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.