Quarterly Review 6

Quarterly Review 6

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.

The last three months have seen the beginning of the work year. By now I've settled into my routines and started all the long term projects I was tasked with when Pd. Eddy told me about my job for this year. I've checked some things off of my Peru Bucket List, and have started to prepare for my return in Boston in 2017. In the first three months the JVC values of Community and Social Justice were the most powerful. In this quarter the most salient value has been Spirituality. Here are the themes I see:

• Andean Spirituality
• Happy at School

Andean Spirituality

This quarter opened and closed with very moving displays of faith: Holy Week and Señor de Qoyllurritti. Looking at the attendance of weekly masses, it would be easy to say that the Catholic faith here is worn out and tired. But walking the 4 hour procession on Good Friday, observing the thousands of people filling the plaza for Señor de los Temblores on Holy Monday, or walking all night in the freezing cold for Señor de Qoyllurritti shows that this faith has plenty of energy.

It's impossible to deny the power of a faith that moves hundreds of thousands to camp next to a glacier during winter. It's impossible to deny the faith of people who wait hours in line for mere seconds with an image of their savior. The presence of the Lord is here!

I think Andean Spirituality has taught me a lot about poverty of spirit, the idea that it all depends on God. When I told the vegetable lady at the market how terrible it was to march across a mountaintop when it was snowing and my feet were cold and wet she simply responded “Of course. You need to have lots of faith to make it through the pilgrimage.” To turn the old line around: the flesh is weak, but the spirit is willing. Perhaps this is the faith that moves mountains, not by the power of magic, but by the power of moving ourselves until the mountains are beneath and then behind us.

Happy at School

I love my job. I love planning lessons. I love being in the classroom. I love taking students out of the classroom to talk one on one. I love hanging out with the youth group in my office on Friday afternoons.

Last year at this point I was still trying to figure out my job. That's not where I am anymore. It's not that I've mastered teaching in the last 12 months, it's that I've found my feet. I may not be ready to run the Boston Marathon, but on my best days I can stand and deliver.

I especially like the high school setting. Just this week I was told they might need me to sub in Primaria. Of course the prospect of being loved on by 30 former students was exciting, but I realized that the idea of spending 6 hours with 30 elementary schoolers wasn't very exciting. But I'm always excite to teach a class at Secundaria. The last three months support my original hypothesis: if I'm supposed to teach, I belong in a high school classroom.

The surprise joy of my job has been the counseling aspect. I don't love it enough to change my plans to get my master's in education. But I do love it enough to wonder how such personal attention to the wholeness of each student could be worked into a classroom teacher's role/schedule. It's also vitally important work right now for these students. Because I've been making the effort to meet one on one with every single student, I've detected some cases that the psychologist weren't on the school's radar. I've been able to provide some support to students who were getting none, and direct students to individuals or institutions that can give them something more comprehensive. By putting me in a counseling role, Pd. Eddy doubled the staff whose job description includes one on one time with students. I'm nowhere near as good at this as Judit, the psychologist, but I'm better than nothing. Working with her helps me to grow, and it helps her to detect cases and do better by the students. One of the strongest impulses that brought me here was the desire to serve, and I'm so glad to know that the work I do is needed service.

Speaking of needed service, the youth group is awesome. It's so much fun, and a great way to end the week. Last year I was getting ready to tell Hna. Rosario that I wanted to start a youth group when she beat me to the punch and told me she wanted me to do just that. Then a month later I was talking with Pd. Eddy and about to tell him what Hna. Rosario had said about a youth group when he told me, “and I want you to start a youth group at the school.” All three of us saw the same need and envisioned the same solution at the same time; the Spirit was moving. So every Friday afternoon when the dismissal bell rings and a few kids come to my office to hang out for a few more hours, I know I'm doing something that Big G wanted me specifically to do. That's a clarity we rarely get.