Housekeeping

My family arrived this morning! I'll be with them the next two weeks, and then after that I'll be with one of my best friends for another two weeks. So don't expect to hear too much from me until after January 16. Happy Christmas and New Year's to all.

Sunday Song: Ven, Ven, Señor, no tardes

It's the last Sunday of Advent and I haven't posted a single Peruvian advent song! Time to remedy that. 

Why is this Spanish-language advent song sung to the tune of an African-American Christmas song? I don't know. But in the familiar tune I hear the fulfillment of wish so dearly in the Spanish lyrics.

Come, Lord, don't delay...for we are waiting for you.

Translation after the jump.

4 Values Revisited: Spirituality

Last year, I talked about spirituality as “hanging out with God.” I still like that idea. It's still the core of my spirituality. This year my growth in spirituality has mostly been in learning new ways to pray. I've really got into the examen, a review of the day that I say almost every night. It keeps the experience of God grounded in daily life. It reminds me that sometimes God is like Waldo – he's there, you just have to look for him.

This is a real thing

But I would be remiss if I didn't talk about Andean Spirituality after a year of living in the Andes as a Catholic lay missionary. Andean Spirituality is not your grandmother's catholicism.* It's not a spirituality of rosaries or daily mass. It's not a spirituality of scriptural meditation and reflection. It's a prime example of syncretism – the blending of different beliefs. Andean culture is a mix of Incan and Spanish influences. Andean spirituality is a mix of Incan beliefs and Catholicism.

There's no better example of syncretism in Andean spirituality than the pilgrimage to Señor de Qolloritti, which ends in a celebration that looks a lot like worship to Apu Ausangate (the mountain God on whose slopes the image of Señor de Qolloritti is located) than any sort of "traditional" Catholic worship.

Many people, maybe your grandmother,** would look at Señor de Qolloritti in confusion. “This isn't Catholicism,” they might say. But I disagree. This is Catholicism. Catholicism has always been a syncretic religion. Ever since St. Boniface chopped down the thunder oak and told the German pagans to use a fir tree, thereby starting the tradition ofChristmas trees, catholicism has been bringing people to God by connecting to pre-existing cultural traditions. That's why Christmas is celebrated in December (light and hope at the darkest time of the year) and Easter is celebrated in the spring (everything is coming back to life in the spring) – because those time lined up with pagan festivals.

What you do, do it for God. For some people the pilgrimage to Señor de Qolloritti is probably just a chance to have a really intense experience and then booze it up with their buddies. But for some people Christmas is a time to make money and lavish gifts on loved ones in the selfish hope that they'll receive great gifts in return. Going to mass on Christmas Eve isn't any more Catholic than climbing Ausangate for Señor de Qolloritti. What matters is how and why you go. The men who spend 24 hours walking together and singing are as close to God as the grandmothers that go to daily mass are to Apu Jesucristo. If God is in all things, then God is these celebrations that can seem so foreign to the foreigner's eye."There are many gifts, but the same spirit." There are many ways to praise Him, but the same God.

*Unless your grandmother is from the Andes.

**Unless your grandmother really is from the Andes.

4 Values Revisited: Social Justice

I find social justice to be the hardest value to practice here. Crossing cultures means spending so much time and energy just trying to understand what is going on. It would be arrogant to show up and start decrying social injustices without even understanding the society.

We are witnesses to so much social injustice. One of my first graders regularly told me about how drunk her father was the night before and how she and her older sister would hide “Ai, profe!” she would say as she skipped along beside me after school on our way to the parish “my father shouldn't drink so much.” It was just a fact of life for her, like it is for so many of my students. It's so obvious how I'm treated differently than the rest of my community mates because of my maleness; machismo is such an entrenched social injustice.

But through the year I've come to see how the programs/institutions we work for are part of the fight for social justice in Quispicanchi. One of the four core subjects taught at FyA 44 is “Personal y Social.”* It's a class devoted to understanding the self and society. Part of it's aim is to fight teen pregnancy through good sex education (yes there are catholic schools that goes beyond abstinence-only education, they're here in Peru. Catch up, USA). It also focuses on the dangers of alcohol abuse, the realities of puberty, self-esteem building, etc.

The parish's after school program is bursting with social justice initiatives. There's the hot lunch program. Poor parents pay S/.5 a month (the cost of one lunch at a cheap restaurant) and their children get to eat hot meals every day after classes. This helps parents who don't have time or money to cook their children lunch, the biggest meal of the day in Peru. There's the homework help and literacy programing in the library. Admittedly, this should be more highly valued by the parish staff, but the fact that it exists says something. And there's the ludoteca – the playroom where kids are encouraged to be children. Childhood is severely undervalued by many parents here in the hurry to have mature, self-sufficient children. In the ludoteca the children relearn how to play.

I think that part of the connection between social justice and this experience will be born out after I return to the States, when I can apply a lot of the expanded worldview I'm learning to life as a member of the most powerful nation of the planet.

*I don't need to translate this one for you, they're exact cognates.

4 Values Revisited: Community

Community is the hardest value. It's the hardest value because we live in intentional community. I've been part of lots of communities, some wonderful, some terrible, but most communities are not home communities. Everyone gets to go home and get space from each other. Differences are easier to lay aside when you don't go home to the person you are frustrated with.

I've never been married, but I think that the JVC framework for intentional community can be easily compared to a multi-way arranged marriage.* A JV community is a group of well-intentioned strangers who decided to throw themselves into a very difficult experience. Everyone has their own idea of how clean things should be, how much respect should be given to the chore chart, and how the community should work. If everyone isn't on board with how things are moving, things can get off track pretty quickly.

I learned a lot in the last year about how to live in community and how not to live in community. Some of the biggest personal growth I experienced this year came from living in community. I'm generally a “go with the flow” kind of person, but this year I learned how to go against the flow when it felt necessary (funnily enough it's much more difficult than going with the flow).

But community isn't limited to the people inside the Mountain House. There's also “outer community,” which includes everyone I hang out with outside of the house. I've had a wonderful year in outer community, building some really rewarding relationships with people in town and with fellow teachers.  That's been a long process, and it's only been in the last 4 months that I've really felt like I could call people around here “friends.”

Community is the value I'm looking forward to developing most, both inner community and outer community. It's a very good thing that JVC-International is a 2 year program, because it means I have lots of time to build up the relationships that only recently became firm.

*Except without the expectation of reproduction.  

4Values Revisited: Simple Living

As you may or may not remember, the JV experience is built around 4 values: Spirituality, Simple Living, Community, and Social Justice. The idea is to grow in understanding of these values and to live them out inside the JV experience, so that you can take them with you and live them out in the rest of your life. I don't talk about them all the time, but they are right at the core of why I am here, why I do what I do, and what I want to get out of these two years.

So just like it makes sense to step back and do quarterly reviews every 3 months, it makes sense to step back and look at the values. When this blog was still new, and I was still living in Boston, I wrote a short post about each of the values. When I wrote those posts, I was writing about what I understood of each value going into this experience. Now that I'm halfway through it, my understanding of each value has evolved and developed.

“Not voluntary poverty, but voluntary wealth.” That's how Fr. James Martin, SJ describes the Jesuit value of simple living. Last year, simple living was a very theoretical value, not one I'd intentionally practiced before. After a year of living it out on a $60 a month stipend and limited community budget, I'd like to think I understand simple living a little better.

The Jesuit vow of simple living isn't about poverty (they might tell you it is, but if you hang out with the Jesuits you'll know that the idea that they live in poverty is laughable), it's about non-attachment to things. Basically simple living in the Jesuit sense means “people first.” That's the “voluntary wealth” Fr. Martin is talking about – the wealth of relationships and experiences that are available to you when you aren't focused on possessions.

Simple living in the JV context, especially the international context, can be easy to live out. We don't have a lot of money, and around here there isn't much to spend it on. For me that means spending my money on being with people. That could mean baking a cake to share, or going out with other teachers after work for chicken. But what I'm paying for there is more the time with the people than it is the item. I wouldn't buy myself a beer just for myself. I wouldn't bake banana bread just for me to eat. My attempt to live simply means that my money is meant to be shared. The $60 stipend I get isn't for me, it's for the various other people in my JV life that make the experience so much richer.

Simple living also means learning to accept generosity that you can't repay. I like to repay my debts quickly (except for my debts to myfedloan.org). During my college years, I was generally the friend with money. I worked 24 hours a week as a way to escape the academic world, but the thing about work is that it pays you, so I had a consistent income. It was no big deal for me to treat friends to ice cream. And if a friend wanted to treat me to something it was easy to accept because I knew I would return the favor in the near future.

Because my stipend is so limited, because I've shared my house with 5 other people, because our oven doesn't work, and because of a whole host of other reasons, I often can't return the favors I receive. When friends invite me to their home for a delicious meal, I can't invite them over the next week because I don't have the money to enough food to feed them all something nice and because I can't have a small party at my house without inviting everyone I live with. Suddenly returning the favor to a family of 4 for cooking me dinner means cooking dinner for 10! Way out of budget.

So I have to accept such generosity humbly. I bring a dessert, I bring over a bottle of soda. If I were to keep track of favors given and received, my ledger would be covered in red. But I'm not keeping a ledger, because simple living means that the people and experiences are more important than the things.

Letter Home

Is it weird to reblog your own content? Yes. But since this first was published online at the blog commonweal (where my father is a regular contributor), it just seemed easier to copy-paste it from there. Plus, his "notes by way of orientation" are useful for anyone who isn't familiar with my home parish.

Anyways, here's the letter I wrote to St. Katharine Drexel parish after one year of service.

A couple of notes by way of orientation:  
1) "God is good...all them time....And all the time...God is good" is almost as familiar a call-and-response prayer of greeting in the Black church across the US as "The Lord be with you...and with your spirit" is for Catholics. 
2) "Sr. Mary" ran the afterschool program and summer camp at our parish for 33 years and mentored a generation of young people in and around Roxbury. 

Dear Parish Family,

God is good all the time, and all the time God is good. When we see each other, we rejoice.

God is good here in the mountain town of Andahuaylillas, Peru.

God is good at Fe y Alegría 44, the Jesuit-run school I teach religion at. I see His goodness reflected in the faces of my 400 elementary school students as they sing songs like “Padre Abraham” (shout out to Summer Camp for giving me a fun song to translate and teach), as they draw their image of heaven, as they pray for their classmates' ill family members. I feel God being good when the teachers help me with the difficult students, and when the student who I had pegged as the worst behaved student at the school proved Sr. Mary right that there are no bad children, and by the end of the year was the most helpful student in his classroom.

God is good at Parroquia San Pedro Apostol (St. Peter the Apostle Parish), the 345 year old parish in this town that is dubbed the “Sistine Chapel of the Andes.” I hear Her goodness in hymns sung in Quechua (the most spoken indigenous language in the world) that give praise to Apu Tatayku (Dear Father God). I dance Big G's goodness out in traditional dances on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, only after carrying God's goodness as part of the procession that saw all 72 saint statues carried out of the church and paraded around town.

God is good in the rural community of Secsencaya, where I go every Tuesday to help the pastoral assistant out with catechism. You can't expect everyone to come to the church to hear the gospel; sometimes the church has to bring the gospel out to everyone. As the pastoral assistant reminds the kids, we praise God in everything we do if we do it with joy. When we play soccer, when we watch movies, when we sing songs, when we listen to the Bible reading, when we pray – we praise God in our rural catechism class.

God is good on Thursday evenings, when all the foreign volunteers (from the US, from Spain, and from Lima) come together with the Jesuits and a Sister of the Sacred Heart to share a Mass and meal of reflection and sharing of our experiences. I taste God's goodness whenever we host Mass and I bake the communion bread that St. Katharine's offers up on Holy Thursday.

God is good in this Catholic – this universal – Church. That universality is so striking here. But universality doesn't mean uniformity. Mass parts are so easily recognizable and the feast days are so dazzling different. Just as some people might look at our parish and doubt our claim to be Catholic, it would be easy to look at Andean Catholicism and doubt that the people here are even monotheistic. But we know that God makes himself known to each people through culturally relevant means. We know that God speaks every language, and is a native of every culture.

What I've learned here is what I've always known. The more I live, the more I learn just how true it is. As I reach the halfway point of my two years of striving to live out the four JVC* values of Spirituality, Simple Living, Community, and Social Justice in this small town in the Andes, I learn and re-learn every day that God is good all the time...and all the time God is good.
I am so blessed to have grown up in such a profoundly spiritual parish community. Please keep me in your prayers in 2016 and know that I will do the same. God bless. And when we see each other again, we will rejoice.

-Benjamin Hill

*Jesuit Volunteer Corps. That's the name of my program.

Andean Barroque Route Promo Video

Two weeks from today 3 regular readers (going by the group code name of Pham Lee) will be in the Quispicanchi on a tour of the Ruta del Barroco Andino (Andean Barroque Route). It's a tour of 3* Jesuit churches that were decorated in a style specific to the Andes known as the Cusco Barroque school. As the name suggests, it's a mix of Barroque and Andean influences. 

The crown jewel of this tour is the church in Andahuaylillas, called "the Sistine chapel of the Americas." You get glimpses of it at 0:16-0:20, and again at 0:47. 

The Ruta del Barroco Andino is a great tour which I recommend. I recommend it for various reasons:

1. It's a different side of Cusco. Most tourists (myself included) come to Cusco to see Incan ruins. There's lots of them around - Machu Picchu, the Inca trail, Ollantaytambo, Pisac, Moray, Koricancha, and many more. But life in Cusco kept on going after the Spanish conquest. The paintings on the walls of these parishes, espeically the church in Huaro, tell some of those stories. 
2. It's ethical tourism. The funds raised from the entrance fees to the churches, and from the gift shops, go to support the social programs of the Jesuits. These are the programs my community mates Erin, Victoria, Jacqueline, Lucía, and Lauren all have worked with. Programs include a very cheap hot lunch program for students, library and homework help, a play room with special programing designed to encourage kids to play and let loose their creativity (something that often isn't valued in the home). All proceeds from the gift shop are split evenly with the producers of the items. Unlike with a lot of the souvenirs you can buy in Peru, you can know that money spent at these shops is supporting local people.
3. It's just beautiful. You can see a lot of churches in Peru. The 3 churches in Quispicanchi stand out to me because they aren't massive cathedrals. One of them is quite small. But each parish holds a unqiue beauty that tells it's own story. Andahuaylillas has the most gold leaf, but Huaro has one of the most impressive murals I've ever seen.
4. You can stop in the South Valley afterwards for great Peruvian food.

So if you're ever in Cusco and want to see somethign besides Incan ruins, check out the Ruta del Barroco Andino. If you're lucky it might be a feast day and you could see some of the traditional dances in one of the plazas.

So if you're in Cusco

*Technically it's a 4 church tour. It usually starts at the Jesuit cathedral in Cusco. But since we'll be in Andahuaylillas already, and Pham Lee has already seen the Jesuit church in Cusco, we'll only be doing the 3 chuches in Quispicanchi.

Copos de Nieve

As far as I can tell, copo de nieve is the way to say snowflake. The JVs weren't the only ones to make snowflakes last week. For the last week of classes my lesson plan was: 

1. play outside
2. take a class picture
3. make snowflakes

These are kids that have never seen snow, but they know lots about craft projects. They loved the snowflakes. The first graders were shocked and applauded when I opened my example snowflake up to reveal the design. My fourth graders got so into it that they made me tons of multicolored snowflakes that are now hanging from my rafters like some sort of toxic blizzard. Even if snow isn't universal, this project sure seems to be. 

(In case you were wondering "what's the connection between snowflakes and religion?" The answer is, if God took the time to make tiny little snowflakes so unique and beautiful, how much more effort did he put into you. I think it's time to write a new hymn: "His eye is on the snowflake")

Christmas Decorations

It happened so quickly that it's already over before I even got a chance to write about it - for 8 days, Mountain House held 7 JVs covering 4 generations. Victoria and Jacqueline and have left (they flew out Monday the 7^th). On Sunday, Nov 29^th we all got together to make snowflakes to decorate the dining/living room for Christmas. Handily, they doubled as decorations for the despedida (good-bye party) on December 5^th.

Even the masks got Santa hats!

Despedida 2015

This afternoon our 2nd years, Victoria and Jacqueline board a plane to Lima, and then a plane to Miami, and then separate planes to their families. It seems an appropriate day to post about the despedida.

The verb despedir means “to say goodbye.”

From despedir comes the noun despedida, which means the act of saying goodbye. But despedida can also mean a good-bye party.

The Mountain House JVs throw one house party per year. That house party is the despedida. It's the chance to say goodbye to and celebrate friends from all parts of the experience. It means a big pot of chaufa (the Peruvian version of chicken-fried rice) and a whole lot of guests. It means loud music and dancing, and eventually booze. It's the bitter-sweetness that pervades all goodbye parties. This year we were despidiendo (saying goodbye to) 4 women – Theresa, Victoria, Jacqueline, and Lucía.  Theresa leaves near the end of the month. But for Vic, Jacq, and Lu, who all leave this week, the despedida was their last hurrah.

Here's a few pictures from the evening. Somehow things never got organized for a group photo. We wish all four ladies nothing but the best as they transition back into their home countries, figure out next steps, and make their way in this wonderfully difficult world.

Pics after the jump.

Mail Call!

This is the wall of cards:

Every card I have received since I moved to the Mountain House is up on this wall in my room. It's a nice reminder of all the people who love me and are thinking of me.

But sadly, the wall of cards is not complete... It's missing your Christmas card! Today I'm putting out a mail call, the kind where I get mail. I'd love to fill wall up with love from all over. If you want to make sure I think of you often even though I'm thousands of miles away, send me a postcard/card/whatever to stick to my wall. I promise to send a card back to you.

My address and email are always on the "Contact" page. Address all mail to:

Benjamin Hill

c/o P. Carlos Silva SJ

Triunfo 339, Apartado 896

Cusco, Perú

This message has been brought to you by 

the homesickness prevention department of Peruben volunteer industries.

Sunday Song - Happy Birthday

To the Best. You know who you are.

Quarterly Review 4

Quarterly Review 4

On the wall near the spirituality space on the second floor of our home is a post it with a quote from Pedro Arrupe, SJ. It reads “una experiencia no reflexionada es una experiencia no vivida” - “an experience that is not reflected upon is an experience that is not lived.” Part of my nightly prayer involves review and reflection on the day, but a broader perspective can reveal themes that are missed. Sometimes we need to step back from examining the trees that make up the days and take in the forest of our lives. So every three months I'm stepping back, looking around, and mulling it all over.

Today marks one year since arrived in Andahuaylillas. A yearly review would be appropriate at this point, but I'm going to wait until the calendar year is over for that. For now, I want to stay focused on the quarter, on the last 3 months.

• Feeling appreciated at work
• Countdowns

Follow the jump to read my reflections.

Belleza por Todos Lados - Quinua to be cleaned

Quinua is delicios and healthy and pretty cheap if your neighbor grows it. It's also beautiful every step of the way from plant to plate. This quinoa has been harvested but still needs to be cleaned. That's done by pouring it out repeatedly on a windy day and letting the wind carry away the in edible parts of the plant. 

Catholic Things - Advent

I should have mentioned is last weekend, but happy new year to all the Catholic readers out there. 

Source

Last Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent, which is the start of a new liturgical year. Advent, from the Latin adventus (arrival/approach), is the season of waiting and preparing for Christmas. If you aren't Catholic, you may have heard about advent because of advent calendars. But advent isn't just about a countdown to Christmas, it's about preparing.

Advent is marked by the advent wreath (pictured on the right). It contains 4 candles - 3 purple, 1 pink. The candles represent the 4 Sundays before Christmas. Each week you light a new candle. Purple is used because in Catholic culture it represents waiting, preparation, and is a color of royalty (Jesus is the king of literally everything). The pink candle is lit on the 3rd Sunday of advent, called "Gaudete (rejoice) Sunday." Pink is a color for joy and happiness. On Christmas, the pink and purple candles are replaced by white candles because white represents purity, holiness, virtue, and great joy. 

New JVs!

JVC runs its international like a bakery runs its poolish – there's always some new and some old. In JVC that means that every year old volunteers leave and new volunteers arrive. It keeps the community constantly refreshed, but maintains a connection between generations of JVs. It's a great system for all sorts of reasons, but I'm not going to go on about them here because I'm really just excited about the latest result of that poolish-like system – the new JVs arrived!

Rachel and Lauren* arrived to the Cusco airport around 6 on Saturday morning. Erin and I got up at 4:30 to make sure we'd arrive on time to receive them. We had a funny time talking with our taxi driver while we waited. He clearly felt awkward and nervous about picking people up from the airport. We did feel bad that he felt awkward, but it was very early in the morning and therefore difficult to provide engaging conversation. He filled some of the awkward silence with random observations.

Housekeeping

Hello readers. Just a note to let you all know why I've been radio-silent for awhile. We had a thunderstorm last week that knocked out the parish's internet. There has been internet at the school, but I've also been VERY busy with the end of the school year (last time I have to grade 400 notebooks hopefully ever!) and the arrival of the new JVs. I have some stuff drafted on my computer which I will post as soon as I have some free time and a good wifi connection. At the latest I'll have a new post up Friday, which is my one year anniversary in Andahuaylillas.

Noted with Translation - Frienship Law 82

Dedicated to people I dearly miss who will soon be crossing the equator to come see me.

Friendship law 82

If your buddy
can't come
You will go see him.

Artistic competition at the parish

These pictures are from a friendly competition between the 3 Jesuit-run after school programs of the Quispicanchi valley that took place a month ago. There were prizes for poetry declamation, music performance, and dancing. It is always beautiful to see how fully the youth participate in their culture's artistic tradition. 

JV Life - The Chancho bucket

JVs tend to be save-the-world types, trying to do everything they can to make the world better and not mess anything else up. So naturally, many of them feel an urge to compost.

But here in the Mountain House, composting would be a bad idea. A compost heap in our tiny patio would smell, and that smell would climb up through my bedroom window and make my nightly time to ignore the world a less pleasant experience. Plus, we wouldn't have anything to do with the dirt anyways. We have flower bed, but they get almost no sunlight so we don't actually grow anything in them.

The solution is to look to local culture and see what people here do with vegetable scraps. They feed them to livestock. Some people have guinea pigs, some people have chickens. The school has dogs that  eat my lunch when it's got things like tripe* in it. We don't have livestock, but we live in a farming town so there's plenty of animals around. We give our scraps to our friend's chancho. Chancho is Quechua for pig. Somehow it's a word that survived the arrival of the Spanish (the Spanish for pig is cerdo).** As far as I know, it's only a Peruvian word. So don't go to your Mexican restaurant and ask for chancho tacos.

Sunday Song - Vienen con Alegría

 After last week, it certainly seems to be "a world full of anxiousness." Let's hope that "those who walk for life...sowing peace and love" can lead the response to the Paris attacks. Becaues if not, we're looking at the last verse of this song as a scary prophesy.

Translation after the jump.

Sunday Song - Sobreviviendo

The world's messed up. And, "the hardest thing in this world is living it." How do you keep going when there doesn't seem to be a point? How do you face the fight when you're pretty sure you'll lose? You survive. 

Translation, as always, after the jump.

The WHO and the JV diet

WHO Meat guidelines

The WHO freaked a lot of people out last week. I'm not one of them.

That's partly because I understand how percentages work. But it's also because I eat so little meat. I've mentioned before how little meat we eat. Without really trying, we're following Michael Pollan's 3 basic guidelines for people who want to eat healthy.

1. Eat food
2. Mostly plants
3. Not too much

DISCLAIMER: The following discussion of how Mountain House JVs' diets relates to Michael Pollan's diet guidelines is not based on my having read his book, In Defense of Food. My father read the book. But, as anyone who has had dinner with him knows, he's an excellent explainer. He's like a human cliff notes. So I feel like I got the key points down.

Making Bread

I haven't been able to get online most of this week. There was another fire on a different mountain, the mountain where all the antennas are - so there was no internet anywhere for awhile. Thankfully this week's fire wasn't as big as the one on Qoriorko, and the internet is running smoothly (or as smoothly as it runs here) once again.

Last weekend was a packed weekend. It was all saint's day, día de la canción criolla, Halloween, and day of the dead. One of the traditions for the weekend is for kids to make special breads. The girls make pan wawa (baby bread) and the boys make pan caballo (horse bread). Afterwards I think they just eat it. Offerings for the dead are usually different foods.

I was invited by Mari and Bobby to join their family* at the oven for bread making. It was a joy to step inside the work room and see a long wooden table covered in flour, a stand mixer sitting in the corner with bits of dough stuck to the sides, and small chunks of bread dough sitting on the table waiting to be shaped. Maybe I was thousands of miles away from 27 Corinth Street, but I was right at home. I washed my hands and got to work patting the chunks of dough into flat circles to make the round single serving bread typical to the Andes.

There was also the nice surprise of seeing Sra. Estella. She's the head of the kitchen at the parish, so I see her most days, but I don't see her outside of work all that often. Bobby is her son, so she was there overseeing her children, grandchildren, and daughter-in-law as they shaped their various breads.

The breads came out delicious, and Bobby filled a small plastic bag with breads for the Mountain House. It was a wonderful day with my favorite family in Andahuaylillas.

More pictures after the jump.

 *This is the family I talked about in my last Quarterly Review

Halloween

Ok, so I lied yesterday. To Peruvian adults  it was día de la canción criolla, but commercialized Halloween has made some inroads with the kids. Trick or treating did happen in Andahuaylillas. Though the went to the stores to get free candy instead of houses. While American kids would be highly disappointed with the hard candies being given out, my students were very excited to run around in costumes in the dark to take free candy in their tiny pumpkin baskets. 

Día de la Canción Criolla

Sorry you highness, Jack the Pumpkin King, this isn't Halloween. It's the Creole song day in Peru. Criolla (creole) culture in Peru has a heavy Spanish influence (the criollos were Spanish descended natives of Peru). It's most present in the coast. Don't tell anyone here in the sierra this, but I think that the criolla food is the best in Peru. 

If you're interested, you can celebrate el día del a canción criolla by listening to DJ Gian's (pronounced "John") mix of criolla songs from last year. Maybe it'll inspire you to whip up a delicious plate of adobo.

Noted with Translation - Grandparents' House Rules

For a constant supply of sugary cereal, jelly beans, grilled cheese sandwiches, pineapple, ice cream for breakfast, and so much more. this post is dedicated to my two favorite Anns.

Rules of...
Grandparents' House
The kitchen is open 24 hours a day
Dessert is first

Parents not allowed

Play whenever you want

Welcome to pijama parties

Cookies for breakfast

Tell stories

Bedtime is negotiable

What happens here

STAYS HERE

Pope Francis' Five Finger Prayer

You may have been wondering why I had children painting their hands last week. It's because we were studying Pope Francis' five finger prayer. I don't remember how I bumped into it, but it's been one of the most fun lessons I've taught (and I think the kids learned something too!). Two weeks ago we overviewed the prayer and practiced it. This week they painted their hands into their notebooks and practiced it again.Working with paints was a big hit with the kids (maybe not so much with all the teachers). I was also humbled to read each child's prayer as I graded their work and got some insights into the struggles they see in their lives, the generosity and kindness in their hearts, and the hopes they have for themselves and their families.

If you want to try out the five finger prayer, here's a simple guide:

Source (if you want to see the image larger)

Based on my research, the bishop formerly known as Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was teaching this prayer long before he came Pope Kick Ass I. It's a beautiful way to pray and remember various people in your life. For me I find it especially helpful to be reminded to pray for our leaders. Just the other night I found myself prayer for Paul Ryan!

Sunday Song - Yo Canto al Señor

I looked for other Quechua covers of American pop songs but it seems that "The Way You Make Me Feel" is the only American pop song ever recorded in Quechua.

Siembra (the andean catholic music group that sang at FyA 44's anniversary mass) is back singing "Yo Canto al Señor" (I sing to the Lord). It's a joyful of song of praise and gratitude. We have life, and that life demands to live. Praises be!

Translation after the jump.

My quinua eating habits

Having discussed the ethics of consuming quinua in the US/UK yesterday, I thought it would make

sense to talk about the reality of eating quinua in Andahuaylillas.

Quinua is a fantastically cheap protein here. It costs 7 soles a kilo. In Tacna (the other JVC site which is on the coast) it costs 16 soles. It's so much cheaper here because quinua is produced here. I don't mean it's produced here the way that people in Massachusetts can say “cranberries are produced here.” I mean quinua is grown right here in this valley. The picture of quinoa to the right was taken less than a mile from our house. So quinua is cheap because people here in Andahuaylillas grow it.

Quinoa and Food Justice

You've probably heard of Quinoa. Maybe one of your earthy-crunchy friends told you about it. Or maybe you're the earthy-crunchy friend who buys it at Whole Foods. Even if you don't know Spanish, you probably know that it's pronounced “keen-wa” and not “kwin-oh-ah.” It's a big hit with lots of people for all sorts of reasons. It's gluten free, which is a big plus if you have Celiac's disease. It's a complete protein, which is good news for vegetarians, and fantastic news for vegans.* And it's from South America, which automatically makes you more cultured if you eat it.

There's so many plusses about quinoa, it's almost too good to be true. And in the last two years, a number of media sources have pushed the idea that eating quinoa may actually be evil.

Hand painting

We're painting our hands today in religion class with 6th grade. Imagine the trouble that arose when there was no running water to wash hands. 

Noted with Translation: Back to the Future

Alan became a candidate for the presidency
shit Doc, we're still in 1985

Yesterday was the day that Doc Brown and Marty McFly arrived in 2015 after hitting 88mph in their flying delorean and creating 1.21 jigawatts of electricity to power the flux capicitor. It seems they were confused by the news that former Peruvian president Alan Garcia (1985-1990 and 2006-2011) is running again.

Paro!!!

Yesterday I received the most welcome news since my family and my friend told me they bought their tickets to visit me in December – no school today or tomorrow. The reason is a paro (general strike) that is happening across the Cusco region because the government is thinking of privatizing archaeological sites. Yes, you read that right. The Peruvian ministry of culture is thinking of handing over administration of ancient archaeological sites to private companies.

School isn't canceled because the teachers are taking part in the strike. Neither is it canceled because FyA 44 morally opposes the privatization of Incan and pre-Incan ruins and the teachers are deciding not to cross strike lines to get to work. School is cancelled because it will probably be impossible to for staff members who live in Cusco, which is almost all the staff, to get to work during the paro.

Strikes are taken very seriously in Peru. And Cusco is perhaps region of the country most committed to strikes. In Turn Right at Machu Picchu, Mark Adams writes that “strikes [are] the only events in Peru that [begin] in accordance with Greenwich Mean Time.” He goes on to elaborate on the paro that almost stopped him from making it to Machu Picchu in time for the solistice.

“A group of farmers outside of Cusco, angered by the price of cooking gas, was calling for a paro, or general strike, on the day we were scheduled to leave town. In New York, the word 'strike' conjures up a picture of people with picket signs parading in front of an office building, slightly inconveniencing any smokers who stepped outside to light up. If things get serious, the strikers might bring along a giant inflatable rat to express their displeasure with nonunion laborers. Evidently the words has a somewhat stronger meaning in Peru. All roads inside and outside of Cusco were blockaded by farmers, who rolled rocks into every throughway wider than a mule path and then sat sentry over those barricades, fortifying their political convictions by drinking heavily all day. Schools were closed during general strikes. All trains, including those to Machu Picchu, were canceled. Attempts to sneak through a checkpoint were generally frowned upon.”

page 261

Today and tomorrow's paro is more like having snow days than anything, a time to stay home, watch movies, and maybe venture out into the neighborhood to see some friends. It's also two days off in a row, with absolutely zero other commitments. I think I might just sleep till Friday!

Boss' Day

According to Mountain House's guinea pig calendar*, last Friday was Boss' Day. So I thought it would be fitting to take some time to talk about my boss, and the peculiarities of the JV-boss relationship.

My boss is Padre Eddy. He's a Jesuit from Lima who just this year was installed as the general director of FyA 44 and PERFAL (remember from Sunday's post LINK that PERFAL is the network of 22 rural schools). Before coming to the Quispicanchi valley he taught at San Marcos (a college in Lima). That's really all I know about his biography.

Eddy is a lot of fun. We see him outside of work at Thursday masses, and occasion outings for pizza in Urcos (two towns over, where the Jesuit residence is). Last week he brought a projector and a copy of The Godfather to show after Thursday mass.* He is easy to hang out with. Which is different from most boss-worker relationships.

The difference here is that Eddy is a Jesuit and we are Jesuit Volunteers. The relationship is deeper than just free labor-boss. I think it's safe to say I know Eddy better than most of the teachers I work with. It's one of the special benefits of being a JV, that we get to know the Jesuits we work for as more than just superiors, but as people.

Eddy continues in the trend of good bosses that I've had. He is always ready to listen to reflections, frustrations, or new ideas. He has made it clear that he wants to hear my input about what my role could look like next year. It's clear that he cares about both the education of the students and the development of the teachers. I think FyA 44/PERFAL are lucky to have him. I know I am blessed to work with him.

*If you're looking for a simple, useful gift for the volunteers who have already have everything, a fun 2016 wall calendar is a great idea.

*Despite it being dubbed, I really enjoyed it. But I was disappointed to hear famous lines like “an offer he couldn't refuse” or “sleeping with the fishes” in Spanish.

Sunday Song - The Way You Make Me Feel

Why is this week's song a Michael Jackson song? Because this is a cover. The first rule of cover songs is that you have to bring something new to it. Quechua, the official language of the Incan empire, isn't new in its own right, but as far as I know no one has ever sung anything by Michael Jackson in Quechua. That is until 14 year old Renata Flores Rivera recorded this video:

Flores* recorded this for a project called "Las juventudes también hablamos Quechua" (We youth speak Quechua too). Quechua is one of Peru's two official languages, and it's the largest (in terms of current speakers) indigenous language in the Americas. But it's shrinking. Quechua isn't nearly as useful as Spanish. And since lanugage is a tool for communication, a lot of people - especially young people moving from the country to the city - are leaving Quechua behind for Spanish. Of course, people can be bilingual. I think that part of Rivera's point is that Quechua doesn't have to die off.

I would also be remiss if I didn't offer once correction on the fusion.net article about this video - Quechua is taught in some schools, because many of the 22 schools in the PERFAL** network offer a completely bilingual Spanish/Quechua education.

If you liked this, you might also enjoy her cover of House of the Rising Sun

*Flores is her paternal last name, Rivera is her maternal last name. When using only one of the last names, the paternal last name is used.

**Proyecto de Educación Rural, Fé y ALegría. I may have mentioned this before, but there is a network of 22 rural schools connected to FyA 44. They are located farther up into the mountains, where Spanish hasn't yet overcome Quechua as a major language.

Quarterly Review 3

On the wall near the spirituality space on the second floor of our home is a post it with a quote from Pedro Arrupe, SJ . It reads “una experiencia no reflexionada es una experiencia no vivida” - “an experience that is not reflected upon is an experience that is not lived.” Part of my nightly prayer involves review and reflection on the day, but a broader perspective can reveal themes that are missed. Sometimes we need to step back from examining the trees that make up the days and take in the forest of our lives. So every three months I'm stepping back, looking back, and mulling it all over.

It seems that being a month late with these quarterly reviews is becoming standard. Two Sundays ago I completed 10 months since arrival in Andahuaylillas. Looking back on the last three months, these are the big themes I see:

• Danza mi país
• Real Friends

JV Life - Replacing ink in the printer

Even dealing with the simple problem of the printer needing ink is different here. Instead of a new cartridge,  we refill this thing on the side from ink bottles. It can be very messy. 

What is El Niño?

El Niño is a weather phenomonenon that happens every 2-7 years. It was named El Niño by Peruvian fisherman who noticed that every couple years around Christmas there were no fish to catch (El Niño means the child, like baby Jesus).

Basically what happens is that the waters in the eastern Pacific by the equator get too warm. That means more clouds form. And that means more rain. Usually the warm of surface waters is picked up by the dominant East-West winds that are a result of the Earth's rotation, and then the resulting clouds are carried West.* But in an El Niño year there's just too much warmth to be taken away by the waves.

The resulting effects are hard to predict beyond "things get weird." There's usually torrential rain in the northern parts of Peru. But other parts of Peru (and the world) see droughts instead. It might mean a lot of rain in California, which could be good in terms of bringing some water, but bad in terms of possible mudslides.

That's about all I understand. If you want to know more, check out this article which compares El Niño to a "'mini' global warming event." Something to think about as you ponder the potential effects of global warming.

Travelers to Peru during the coming months are advised to bring a rain coat.

*Which is why you see worse storms on the Western sides of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

Pope in Disguise

Because we had an extra mustache. 

Sunday Song - Solo le Pido a Dios

To continue the theme of using songs from ReO/DisO, here is the song that the soon to be outgoing JVs brought to the closing ceremony. "I only ask God, that I not be indifferent." There's not really much more to say than that. 

Translation after the jump. And yes, the Boss has recorded himself singing this song. 

Stone Oven Pizza

This is also old news at this point. Our friend María, a Spaniard who started as a volunteer and now works full time for the parish in Andahuaylillas, has a stone oven in her backyard. Last month we got together one weekend and tried making pizza in the oven. Unfortunately the bottom of the oven isn't flat, so the first two pizzas got wrecked when we tried to slide them out on the peel. We wised up and baked the other two on trays. 

Baking in this oven was tough because none of us have ever worked with a wood-fired oven before. You can't just set the temperature and wait, you have to constantly monitor it. We still have lots to learn before we can do it well.

The view from María's backyard

Pro-baker Victor hard at work.

These two pizzas looked more like calzones by the time we got them out of the oven.

Volunteers in the White City

ReO/DisO was held in the costal town Mejía. To get there, we had to go through Arequipa “la ciudad blanca” (the white city). It's a city that definitely deserves its nickname. Check out the pics from both Arequipa and Mejia after the jump.

Happy Belated Birthday Erin

Erin's Birthday was in early September. But I fell way behind on blogging last month, so the pictures are only just going up today. We had a fun night with the entire volunteer community of Andahuaylillas, plus Billy. We celebrated in style with mustaches, and two kinds of cake.

Noted with Translation - Spiritually Concerning Quotation marks edition

Seen in a church in Arequipa

Turn off your cellphone

"the Lord" wants to talk with you

Sunday Song - Something Beautiful

It's not a Peruvian mass song, you got me there. We used this at the closing ceremony of ReO/DisO. I thought is was nice. And using it as this week's Sunday Song is a reminder that being a JV isn't just an experience of cultural immersion.

Change in the Calendar

Did you know 2015 is an El Niño year? All the reports say that it is going to be strong this year. What that means exactly, I don't know. One or two El Niño cycles ago, the lake in the valley next to ours overflowed and people had to live in tents for a while. But no one I've talked to seems too concerned about it. The Ministry of Education, on the other hand, is very concerned. They're so concerned, that for much of Peru the school year is ending two weeks early. So instead of ending December 18, we end December 4.

What does that mean?

1. Saturday School. Those lost classroom hours have to be made up somehow, and having school on Saturday is one way to it. That means 6 day workweeks for students and teachers. It means families here in Andahuaylillas won't be able to rely on the support of their children in fieldwork on Saturdays.
2. As a result of Saturday school, First Communion and Confirmation classes will have to be rescheduled. That means there will be no day of the week where many students, not to mention I, will have the day off the entire day.
3. New JVS have to arrive sooner. New JVs arrive in Andahuaylillas before the school year ends so that they can observe a bit of the rhythm of life at their worksites. Both the school and the parish shut down for summer vacation, so if JVs don't get to observe in December, they start work in March without having seen what that job looks like. The original dat ewe proposed for their arrival, December 10, is no good, so they will probably be arriving at the start of the month.
4. Outgoing JVs have to leave sooner. It's a necessary part of the cycle that JVC has to fund 3 years worth of volunteers for a few weeks in December. But since the work-year is ending sooner, the necessary time for overlap will be finished sooner. So our 3 outgoing JVs may be leaving a few weeks sooner than they had been thinking. And if they stay, they will be off JVC's budget.

As you can see, lot's of changes. We'll see how the next two months go as we race to finish the school year before the rains get bad. I also expect I'll have less time and energy for blogging. I promise to do the best I can to keep things up to date and interesting, but I ask your patience. And if you're thinking about visiting this winter, you'll want to pack a raincoat.

Noted with Translation: I can do it!

This is written in Quechua, btw. 

Site Visit

Billy, our program co-ordinator visited us in Andahuaylillas the first week of September. Part of his job is making a visit to each JVC site he works with at least once a year. He has to meet with the site supervisors, have individual meetings with each JV, and 2 meetings with the JV community. A month before his arrival, he sent out a packet of documents to fill out. The documents, and the site visit in general, got me thinking big picture about this experience. I've been reflecting a lot on this year in relation to next year. What do I want to continue? What do I want to stop doing? What do I want to start doing? How do I shift roles from being a 1^st year to a 2^nd year. All big important questions that I won't talk about right now because this post is supposed to be about Billy's visit.

Billy's visit was great. He, Theresa, and I had a fantastic meeting with Pd. Eddy (director of FyA 44). Pd. Eddy seems like he really understands the volunteer experience and he is mindful of helping us to have the most enriching experience that we can. It's nice to work for someone who takes the time to think of what's best for you.

We also had a lot of fun. Billy's job is to accompany us and the other communities he works with, and having fun is part of accompanying people. We played cards, we hiked, and we had a great outing to eat duck and cheesecake. I really appreciate the work Billy does to support us and the time he takes to really listen to us. And I'm glad he's such a fun guy as well. After Andahuaylillas Billy flew south to Tacna to spend a week doing a site visit there. Then he spent a week in Mejia running a retreat for the JVs in Peru and Chile. Now he's in Santiago doing his site-visit with them. Being a Program Coordinator for JVC may not be a very glamorous job, but you do get to see a lot of the world through site visits.

ReO/DisO

Sorry I've been so long in posting. September has been an exceptionally busy month. 

Photo credit to selfie master Billy Hood.**

ReO/DisO is the easy to say - but tricky to type - abbreviation for Re-Orientation/Dis-Orientation, the week long year-end retreat run by JVC staff. It's a multilayered retreat because it has to balance the needs of 1^st year JVs preparing for their second year (Re-Orientation), and outgoing JVs preparing to move back to the States (Dis-Orientation). It's also one of the few times that JVs are in face-to-face contact with JVC staff.*

As I always don't with retreats, I won't get deep into the specifics of ReO/DisO. I don't think retreats are experiences to be broadcast to the entire world. But I'll share a bit.

Sorry I've been away

I've been busy the last two weeks with a visit from our JVC Program Co-Ordinator, preparing for our big retreat next week, and grading hundreds of notebooks and exams. I'll put some new stuff up as soon as I can.

Wildfire

So this is what I saw when I stepped out of the classroom at recess yesterday:

Qoriorko, the golden mountain, was on fire. It sounds like someone was brining their field (normal thing this time of year) and the wind snatched the fire away from them. 

The fire burned all day sending up a huge cloud of smoke that covered the valley. In the evening when I went to Secsencaya with Alfredo to do catechism class there were bits of ash falling onto our soccer game. Secsencaya is at the foot of Qoriorko. 

The people of Secsencaya had an emergency meeting and were climbing the mountain with water as we were leaving at 7:30. There were able to put out the fires nearest their community. But the mountains burned all night and is still smoldering today. 

Today at recess the view showed us not a golden mountain, but llanaorko - the black mountain. 

So much destruction from one moment of foolishness. Another teacher told me that a woman and her child died in the fire yesterday, and the kids were laming about a man who also died. The burnt mountain stand over the valley today as a grim testament to the dangers of not paying attention.