Happy Birthday Andahuayillas

Friday December 19^th is the official anniversary of Andahuaylillas. This year the townspeople celebrated the 100^th anniversary of their town. As my father asked “How can a town with a 500 year old church be only 100 years old?” As far as I can tell, this year marks 100 years since Andahuaylillas was officially incorporated as a town. For the theater buffs out there, it's when this town went from Almost, Cusco to Andahuayillas, Cusco.

The celebration lasted two days. On Thursday night there was a fireworks display. There were fair style games all over the plaza. We JVs played a ton of fusball with some little kids. It cost 50 centimos to play a 5 point game. We spent over 10 soles as a group.

On Friday morning we lined up on the side of the plaza to march and represent the parish. We were dressed in green ponchos with silver trim that made us look like resevre members Slytherin quidditch team. When we first put the ponchos on, we were told it would be a quick wait before we got going. A quick wait turned out to be 2 hours standing out in the hot sun. Finally we did make the 35 second journey across the plaza and our duty was completed. We had fried trout for lunch and I learned how to eat the cheek of a fish. There was live music almost constantly from the mid-afternoon until six in the morning (we were all home by 11).

It was a lively two days filled with a lot of fun. It was another opportunity to see just how many people from the town the current JVs know and are friends with. I'm sure the anniversary will be even more fun next year when I know so many people. 

Happy Birthday Andahuayillas, ad multos annos!

Image Credit

PS-I have pictures that I have taken mself on my camera, including a cool shot from the side of one of the mountains, but I'm still having trouble uploading them. If I find a way to smooth uploading out, I'll post my picutres.

Christmas in Andahuaylillas

I'll be staying in my pajamas all day tomorrow so I'm posting Christmas greetings today. A very happy Christmas to you all. Whether it's a big day to you or not, I hope you spend it eating good food and enjoying the company of people you love. Here's what Christmas looks like in the Southern Andes of Peru...

Pooping In Peru

WARNING: This post is a bit of a (literal) shit-show. If the idea of expelling solid waste from the rear end of the human body is offensive to you, it's best if you just stop reading.

Language: El Pollito Pio

Language is something I have an amateur interest in. While I've never formally studied linguistics, I find language and its development very interesting. So occasionally I'll have some posts tagged "Language."

The next two years will be what I call an "inter-lingual" experience. My life will be conducted in the languages of English (at home with other volunteers) and Spanish (at work, outside the home, and even at home if we have guests). Hopefully there will be a smattering of Quechua added to the mix (if you haven't heard of Quechua before it means you didn't read the FAQ section. Busted!). This inter-lingual life is normal life for many people, especially for immigrants and their children inside the United States. There's a lot to learn from it, and sometimes the ability to understand things in different languages allows new ideas to develop, and lets you notice things you never noticed or considered before.

For example, language informs not only how you say things but also how you hear them. Did you know that the animals sounds children learn vary by culture? I don't mean by animal. I mean the same animal makes a different sound depending on the native language of the child you ask. Ask most kids in the US what a rooster says, they'll tell you "cock-a-doodle-doo!" Ask a Spanish-speaking child what a rooster says and you'll get a very different answer. This video shows you what most of the barn animals say in Spanish.*

*I know the whole video is in Spanish, but I don't think it should be too hard to follow. 

PS-Pollito Pio is a hit on youtube. If you missed the lesson in elementary school, there's an English version of the video here.

Rain, rain, come and stay...but not all at once

I was discussing my thoughts about rain with my host mother last night, and she expressed yet another view of the reality of rain. In this area, if it rains too much at once, it can create a mudslide, because there is little vegetation to hold the dirt down. These mudslides can be very dangerous and can destroy houses, even houses of conrete.

Just another example of how differently we can view the world depending on our reality.

Home Stay Has Begun

Yesterday, I moved into the city of Cusco to begin my two week home stay with a Peruvian family. As I said before, home stay is an opportunity to get to know a culture in a more intimate way than just living near locals. In a home stay, you have to follow the daily rhythm of the host family.

My host family lives in a small 2 story house that they only recently had built. It is located up the side of the mountain from Cusco, so it does not feel like being in the city, but there is a beautiful view (pictures to follow when I can transfer them to my laptop). They don't yet have running water, so there is an outhouse, and it's bucket showers if you want to bathe. The area isn't on the electric grid either, so the neighborhood association has pooled money to buy a generator that is shared among the houses, so there are electric lights.

Despite the lack of modern comforts, I wouldn't choose anywhere else to do this home stay. My host family could not be kinder or more generous. The family has done everything it can to make me feel at home. The father has taught me a bit of Quechua while he cooked, the mother let me choose what was for lunch today (arroz con pollo), and the brother gave me his bed (I told him he was like my sister in that regard). And, every single member of the family has told me to tell them if I have any issue and to do what I like. "Esta es su casa!" they tell me.

Their hospitality is almost overwhelming. They seem to be the kind of hosts that I aspire to be. I've only been with them a day, but I expect that I will keep coming back to visit even after my time here is over.

4Values: Social Justice

I remember the preacher saying “Catholic ain't easy.” I think that the Catholic value of social justice is the biggest contributor to the difficulty of being Catholic. Catholicism is not solely a contemplative tradition, it is an active one. It isn't just about doing no harm, being nice, and waiting patiently for your invite to the eternal party in the sky. Catholics are called to be engaged with the world around them, to seek out problems and be part of the solutions.

Rain, rain, come and stay

Right now it is the rainy season in Andahuaylillas. But the rains only really got started yesterday. Many people were concerned about when the rain would come, and were holding off on planting quinoa. While I have always loved the rain, I have always enjoyed it like a treat... like ice cream. But having grown up in a city, I have only rarely thought about our dependence on rain. Without the right amount of rain at the right time of year crop yields are diminished. In agrarian, humanity's dependence on the natural world is much more obvious. Perhaps that is why people in the country tend to be more religious than people in the city.* In the Boston it is easy to feel independent and above the systems of nature. Here in Andahuaylillas, that illusion is quickly shattered.

*Having spent the past 4 years at a liberal arts university, I feel the need to qualify that statement. I am NOT making a claim, I am only pondering what, to me, is an interesting idea.

4 Values: Simple Living

He called the twelve diciples together and sent them out two by two. He gave them authority over the evil spirits and ordered them, "Don't take anything you on the trip except a walking stick-no bread, no beggar's bag, no money in your pockets. Wear sandals, but don't carry an extra shirt." He also told them, "Wherever you are welcomed, stay in the same house until you leave that place." -Mark 6:7-10

Simple Living seems to be the hardest of the four values for someone outside of JVC to understand. I think that's because it involves a self-imposed a set of limitations. In our society, limits are often seen as burdens. But the limitations of my life as a Jesuit Volunteer aren't there to make my life harder, they are there to redirect my focus.

4 Values: Community

For where two or three come together in my name, I am there with them. -Matthew 18:20

Picking that quote was almost too easy. But you won't hear me complaining about that. After all, Jesus doesn't always speak in parables, sometimes he tells it to us straight. Right here, he's telling us that community is where the Kingdom's at. So take notes, and find yourself some community.

Community is in our DNA. And, before my medically-minded friends send me a message that I'm totally wrong about how the human genome works, let me clarify that I mean that statement metaphorically. Homo sapiens are social animals. Way back in the prehistoric times our ancestors formed tribal communities to promote the survival of our species. We couldn't make in this world without at least the micro-community called the family. IWe are designed to live our lives in community of one form or another.

4 Values: Spirituality

And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.’
Matthew 22:1-4

God loves us. That's one of the most basic tenants of Christianity. God might get angry, frustrated, or disappointed in us, but God loves us throughout. When we love people we want to see them grow, learn, and we want the to be happy. But we also want to be with them. I think that God is similar. I think that God really wants to hang out with us, each of us.