A Short Update

As the month of Halloween, the unofficial start of the Christmas season down here (I only say this because the delicious dessert of panetone - like a good fruitcake - has made its reappearance on store shelves) begins, there are many updates to bring. Right now, we have a week of vacation between our third and fourth bimester, which I am taking advantage of to visit many people, reconnect a bit with the school I taught at last year, and share some photos with you all.




So, firstly, in the middle of September, I went on a camping trip with Seamus, Maureen, and my homeroom of 27 16-year-old kids. It actually ended up being a whole lot of fun, though it was a little rough because we were sleeping in our sleeping bags on cement and trying to get that many kids to do stuff is always a bit of a struggle. I am putting up a couple photos so you all can see what the town was like (its called Locumba, and was actually celebrating its feast day, when lots of people do a walking pilgrimmage there to touch the state of Nuestro Señor de Locumba. That is why there are lots of tents). There are shots of how the kids cooked our food (on an open fire on the side of a street) and how we slept too.
One funny moment - at least in retrospect - was when the students pulled out boxing gloves on Friday night. As soon as I told them I was going to take them away, they started whinning and complaining and trying to tell me that I was sucking all the fun out of their campamento. They also made the argument that they would just end up fighting anyway and hurt each other much worse (that reason almost made me laugh). But outside of that, there were very little problems and some of the kids came up like champions (one was out in a blazing sun for three hours frying all the chicken over an open fire on Saturday for lunch). I think it really is those outside of class moments, especially when certain ones really shine, that hold the most meaning for me with the kids.















This shot is of the Cubas family, who I have become really close with over me time here. One weekend, they took me to the bosque - basically like a big municipal park (and really the only one in Tacna) - to see the zoo and pasear (which basically means hang out). They are very special to me and it will certainly be very hard for me to say goodbye to them in December, though I know we will remain in touch.











As part of the celebration of Dia de la Juventud (youth day), my school did a kite contest with elementary school kids that I was able to judge. It was a blast to see all the families out there in the sandy pampa trying to get their kites up. Some really suceeded, though a lot of the best ones ended up losing the kite as it flew off into the wild blue yonder.

Physical Education in Peru

So, right now, all the rage in our school is the drill routines that all the classes of secondary and 4th, 5th, and 6th grade of primary have been preparing. Drill is basically rhythmic gymnastics and is absolutely hilarious to watch: http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoYr-p1Y67A. I don´t mean to mock it at all (especially considering I do step areobics http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmqZ_okcTfM with Edith - the mother of Jason, the student who died last year - at least once a week), but it is quite funny to watch.

I think the best part of it is how into the kids get. Their final performance on Monday will pretty much determine their physical education grade, but whole classes of students have been out on the streets of Habitat for hours after school practicing. It really has taken over here at school.

On a wider scope, the October 3rd elections have really come to dominate local discussions and local radio. Besides the flags and posters up all over the place, many of the campaign songs (simple remixes of all the current big hits) can be constantly heard and very often their are parades of the different canidates going through the center.

Elections here are very interesting - on the ballot, for example, they do not even put the canidates name, but simply their party´s symbol. These symbols range from a single letter to a number to a characterture of the canidate himself (the guy running for re-election as mayor of Tacna simply runs on his personality and so is known as the Gordito Simpaticon. He doesn´t really have any other platform than a subtle ¨you can´t help liking me, can you.¨ Check out his video, which has many shots of Tacna. Also, the big guy dancing in the background is the canidate: http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=2cJBO8k3QOs).

As a volunteer and foreigner, I don´t take any stance or support any canidate, but it is a little disheartening to hear the way many Peruvians see their political system: as one of corruption, manipulation of the voting procedures, and the buying of elections. Additionally, there is not any stable political party system. One interesting point, however, is that everyone must vote (if you don´t, one of the ways that get you besides a fine is not allowing you to make any bank transactions). I haven´t decided yet if I feel like that is good to make voting obligatory, but I definitely feel that it has wide ranging effects, especially when there is such confusion with a plethora of canidates.

Any thoughts from those out there?

Tacna Day 2.0

This past Saturday was the 81st anniversary of Tacna´s reincorporation into Peru. Down here, each city gets together a big celebration for its day, and Tacna´s is especially intense considering its patriotism and civic pride. In both my years here, it has been a really enjoyable time to share with the people of this wonderful city.

This year, the festivities included a parade filled with dances and floats (my housemate Cara danced the traditional Saylla - she had almost roped me into doing it too, but it is an intense dance, so I stayed away from this one), an actuacion at school that had everything from kindergarden kids dressed as stuck-up, early 1900s folk to a procession with a big Peruvian flag to a marching contest (that my fourth year students were very upset to lose) to a sharing of traditional picante (made with cow´s stomach - not very appetizing, but the dish´s flavor is good), a Daddy Yankee concert (that I attended. Quite simply, it was a lot of fun, even though I am not a big reggaeton fan and they had separate entrances for males and females that meant I had to wait on line by myself for a long time), a parade down the main street with a humongous Peruvian flag (held only by women, since they were the ones during the years under Chile´s rule who celebrated in secret), and some more picante.

Then, as a community, we took a trip down to the beach for a four day retreat on social justice. It was a great chance to relax a bit, talk about issues of justice that we see (particularly the treatment of women in Peruvian society - though we did get into the different cultural and societal contexts that affect our views of such issues too, and how we have and use privilege as white, relatively wealthy Americans) and enjoy each other´s company.

Anyway, I´ve added some photos of the fun to give you all a little more of an idea of all the fun over the last week.

Cara is dancing in the back right of the group. This picture was also right before they grabbed me from the sidelines and pulled me out on the street to dance with them.

Though this kindergardener is a little odd in class (she will randomly scream nonsense), she was absolutely adorable dressed up for the actuacion. I had fun imagining that all the drama of the reincorporation into Peru really went down amongst 5 year olds dressed like this.

My tutoria of fourth years starting their march (very militaristic) for the contest.

The big Peruvian flag going down the main drag. It literally takes up the entire width of the street.

This is one of the ¨alfombras¨ that they make out of flowers and different materials on the morning of the parade. No one can walk over them until the flag passes down.

The Peruvian commandos who later paraded. Can you spot the camo one?

The community on retreat. Relaxed and renewed.

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.