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