This is what living it up looks like

...when your budget generally doesn't afford alcohol and your favorite childhood snacks don't exist in the country you live in. 

Sunday Song: Iglesia Joven

The theme for Pope Kick Ass I's first World Youth Day was "Go and make disciples of all nations!" That's what we're singing about when we sing "Iglesia Joven" (Young Church). Some people may like to look at idealistic young people like yours truly and call us "naive." I like to look back at those people and call them "useless." The Church when it was young did transform the entire world. Christianity spread very quickly considering its founder got publicly executed by the most powerful state in the region. It's the idealism of the young Church, of the church youth, that pushes the Church forward and makes change. Not every young idealist will change the world. But none of the old cynics will change anything. 

The only other thing to note on this song is that the change will come "tomorrow at the latest." If I remember my high school work ethic, that means that it might not ever get done. So we need the old folks to keep us in check and on task.

Translation after the jump. 

Noted with Translation: Drunk Coward

If when you drink
you beat your woman,
Then besides being a drunk
you are a coward.

St. Ignatius, a history

Since we're focusing on Saint Ignatius in my religion classes, I thought it'd be a good time to bring up St. Ignatius on my blog. He's important because he's the founder of the Jesuits, and (for those who forgot) I'm in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. He's also important here because he's the patron saint of FyA 44. Rather than write another history of St. Ignatius's life, I'm stealing the one from Xavier University's webpage.

Noted with Translation: Come and be free

Come with me, with my poverty, and we will live free
like the vizcachas en any corner
of this clear day.

Midyear Changes

I know, I know, August isn't midyear. But it is the middle of the Peruvian school year. Besides, my real points is that we've had a lot of changes in the volunteer/religious community here recently.

• The Belgian volunteers left last month. They moved to Chucuito on lake Titicaca for a new volunteer project. Valerie, who had worked at FyA 44 as the psychologist was a lot of help for me as I got to understand different students and different class dynamics. I'll miss her insights. I wish them luck where they go.
• The Spanish volunteers in Ocongate, Victor and Marta, moved to Andahuaylillas at the beginning of this month! Marta is working in the psychology department of the elementary school and Victor is working with PERFAL, the Jesuit run rural education project. We're very glad to have them here in Andahuaylillas. I'm looking forward to seeing much more of them now that they live a few blocks away instead of a few hours.
• Aníbal, the Jesuit deacon who has been helping pastoral at the parish and the school for the last four months, just moved to Madrid for his next round of studies. It's sad to see him go. I really enjoyed working with him, but even more I enjoyed hanging out with him. He has a relaxed attitude and pays attention to the small beauties around him. I wish he could stay longer but his formation is calling. Hopefully our paths cross again.
• In exchange for sending Aníbal, Madrid sent us José María, a Jesuit brother who will be taking his place in the pastoral work. He will be here until the end of the year. José María has the interesting connection to JVC of having lived with JVs in Tacna. He served in Tacna as a volunteer for VOLPA.* This was long enough ago that the JVs lived with the VOLPAs. The JVs have since moved into their own house which is known as the TacBlock.

All of these comings and goings have reminded me of the comings and goings that will take place in December when we welcome Lauren and Rachel as new JVs and say goodbye to Theresa, Jacqueline, and Victoria as they head back to the States. On top of that Lucia, Victor, and Marta will be leaving in December or January as well. It will be sad to say so many goodbyes to so many good people, so I think it's good that I'm thinking of it already. It will help me to not take these months together for granted and to really live into them as we live them out.

*Lucia, Victor, and Marta's program.

Subbing for English and the facts of Volunteer life

A volunteer is generally considered someone who is available to do things that need doing. So even though I have a job at FyA 44 (religion teacher in the elementary school), I'm seen as available for other tasks. That made itself abundantly clear last week when there were no English teachers at the high school. They were in Lima doing a two week training, and it had been decided that Theresa and I would cover most of the classes. It was a reasonable decision (we're the only other people on staff who speak English) except that we weren't told about it until Monday. With no time to prepare ourselves, we were suddenly handed the burden of two complete class schedules on top of our own.

We made it clear that we were available and willing to help (that's what apostolic availability often means) but that we would only be covering classes that fell during our free blocks. It was a very busy and tiring two weeks. Suddenly I was leaving my work every day to go fill time at the high school. It was made even more difficult by the fact that the teachers didn't leave sub folders. What did we do with the students? We made it up each day. I played hangman with an English 2 class focusing on the alphabet and Jeopardy with an English 3 class. But mostly I showed movies. The kids complained about me leaving the audio in English, but I felt that if I didn't at least do that, then we wouldn't be able to pretend that the kids were learning. Who knows – maybe one or two of them actually did learn some English by watching Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End. All I know is that I'm glad that the English teachers will be back on Monday, because I was just about at my wits' end trying to think up more activities to fill time in the English classes.

This all points to one of the realities of being a volunteer – we're on the bottom of the ladder. Even though Theresa and I are called Profe by the students, we're not real profes. We're not on the same level. That can be frustrating – especially when it leads to being assigned to spend two weeks subbing for a class without any support from the absent teacher – but I ultimately think it's fair. We're untrained, the rest of the staff has their education degree. We're just passing through, much of the staff have been here for almost a decade. And we came to serve needs as we could. Covering English classes was one way we could serve. It was tiring, but it was part of what I came for. 

Sunday Song - Tomad, Señor y Recibid

We're celebrating St. Ignatius this week at FyA44 because it's our 20th anniversary and he's the patron saint of the school. So today's Sunday Song is his most famous prayer, "Tomad, Señor y Recibid." It's a pretty song. It's a hard prayer to pray and really mean.

Tomad, Señor, y recibid toda mi libertad, mi memoria, mi entendimiento y toda mi voluntad; todo mi haber y mi poseer. Vos me disteis, a Vos, Señor, lo torno. Todo es Vuestro: disponed de ello según Vuestra Voluntad. Dadme Vuestro Amor y Gracia, que éstas me bastan. Amén.

Take, Lord, and receive  all my liberty, my memory,  my understanding, and my entire will, All I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours;  do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me. Amen.

Noted With Translation: NCLB Peru edition

"We all can learn, no one stays behind."

Midyear Retreat

Our second retreat of the year (July 30-August 2) focused on the concept of kinship as expressed by Fr. Greg Boyle* in his interview with Krista Tippett on her podcast show On Being.* Retreats being about getting away from the world, I'm not going to give you a full account of what we did. I'll tell you that we did this retreat together with the JVs from Tacna. I'll tell you that one of the strengths of doing a joint retreat is that we could learn from each other's differing JV realities. I'll tell you that we all had stomach issues. And I'll share this quote with you, that for me sums up the key takeaway of the retreat:

“Jesus, with God, imagined a circle of compassion and imagined no one standing outside of it. Yet many do stand outside the circle. And so, it is outside the circle where Jesus chooses to situate himself, as much geographically as spiritually. He stands with the leper, the outcast, the public sinner, and Carlos until the prevailing culture – which aggressively shames, humiliates and isolates the outcast – welcomes the outsider in. If our goal was to create a community of kinship such that God would recognize it, then we would no longer be promoting justice, we would be celebrating it. The popular bumper sticker announces: “No Justice, No Peace.” I believe the stance of Jesus announced: “No Kinship, No Justice.” For Jesus seemed to hold no interest in taking the right stand on issues, but wanted to simply stand in the right place. He didn't fight for the rights of the leper, he touched the leper. He didn't seek equality for the tax collector, he ate with him. He didn't insist on improved conditions for the prisoner – he said, simply, “I was in prison.”

-Fr. Gregory J. Boyle, SJ The Voice of those who Sing

Yeah I have a cowboy hat. You know you jealous.

I'll also share this picture with you.

*I won't go into who Fr. Boyle is because he wasn't the focus of our retreat, kinship was. If you want to know more about who he is, type his name into the box on this FANCY NEW WEBSITE I just discovered and hit enter. You'll find all sorts of stuff about him.

*If you want to hear the full podcast (which I recommend), click HERE.

Belleza por Todos Lados: Look around Puno!

When I walk around a new area for the first time, my eyes are thirsty for details. I look everywhere to take in landmarks to locate myself, possible places to eat, posters advertising events that could be interesting, and anything else I might not have thought of. Puno, it turns out, is a city that rewards the people who, like me, look everywhere at once. Looking up, down, or all around, there was plenty of artistic beauty to take in...

Belleza por Todos Lados: Sunrise over Lake Titicaca

I got up at 5:30AM to climb up to a lookout point behind the plaza and make sure I could get these shots. It was stunningly beautiful. And it was made cooler by the giant statue of Manco Inca (the first Inca) standing behind me pointing to where the sun was peeking up over the Lake. 

This is actually at sunset. But it's taken from the same spot as the pics that follow the jump.

Puno Trip!

Time to open up the Second Book of Benjamin* to the Bucket List page and check something off because last week I saw Lake Titicaca. For anyone who is giggling at the name Titicaca, I get it. No shame. But since the name is Aymara and not Spanish, the name actually means "Rock of the Puma."

Lake Titicaca is a unique place in the world. For one, it's a massive lake sitting high in the mountains at 12,507 feet above sea level. It's also the home of the Bolivian naval fleet ever since Chile cut off Bolivia's direct access to the sea in the War of the Pacific. The lake is home to los Uros, a group of floating man-made islands. It's also believed to be the ancestral home of the Incas.

If you're staying in Peru, then Puno is the city to go to if you want to visit Lake Titicaca. According to the Mountain House's (admittedly outdated) copy of Lonely Planet Peru, Puno is the second most touristed city after Puno. Seeing as awareness of the fantastic culinary scene in Lima has grown a lot since our edition was published, that may have changed.

Noted with Translation: Peace is basic Math

We had a youth congress (like a retreat) of the three FyA schools in the Cusco area. Among other topics, we focused on violence and peace culture. This was my favorite slogan made by the students:

More peace

Less violence

Among everyone

Forever

Sunday Song - Cristo Te Necesita para Amar

"Christ needs you." 

Isn't that a surprising statement? Jesus multiplied loaves and fishes, he turned water into wine, and he took his nighttime strolls on the surface of the Sea of Galilee. What does he need me for? 

He needs us to love. The English translation doesn't measure up to the Spanish. The songs is really saying Christ needs us to be able to love. We've heard it said that God has no hands but our hands, no feet but our feet. This song says God has no hearts but our hearts. Translation after the jump.

Ain't vacation great? Puno from above

Belleza por Todos Lados - Afternoon Sun through the Eucalyptus Trees

Belleza por Todos Lados - View on a hike

Vacation

I'm on vacation until the 10th. Tomorrow I'm headed to Puno for a few days of solo vacation time. I may get a chance to post some picture of Lake Titicaca, but I may not. Enjoy your week, and I'll try get some good stuff ready to post next week.

Sunday Song (on Monday) - Negra es la Uva

A powerfully visual offertory song that stands in stark contrast to the mass produced bread and wine Catholics consume at most masses (including the ones in Andahuaylillas). 

Negra es la uva, largo el camino, duro el trabajo, rojo es el vino. Campo sembrado, trigo amarillo, manos que hacen el pan.     Acéptalos, recíbelos y danos tu Cuerpo y tu Sangre  (bis)     Te presentamos estas ofrendas un poco de pan, un poco de vino manos agrestes, rostros cansados, trabajo del campesino.

Black is the grape, long is the road Hard is the work, red is the wine Planted field, yellow wheat Hands that make the bread Accept it, receive it And give us your Body and Blood (2 time) We present to you these offerings A big of bread, a bit of wine Tough hands, tired faces Work of the peasant.

Belleza por Todos Lados - Red blossomed tree (Andahuaylillas)

Unintentionally Hilarious Names: cookie edition

It's pronounced "choco-boom."