highs and lows we have felt from the last year, beginning to plan ahead to welcoming the two newbies in November, and spending a day in silence reflecting and for me, writing letters to people at home).

One great moment was reading my application from about a year and a half ago. At first, it made me feel a bit old (I mean, shoot, I am about to turn 25 in December. Not old, but definitely starting to internalize that in no way am I a child nor adolescent anymore). I also laughed a bit at some of the ways I phrased my ideas. Overall, however, it reminded me that I was seeking a program that would not simply give me the space to experience living and working in Latin America for two years, but would push my personal development and support me (through community and through prompts and spaces for thinking about the different ways of living, the difficult stories, the everyday challenges, and the everyday joys that I knew were to come). While I was sitting on the deck of the house watching the waves one morning (feeling good after a morning run and enjoying my coffee and a crossword puzzle), I felt very content with the choice of JVC. Retreats and aspects of the program like this are quite powerful. And after all, who does not enjoy a little r and r at the beach to recharge the batteries.

Also, my application contained a number of little nuggets that struck me. This quote from C.S. Lewis especially jumped out at me after almost a year of ¨experiencing¨ (which I know can be a very broad and general term): ¨Experience is the most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God, you learn.¨

The Coming Storm

The title of the post makes it sound more daunting than exciting, but the next three months are going to be a whirlwind of activity and movement through our humble little Tacna.

First, in the middle of October, our bosses from JVI will be down here to visit. More than an observation, I understand the visit to be a chance to share with them how everything is going, reflect on the past year, and think ahead to challenges and goals for the second half of this experience. We will be going on a six day retreat to the beach, and they will be stopping by for a site visit to my school. I have been thinking a lot lately about this visit and my site in general, and I believe I will be discussing with them the possibility of being somewhere else next year. I do not feel like I recieve enough institutional support (well, its hard to feel that I do when there is not even a director of the school around), which has affected how I view my own projects I have created and the animo I have. I will keep all updated on this front. On the positive side, I am helping to organize the plans for food over the retreat, which will be a medley of Peruvian dishes cooked by an awesome cook and amazingly sweet woman who is a good friend (she sells jello cups at the market near my school so I stop by and talk to her from time to time).

Next, at the end of October, we are going to do a haunted house in our humble abode. Nothing like sharing some cultural fun from the United States and getting to be silly and scare some kids in the meantime.

On November 16th, the two new volunteers will be making their way down here. I am very excited to meet them. Even though I am not so excited to see the old volunteers go, it will be very interesting to see how our community evolves and changes with new faces and personalities in it. As long as I have my early morning times to myself to run, do my crossword, and, on Saturdays, drink coffee, I am good.

December will be probably the most hectic. My birthday is the 4th, Christmas is the 25th, my mom comes on the 22nd (I am incredibly ready to share this experience and place with loved ones in a more real and tangible way than one can simply do in letters, calls, and pictures), and mushed into all that will also be the end of the school year, Nate and Cara´s respective families coming down, the newbees moving into the house after spending a month with host families, and the old volunteers leaving. Wild wild wild. And then comes Mes de Mision all over again.

Wow - its quite a lot even just sitting here early on a Tuesday morning and thinking about it. Well, I am ready for it (even though I was in a little bit of a funk Sunday and Monday) - and keep checking for updates on how it all goes!

Positive Moments

I realized that by spacing my last two blog entries apart so much, it might have seemed like that was two typical weekends. All of that happened over four days, however, that are the biggest fiesta days of the year here because it was the celebration of Tacna´s return to Peru.

Anyhow, I figured I should write about something maybe a little more touching. My school - Santa Cruz - has many issues of control and discipline (it was decided recently that they would hold out kids who came more than five minutes late of the first two hours of class while they wrote ¨I should not arrive late¨ five hundred times), but when there are serious issues at stake, it and the people in charge can surprise me. When it was discovered (though honestly I am not entirely sure) that a girl in first year of secondary was being sexually abused by her father-in-law and her mother did not know, the secondary teachers acted swiftly. They brought in the mother, met with her, discussed how to address it with the authorities, met with her and the man involved in this, and generally just seemed to care sincerely for the best interests of this girl.

I mention this story because shortly after I found out about all this, I saw her one weekend on a crowded bus. She was working as the assistant who opens and shuts the door, who collects fares, and who has to manage everything while the driver drives. She told me that she does this every weekend on Saturday and Sunday. I put it altogether in my head and realized that what I had taken as an attitude of not caring and being lazy when she was in my section for the first semester (she failed and was moved down) was in reality just probably an overwhelming mix of emotional and physical demands. I mean, what 12 to 13 year old can be expected to work all weekend, go through the issues she was facing at home and still have enough time and energy and focus to do what is expected of her in school (much less that of a class like English that is fewer hours and less intense than some others).

Since then, I have made an effort to reach out to her more (not to pry or try to get her to open up, but just to chat and joke), and she definitely seems more cheerful and more involved. I honestly do not know how everything has been settled at home, but I do know that everytime I get a chance to talk a bit with her, she always has a smile on her face. And that gives me more life too.

And the afro dance classes I started taking early last week are super fun (even though I am the only guy other than the teacher). I really enjoy moving my hips a lot, though I have not yet mastered the moving your feet, getting some hip twist and shimmying with your shoulders all at one. Here is a little clip if you are interested in what its like (though not so good quality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv8WDNHfVNE&feature=related

Tacna Day Weekend Continued

Saturday: So although I am posting this long after the fact, it definitely warrants some ink (or computer space?). On this day, I went with my host mother and Cara to the Feritac (Feria de Tacna) that might be basically the equivalent of a state fair, but for Peru. It had all sorts of advertisement booths giving out free nonsense on different products (replete with free samples, but I will get to that later), some stands selling traditional candies and delicacies, a car show (which in its own right was bizarre because it was a car audio show and so it was all about who had the loudest sound system and some of the cars were crap), a horse show (also bizarre), and assorted other things.
We end up getting in because my host mother, who is a nut, goes up to a random guard at a random gate and starts badgering him about how she knows the head of the fair (possibly through some distant, random connection) and has free passes (untrue) and has been walking around the fair forever trying to find the right gate (also untrue). Her craziness/persistence/lack of shame makes things work and the guy just waves us through instead of fighting.
After strolling through the fair and seeing what it had, we entered the big building where all the little stands were. I would estimate that about a fourth to a half were wine, pisco, or ¨healthy drinks¨(everything from coffee liquors to fig wine to the like). We walked around sampling everything and getting a little buzzed off of all the free little shots of the different drinks. Though I did get a tired of trying to pull the ¨I might be interested in your product¨attitude.
Then we go to wait where they are going to have a food festival of different alpaca dishes. Showing her crazy brashness once again, my host mother goes behind one of the tables where the different culinary schools are preparing their foods and drinks and just pretty much steals a couple seats for us. So, we sit there for awhile, and then she starts to ask for samplings of the different foods from the different culinary schools, and most are friendly enough and buzzing too (they were passing around more pisco that they shared with us) that they were totally cool with it.
All of a sudden, next to us arrives the mayor of Tacna (a gordo named Lucho Torres) and he takes his seat right there. We have been thrust into the spotlight as the guests of honor at the left hand of the mayor! And since he was educated at the Jesuit school in Tacna, of course my crazy host mother starts talking with him and before I know it we are all friendly and chummy, he is giving us big servings of the numerous alpaca meat platters he is recieving (at one point, we each got our own couple of grilled alpaca ribs - delicious), serving us wine and pisco that they have given him, and we are being serenated as well by what looks like a fifties washed up lounge singer who is singing ¨typical¨ music for the occasion. By the end of the afternoon, we were invited to numerous pisco sours as well, saw some trick bartending, and basically just had a grand old time. I have pictures to prove it all that I will put up when I can.
Sunday: Birthday of this sweet old lady who cooks breakfasts at the market by my school. We go to her house for wine, a delicious cocktail of some sort and heaping portions of arroz verde (or arroz con pollo) that is simply outstanding.
Monday: The birthday of the communications teacher Rosalia. Needless to say, much alcohol (so much was being pushed on me that was trying to hide the glasses and ended the night with six or seven on the table next to me, all with varying amounts of alcohol) was served, some delicious large portions of food were doled out, and I became a dancing fool. I really enjoy those type of smaller, intimate gatherings that are just good times to share and relax.

Man, was I tired the rest of the week though.

Wild Weekend of Tacna Day

Last Friday marked 80 years of Tacna rejoining the republic of Peru after a little interlude (of about fifty years) as part of Chile. It ended up being a pretty wild weekend because of this, and it almost felt like a minivacation because we stopped with classes at 11 am on Thursday (and everyday I teach from 11 to the end of the day so I missed a lot of class) in order to have a little celebration in the school. Here is a little day-by-day breakdown, with photos to come if I can figure out how to get around the password protection they have put up on these computers.
Thursday: The ceremony at school was definitely a little interesting bit of the whole weekend. The kids mached in with the flag, but dressed up as citizens of the city from 1929. People threw the typical Tacna flower, the bugambilla, and we all sang the national anthem (which I have memorized by now and I am quite proud of). The secondary students read some poetry from famous poets of the city and danced a polka (I have no idea how this became a typical dance of here, but I found it quite funny and enjoyed the way the boys got to just basically rock back and forth while holding their suit jackets). Afterwards, we shared some picante - a typical Tacneno dish that has cow´s stomach in it. Apparently it comes from the time of the Chilean occupation when the Chileans would take all the good cow´s meat for themselves and give the local people the stomach to eat, and so they cooked it with a ton of peppers and a thick sauce to make it less disgusting. Now it is the dish of local pride - funny how that works, no?
Other highlights of the day were a three to four hour school meeting where each person individually talked about their thoughts of how the school has been since the fire (the director made his monthly trip down from Lima and it was the first time he was around since the fire), and going out at night to celebrate a friend´s birthday. The band played 80s rock and randomly at like 1245 a military procession passed by outside on the main street.
Friday: Big old parade that was proceeded by lots of different organizations making these ¨carpets¨ along the parade root. Using different colored sawdust and flowers, they basically made these elaborate designs on the ground (I will put up pictures when I can), and until the big giant flag processed down, no one could step on them (so the first few groups had to crowd the sidewalks and step carefully as they paraded down to the main plaza). The highlight of the parade was a huge flag, followed by all the local politicians - and actually as it stopped for a second by us, Cara´s host family (I was watching it with them) rushed out onto the street
to serve a toast (or brindis as it is called here) to the main characters. Then there were a number of bands and many different groups from all the municipalities. And if one group was parading down without marching, the crowd would literally boo them and get angry (which I found quite humorous).
Also, I saw across the street a friend who had hosted us for lunch last weekend (and used to be in the military and is an older guy with tons and tons of Tacna pride. In fact, the week before at his luncheon, he shot his gun off into the air after singing the Tacna anthem and yelling Viva Tacna), and he shouted ¨Que viva las mujeres tacnenas¨(¨Long live the Tacnena Women¨). He then, using only improvised sin language, motioned to me that I needed to marry a woman from Tacna. He was quite forceful about it and everytime we made eye contact across the parade, he would do it again. He might have been a touch drunk and after seeing him with the gun last week, I figured it was better to just keep rolling with the joke and appease him.
Finally, the parade ended with all the military marching, from the military schools (not so intimidating) to the cavalary (not intimidating to me, but some people definitely backed away from the parade when the horse´s came down) to the commandos all painted up and armed to the teeth (very intimidating to me). I went with Nate and my host family to have lunch and we had some good picante and some delicious arroz con pollo (chicken with rice, but its a green rice that is super delicious).
Ok, so I will finish up the rest of the weekend later since I probably should get off to school now.

Post # 40

It seems like everyday there is some indication of how long I have been down here (now it is going on longer than 9 months). Today's sign is this 40th post of the blog, which finds me in an interesting place. My regular English classes have pretty much been taken away from me - the lack of space as they construct the new classrooms after the fire is pretty much an excuse as I think it has more to do with issues amongst the Secondary teachers and especially how most have some issues with the Peruvian english teacher, Sandra, because she does not have to teach full classes because of me and isn't as involved in the school as most of them are. But we as a community are going to Arica, Chile this weekend for retreat (four days to discuss social justice and spirituality and that excites me).
Before I forget, a fun experience I want to mention from vacations was when I decided to accompany the elder woman who runs the local store we go to in Habitat on her early morning market run. It was my form of a birthday present to her although I was not able to provide much help, but rather mostly just companionship on the early morning chore. I am amazed by her ability every morning to get up at 3 am (yes three in the morning) and go to the big market in town and do all of the shopping for the store. To see this little, elder Peruvian woman running all over this big market to pick up everything from fruit to 800 pieces of bread to lemons to onions to little bags of liquified garlic to the chicken and meat was quite incredible.
Another fun little experience came as a surprise yesterday morning when I showed up to school and found out that the entire school was going to listen to a talk/show about important life values put on by the local municipality government. It was basically a talk aimed for younger kids (complete with a guy on stilts, funny sound effects, clowns and prizes of lollipops), but they did bring the teachers out at one point.
For whatever reason, I was really feeling into the fun and spirit of this whole event and so when they called up the teachers, I was running around getting my students to chant ¨lealtad, lealtad¨(loyalty), I was dancing up a storm during the dance contest and then got really into the prize-deciding contest. As it turned out, this involved one clown pulling out a little frog puppet and making each teacher play a part in this little dialogue:
-¿Te vendo mi sapito? (Can I sell you my little frog?)
-Pero, ¿asusta tu sapito? (But, does your little frog get scared?)
-No, no asusta mi sapito. (No, my little frog does not get scared?)
- Entonces, te lo compro. (Ok, then I will buy it from you)
I got really into doing the acting and having fun with this contest (including asking if the frog was especially scared of gringos). Needless to say, I was a co-winner and just generally had a blast. It was also definitely an ego trip when all the secondary students screamed and shouted when my name was called at the end. I guess in general it just felt like one of those moments when I threw caution or shame to the wind and really entered into the moment and therefore reaped the benefits of the experience. Too bad I did not have a camera.

Tragedies, Typhoid, Travels and Taking Photos

It´s been a long time in coming, but after almost a month long vacation filled with many interesting details to relate, I am finally making myself sit down before the second half of the school year begins to post a life update. Also, as a side note, today marks nine months in Peru for me - I swear I am not counting down or counting up the days (we talk a lot in our community about simply trying to live in the moment), but it is still interesting to realize how long that has been.
So, to begin with the first T: Tragedy. Before I left for a two week trip during vacations, a very sad event occured in our neighborhood here in Habitat. There is a family of three who we as volunteers are very close to. The father, Martin, is a wonderful, McGyver-like, intelligent man who is our main source on Peruvian politics. He goes fishing to the beach with just a backpack of water and possibly some string and catches the bait for himself, and fishes almost all-night long in the water. His wife, Ediht, is the instructor for the step class that I go to regularly and a wonderful, though at times shy woman. She is a character as an aerobics instructor and like her husband and their son, very humble. The son, Jayson, had struggled his whole life with scoleosis (spelling¿) and if he had access to American medical care or was from a wealthier family, when he was young, it probably could have been corrected. As it turned out, his lungs were restricted because the curvature of his spine was so intense and it pained him to even walk the couple blocks to school. The school even moved his classroom down from the third floor because stairs were tough for him. Despite his problems, he was the best student in the school, was wonderful at English, and participated in almost every school event (including the month long service trip they do - mes de mision - where he helped cook and do other chores that he was able to).
The tragedy occured just before we left as Jayson became ill (first with a cold and a fever) and because of complications with his asthma and weak physical state, the illness developed into pneumonia and eventually took his life. To me, as to many, the rapidness with which this tragedy struck was stunning and I was left feeling empty and useless as I tried to process what had happened and also to support the family. The day after his death, his body was placed in the communal building for habitat and there was a all-afternoon and night vigil-wake. The next day they processed with the body to the church, held the funeral service, and then proceeded uptown to the cementary to bury him. Additionally, family and friends helped cook a large meal to serve to all those when they returned from the burial. To see the support and the coming together of the community to mourn and show their care for Jayson and his family was quite touching. For instance, the sudden costs of the treatment for the final days and then of the burial were quite overwhelming for Martin and Ediht, but after a collection was taken, the outpouring was more than enough.
A death is never an easy thing to experience, and for me it was one of my closest experiences with it. My maternal grandmother is the only real close friend or family member who has died in my life (there have been a few others, but none that I was particularly close to at the time of their passing), but I was in Colombia when that occurred and it was sort of a drawn out process with her weakening physical condition that it did not strike me in the same way. I still haven´t sat down and thought about all that I felt and saw (for instance, seeing Martin lead the pallbearers with his son´s body from the church is an image that will be etched in my mind for a long time), so I will keep thinking and writing about this probably.
A second tragedy (I promise, things get better with this one) was that half of my school, Santa Cruz, burned down. I found out early one Thursday morning during vacations that the estera (the bamboo-wood classrooms, which included the English classroom we had) had burned down in an overnight fire. I went to the school that morning to see the black and charred wreckage of about 8 or 9 classrooms. But immediately from the start there was hope as the local government officials arrived with many promises and there were bulldozers already on the scene ready to begin the work needed to make it ready for the start of school. When I returned this past Friday, I was standing in the entryway with the janitor-handyman and a hefty, important looking official arrived. He began to tell us how everything that was needed to complete the work was on its way and then he said goodbye. I later found out that that was the Mayor of Tacna and that the unfinished classrooms were being repaired and other prefabricated ones were going to go up this weekend to have the school ready to open tomorrow. I will see how it all turned out when I show up tomorrow, but the school could actually end up better than before vacation as these prefabricated rooms look better than the estera and they are finishing two of the cement ones as well. I heard that the news of this fire extended far across the country in the press and so the pressure was quite strong on the government to respond.
Phfewf, this is an epic one. Ok, on to Typhoid. Also in the beginning of vacations, I developed a very high fever one day (it reached up past 104 degrees) and had some extreme chills and weakness. When I went to the clinic, I had a blood test and the doctor noted that my white blood cell count was low (which I guess is not your body´s normal response to most viruses or infections - since it usually rises to fight the invader). The doctor called in the internist, who kind of did a whirlwind check and told me that I had Typhoid. In retrospect, his inspection was probably not thorough and they did not actually put me through the whole test for it (which at the time I didn´t know could be done). They did prescribe me some super strong antibiotics that I had to have injected into me with big needles (this kind nurse in our neighborhood came over to do it at night, though with the final injection, she had to stick me three times and cut up my arm a bit before she didn´t realize there was a piece of glass in the cotton that she was using to clean my arm - but let´s not harp on the bad, she was incredibly kind to me). Within a day, I didn´t have any more fever and I rested for the following four and a half days before going on my two week travels. I felt like I was ready to travel and was all fine, though a number of people expressed concerns to me that I should rest more. In retrospect, I had no issues during my travels and in general I think I probably had some sort of bacteria, but not typhoid (which does not start or go away that fast and is almost always accompanied by stomach troubles). But I will get a follow up blood test to make sure something else wacky is not going on, don´t worry.
Travels - so, I might expand on this later because I am feeling a bit tired out and my wrists hurt, but I will give it a short recap now. Nate and I visited the towns and cities of Urcos, Anadahuayllas to the south of Cusco, Cusco, Curahuasi to the west (where my host father is from and still has a lot of family), Arequipa (the white city) and Colca Canyon (which they say is longer and deeper than the grand canyon). All in all, we meet a wide range of incredible people who were very generous and incredibly welcoming. Whether it was the Jesuits in Urcos and in Arequipa or the more distant members of my host family in Curahuasi and Cusco, it was amazing how people accepted us into their homes and treated us as family without any second thoughts or complaints-grumblings. And because of this, I felt like I really got to know more of the country and definitely got to see some of its incredible views in the Andes of Curahuasi and Colca (where we saw some of the emblematic condors). I also got to see some guinea pig cooked, but through the whole process. In Curahuasi the kitchen area where we hung out and talked with the family was filled with them and one night they killed (by snapping the necks), dehaired, gutted, cleaned, filled with a stuffing and cooked eight of them. Even after seeing all the nastiness, they were still delicious.
Nate and I also got to bond and share a lot - from long bus rides overnight, to slowly sipping a good black beer in a bar overlooking Cusco's main square, to doing a ton of walking everywhere, to marveling at the attitudes and acceptance of the people we met along the way. He has a very affable, easygoing way about him that was wonderful to have as a traveling companion to mediate my bad moods and to simply at times walk around the new places to observe and soak them in. We had very few moments of high stress on the trip.
And now to give you a little sense of what it was all like, I have a good treat: pictures!
After climbing back to the top of Colca, Nate and I decided it was time for a picture together. He is standing in a very classic Nate pose.











So, this picture is terrible because you can´t see my face, but wonderful for the view of the plaza in Arequipa and the mountains in the background. This view of the beautiful city comes from the top of the Jesuit church just off the plaza.









We just had to stop at one of the little houses with a red flag flying from it in a small pueblo about 30 minutes from Cusco to try the chicha. It is a very typical beverage which is alcoholic and made out of maize. Only thing that can be said for it - the second and third sip aren´t nearly as bad as the first.







The world famous condor with the view of Colca Canyon in the background. When we arrived, there were five or six and though they are quite majestic, I was a little underwhelmed. But shhh, don´t tell the Peruvians.









After we climbed to the top of the hill (it was quite high up and also had an amazing view) next to Curahuasi, I set my camera on auto and got a picture of us four trekkers together. The girl and the little kid are part of my host father´s family who so warmly embraced us in Cusco and Curahuasi.

Twice in Two Days?

Yup, I am at it again to give everyone a little vacation update.

Today was a nice and relaxing day (instead of a community dinner, we had a brunch and then went over a halfway point in the year evaluation, and then I watched The Pianist - which was a lot better than Up. I saw that one last night and just thought it was real out there), and I am looking forward to vacation being along the same lines.

The big highlight of the two and a half weeks that I suddenly have will be the service trip I am going to help chaperone from the 24th until the first. My housemate and community mate (I decided to add community since it is much more than just living together down here - it is intentionally building community and supporting/challenging each other) Nate works at a much wealthier Jesuit school here in Tacna and is continuing with doing an alternative volunteer break trip with a select few of the fourth and fifth year of secondary students. This year, they are going to some small towns just south of Cusco for the week and I will be helping Nate in leading the trip. Though it is not a Macchu Picchu/sightseeing trip, it will be a great opportunity to get to see more of this wonderful (and at times confusing and frustrating) country, to continue to serve, and to bond with Nate some more. Should be a blast.

It also seems to be the vacation of birthdays as the older women who owns the store here in Habitat we always go to is celebrating her birthday tomorrow, my dads birthday is Friday, my host aunt is Saturday and my host mom is Monday. A funny side note on that is that all three of the women are named Carmen (in some form) because it is also the time of celebrations of the Virgen of Carmen. I find that very interesting for some reason.

Box of Chocolates - Peruvian Style

Wow, so life has definitely been a bit of a whirlwind down here lately. Though in retrospect, I feel like I am only fooling myself when I try to pretend that life could be normal and mundane here. With the cultural differences and challenges, every day offers its own little surprises and twists and turns. Because just like a box of chocolates that my family might send from the States (thanks for the packages - and I definitely do enjoy sharing American goodies with everyone down here) - you never know what you are going to get.

Ok, so whirlwind tour of whirlwind week:
- Last week, I was asked by my housemate Chelsea to accompany her on an errand that ended up being quite the experience. To put things as simply and straightforward as possible, a fifth grade girl marked that she had been sexually abused, which opened up into this whole realization that she was basically being treated like a slave by her father-in-law (who doesn{t like her to eat anything because they are poor and any food should be for his kids), has been left alone for long stretches of time, and has suffered some real serious physical abuse at times. Chelsea had the unenviable task of first getting a neighbor to take in the girl for the night and then going to tell the mother that the girl was not going home and that they were beginning procedures with the state for her to be taken away. I was the hired muscle to provide support. The meeting with the mother was overwhelming to me personally - at times, I wanted to believe and buy into her grief, at others I thought she was crazy, and in general, the gravity and the sadness of the whole situation just sort of seeped into me. Anyway, it turned out legally that the girl had to be at home to start legal proceedings against the family (go figure) and so she had to be taken back home the next day. At 3:30 that morning though, I was woken up when she came knocking to our door saying her mom had threatened to move with her and she was scared. Now, she was taken away by the state but is in an orphanage/foster home that is also for kids who have committed crimes and had serious behavior issues. Just a sad, sad story.

- Then, this past Friday, Alan Garcia - the president - decided suddenly that Swine Flu was such a concern here that vacations needed to be started early. But apparently it was not enough of a threat to actually shut down the schools right away (today was our last day). Basically though, it seems to be a political move. There have only been two deaths in all of Peru because of the flu and there have been a bunch of strong strikes lately since this month ends with the independence day celebrations and apparently everyone uses the flag for their own causes leading up to it. If you are curious and can read Spanish, here is a bit about it: http://www.perupuntocom.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=15357
Oh, and I will update what my plans are for this estended (though only by a few days) vacation when I firm things up.

- Lastly, our community went to the beach to a nuns house for a retreat this past weekend. There were about three dead seals on the beach (apparently they get killed by fishermen and just end up on the beach). It was real good because we had a chance to relax and work out some community things that had been causing tension lately. We also had a funny moment Saturday when we were playing a game called Phase ten and drinking a little bit of chilean wine. The five of us had forgotten to bring glasses with us, so our cups consisted of a bowl, a sport water bottle, an empty coke zero bottle and then the two halves of a plastic water bottle that I had cut in half with a knife (one side having the cap as the bottom). It was quite the little toast. The other neat part of the weekend was that our friend from habitat spent the night out on the sand fishing and camping out. We went to see his catch and him clean up in the morning and he was explaining to us all about fishing with nothing but a net and some string (he catches his own bait by grabbing little crabs at night). He clearly is the man to find in the case of the apocolypse, the collapse of the financial system, or a paralyzing strike (not so inconcievable here).

For You Dad

In talking with my father recently, I realized that there are at least some people out there who read these thoughts, musings, and stories, and so it is probably worth it to keep it high on my priority list. Plus, what excuse do I have not to post since it was a three day weekend for Day of the Teacher (though it seems mostly like an excuse for a day off and a lunch/dance party - which I took advantage of on Friday to integrate more into the community of teachers at Santa Cruz and to wave my American flag with pride) and there is a high likelihood of a strike tomorrow or Wednesday by the transportation workers here?

Anyway, the story I feel like relating would also be something I imagine my Dad appreciating, so I felt this post would be aptly dedicated to him.

The other day, I was putting up an exercise on the board to with my fourth grade of primary students. I wrote a number of sentences with a blank, alongside the instructions. The instructions were to ¨Put a number in the space¨(I use the word space instead of blank often because it looks exactly like the Spanish espacio and so I feel like it helps boost their understanding of cognates).

All of a sudden, I see this one little child, Ivan (who is quite sweet and good natured, though he gets distracted often), gasp and start to look around at his classmates. I quickly realize something is wrong (I have learned to read students faces and my own mistakes quite quickly) and take a second look at the instructions. With my slightly messy handwriting, I had almost united the first two words of the instructions so that they read ¨Puta¨ instead of ¨Put a.¨ Anyone who knows Spanish will immediately realize my error, and for those who don´t, let´s just leave it at the fact that I had pretty much written a serious bad word.

I quickly erased the a with my hand and went through the instructions one more time to try to focus the students. Though that saved the day, I couldn´t help but giggle to myself and make a mental note so save this story as a good one to relate about the pitfalls of teaching across languages.

Elaboration

To elaborate a bit and to fulfill two of my promises, I figured I would take advantage of a lazy Sunday after my youth group (we talked about upcoming encuentro juvenil activities and the order of the liturgy - and things went smoothly, which was nice after the group split in two because of my other two co-leaders not being able to work together).

So first of all, the Fiestas de las Cruces in which my community mates did the whole dress-up-and-dance-with-a-group (see picture) thing was an incedible experience. On a side note, incredible is a word I catch myself using a lot here (increible). Anyhoo, it basically involved them dancing for long stretches of time (but the morenada dance is a very easy and not so tiring dance), all of us recieving food and bastante beer (at one point, a truck pulled up an unloaded fifty cases of beer that someone was giving as a gift to the padrino of the party. What I really enjoyed the most was the spirit of camaraderie and sharing that penetrated everything. People just had fun, talked for long hours, danced, watched others danced, listened to the band and just generally enjoyed life. The darker side I guess would be that drinking within this context is not just to enhance the enjoyment or to be social - for many, it is to get to the point where they are no longer in control of themselves. This leads to such problems as drunk driving - I, for example, tried to stop a random guy I saw getting on his motorcycle and tipping back and forth as he tried to drive away. I failed in preventing him from driving off drunk, though my friends said they saw him the next day (so at least he survived).

On a little bit less of a mixed note, Chile was a great trip and I loved getting a new stamp on my passport (it helps my little jokes that I am making my way south down the continent - the first country in SA that I ever visited was Colombia, then Ecuador, now Peru and Chile). Arica is right on the beach and has the aura of a beach town. The houses are all low and many are brightly colored (in some ways, it reminded me of Florida in this sense). It has its huge supermarket - and I later found out that the chain is in fact owned by Walmart since this past January. It has a nice strip right in the middle that is closed off the cars and ends in a McDonalds and Blockbuster (oh my god!). I shared the experience with Nate and my host family, and we probably walked over five miles all told in the day (wowy). But it did finish with a stop in an artesanal ice cream shop where we had some sick dessert and cracked open a bottle of beer - which was a great relaxing way to end the day.

On a last, completely random note, this song has made many many many appearances in my life here recently. I´ll leave it to you to figure out: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1328k_boy-george-karma-chameleon_music

Photo Promise - Check

Here is one of the girls in my community (Christa, Cara and Chelsea from left to right) dressed up for their Morenada dancing. This was the big ole block party extravaganza.









Here is a photo from incredibly westernized Arica. Starring front and center are Nate (my other housemate and fellow sports fan) and the Famosa Carmen Rosa - my host mom. She is loca, but oh so wonderful.

Teaser

It´s been a long time since I have last posted and now I am just posting to say that I will post about everything that has happened - I promise.

But for a short, short update before running off to school:
- Participated in Fiesta de las Cruces in Natividad, which is basically just a big block party with lots of food, drinking and dancing (very fun)
- Had a strange experience at a Quinciañera (basically a sweet sixteen but for when you turn fifteen)
- Went to Chile (and walked everywhere with the crazy host mom)
- Learned a ton about the Peru/Chile War
- Saw Peru lose again in World Cup Qualifying....though they do play Colombia on Wednesday
- Taught a whole bunch
- Tried unsuccessfully to mend a feud in our youth group that has now led to a split (nooooooo)
- Am learning to love guayaba (though this is in French, at least it will give you an idea: http://ia.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guayaba)

I also promise pictures are on the way.

Random Moments in Life

This morning I was really torn when I woke up. I could go to Miguel Pro, use the internet, have a slow start to the morning, and then show up at school with enough time to plan and get ready for next week. Or I could go into the center and be there for what was explained to me as vaguely some ¨thing¨going on in the offices o the bishop. All I knew was that some of the kids from school were going, I was asked if I could help, and there was somehow some vocational fair involved.

Well, the vocacational fair almost scared me off - I am often enough here mistaken for a brother or a priest and so did really not feel the need to be recruited to be one - but my sense of responsibility and generally just being more involved in life at the school convinced me to go. It ended up being a great decision because when I arrived, I ran into our of our students who had come from school by themselves to participate in a contest on the ten commandments and other catheticism (spelling?) related subjects. Actually, it was like a city wide test that also had an oral part and some pretty sweet prizes attached to it.

Anyway, these students had no idea what was going on either and I realized that I might be in over my head or might have to take more control/responsibility than I had previously assumed. As they were called up to sign in and register, I went up with them and was berated (the woman did it kindly, but it was still a beratement) for the students not having their official documents and not having an officio saying I was in charge of them and was over seeing them. While, it was news to me that I was overseeing them and I sure as hell had no clue what was suppossed to go down, but with a little questioning and playing dumb, I was able to convince (well, she probably just took pity on me and the students) the woman to let me write out a permission slip of sorts. Well, the Peruvians love their formality and their beauracracy, so I felt pretty small when I returned with a hand written, two line thing claiming I was in charge and had been put in this place by the director of the school. All of the other papers I saw came fully decked out with official stamps, stationery of the schools, were all a page long, included the numbers and important data on the participants and the overseer, and just generally were very official. I had to laugh to myself.

In the end it all worked out and the students were able to enter, but it pretty much is par for the course down here and as soon as it happened I immediately felt like sharing. And then I got off the bus early on the way to school in order to chat it up with these incredibly nice ladies (who were the cooks for the big retreat last year and sell little sandwiches and gelatin outside this fairly large market), who kept trying to stuff me with free shredded chicken or tunafish sandwiches.

I arrived at school about ten minutes before class - not quite what I had imagined when I woke up. But I was in good spirits and had a successul and happy day. When it comes down to it, what more can you ask out of life?

Weddings, Mother´s Day, Grupo Femenino Bolivia = Fun

You will all probably be glad to know that while I have been very busy lately, it has not simply been a work fest (although the wide variety of English classes I have been teaching definitely keeps me constantly thinking and planning the next one. I actually find that the way I am able to handle the load - I mean, essentially I teach 9 different levels/situations - is to use similar concepts, ideas, and even at times worksheets, but to tailor them to the specific level I am teaching. I feel like this works very well and I am slowly becoming an expert on teaching certain topics that keep arising, such as commands in English). This past weekend, I definitely got to have a lot of fun and take advantage of the windows into Peruvian (and other) culture that life down here affords.

First Thursday. At night we went to a concert for this Bolivian folk/rock group that is composed of all women and was in town to celebrate Mother´s Day. It was actually a real blast and was held in the old Municipal Theater in downtown Tacna. The concert left such an impression on me just because it was such good music, it was definitely a cultural experience (hell, the singers even chose to drink the Peruvian Inka Cola over water when they needed a hydration break), and just some great moments, laughs and songs to share with my community. If you are interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n1fRj2lUvQ

Saturday night we went to a Peruvian wedding, even though I personally did not know anyone from the two couples who were getting married (a brother and sister were both getting married, so they held it jointly). It went all night long - though we left at 3 am. The dinner was served at 2 am and the progression of alcohol was from a chapagne toast to pitchers of this fruity mixed drink, to pitchers of Pisco sours, to pitchers of wine, and apparently later there would be tons of Whiskey (oh boy). But what I really enjoyed was just all the fun dancing and good spirits - though Peruvians really are sticklers for the dancing only in two lines.

The rest of the weekend was mostly Mother´s Day celebration stuff - which definitely made me miss home and my own mother in New York a lot. Down here it is quite the big deal and is celebrated in schools and in workplaces on Friday and Saturday as well. I also remember the International Day of the Woman being a much bigger deal down here and I wonder if because it is such a macho society in today´s modern world that these ¨holidays¨ which would offer some recognition to all that women do do in this culture have become days of great importance. Or maybe they just love their mamas (not mamacitas - though it was fun to make that joke all of yesterday).

Weather News

Maybe not the most exciting topic, but does dominate life down here a bit and as I am missing the United States a bit more lately, I can only nostalgically think about the fact that spring time is blooming there and we are getting all cold and overcast here.

But basically, as we move into the Peruvian winter in the desert - lest I need to remind you we are technically in the driest desert in the world here - it is freezing at nights and in the mornings, but if the sun comes out in the day, it gets pretty hot still. The sun is the real x factor as it is very very noticable when it comes out, but there is also no such thing as a weather forecast down here and people never actually talk about what temperature it is.

This has left me having to guess each day on what I think the day will turn out to be. Yesterday I definitely guessed wrong and taught my classes while rubbing my arms or warmth. And we have still yet to experience the ¨rain,¨ in whatever form that will come....

Yesterday´s Moment

There are a lot of noteworthy moments down here, and a lot that make me stop and think. Sometimes these small tidbits leave me pondering something deep and profound and sometimes I just have a chuckle or smile about the differences in culture that exist in this world.

I am still not sure where yesterday´s little moment falls, but it makes an interesting little story to relate. To begin, the center of town here is filled with casinos, but these casinos only have slot machines (alas, no craps tables - which might be a good thing most of the time, but definitely is an impediment to my attempts to lure my college friends down here). Apparently it is mostly Chileans who come up to use these when they come to town to shop and eat the good Peruvian food.

Anyway, yesterday I was walking home after a pretty successful day and a good extra English class that I offer afterschool on Monday and Friday afternoons. I saw two fourth year students huddled around this little machine that is outside one of the internet places out in Vinañi. I came over to them to say hi and saw that they were intently focused on this machine, which had some weird Pokemon drawings on it. I asked them what they were doing and apparently it is some sort of kid´s slot machine (with real money pay outs and all). As I was starting to think about how weird I thought it was in the middle of this deserty area, with houses made of estera and tons of poverty and what not, to have a slot machine just out on the sidewalk (well, there is no sidewalk - out on the side of the dusty dirt road with garbage all over it), the kids were trying to convince me that it was not a scam and you really win money.

When they actually did win one sol and began - goodheartedly - to shout for joy and bicker over the 5 twenty centimo coins that came shooting out, I had to go.

Take out of it what you will, but it definitely left a mark in my memory.

Community Time

I realized while thinking about something to post today that I haven´t talked too much about my community or the type of things that we do all together. It is an important part of why I chose to do JVI and is such a prominent (both for better and for worse - well, not worse, but at times a struggle) part of life down here, that I feel like I should share a bit.

Every Sunday night we have community night, and that can range and include from playing a game like Spinners (a really fun form of dominoes), to going over house issues, to talking about some interesting issue with some informational prompt (like when we watched a documentary on immigration and discussed it), to simply checking in with each other on how we are feeling and doing.

Every Wednesday night - though with the business as the school year has reved up, this often changes around - we have a Spirituality night. Last night, our in country coordinator - a Jesuit named Father Dolan - came over and we celebrated mass with just our community. I really enjoy those little celebrations because we get a chance to share our own petitions, ask him questions about different parts of the mass (I had not realized before last night that the symbolism of the mixing of wine and water was that they can never be separated once they are mixed). We also sometimes do guided reflections or discuss some issue of spirituality. It usually is just a nice time to relax and reflect a bit - and again, to share in community some feelings and thoughts.

One of the nice things about stressing these times and community dinners (we have three a week in which all five of us committ to being there to eat) is that when the conflicts or little issues arise, we have enough of a foundational relationship of trust and understanding that usually we can discuss the problem from a positive place. For instance, if there is an issue with dishes being left in the drying rack and not being put away or not being cleaned all the way, it is brought up and discussed and usually resolved (though maybe not perfectly). Obviously there are other times when the issue might be harder to discuss or it might brim beneath the surace, but our desires to support each other and the bonding that we have shared definitely helps it all out.

On a different note, I had my second adult English class in Habitat this past Tuesday. Adults are definitely a different challenge to work with (and I am finding that a lot of the interesting resources like worksheets and fun activities out there, that I can find at least, are for children). I am still sort of nervous about the classes - mostly I think because I try to think how I will fill two hours of time - but I am starting to feel like I at least know what my group of students will be like (a little consistency) and what their levels and interests are, which definitely helps.

Another little tid bit - I went on retreat this past weekend with Cristo Rey, which is the wealthy school with which I did Mes de Mision. In the middle of the retreat, as a little exercise, the priest in charge (who happened to be Fr. Dolan) asked the kids if they wanted to continue with the retreat. No one responded and after some awkwardness and a lot of silence, eventually half of the kids did end up leaving. Whoops. I guess it shows that there are spoiled kids and kids who don´t want to be involved in school communities/personal formation everywhere.

A Little Story

I found this little story funny the other day. I was in the library at Santa Cruz (which means I was in the room with two book shelves of books that also serves as the director´s office, the storage room, my and a number of teacher´s lunch room, and at times the movie viewing room since the tv´s stand does not have four function wheels) and decided it would be a good idea to pick up the Mario Vargas Llosa book they have to get in a little Peruvian reading.

Little did I know that this book, called ¨Eulogia de la madastra,¨ was his foray into erotic fiction. The story was about a mother-in-law who ends up having sexual relations with her husband´s pre-teen son. Additionally, random chapters go into the fantasies of this husband and wife pair - covering everything from ancient royalty (a particularly wierd chapter in which the king bets his right hand man that his wife´s but is better than any of the man´s slaves) to abstract art on the wall. So, anyway, it was a quite bizarre read and I felt a little awkward walking around in public and reading from it (it didn´t help that the cover has a picture of a naked women kissing a little cherub angel - which should have been a forewarning I guess).

Well, so here I am, self-conciously reading this book and walking along the side of one the long roads without a sidewalk (and probably the inevitable likelihood that I will be hit by a car or maybe just a motortaxi) and with tons of trash and dust along its edges, when a fellow walker passes by me. All he says to me as he passes is, ¨Hey, Gringo, leyendo la biblia, eh?¨ The man must have thought I was a mormon - which I feel like I get.

This erotic Mario Vargas Llosa book is about the farest thing from the bible that I can imagine, so I had to have a good laugh. Maybe you had to be there though....

Photos - Yay!

The overnight caminata (hike) that we went on. We climbed this big sand dune and the sun was just rising and this was the amazing view (check the post below for more info).








This is what I did for five hours in the sun and dust on Friday. I pushed the megaphone cart (which was loaded down with stuff) as we did the Stations of the Cross across the whole neighborhood. You can see some of the youth group members dressed up as they were doing the acting at each station.








Yes, they actually put the kid playing Jesus up on the cross. But he did a really good job - very focused and very somber - especially for a five hour walk. He is a great kid who I have seen really come into his own since I got here. And his name is Jesús.








One of the stations at an altar set up by the local community association. It was really unique to me how these were done and some were quite pretty and especially noteworthy amid the estera, polvo and poverty of Viñani.






Not the best lighting (nor the best picture of me), but from left to right this is Andres (who played Pilate and is in my first year of secondary class), Juan (who is a good friend and the librarian of the school - though he kind of does a little bit of everything. He and I and a sister lead the youth group), and Eduardo (a fourth-year student who is Jesús´brother and another real cool kid. Their family is also extremely, extremely poor).

Holy Week

This week has been a real whirlwind affair and even though yesterday and today are feriados (holidays here), it certainly does not feel like it.

I will begin with last weekend, when I found myself sleeping in the Miguel Pro science lab in order to wake up at 3 am and walk with the entire school above fourth grade on a five hour hike/Stations of the Cross. It was actually a great experience as I was able to know some more of the kids, spend some time hanging out with Martin (who is the father of a student and just generally an awesome, McGwiver - spelling? - like figure who knows a ton about different crops, Peruvian politics, how to fish with nothing but some string, etc.), and witness a great view of our part of Tacna from the top of a big sand dune that we climbed at the end of the walk. I promise I will put pictures up since it was so neat. After we did the second to last station at the bottom of the hill, the woman running the show just told the kids to basically go wild and run up the sand dune. It created a massive, chaotic, and very cool free-for-all as some ran, some walked, many complained, and all made it up to the top, where we did the last station.

Today I have a big Stations of the Cross walk in the community where my school is. Basically the youth group that I co-lead was put in charge of doing this and each little neighborhood community takes charge of one station and we walk from one to the other and at each station our group is doing a little acting out of the scene. It should be a very unique and community-building experience, though it does mean three hours of walking out in the sun and dust of Viñani. Don´t worry though, I will put on massive amounts of sun block and will wear a hat.

We actually did a similar - though much shorter - Stations of the Cross at school on Wednesday. In typical Peruvian fashion, it was bizzarely organized (each class did a station, but they only came out to do their station and then when it was lunch time and we were still going, all the little kids were released anyway and so you had little tykes running up to Jesus as he was on the cross or playing tag through the entire procession that we teachers were trying to keep somber and focused). I did not find the whole experience so religious, but it was nonetheless fascinating for all its little cultural and community aspects.

Also, of big note down here has been Fujimori´s conviction recently, which I will go into further detail at some point since it is fascinating, but is a little too much for right now. So, I will just leave you now with this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/world/americas/08fujimori.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=peru%20fujimori&st=cse

Good Days and Bad Days

So, I played a big ole April Fool´s joke on myself Wednesday (even though I didn´t even realize what day it was until the afternoon). I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and with a mindset that it was just going to be a tough day.

Needless to say, it was a self'fulfilling prophecy as it ended up being one of the roughest teaching days I have had so far. I guess what really bothered me is that I feel like I have done a really good job so far with being patient, dealing with issues with students after class, and generally recognizing when a class is going array and steering it back on course.

On Wednesday, though, I just felt like I snapped a couple of times and could really feel the frustration bubbling to the surface. I know those type of days are bound to happen, but I am definitely going to try in the future to be aware of my own moods from the outset of the day and realize that it will take extra work and focus to handle what might be a long day to push through. And after having these issues on Wednesday, I do think I did a bit better on Thursday, when I woke up also a little out of sorts, but really tried to have patience both with myself and the students. My classes did not go perfectly, but I didn´t give out any snap punishments and at least turned those curve balls that came my way into singles if not home runs (by the way, I cannot believe that the baseball season starts this weekend - in some ways it feels like it has been super short and in others super long since the last season ended. And it blows my mind to think the yankees and mets will be opening it up in different stadiums. Someone please go and send me some pictures - though I will be super jealous).

Oh, on a sports-related note, this past Sunday Peru, who cannoty make the World Cup, played Chile and lost 3 - 1. The defeat definitely hurt national pride and there was even a movement to boycott the national team´s next game because they had played so badly. Ouch.