The Penultimate Post

Well, things are pretty much wrapped up. I'm finished my 2 years of service and next week I'll fly to Nicaragua to begin my long trip back home. Thank you to everyone who has read anything I've written here. I hope that I've done a decent job of giving you all “windows” into this experience. Blogging has been a great way for me to continually reflect on this experience throughout the 2 years. I've enjoyed it, but won't keep this up now that I'm done.

Last thought on blogging: When I look back over this life, and I think things over, I can truly say that I've been blessed: this has been my testimony.

There will be one more post on this blog. Come back in the afternoon for a Christmas surprise.

2016 Year in Review Video

Here's a final video that looks back over the last year. The images are set against a prayer that I found in one of the JVC folders. 

Hold on, people, just a little while longer. Everything is gonna be alright.

Noted With(out) Translation - FJV

I've been saving this picture for today. 

Today's the day I leave Andahuaylillas. 

Today's the day I become a Former Jesuit Volunteer (FJV). 

Travel Playlist

A playlist is essential for setting the right tone. Just imagine the awkwardness if you messed up and included "Ding, dong, the witch is dead" on the playlist you listened to while driving to her funeral with your wife. Why you'd probably be including "Baby, come back" on your next playlist.

My sister and father are the real playlist masters of the family. But I need a good set of tunes to listen to on my long journey home (remember I'm traveling through Central America, entering the States in Texas, and heading to Boston overland). Here's what I'll be listening to starting tomorrow evening; my hope is that it strikes the right balance between leaving and arriving, between Andahuaylillas and Boston. What do you think? (I've linked to each song if you want to listen).

Noted With Translation - Purposeful Self Improvement

In Fight Club, Tyler Durden claims that "self improvement is just masturbation." That may be the case if you work out just to admire your muscles in the mirror. But if you live by the motto of Colegio San José (the Jesuit run high school in Arequipa) self improvement is all about service.

"Be more, to serve better"

Fe y Alegría

"Our teachers come to work full of faith (fe), and they leave, tired yes, but also full of joy (alegría).”* 

-Pd. José María Vélas, founder of the Fe y Alegría movement. 

I came to Andahuaylillas just under 25 months ago, and started work at FyA 44 in March 2015. I came here with no previous experience as a classroom teacher (or as a pastoral coordinator for that matter). I had a big red book called The Skillful Teacher that my mother gave me. And of course, I came to work full of faith – faith that God wanted me be here, faith that with time I could do well at this work, faith that I wasn't on my own, that I would be taught what to saw.

School ended yesterday. I've finished my two years of work at FyA 44. I am the first JV to fill the roles I filled (teaching religion in Primaria and coordinating the school's pastoral office). I have taught around 800 students. I've worked on numerous retreats for my high schoolers, and chaperoned students across the country. I helped to meet a clear need for accompaniment by spending time one-on-one listening to and counseling high schoolers' difficulties with schoolwork, friendships, love, parents, and the future. I also helped to found FyA 44's youth group and had the honor of sharing sacred space with 5 young people every Friday afternoon. I've done a good enough job that the students who know me will miss me next year when I'm not there.

2 years away from home is a long time. I am tired. But I'm the right kind of tired. I'm the tired after a long, wonderful day, when the planet is turning towards tomorrow and you lie down sure in the knowledge that you lived this day, you carped the heck out of this diem.

I came to this school with faith. 

I leave with joy. 

I move forward with both, with fe y alegría.

*This is not the exact quote, because I can't remember the exact quote. But it's close enough for our purposes.

Despedida

Despedida means the act of saying goodbye. It's also the word for a goodbye party. We had ours this past Sunday. We prepared lots of snacks (I made chocolate dipped alfajores) and bought a few bottle of alcohol. Guests made sure the alcohol didn't run out, and the current construction at the parish provided lots of old wood for a bonfire.

I'm interested in the etymology of the word despedir (to say goodbye). Its root is pedir, which means "to ask for." The prefix "Des" is a negative prefix. So, to this native English speaker, despedir means that you aren't asking for anything anymore; you are content with what has been given. According to this source, despedir comes from Latin for "seek away from," as in seeking a new life somewhere else. Both are relevant to my life right now. I am content with what I have received, and I ask for nothing else, and I am seeking something else somewhere else.

We didn't actually say any final goodbyes on Sunday., everyone who came was either a coworker or a neighbor, but it was important to mark the moment and bring together the people who have made this experience so wonderful, and to see all of them together and be reminded that we are loved.

Wall of Mail

This is what I see each night before I fall asleep and each morning when I wake up:

Thank you to all the people who made this wall possible. I'll be keeping all these messages for many years. I hope the next we communicate, we're doing it in person, and that it's soon.

New JVs

The new JVs have arrived!

For 2 weeks we'll be a 3 generation house, and then Erin and I will be gone and the 2017 community will be on its own. 

I think that the constant rotation of volunteers is a great strength of JVC's. The program is sustainable, volunteers don't start from scratch each year because they have 2nd years to show them how things work, and the outgoing JVs can leave knowing that the work they did will continue.

Noted With(out) Translation: Magae* Edition

*Yes, I do remember SOME Latin

Outside Looking In

Youth Group Closing Session

As I noted before, the goodbyes have already begun. Last week, the practicantes* finished their work and headed back to Lima to defend their theses. Since Karla, the practicante who has helped with the youth group all year, was leaving we held the official end of the year session for the youth group.

Belleza por Todos Lados - Huaca Pucllana

Huaca Pucllana is a pre-Inca archaeological site in the middle of Miraflores, Lima that's only steps from my friend's house. If you're ever in Lima, go check it out.

Goodbye: Host Parents

I went to Lima last weekend to say goodbye to my study abroad host parents, Marilú and Pepe. These are the people that first made me feel at home in Peru, and I doubt that I would be here now if it weren't for the love and welcome.

I'll be back in Lima for Christmas, but they'll be away so I made sure to have some time to see them.

Hasta la próxima!

Belleza por Todos Lados - Waiting for the Good News

Here's our Advent Wreath!

Quarterly Review 8 - Video

It helps, now and then, to step back

and take the long view.

-Prayer Honoring Pd. Oscar Romero

This Quarterly Review Video turned out to be the most difficult. Part of the difficulty is that there simply weren't as many big events as there were during the 7^th quarter, so I didn't have the variety of photos to share. But choosing the song was the most difficult part of putting this video together.

Being so near the end, I'm in a very reflective mood. I'm looking back over the last 2 years and making sense of them. I'm appreciating big and small moments. So I tried a few reflective songs with lyrics that expressed some of the feelings of finishing and change that I have right now. But that tone doesn't match the other 3 quarterly review videos.

After a few days of trying out different songs, I decided on Pharrel William's “Happy.” I'll save the reflective mood for an end of JVC video. For now, it's enough that I am here and I am happy.

Quarterly Review 8

On the wall 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 2 years since Erin and I arrived in Andahuaylillas. It's also the completion the 8^th (and final) quarter, which means one last Quarterly Review before I spend the 25^th month of JVC saying my goodbyes and passing the torch on to the next community.

This is what stands out to me this quarter:

• The beginning of the end
• What comes next

An Advent Devotional

Christians across the world are in Advent. We're waiting expectantly for the hope of the incarnation, for God to come and walk with us. But that doesn't mean we're all sitting around praying quietly using nice friendly and neutral words. As the people at Medium say “to convey a visceral gospel, we must sometimes use visceral language.”

So I present to you the link to #FuckThisShit – An Advent Devotional. If you're fed up with all of the usual bullshit that our society creates and maintains, then this is the series of reflections for you.

https://medium.com/fuckthisshit

To anyone who feels like this may be going too far and that foul language crosses a line, let me remind you that Jesus literally whipped people into shape. Sometimes the faithful get furious. And when they do they are well with in their rights to say “Fuck this shit.”

H/T NMH

Praying for Rain

In Boston, weather affects the quality of your day. But a spell of bad weather one month is unlikely to affect your entire year. That's the difference between city-dwellers and farmers. For us city dwellers weather affects our outfits. For farmers, weather affects everything.

In September, everyone planted their fields with corn. The corn stalks have since sprouted and grown. In some places they are taller than I am. They're still green, for now. I say for now because it hasn't rained in a long time. People are starting to worry. Herman Rosario says that all the corn in Juliaca (a few hours away) is dry and yellow and useless. People will lose a lot of money if it doesn't rain soon.

Soon and Very Soon

“Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King.”

It's Advent!*

It's the time of impatient joy. Will He just hurry up and come join us? Is it Christmas yet? Can we sing Gloria with the angels?

This Advent is, for me, marked by a more specific kind of impatient joy: the impatient joy of knowing that I will be home soon. Soon and very soon, I will go to see my people.

But it is also marked by a patient sorrow. I am leaving a life here. Things are ending. The goodbyes already began last Sunday when I visited my host family in Cusco. There are many more to come in the next 3.5 weeks (I leave on December 22). Some will be simple and easy, others long and difficult. Soon and very soon, I am going to leave this place. Without a doubt I'll know, that I have been revived.

I live Advent full. Full of patience and impatience. Full of sorrow and joy. In all cases, things will be changing soon and very soon.

*Advent is the 4 weeks before Christmas.

Belleza por Todos Lados - Temple at Night

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Enjoy the feast. Enjoy your families (blood and water alike). Since the States is basically offline for the next few days, I'll be offline too.

No new posts until Monday the 28th. Look for the 8th and final Quarterly Review coming up next weekend.

Head's up: I leave Andahuaylillas on December 22. There's less than a month to go. Keep me in your prayers as I finish this up.

Thanksgiving

The feast isn't until Thursday, but we celebrated with our Peruvian and Spanish friends on Sunday. Here's some pictures, and a beautiful blessing that captures the spirit of Thanksgiving.

Noted With Translation - What the Cool Kids Eat

Cool Rice

You're Invited

Sunday, November 20th

2PM, in the Mountain House

Thanksgiving Dinner

Christingles

So I've got three weeks of classes left to teach (so little!), and I was looking online for cool activities (so that the kids will always remember as the cool teacher) when I came across this strange looking Christmas project:

My only post on the election results

Well, I was right last week when I told you voting changes things. A lot is going to change. And, if President Trump is anything like Candidate Trump, those changes are going to be overwhelmingly for the worse. After talking with my family, here are the two Harry Potter quotes that frame my thoughts on where we go from here.

Noted With Translation – Solidarios en Acción

Dear Father or Mother of the Education Institution Fe y Alegría 44 – Andahuaylillas, PREVIO a cordial greeting, the following is in order to invoke the spirit of solidarity and benefit a student from the Preschool Level who urgently needs an operation and whose mother does not have the necessary economic resources, please send a colaboration of 2.00 nuevos soles* tomorrow we thank you in advance for your support.
Attentively,
The Administration

Usually, Noted With Translation posts are short and sweet. I keep my commentary brief. My intention is to let the message itself shine. Today, I'm going to be a bit wordier than usual.

A comunicado is a message sent out to all parents. The administration sends out comunicados about school cancelations, important school events, and reminders to pay fees. Think of it as the Peruvian equivalent of a robo-call.

This comunicado is an example of solidarity at its finest. Most people here don't have enough money for major operations, and the national health insurance doesn't cover very much besides basic doctor's visits. There is no rich part of town in Andahuaylillas where this mother could ask for money to help her child. To be clear, it's not that everyone's poor, it's just that no one is rich.

So the school (which, as I learned recently LINK, also doesn't have extra money lying around) decided to step up and call upon the wider school community. Part of Fe y Alegría's identity is that parents are considered a vital part of the school community, and are expected to play an active roll. I'm sure that most, if not all, parents stepped up and sent 2 soles with their child the next day. I don't know if they raised enough money for the operation, but I do know that this is what it large scale community looks like.

The title of this post is, ironically, difficult to translate. Translating the phrase “Solidarios en Acción” requires an explanation of the word solidario. It's the adjective form of solidaridad, which directly translates to “solidarity.” Here I bump up against the bilingual problem in that there is no English word to fully connotes solidario. It's the reality of being “in solidarity with someone.” You can complement a person by saying they are “very solidario” meaning that they are dependable and empathetic and come aware of other people's pains and willing to share that pain and help end it. So I don't have a translation for my title. But I think you get the idea. If you can think of a translation for solidario, leave it in the comments.

*Peru's money is offically Nuevos Soles, though it is generally just referred to as soles. Nuevo Sol translates to “New Sun.” Interestingly, the last 3 iterations of government issued money in Peru are named for the sun. The Sol de Oro (Spanish for  GoldenSun) was the currency from 1922-1985. It was followed by the Inti (Quechua for sun) 1985-1991. Since 1991, Peru has been using the Nuevo Sol (New Sun). The principal deity of the Incas was the sun. Hmm...I wonder if there is a connection.

My Candle

I divided my candle into 3 home related images.

Boston

Andahuaylillas

My people (I'm not a master painter)

I also put three Bible verses that meet a lot to me.

Psalm 42
"Why are you downcast, my soul? Why do you groan with in me?"
This whole psalm is a wonderful way to face sorrow in the face.
The best line: "Deep calls to deep."

Jeremiah 1:1-10
This is the text of the song "El Profeta" 

John 1:1-15
"A light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

Youth Group Candles

Remember the pictures from the other week where the youth group was covered in paint? If you don't, here's a link.

Our actual activity was painting candles to use during our prayers.* The paint fight meant we didn't finish the actual painting in one session, so we finished up the next week. Here are the finished products:

Everyone wanted a photo with their candle. Sorry that they're fuzzy; I really should start bringing my camera to youth group sessions just in case a photo opportunity happens.

This is Karla, the practicante who runs the Youth Group with me.

The pastoral group the prayers together, stays together:

*I stole this activity from the Tacna JVs. 

What teaching 1st grade is like

Lauren and I were watching The Two Towers last night and Treebeard hit the nail on the head about working with children.

Noted With Translation - Everyone loves Oreos

In Peru, Oreo's slogan is changed from "America's favorite cookie" to "Milk's favorite cookie."

Voting Changes Things

I saw a slogan last year that said "if voting changed anything they would make it illegal."

It's a catchy slogan for ignorant cynics who have forgotten (perhaps never knew) their history. If you aren't a land-holding white male, then at some point it was illegal for you to vote. They didn't want landless (read poor) men voting because voting changes things. They didn't want women voting because voting changes things. They didn't want black people voting because voting changes things. They didn't want people under 21 voting because voting changes things. Three years ago, they didn't renew the Voting Rights Act because voting changes things. They've passed laws that make it harder to vote because voting changes things.

So go vote. Because voting changes things.

The House of the Volunteers

There are a myriad of ways that JVC manages housing for volunteers in the US and abroad. Some houses are owned by JVC, others are rented. Our house is owned by the parish. It is known as “la casa de voluntarios” (the volunteer house). For the last 6 years, that has primarily meant JVs, but the house is not only for JVs.

The parish sends various other volunteers to our house from time to time. A few years ago María, a Spaniard who was a volunteer and then stayed on as a paid worker, lived with the JV community in the Mountain House. Last year Lucía lived with us all year, and Martha and Victor often visited. This year we've played host to a few different young volunteers, with stays ranging from 1 night to 2 weeks.

Most recently we've hosted Fernando and Clara, two Spanish volunteers who work in Ocongate. They arrived in September and stayed in the house for a week to acclimate to the altitude. As with Victor and Martha last year, or the practicantes this year, I think of Fernando and Clara as similar to cousins. They have their own home and daily lives, but we are related through the Jesuits. They are visiting Andahuaylillas this weekend and next weekend, which has got me thinking about my conception the house I live in.

Fois et Joie

Imagine you have a staff of bilingual Quechua-Spanish speakers* and you have a Cameroonian ??? Jesuit who speaks French-English visiting to learn about the work your staff does. How do you get facilitate a conversation between them?

Noted With Translation - International Trade Agreement Edition

Sorry to get all political on you all, but I saw this in Urcos the other day and thought it was worth sharing. You can probably guess this, but these are anti-TPP slogans.

"No to the TPP"

"TPP doesn't go!!"
(as in, "must not happen")

Noted With(out) Translation - Quechua Safety Message

Cromotex, the bus company we took to Arequipa and back, played its safety instructions once in Spanish and again in Quechua. You can tell it's aimed at a different clientele than Cruz del Sur, which plays the safety message in Spanish and English. 

I can't translate the text above for you because I don't speak Qeuchua, but based on the images I think it's advising passengers about the regulations that limit how long a single driver can be behind the wheel before switching off with a second driver.

Coloquio Sur 2016 - Part 2

The Coloquio itself was a wonderful event. We arrived to the Arequipa bus station at 5:30AM and squeezed into taxis to go downtown. After a tour of the Jesuit church, everyone had 4 hours to explore the city and get lunch. I'd told the students to bring money, but also gave each 10 soles to help cover the costs of food. In the afternoon we headed over to Colegio San José, a private Jesuit school that is right across the street from Manresa, where I stayed before ReO/DisO. My students were very impressed with the facilities, which looked like a lot of well-off suburban high schools in the US. Students and young adults from Tacna, Arequipa, and Arica, Chile arrived soon after us.

The theme for the Coloquio was “Misericordiosos en Acción.” It's a play on the Jesuit slogan “comtemplatives in action” that I would translate as “Merciful (people) in action” that ties in with Pope Francis's Year of Mercy. The idea is that mercy requires concrete action and not just a general attitude of friendliness.

One of the strongest aspects of the Coloquio was the “experience.” They divided all the participants into groups of 10 and sent each group out to do different acts of mercy. My group was sent to work with children who come from extreme poverty and rough home lives. Other “experiences” involved visiting a children's cancer ward, talking with street vendors,* and talking with people at a retirement home. This practical component really drove home the message of the Coloquio.

Plenty of fun was had throughout, but the most fun was the Cultural night on Saturday. Each region presented a cultural performance. There was traditional dancing (from Cusco), modern dance (from Arequipa) and sketch comedy (Tacna). The rest of the night was dedicated to a dance.

Our bus left Arequipa Sunday night at 7:30 and arrived Monday morning at 4:30. I don't know if the 6 students went to school because I was away doing a special task assigned by Pd. Eddy,** but I left a note in the staff room asking teachers to excuse absence and homework.

I felt a little bit old among most of the participants but still managed to enjoy getting to know people from other parts of the country. The students had a great time and got to reflect and live a formational experience. It reminded me a lot of Kujenga, the Black-Catholic youth retreat in which I participated during high school. That was an experience that taught me a lot about how to reflect on and live out the faith. My prayer is that my students were similarly touched during the Coloquio.

*Very poor people in Peru often sell cheap candies to scrape money together for food.

 **More on that next week.

Coloquio Sur 2016 - Part 1

I mentioned the Coloquio (Colloquium) in Busy, one of my first posts this month. Well, the Coloquio is over, and it was a success. But there was plenty of trouble along the way to that success.

Our first issue to handle was money. The pastoral office of FyA 44 has none, which makes it difficult to pay for 5 people (4 students, 1 teacher) to travel across the country and participate in an event that has a registration fee. I talked with Pd. Eddy about money and he informed me that the school has no extra money lying around. So we turned to the biggest source of income for Jesuit projects in the Cusco region: tourism.

Thousands of tourists come to Andahuaylillas every year just to see the Sistine Chapel of the Americas. The Peruvian tourists pay 10 soles, and the foreign tourists pay 15. That money adds up to a lot of resources for local projects. Much of that goes to fund the parish social programs that Erin and Lauren work at, but Pd. Calilo is a savvy enough businessman to know to have funds on reserve. Hna. Rosario and I talked with him and he told us that he could cover the costs as long as the students put in some effort to raise money.

We decided to do a raffle. Every student in the high school bought a ticket for 1 sol. Three prizes were given out: a jacket, a new leather soccer ball, and 100 soles. The jacket and soccer ball were both claimed, but the winner of the 100 soles must have lost their ticket because they never showed up.

Grad School Applications and Translations

As regular readers know, I am applying to master's in education programs for next year. I'm highlighting my experience working as an educator at FyA 44 for the last two years in various ways – it would be foolish not to – but it comes with a special complication.

All applications require recommendations. The general guideline is to have one recommendation from a former professor and then one or two letters from supervisors. If you've worked in education, as I have, it's all the better to have recommendations from your supervisors in the educational context. For me, that means getting a rec from either Pd. Eddy or Hna. Rosario. The complication is that neither of them speak English.

I've talked with the admissions departments of all the programs I'm looking at and they've all agreed to accept a recommendation written in Spanish with an official translation attached. Obviously I have the skills to translate a document into English,* but as the document in question is a recommendation for me, that would be unethical. So I coordinated with the parish administrator in Andahuaylillas, who knows absolutely everyone in Cusco, and found a translator. Now Hermana Rosario has both her original letter and the official translation, which she can email to the four programs to which I'm applying.

It was a complicated process, but I think it was well worth it.

*I've done some translations for the Andean Barroque Route website and documents.

Youth Group Painted Painters

We were painting candles last week at youth group. The Spirit got to moving and a paint fight broke out. The way paint fights do. I love this job. 

Community Photo

It takes a couple tries to get that perfect shot.

Belleza por Todos lados - Stonehenge

Here there be Giants

Some of us has some fun with forced perspective while on a break at ReO/DisO

Belleza por Todos Lados - Ready for Rain

El Misti

I've got a Peru specific bucket list. It's too long to check everything off before I leave in December, which means I'll have to come back sometime, but two weekends ago I checked something off the list.

Mt. Misti is a 5,822/19,101ft volcano that sits over Arequipa, Peru's 2^nd most populous city. Climbing it is a 2 day trek that involves sleeping on its barren, sandy slopes and lots of trouble breathing. Lauren and I left Andahuaylillas made the climb the volunteer way.

Mt. Misti over Arequipa

The volunteer way has the benefit of being cheaper, but it's a lot more complicated

ReO/DisO

Last week was Re-Orientation/Dis-Orientation, the big retreat run by JVC staff that is supposed to help JVs in the field reflect on their past year of service and prepare for the coming transitions (either transitioning to a new community and being a 2^nd year, or transitioning out of JVC and probably to life back in the US). ReO/DisO brings together the 3 JVC communities in South America: Santiago in Chile, Tacna in Peru, and Andahuaylillas in Peru. There are currently 10 JVs, 6 2^nd years and 4 1^st years. We held our retreat at the Jesuit retreat house in the beach town of Mejía, on the the southern coast of Peru.

For me the most exciting aspect of ReO/DisO is seeing the other JVs. We have very little contact with each other during most of the experience. Email, Facebook, Skype, and other connection technologies all exist, but life keeps you busy and it's not like these are my closest childhood friends. It's a lot of fun to just spend time together.

Seeing the other JVs also reminds me of the breadth of the mission we are serving. There are JVs in 7 countries, and there are Jesuits all over the world. Like workers in the vineyard we're each trying to tend to one small portion, but because we are many the whole vineyard receives the care it needs.

As is always the case with retreats, I won't discuss the content on this blog. But here are some photos from the week.

Noted With Translation - Rules of the Trail

It says: "Do not litter along the way"
When you think about it, it's kind of a nice attitude to take towards life.

Who I Vote For

I voted this week. Being out of the country means I have to email my ballot in, so I figured I wouldn't procrastinate on it.

In the spirit of my post on voting from earlier this year, let me tell you who I was thinking of when I filled out my ballot and voted for Hillary Clinton. Maybe my thoughts will inform yours when you fill out your ballot a month from today.

Busy

I have been very busy lately. I've got big things going on in 3 different areas of my life.

First of all I have my JVC commitments. ReO/DisO, the annual retreat with all South America JVs and JVC staff, is the second week of October. The last week of October is the JVC staff site visit. Both those events involve some significant preparation. Some of the preparation is logistical (scheduling meetings with the bosses, buying bus tickets to get to ReO/DisO, requesting time off), but most of the preparation is reflectional. There is a 22 question document to be filled out as a community that gives the JVC staff a sense of how we're living out the commitment. Then there's the 52 question personal reflection journal. It takes many hours to complete (if you put serious thought into it) and helps you reflect on your entire experience. Both require a lot of work, but the work is definitely worth it. When we talk about being “contemplatives in action,” this is the contemplative side. The last JVC task is communicating with the office about departure dates, travel home, and travel reimbursements.

Secondly, I have my FyA 44 commitments. Being away for a week means finding a movie to leave for my students to watch. That's not too difficult, but the interruption in the normal flow of work means I should do some more preparation than I usually do at the start of the month to make sure things go well. On top of the usual responsibilities, I have one last big Pastoral Coordinator duty to perform. On the last weekend in October, I'll be chaperoning 4 FyA 44 high school students to the Jesuit Colloquium, a 3 day event that brings together young people involved in the pastoral side of Jesuit projects across the South of Peru and the North of Chile and Bolivia. Getting everything in order for the Mini-Congreso (LINK) was plenty of work. Because the travel will take us farther, there's more work involved. We'll need special notarized permission forms for all 4 students. We need to fundraise so that the costs aren't too heavy. We need to coordinate with other Cusco based youth to make sure we come prepared. I'm talking to Hermana Rosario, 3 different Jesuits, and 4 families to try to get this all to come out well. Say some prayers for us!

Finally, I have applications to work on. Remember when I talked about pivoting LINK? Well a big part of that is getting my grad school applications in. I'm applying to 4 Master's of Teaching programs in the Boston area. Each program has its own due date and its own specific application. Oh how I miss the Common App! But of course, me living and working in Peru makes applying to school in the US more complicated. One of my supervisors at FyA 44 is giving me a recommendation. The problem is that they don't speak English. It would be unethical for me to do the translation myself (for obvious reasons), so I have to pay an official translator in Cusco to get the letter in English. I'm explaining this to each program ahead of time so that there won't be any problems when they receive the original Spanish document with the English translation attached. Any calls with admissions departments has to be carefully scheduled across 2 time zones (imagine missing a meeting because you thought it was at 3 when it was actually at 2) and are sustainable only when the internet signal is strong (which, mercifully, it has been). I'm working hard to get all applications in before December (though the first deadline is November 9^th) so that I can have that last month to live into my goodbyes. So far I'm on track.

As you can see, there's a lot going on. But that's to be expected. It's the fourth quarter, and you have to leave it all out on the field.

New Volunteers

Last week we welcomed two new volunteers to work with the Jesuits in Quispicanchi. Fernando and Clara are two Spaniards who have come with VOLPA, the same program that sent Lucía, Martha, and Victor last year. They will also be here for a year, working in Ocongate.

Fernando and Clara stayed in the Mountain House for a few days to get used to the altitude. They were wonderful guests, and very kind people. They were able to participate in Monday night's mass, and even prepared a few Spanish tortillas (basically potato omelets).

We welcome Fernando and Clara into our extended community and wish them the best in their service. Strange to think that they are just starting, and I am closing in on the finish.

Noted with Translation - Library Edition

Silent Geniuses Studying

Strike

It's been a frustrating day at FyA 44. The teachers didn't come. They decided to participate in a regional teacher's strike because they want a pay raise. That's not frustrating, I'm the son of a teacher and a community organizer, I was taught that people have the right to strike. What's frustrating is that the administration didn't cancel classes. So I came to work today to find that all the support staff subbing, and nothing getting done. It was an authoritarian move to insist on classes without teachers,  and it shows a basic lack of respect for the support staff (half of whom are unpaid volunteers). 

Had I known all of this would happen, I would have stayed home in solidarity with the strikers.

First Communion in Catcca

Besides being the director of FyA 44, Pd. Eddy is also the parish priest in Catcca, a town about an hour up the mountains from Andahuaylillas. Recently he asked the FyA 44 pastoral team to come up to Catcca with him and prepare some 6^th graders for first communion.

Students bringing their patron Saint, Virgen de las Merced, into the church.
Yes, the ribbons decorating the pews are made of toilet paper. 

We (Hna. Vilma, Mafer, Karla, and I) gave a 2 day intensive first communion course on two Fridays. The students from Catcca were very participatory and caught on quickly. We also gave two students who participate in pastoral activities the opportunity to help with the classes. Of course those two students jumped in because it meant missing most of their classes on Friday. I think everyone involved really enjoyed the experience.

Altarpiece in Catcca

Monday the 25^th, the students received their first communion at their school's anniversary mass. A few were also baptized during the mass. Welcome little brothers and sisters! We wish you long lives of joy in the Gospel.