On Vacation

Today is the first day of our 2 week midyear vacation. Just a head's up to all readers to not expect many posts until the first week of August.

Happy summer to you, and winter to me.

Noted with Translation: Hierarchy of Learning

When I see, I comprehend

When I hear, I understand

When I do, I learn

Mountain House Bookshelves

Nonfiction

I always like to look at someone's bookshelf when I visit their home. It's a way to learn more about them and their interests.

Fiction

The Mountain House has been home to 13 JVs in the past 6 years, and to an unknown number of Spanish volunteers before that. The bookshelf reflects the various personalities who have called this house home. I thought it might be interesting to show you the various titles we have on the shelves.

Día del Logro

Día del Logro translates to "Day of Accomplishment." It happens twice a year. Día del Logro is an open house/fair where students show off their work. There's no classes all day, instead parents come visit and see the work their own children are doing, and then go to other classrooms to see the work done at other age levels.

I have mixed thoughst about Día del Logro. I have seen some teachers do projects specifically for Día del Logro. It also encourages teachers to value attractiveness over quality in student work. On the other hand, students have to present their work. That reinforces public speaking skills, and according to pretty much everything I've read about pedagogy, people learn things better when they have to teach someone else.  Beyond that, Día del Logro gives students pride in their work. It also brings the entire school community together (students, teachers, administrators, support staff, and parents) for a celebration of learning. That's important. It's also a key element of Fe y Alegría's pillar of popular education.

I was lucky enough that I wasn't required to participate in Día del Logro. So I got to walk around and see the presentations of almost all my students. Follow the jump to see pictures form the day.

Visiting Groups: University of Omaha

Before the two Texas high schools came, a group of students came from the University of Omaha. I barely interacted with them, so I don't have any thoughts on them as visitors. But the final product of their visit is this video promoting the Andean Baroque Route. 

The production quality could be higher, but it's the best English language promotion video I've seen. I hope you enjoy this glimpse into the work the Jesuit-run parishes do here. 

By the way, this is an example of a useful and important service that a group can provide in a short term visit.

A Call to Prayer and Action

The following is a statement from the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus which I received through my parish's listserv. Please consider the message carefully and prayerfully. 

Statement from the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus

July 11, 2016 Feast Day of St. Benedict

Brothers and Sisters to Us,

May the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ find you blessed and lifted in the Holy Spirit.

We, the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, USA, write to you with burdened hearts in the hope that we find people of good will to be an encouragement for the work that the people of God must undertake. We are living in troubled times. The racial turmoil all around us, no matter what region of the country we live in is the legacy of our country’s original sin, that of racism within our minds and hearts, which is an inner emotional dysfunction that produces dysfunctional behavior between all the races. We are a country which is thinking, feeling and acting under the influence of the stinking thinking of racism.

The recent events that have taken place in Baton Rouge, Minneapolis and Dallas show that we still have a long way to go to free ourselves from racism’s chains. As Black Catholic priests, deacons and religious brothers in the United States we appeal to our Catholic Church and our American society to witness to our Christian creed and civic belief that every person is created equal before God. End the silence of where you stand on this basic tenet of religious faith and civic covenant. Stand in the breach and be counted. In the words of the first epistle of the Church written by St. James: “Be doers of the word, not hearers only.”

The National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus is committed to be witnesses to the truth of being Black in America and in the Catholic Church. We pray and will work to encourage men, women, boys and girls of good will to stand in solidarity with us. Together may we be a light of hope that chases the darkness of racisms from our hearts of our Church and our American society.  We also pray for all the victims of these most recent acts of violence. May God welcome them into the eternal Kingdom and bring comfort and consolation to their families and loved ones.

The Rev. Kenneth Taylor, President, National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, USA

The Rev. Clarence Williams, CPPS, PhD, Vice-President

STATEMENT BY THE NATIONAL BLACK CATHOLIC CONGRESS

A Call to Prayer and Action

Baltimore, 13 July 2016: The National Black Catholic Congress (NBCC) joins the nation in mourning over the tragedies in Baton Rouge, the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area, and Dallas last week. As we commend to the Lord those who have died, we pray for the consolation of all who are grieving. It is important for Black Catholics to contribute to the ongoing national conversation about the underlying issues which have existed for too long. These issues include racism, inequality, poverty, and violence. During this Jubilee Year of Mercy, we must be signs of God’s love which promotes justice. Justice promotes right relationships, which includes upholding the dignity of human life. The NBCC invites Black Catholics and all people of good will to join in a time of prayer and action. We believe in the power of prayer. We also believe that we must cooperate with how God will answer our prayers.

HENCE, THE NBCC ASKS YOU TO JOIN US IN OFFERING THIS PRAYER FROM MONDAY, JULY 18TH TO MONDAY, THROUGH AUGUST 15TH:

 

O God, who gave one origin to all peoples and willed to gather from them one family for yourself, fill all hearts, we pray, with the fire of your love and kindle in them a desire for the just advancement of their neighbor, that, through the good things which you richly bestow upon all, each human person may be brought to perfection, every division may be removed, and equity and justice may be established in human society.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. 

(Collect, Votive Mass for the Progress of Peoples, The Roman Missal)

In addition, Friday is a day of penance for Catholics throughout the year. During this same period, we invite Black Catholics to make a sacrifice of your choosing on Fridays to accompany our prayers for justice with acts of reparation.

National Black Catholic Congress, Inc. July 13, 2016

 

Visiting Groups: Strake Jesuit

This week's visiting group was another all boys Jesuit high school from Texas. This time it was Strake Jesuit from Houston.

Strake Jesuit comes for a traditional service trip; all students are required to complete 100 hours of community service. A weeklong service trip knocks out plenty of hours. Unfortunately for the students, the parish doesn't actually need a lot of basic manual labor to be done. The boys ended up doing a lot of the same playing with students that the boys from Dallas Jesuit did.

There's three things that occur to me after reflecting on what Strake Jesuit wants out of their trip.

1. It's incumbent on organizations to communicate when they DON'T need volunteers. Strake isn't the only group that has come to Andahuaylillas in the last 19 months with the intention of spending a week or two helping out only to find that there's nothing to do. The parish should tell such groups not to come, out of respect for what such people want to do. Perhaps groups that want to help in a short period of time could accomplish more somewhere else.
   
2. Just because it's a poor area, doesn't mean the people need your help. Quispicanchi is a relatively poor area. Peru is a relatively poor country. There are plenty of ways to help build the kingdom here (I like to think that the Jesuits are doing a lot of good work here), but the unskilled manual labor that a high school group offers isn't needed.
   
   I did some unskilled manual labor when I was in high school. I went to New Orleans with my parish youth group and we helped tear down walls and ceilings on ruined structures in the 7th ward. We didn't build anything because we knew nothing about construction, but ripping down a ceiling is easy, and letting high school volunteers do it for free is a big money saver. We helped how we could. Had we come to Andahuaylillas, we wouldn't have been much help. It's very likely that the Strake boys could have completed their community service hours at non-profits in Houston, saving them the cost of flying across the planet, and of having to sit feeling useless for a week.
   
3. If you're taking a group of people to do work in a country that speaks another language, make sure a critical mass of the group speaks the language. Nuff said.

Major Issues, but Far Away

I make it a point to keep up to date on what's going on back home. So I've watched the police shooting videos. I've heard about the sniper that killed cops in Dallas. I've heard about protests on the interstates.

But I haven't done anything.

Living far from home is difficult for a host of reasons. One reason you don't anticipate before departure is how separate you can feel from current events in your city, state, and country. I'm an observer, not a participant.

We were talking about this last night. About the desire to dive into the issues at home. But that would mean diverting attention and energy from the world in front of us, from the place we came to live and work in.

I think my energies belong here in Andahuaylillas. I think I should live here for the remaining few months. Agree with me or not, that's my position. I can march next year.

Visiting Groups: Dallas Jesuit

It summer vacation in the United States, which means the parish is hosting lots of different groups. Last week, one of our favorite groups came. It's an all boys high school from Texas called Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas. We refer to them as Dallas Jesuit.

Dallas Jesuit is such a great group because they come prepared. The chaperones meet with the students multiple times during the school year. This year they also had readings they had to do before the trip. The idea behind the Dallas Jesuit trip to Andahuaylillas isn't direct service (like building homes, painting walls, etc.) or language acquisition (I'm actually surprised at the fact that there's no groups that come purely to improve their Spanish). Instead, the boys come to connect with local people, to learn about a different reality. It's about the students' growth as individuals, as boys becoming men.

Here's an overview of their visit:

Día del Maestro

July 6^th is Día del Maestro (Day of the Teacher) in Peru. It's a school holiday. While the Peruvian education system is lacking in many aspects, it is far superior to the US education system when it comes to celebrating teachers. This year's celebration was similar to last year's with the students putting on a show of dances, skits, and poetry, and giving each teacher a gift. After an early dismissal we had chicharrón (fried pork) for lunch with plenty of pisco.

I don't have any new reflections to share. It's nice to be appreciated, and it's nice to have time to celebrate with your co-workers. This year, I was the only foreigner at the lunch, but I'm glad to say that I'm friends with 3 of the 6 student teachers from Lima, so I had people to hang with.

With less than 6 months to go until the end of the school year on December 20, Día del Maestro was a day to savor, a reminder that the students do appreciate our efforts to serve them. Here's a few pictures:

Ccapacc Qolla

A key element was missing from my post about the pilgrimage to Señor de Qoyllurritti: video of the dance. Recently, I was able to film the dance that the Qollas when they presented their dance at the feast of Saint Peterand Saint Paul. Obviously I didn't film the whole thing because it can take as long as half and hour, and it's very repetitive, but here it is:

As you can see, the dance has two parts. In the first part, they offer song to the Lord. The verses are all different, and they're all in Quechua, so I don't know what they're saying. They sing a verse, then dance as the band plays a verse. This pattern repeats until the song is done.

Then we move into the second part of the dance. This is the more exciting part, because the men whip each other. With arms around each other shoulders, two men dance forward and back, kneeling down before an image of the Lord three times. Then they separate. One stands in place while the other dances and displays his whip. At a certain moment, he brings his whip down on his partners lower calf/ankle region. Then the roles are reversed. After the second man is whipped, they trade blows until they stop, or another Qolla throws himself between the pair to separate them. After the whipping, the two men embrace. It's worth noting that if one man doesn't whip hard enough, the crowd will yell out “yachachiq!” which is Quechua for “teach him;” the message is for the other man to whip harder.

Whipping is a integral part of Qoyllurritti. The men whip each other to cleanse each other of sin. They embrace at the end because they are made clean by the stinging efforts of their partner.

This video features Pd. Calilo (he is the first to get whipped). Pd. Calilo is a part of the comparsa of the Qollas, and dances with them most years at Qoyllurritti. He has a bad back, which is part of why he doesn't whip as hard as the other men. There's also the fact that he comes from Lima, and not from farm work. You have to give him credit – he takes his beating without flinching. His incorporation into a local expression of faith is one of the things I most respect about Pd. Calilo.  

San Pedro, San Pablo 2016

Wow, ask and you shall receive. The internet speed picked after my last post. To celebrate, here's a post with plenty of visuals.

Part of the beauty of a two year international volunteer program is witnessing the yearly rhythm of a community more than once. The first time it's all new; the second time it has a ring of familiarity. So this year the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, June 29, was something to look forward to.

For those of you who don't remember all the details from last year's post about SanPedro, San Pablo, basically you need to know that Saint Peter is the patron saint of Andahuaylillas, and his feast day is a major holiday.*

The parish decided to switch from dancing saqras (demons) and do a dance called cholo gorilaso. So the costumes weren't so colorful, and there weren't masks. I actually didn't dance with the parish this year because they didn't start practicing until two days before, and I couldn't bail on my students to go learn a dance. But I really enjoyed the day. I was able to take in the day as a spectator. I got lots of video of dances and had more time to play Foosball with students.

Here's a video showing some bits of the festival. 

1. A glimpse of the fireworks display on the plaza the night of the 28th. There's a similar fireworks show for the town's anniversary in December. Could you do this in the US? No. Is it a public saftey hazard? Absolutely. But is it cool? You bet.
2. Mestiza Coyacha. "In the dance Qoyacha young people of both sexes participate. The men represent young Spainards and the women represent mestizas (mixed Spanish and indigenous origins). The Spanish men learn about mestizo customs dancing with the women, then the men invite the women to dance polka. It represents encounter between to cultures.
3. Cholo Qorilazo. This is basically a cowboy dance. The men (the cholos qorilazos), dedicate all their work to care for the women and their horses. Cholo is a multilayered word that in this context means peasant worker (but in Lima is used as a racial slur). Qorilazo means "golden lassoo"
4. Ccapacc Negro. This comparsa is sort of the host of San Pedro, San Pablo. They get the honor of carrying Saint Peter in the procession. Their dance is dedicated to black slaves. It is supposed to address the question "What if the slaves were free?" The black masks are a traditional part of the dance, and I can imagine this dance would play as well in the United States as it does in Peru.
5. Merjeña. These are my students dancing! The 4th year class of FyA 44 always carries St. Ignatius in the procession and dances this dance. It mocks the hacnedados, the plantation owners. Thus the very long noses on the masks. The men stumble around getting drunker and drunk and the women dance with them. Usually the men have bottles of Cusqueña beer in their hands, but the high school students uses sodas instead. The most exciting part of the dance is when they shake the beers up and spray foam all over each other (and sometimes the spectators). The dance often ends with all the men "passing out" on the ground.
6. Tinku. This dance, which originates in Puno, is based on an old tradition that goes by the same name. It's a ritualistic form of combat in which combatants swing at each other but don't actually make contact or cause physical harm. Unfortunately I was only able to film the start of their dance. It's a very high energy and fun dance to watch.

Follow the jump to see more pictures.

Coming Soon ... I hope

This is just a note to tell you that I have lots of pictures and some video that is all prepped to be shared with you, but the internet has been too slow to upload anything. But as soon as I find some good wifi, I'll post.

Apostolic Availability at FyA 44

Remember our discussion of apostolic availability from last year? It's what I reflected on when I was first assigned to teach Religion in Primaria. Well apostolic availability is calling me back to my old students.

I haven't talked about this before, but it's time to bring it up. Rachel had to go home for awhile. She flew home to recover from an illness and then had to extend her stay for some family reasons. She's scheduled to fly back to Peru in August.

I'm telling you this now because it means some changes at work. I volunteered to pick up her classes while she's gone. I'm going to teach 6 sections a week in Primaria, which means every class gets religion once every other week. Hermana Vilma is teaching all the classes in Secundaria herself. I'm still very present in Secundaria working as a student counselor and the youth group coordinator.

I'm not all that excited about this – it means a lot more work for me, and elementary school really isn't my preferred workplace. But there is plenty of good. I'll be getting lots more hugs, because high schoolers aren't nearly as affectionate as 1^st graders. I'll also have my own classroom again. One of the difficulties of co-teaching with Hermana Vilma is that I don't have full ownership of the class, which means I don't get to implement certain norms/habits/etc. I get to do that in Primaria because I'm the only religion teacher. On a personal pride level, the big benefit is bragging rights; I am the only person on staff who works with students in 11 different grade levels. Other perks include having 2 offices (because Primaria and Secundaria are in separate locations), and regular access to Primaria's superior wifi (which is faster because less people use it). 

But none of that is why I offered to long term sub. I made the offer because I could see that it was a need that I could fill without overtaxing myself. 

That's what I came here to do.

Fe y Alegría Swag

A new development this year at FyA44 is that the entire staff bought matching busos (track suits).  In typical Peru fashion, the bottoms have the ADIDAS triple stripes, and the tops have a NIKE swoosh. On Fridays, wearing the buso is so common that it's basically mandatory. But I'm not complaining; it means I get to wear pajamas to work.

Photography Week - Telling Stories and Preserving Memories

A lot of the photographs I take are taken for this blog. Many times I see something and think: “I should show this to the people back home.” I take photographs of cultural events (see the recent post on Señorde Qoylurritti) to help me explain the culture I'm surrounded by to people who have never had any contact with it. Telling a story to others is a major reason for taking a photograph.

But I also take a lot of pictures for me. There's plenty of photographs I have that I haven't put on the blog. It's not that they are secret, it's just that they're mine. Then there are the photographs that I took for the dual purposes of sharing with you and reminding me.

It's a joy to sit down with photographs. It calls stories up out of the recesses of your mind. Things you didn't know you had forgotten come back when your memory is jogged by a photograph. It's also interesting to see how much people have changed. Just as my sister and I found it funny to look at photos of our father when he was in his twenties and had long hair and a beard, my kids will probably find pictures long haired, bearded, mid-twenties Benjamin amusing.

Having photographs from this experience, or any part of my life, is important. It's important for people who want to know me better; seeing old photographs will help them understand where I come from. And it's important for me to be able to “look back over my life and think things over.”

Having so many photographs from this experience reminds me that, like Mary Magdalene, “I have seen the Lord.” And putting them on the blog means others can see for themselves.

I call this one "see and be seen"

  

Photography Week - Taking Pictures of People

Taking pictures of people is mildly awkward at first. You point the camera at someone, and suddenly they are the focus of a bright spotlight. That “long loving look at the real” that we talked about two days ago, can be awkward when you are the real thing being looked at lovingly for a long time.

So when it comes to taking pictures of people, I find that it's easiest to not. The mountains hold perfectly still for as long as I ask them. The animals are less cooperative but they don't feel pressured to look good the way people do. But many people often get nervous when the camera points their way (me included).

This is an awkwardness that must be conquered. Landscapes are beautiful, animals are exciting, but it's the old photographs of people you know that are the most interesting to look at. Who doesn't love sitting down with an old photo album and leafing through it? I remember an afternoon spent with my mother going through her wedding photos. That afternoon was a long loving look at the real.

Taking pictures of people captures moments more than any other kind of photograph. Looking back on them can bring up lots of memories connected to that time, as afternoons spent going through old photographs with my grandmother has taught me. It's worth it to take pictures of people because it helps you remember and preserve your story.

At some point I realized how it important it was to have photographs of people, both staged and candid. In a moment I realized how valuable a friend who always brings their camera out with them is. The next moment I realized that I didn't have such a friend. The moment after that I decided that I would have to become that friend.

So now I'm the person who insists on a group photograph before everyone leaves the party (not every single time, but it's not rare either). I'm the person who plays with the camera settings in the minutes before the cake is brought out to get the camera ready to perfectly capture the moment when you make your birthday wish. I'm taking long loving looks you through my God glasses because I want to remember you in this moment.

By the way, the importance of taking pictures of people includes being in pictures. I don't want to have thousands of pictures of my life and not be in any of them. You can't always be behind the lens, which is why I try to pass my camera off to someone else for a bit at different events – so that I too can be a subject. It feels awkward, but I think it's important.