Funny Little Story

This past weekend I went to visit Vinañi again because I had not been out there in awhile. Though I went to the meeting for the youth group I worked with all last year and through the beginning of this one, only one of the kids actually showed up. Mostly, I chatted with the young nun who runs it, and she was very excited because she will be travelling to the United States. Specifically, she will be going to Manchester, though I found it quite funny that she had no idea which one (nor does she speak English).

As I was walking around out there, however, I passed by two kids working on building a house with their father. One of the defining aspects of life in Vinañi is that there is always construction and improvements happening. Although a very poor area, it is incredibly dynamic and every time I go it feels like it is growing and developing. I have never witnessed such a rapidly transition before.

Anyway, I thought I recognized the two children, but I was not a hundred percent sure. So, I sort of smiled at them and was going to just pass by. As I was walking right by them, however, I heard the older one whispering to his brother, ¨Es el profe.¨ The younger brother, in turn, responded, ¨No, no es el profe.¨ Maybe three or four times they went back and forth like that, arguing in hushed voices. As I was about ten yards past them, I couldn´t resist turning back and shouting at them, ¨Sí es el profe y buenos días chicos.¨ I turned around, smiling to myself, and heard the older one say ¨Ya ves¨ (basically, ¨You see¨). It immediately brightened my day and sent me off in good animo.

I love little moments like that.

Vacation Recap

As I mentioned before, vacations passed with some real excitement and great travels. I spent an incredible amount of time sitting in buses (probably around 60 hours total - not to mention the bus and train ride to and from Aguas Calientes at the foot of Machu Picchu), a lot of time drinking good coffee, hours having good conversations with Peruvian friends and with my mom, and ate a lot of good food. Here is more or less how vacation went down.

For the first few days, I organized my life, relaxed a bit, and generally just spent time with a lot of people here in Tacna. I visited the wonderful Cuba family - most of whom can be seen in the photo. They are simply wonderful, life-giving people who always make me feel like I am amongst extended family. Their two children, Jorge Luis (next to my mom) and Yessenia (third kid from the left), are absolutely wonderful and truly feel like my little cousins that I try to be a mentor to. Also during this time, we had the front of our house finished with a layer of cement by the local handy man, Capacute. It was fun to spend the day chatting with him and helping out a little bit (or as much as I could). The best part was how in the beginning he simply flung the cement willy-nilly against the wall (though this did lead to the jambing of our keyhole.

A few days later, I left for Arequipa, Peru´s second biggest city. I have visited there a number of times, and this was mostly a chance to get to visit my extended host family there and get out of Tacna a bit. I had a wonderful conversation with my host cousin, ate some good, Arequipeñan food, and got a campaign shirt from one of my host family members there who is running for office this October. His little symbol that you mark on the ballot is a smiling pepper (one of the great aspects about being here for the elections is seeing all the different symbols. Everyone pretty much has their own political party - except for APRA, which has been around for awhile and to which Alan Garcia, the president belongs. And each of these parties have an accompanying symbol that you mark on the election ballot. They range from a little tree, to a smiling water drop to a potato).

From there, I went on to Lima to meet up with my mom. I was in Lima early in the day, and so spent some time wandering around and then took a bus that took me all over Callao (Lima´s port) before reaching the airport. I have to say again how much I love the energy and movement of Lima, despite all its hecticness, traffic and crowds.

With my mom, we spent the night in Callao to be a bit more rested and then made our way down here to Tacna. Basically, I had to teach on Monday and wanted to show here my classes and Miguel Pro. Even though she woke up on Monday feeling a bit sick to the stomach, she gritted through it and we had a wonderful time especially in my primary classes as we sang songs, and played little games for the chocolate she brought down. Some of my students even made little cards for her that they gave to her at the end (very adorable even though, as I joked to my mom, that meant that they were not paying complete attention in class).

With my mother, I travelled again to Arequipa and then to Cusco. We only spent a few hours in the former, but that was enough time to have a meal overlooking the stunning Plaza de Armas, enjoy a good good cup of coffee and the accompanying conversation, and buy a little Ekeko doll for each other (it´s for good luck: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekeko).

Cusco was the main part of the trip and especially our two day adventure to Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu. But before we could even get there, we ran into a paro, or strike. Our bus simply stopped at about 4 in the morning and through the mist and fog, all I could see at the time was a line of stopped vehicles. As the hours passed, we came to find out that a bridge up ahead was being blocked and though the bus company assured us we would pass through in a few hours, there was no certainty and many people from other buses were getting off and walking.

My mom and I decided to wait it out and about 7:30ish, they finally told us that we were going to be let through, but that we would have to get off the bus and walk across the bridge before getting back on. The bus stewardess was very nervous, didn´t know what to tell us to do with our valuables and kept saying that sometimes they throw rocks and to be careful. Needless to say, this in turn worried me. But in the end, it was fine and they simply wrote some propaganda on the front of our bus and we made it through.

In Aguas Calientes itself, there was not much to do, but it was all worth it to get up to the top of Machu Picchu early the following morning and see the cloud cover move off and the sun rise. To me, that was the most spectacular moment of our trip up there, and you really felt a sense of something surreal or mystical. Later, the sun emerged, shining brightly and strong.

Machu Picchu is quite an incredible place, both for the architechture and history, and for its simp awe-inspiring views. Not to be missed, for sure.

Other than that, we spent most of our time in Cusco talking, enjoying the Obligo (bellybutton) of the World as it is called, and eating some good food. We stumbled upon a food festival with live music, sought out some falafels since I had a real hankering for one, and as I mentioned before, drank some good good coffee. My mom also sampled nata in the market on Sunday morning, a food that I had never heard of before down here in Tacna. Basically, they take the cream off the top of the fresh milk and spread it on bread (it sort of has the consistency of cottage cheese sort). It is all the breakfast rage up there in Cusco.

After saying goodbye to my mom in the airport, I took an overnight bus back to good old Tacna. I still taught my classes on Monday after arriving in the bus terminal at about 7:30 in the morning. Seeing my mom, visiting Peruvian friends, and enjoying this great country, however, left me with lots of energy and animo, and I plan to use that boost to take advantage of this second half of the year!

Back in Business

After a busy couple of weeks of being on vacation and covering most of the southern part of the country by bus (to Arequipa, to Lima, to Arequipa again, to Cusco and back to Tacna), I am finally back in the swing of things here at school. I will write a little recap of the travels, of seeing Macchu Picchu, of having my mom visit again, and how I feel looking ahead to my final months here, but for now I wanted to just make sure to let everyone know I am fine and back with lots of energy.

Also, I uploaded a number of photos with some captions to whet the appetite on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=13802227&v=info#!/album.php?id=9313&aid=2310124.

Unfortunately, that´s all for right now before my fingers freeze (its quite chilly - and definitely not Chile - here) and my classes start, but I promise more for later.

Time Flies When You´re Having Fun

The last month has simply blown by. Between hosting visitors (the wonderful group from University of San Fransisco, former Tacna volunteers Dermot Lynch and Brad Mills, a month-long volunteer from Santa Cruz), watching and endlessly discussing the World Cup (kudos to Uruguay and Sanchez - the played truly like they had their heart in winning, and the refereeing has been terrible), and going on retreat with the community to reflect on our spiritual lives, June and early July have been action packed.

I have gotten to spend some wonderful time with my collegues when we celebrated Dia del Maestro (which, as a teacher, was nice to have a day of teacher appreciation). We also had a mass in which Father Fred (who has been here in Tacna for over fifty years and done some amazing things, like found Miguel Pro along with the best school in the city, Cristo Rey) addressed some important words to us educators about giving our best for the kids and always striving for magis (or the more, the better).

In community, we recently were sent the game Apples to Apples and spent some time at the beach bonding over its wonderful silliness (its a game in which you have a number of random nouns and must match them to adjectives), while also reflecting on how we can be fishers of men. One session I particularly enjoyed involved drawing a boat to represent ourselves and then its net being composed of positive qualities about us that the other members of the community see within us. We also rewrote the beatitudes for ourselves - a great way to digest a really wonderful and positive text from the Bible.

Lastly, having ex-volunteers come visit has also reminded of the incredible life, energy, and openness of some of the Peruvians I have had the joy of getting to know. It has inspired me to refocus myself as I come to the halfway point of this school year on enjoying and developing those unique relationships. These friendships - that at times do feel like they become falial bonds - connect despite the cultural divide. And for me, personally, I am uplifted thinking that in a foreign country and missing the comforts of a washing machine, a super market, health food, etc, I can feel at home and that there are people who care for me and want to share with me simply because I am me.

World Cup Fever

So, I´ve been teaching all my classes the meaning of fever as I have clearly come down (along with a true case of throat nastiness) with some World Cup fever. It is very exciting to be in a place where all the kids and teachers are so excited that they find every little moment and way to watch what they can (I had some kids today during recess run into the room I was teaching and then hold a cord up in the air for 15 minutes - for some reason that made the TV work - to watch just a little of the Spain and Switzerland game).

I personally have been sacrificing sleep to get up at 5:30 to run before the early game and have made some grand and somewhat clever plans to work it into my own classes (especially since the next United States game will be during my fourth and fifth year class). These include having kids announce the game, do exercises using the past tense with passages about what has happened, and teaching the song Wavin the Flag (which I have also become addicted to). I saw one of the primary teachers I work with teaching about conflict resolution using a giant picture of Zidane´s headbutt from four yeard ago. Pure brilliance. Anyway, I am open to any and all ideas - I LOVE HELP - to incorporate this even more and spread my fever.

Oh, and I watched the entire game against England this past Saturday with a mixed group of American high school kids (a volunteer group from Arizona was down building a house), their host families, and our neighbors. It was so exciting to share that with everyone while eating lots of popcorn and canchita (basically popped corn kernels, but of the bigger, more solid type). The Peruvians have definitely taken on the United States to root for (despite my students jokes that Slovenia is going to win on Friday) and in turn, I have taken on Chile as a new team after being invited to wake up and breakfast at 6:30 this morning with our music teacher/pastoral director extrodinaire.

Go Team US!

Just Visiting

As the summer descends on the Northern Hemisphere, it means the start of cold and damp weather (not fun) and of all the different college and high school visitors (more fun) down here.

Next week, a delegation from the University of San Francisco will arrive to do different teaching through dance workshops as well as organizing the painting of a mural on the outside wall of the school. Two of the coordinators have already arrived. With them, today we are busy organizing the kids to do drawings of what service means to them and then we will also put up the primer coat of paint to have everything ready to go when the muralist arrives in town tomorrow.

Also next week, a high school group from a Jesuit school in Arizona will arrive to build a house out in the invasions on the outskirts of Habitat. They will be staying with families here in Habitat (who are very excited to recieve them) as part of their volunteer experience.

The plethora of gringo visitors is a wonderful boon and boost to us Jesuit volunteers down here. As I have mentioned before, being able to share this experience and just in general connect with people from our own cultural and with similar values helps us to step out of the every day routine in which one can sometimes become stuck. Whether it be discussing American politics, striking aspects of Peruvian society, or simply life plans, these visits definitely remind me both why I am here and to take advantage of this unique time in my life. Additionally, having some graduate school of education professors and students amongst us (the two coordinators that are currently here are professors) has offered some great new perspectives and ideas to apply to the classroom.

So, all in all, its an exciting time right now despite the coming onslaught of winter. Hope you all are enjoying your toasty days up there.

Peruvian Cultural Fun

While admist an impressive stretch of birthdays (Saturday was that of a 10-year-old student of mine from last year, Yessenia, who has an incredible and welcoming family; Sunday the lunch for our school psychologist, whose actual birthday is today; and yesterday we celebrated with an ex-JV volunteer who has been down here for awhile with her husband, J. P., who was a Peruvian volunteer a few years ago) a fun Peruvian cultural experience surprised me yesterday.

When I arrived at school, the fourth grade teacher came looking for me and began to ask me about my schedule. Uh, oh, I thought, she was going to ask me to take over her class today. I don´t mind helping out a collegue at all, but this particular class can be a bit movido (all over the place), especially when their regular teacher is out or their schedule is thrown for a loop. Any anxiety, however, was for naught, as she asked me if I wanted to be the judge for a contest.

I jumped at the opportunity - I love interacting and being involved with my students in non-teaching (or rather, non-class hour) activities. This particular contest turned out to be better than I could imagine as the teacher had done a contest with the class for Day of the Potato, which had come and gone this past Saturday with little fanfare in my life (too many birthdays, I guess).

When I arrived for the event just before lunch, I was stunned to see that each student (32 in total) had prepared a dish made in some way with potatoes. The culinary variety (almost assuredly prepared by the parents in probably 95% of the cases - one or two unintentionally funny students even mistakeningly said something along the lines of ¨my mother fried the potatoes¨ when we asked how they prepared it) included different types of pastel de papa http://imagenes.mailxmail.com/cursos/imagenes/5/3/pastel-de-carne-y-papas_24935_1_1.jpg, papa rellena http://peru-recipes.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/papa-rellena-stuffed-potato.jpg, causa https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqlnnJU4NMbw-fLQTu4qOJlxhNn3lea96vRaj0M2jvG2BtUeISpbPFIOP4-vXy94i7AgmoBnq4eX3_1LQ-7jLoS4iNAy-GX0X9R8wvMiGuU5wwWXg4hzXPxuIuHexxKZlTf1vkgy4g3Inf/s400/causa-peruvian-cuisine-01.jpg, and many more.

As the judge, I listened first to a short explanation of why the potato rocks as the nutritional base for any meal (so many varieties and so many vitamins!). Then I had to judge each student in three categories: presentation, exposition and flavor. I sampled each and every plate. Oh, to be a food critic! Though in all honest, I don´t have the palate for it and yesterday I think I gave almost everyone at least a 5 out of 7 in flavor because I was too happy and enjoying myself.

The two joint winners turned out to be the first and last dishes, which were a papa rellena prepared with much detail by the daughter of the school cook (hmmmmmm, surprise surprise) and a pastel de papa that went along with its rocotto relleno (which is one of my infrequently eaten, but favorite dishes down here....). Also, as more than half of life down here focuses on food (those Peruvians love their food and are quite proud of it as I have noted before), I of course went from judging this contest straight to lunch.