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.

FyA 44 Anniversary - Mass

The FyA logo has been marked onto the side of the mountain using white clay, which can only mean one thing: it's the school's anniversary week!

Grupo Siembra

Juan José Chukisengo wasn't the only musical artist to return to Andahuaylillas last week, the Catholic music group Siembra* came back at Hermana Rosario's invitation to provide the music for the school's anniversary mass. They spent Monday through Wednesday going through all the classrooms in the school and practicing songs. They picked out about 20 students to form the mass choir, and another 8 to be the band.

Siembra's music is steeped in liberation theology. The kingdom of God is identifiable by it's “perfect justice.” It's also very pretty. Students of all ages sang with gusto during the mass, even some 11^th grade boys who belted out the closing hymn to Mary with all the fervor (and none of the musicality) you could ask for.

For those who are curious about Siembra's music, here's a link to their page, and a video of a live performance from 2013.

* “Sow,” as put seeds the dirt.

Piano in the Andes

Last May, Peruvian Pianist Juan José Chukisengo, came to Quispicanchi to do lend his services to the service of the Jesuit projects. Among everything else that happened last week, Chukisengo's visit didn't take the spotlight, but it was still a big part of the week.

Once again he gave a benefit concert at the Compañía in Cusco and then a series of free concerts at towns and communities up and down the province of Quispicanchi. I got to listen to him three different times: at his concert in the church in Andahuaylillas, and performances for the high school and elementary school students of FyA 44.

The three concerts were very different. The concert for the people of Andahuaylillas was a fairly straightforward concert. He introduced each piece and then played it. The concerts at school were different. Mr. Chukisengo approached it as a sort of musical lecture. He highlighted music as order from chaos; from so many keys comes the sounds of a symphony. He made much of the comparisons between the visual art of the church (the locale for the high school concert) and the auditory art of music.

The elementary school students were probably the best audience. They were delighted with a change in the routine, and Chukisengo's manner of presenting to children is great for that age group. The concert for Primaria was very similar to last year's – including many of the same numbers and the same participatory bit with 6 students playing on his piano with him.

I've been here for 20 months, and Chukisengo is the only artist I've seen come through and give concerts like this. Far too often, the “fine”* arts are reserved for the rich. It seems to me that Chukisengo doesn't see it that way. In all his concerts he presents music as something accessible to all, giving students the chance to play on his piano, speaking to the transcendence of music, of it's ability to reach people of all cultures. I don't know how Mr. Chukisengo got connected to the Cusco area Jesuits, but I'm glad he did. Once a year, he leaves the concert halls of Europe (he lives in Germany) and lends his services to the Andean people. The work Chukisengo does includes two aspects of service that rarely interact. His benefit concert raises money, and his community concerts serve the community directly. Anyone interested in serving the poor could do worse than following this pianist's example.

*The word “fine” in fine arts itself carries a tone of superiority that's never sat well with me. What makes Beethoven better and Tupac?

Vacation Photos: Santo Domingo in Lima

A a friend's suggestion, Deepti and I went downtown to see the convent of Santo Domingo (founder of the Dominicans). I had never been before, so it was a new place for both of us. Like all old colonial convents, it's absolutely beautiful. They have a gorgeous, and well-preserved library. Most importantly they have the tombs of 3 Peruvian saints: San Martín de Porres, Santa Rosa de Lima, and San Juan Macías. As my friend said when she recommended Santo Domingo "You can go pray where San Martín is. I always pray there. I don't believe in the Catholic Church, but I do believe in San Martín."

Most touristically, you can climb the bell tower and see central Lima from above. Another place that's worth a visit. Here's some pictures.

Main courtyard

Looking up at the bell tower.

Library

An old choir book

The sanctuary

Looking towards the central plaza. Those two towers are part of the Cathedral.

Looking down on the main courtyard.

Vacation Photos: Lake 69

It's the first day of work after out two week midyear vacation. The break was a lot of fun for me. My friend Deepti, a Brandeis classmate, came down to visit for 10 days. We hit up Lima, Cusco, Andahuaylillas, and Huaraz (a small city in the famed Cordillera Blanca north of Lima). The most spectacular day of our trip was the 6 hour hike to and from Lake 69, a few hours drive from Huaraz. The landscape is dominated by Mt. Huascarán, the tallest mountian in South America. One of its peacks is also world famous as the Paramount Pictures mountain.

Lake 69 is a glacial lake 4600 meters above sea level (15,091 ft). It's a spectacular blue color. Hiking at altitude isn't easy, but I recommend this hike if you ever get the chance. So let's start off the post-vacation blog posts with some photographs.

Two of Huarscarán's three peaks.

The third peak of Huascarán, the Paramount pictures one. Do you notice?

Made it to the top!

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.

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:

Doctors' Visit 2016

The doctors were back this year for a week and a half. I sat down with Hermana Vilma before they came to discuss maximizing my free hours at school so that I could help translate. “No Benjamín,” she told me, “this is an important use of your skills. I'll take care of the classes, you go translate.”

So an hour after I arrived in Andahuaylillas post-Qoyllurritti hike, I made my way over to the parish and the makeshift clinic to help translate. It was a better experience than last year. I think the group was better prepared than they were last year. I spent a lot of my time translating for two dentists who were performing extractions. They were especially good to me and taught me some useful tricks.*

No trip is perfect, and once again the group was not well organized when it came to the logistics of things like food. The parish staff came to me plenty of times asking what the deal was with the doctors' next meal.

My favorite day of working with the doctors was Saturday May 28. I went with a small group of them to a rural community called Churubamba. Churubamba is located on the back of Qoriorko, the mountain that I climbed with Lauren LINK. It's about 90 minutes of driving to get there. We rode in the back of a small truck. In Churubamba we only saw a few patients, but spent a lot of time with each one. Every single visit involved Quechua-Spanish-English translation. The last patient we saw was an 81 year old woman with terrible teeth. The dentist with us wanted to pull them all out, but the lady insisted that only one tooth was bothering her. After 15 minutes of cajoling she agreed to let the dentist pull the three worst teeth if, and only if, it didn't hurt when the first of them came out.

Fear of the dentist is a pretty common thing. But I've never seen anyone so afraid during dental work. It was clear from her teeth that the person who usually attended to her teeth was better at breaking them than he was at pulling them out cleanly. I can only assume that she'd experienced a great deal of pain at the hands of “dentists.” It was a wonder she even allowed the dentist with us to look at her mouth at all. After many tears all three teeth were out.

Working with the doctors gives JVs a chance to see a different aspect of normal life here. Healthcare is definitely substandard. The local clinic has been doctorless for the last month. The national health insurance definitely pays for mammograms but no one was sure if it would pay for cancer treatments. It's also a good source of reflection on the different ways to serve – a 2 week clinic is very different than 2 years of living here. I don't expect that any international service I do in the future will be as long term as JVC has been, so it's important to think about other models of service.

But most importantly working with the doctors is another way to serve. It is a way to serve people besides my students. It is a way to hear and validate people's pain. It is a way to help some people find relief from their pain. It is a way to demonstrate my apostolic availability to the people of Andahuaylillas.

*Did you know you can make a mouthwash with a 1 (Hydrogen Peroxide): 2 (Water) solution? They suggested to a man with inflamed gums. 

Quarterly Review 5 - Video

It helps, now and then, to step back

and take the long view.

-Prayer Honoring Pd. Oscar Romero

Yesterday was the first Quarterly Review of my second year. I'm sure you were all quivering with anticipation, and have reread my wise reflection many times, memorizing the most eloquent passages.*

But on the off chance that you aren't into reading reflections upon a life experience you've never had, I've got something else for you. Something new and multi-media.**

It's a video! And by video I mean fancy slideshow of pictures with 11 seconds of a video of people dancing that you saw already. Many of the pictures you'll recognize from old posts (or from my sister's facebook), but there's some new things as well. Here's my step back, my long view of the last three months.

The idea is to give a visual overview of significant moments of the past three months. I picked “On Top of the World” by Imagine Dragons for two reasons. 

1. In the last three months I climbed Salkantay pass with Kevin, putting us both as high above sea level as we'd ever been.***  
2. Receiving visits from Mom, Dad, Nora, and Kevin had me feeling like I was on top of the world.

Photo credits to Nora Hill, Rachel Krofcheck, a Spanish tourist at Macchu Picchu, the waitress at the fish farm restaurant, and me.

Events shown in this video:

Happy Belated Birthday Erin

Erin's Birthday was in early September. But I fell way behind on blogging last month, so the pictures are only just going up today. We had a fun night with the entire volunteer community of Andahuaylillas, plus Billy. We celebrated in style with mustaches, and two kinds of cake.

Site Visit

Billy, our program co-ordinator visited us in Andahuaylillas the first week of September. Part of his job is making a visit to each JVC site he works with at least once a year. He has to meet with the site supervisors, have individual meetings with each JV, and 2 meetings with the JV community. A month before his arrival, he sent out a packet of documents to fill out. The documents, and the site visit in general, got me thinking big picture about this experience. I've been reflecting a lot on this year in relation to next year. What do I want to continue? What do I want to stop doing? What do I want to start doing? How do I shift roles from being a 1^st year to a 2^nd year. All big important questions that I won't talk about right now because this post is supposed to be about Billy's visit.

Billy's visit was great. He, Theresa, and I had a fantastic meeting with Pd. Eddy (director of FyA 44). Pd. Eddy seems like he really understands the volunteer experience and he is mindful of helping us to have the most enriching experience that we can. It's nice to work for someone who takes the time to think of what's best for you.

We also had a lot of fun. Billy's job is to accompany us and the other communities he works with, and having fun is part of accompanying people. We played cards, we hiked, and we had a great outing to eat duck and cheesecake. I really appreciate the work Billy does to support us and the time he takes to really listen to us. And I'm glad he's such a fun guy as well. After Andahuaylillas Billy flew south to Tacna to spend a week doing a site visit there. Then he spent a week in Mejia running a retreat for the JVs in Peru and Chile. Now he's in Santiago doing his site-visit with them. Being a Program Coordinator for JVC may not be a very glamorous job, but you do get to see a lot of the world through site visits.

ReO/DisO

Sorry I've been so long in posting. September has been an exceptionally busy month. 

Photo credit to selfie master Billy Hood.**

ReO/DisO is the easy to say - but tricky to type - abbreviation for Re-Orientation/Dis-Orientation, the week long year-end retreat run by JVC staff. It's a multilayered retreat because it has to balance the needs of 1^st year JVs preparing for their second year (Re-Orientation), and outgoing JVs preparing to move back to the States (Dis-Orientation). It's also one of the few times that JVs are in face-to-face contact with JVC staff.*

As I always don't with retreats, I won't get deep into the specifics of ReO/DisO. I don't think retreats are experiences to be broadcast to the entire world. But I'll share a bit.

Sunday Song - El Profeta

I have to shout, I have to take risk...I have to walk, I have to fight...how can I not speak if Your voice burns inside me?

That's my kind of Christianity. The question isn't how could we get involved in righting the wrongs of the world, it's how couldn't we. The apostles knew this undeniable call. When Jesus calls Simon Peter and Andrew, "... they left their nets at once and followed him." (Mark 4:20) There's no waiting period, no packing the bags, no finishing up the mending of the nets. Jesus is calling, it's time to go. 

When He calls, how can we not answer? The Gospel isn't a nice set of stories, it's a box of matches, and we're the kindling. God's voice is burning inside, who are we to stay silent?

It's time to fight, because my people are suffering.

 Jesus is calling, it's time to go. 

Fun extra: The group Siembra that's performing in this video performed the song at one of our Thursday night volunteer masses. They were here to lead the choir for FyA 44's anniversary mass. 

Translation after the jump.

High School Visitors

Sorry that I posted so little last week. I know I had some pictures up, but the text was lacking. There just hasn't been much time to write in the past two weeks. That's because of a couple of Jesuit run high schools from Texas.

Strake Jesuit and Dallas Jesuit both brought groups of high school boys (they're all boys schools)* to the Quispicanchi valley. They were looking for different things. Strake wanted a volunteer experience and Jesuit wanted an immersion experience. Both groups were a lot of fun. But they required a lot of time and energy. Major PROPS to Victoria and Erin who worked out last minute plan changes and did the bulk of the hosting work.

Both groups treated us to dinner. As if often the case when a group of Americans comes, we have some new goodies in the house.

I really enjoyed hanging out with the guys. We played a lot of soccer with local kids. I think High School is a fun age, and I was reminded of how fun an age it can be over the last two weeks of interacting with these young people.

I also had the chance to lead a reflection with the boys from Dallas Jesuit. We hiked up to the cross** on Thursday morning. We read the Parable of the Sower (text below) and an essay from the JVC Community Resource Binder (CRB) called “When powerful experiences aren't enough.” The idea I presented to them was that this experience they had in Peru was a seed. As the essay from the CRB illustrates, such seeds aren't enough to bear good fruit. They must be tended and cultivated. “Don't let this just be a cool trip you did in high school,” I told them, “care for it so that it can be something more.”

My idea wasn't to make sure they all join JVC in 5 years when they've graduated college; my hope was that they would let this trip touch them and change them for the better. I got through to at least one of them. He left us a very nice note about his reflections and hopes from the trip. It's always nice to know that a connection has been made. And I look forward to seeing the chaperones again next year if they come down. Some of them were already talking about planning next year's trip.

*I love and respect the Jesuits as individuals and as an order. Part of love is honesty. Hey Society of Jesus – why do you run co-ed schools and all boys schools, but no all girls schools? Seems like when it comes to the youth, “men for others” favors other males. Get it together.

**About a third of the way up one of the mountains. The background pic for this blog was taken from the vantage point by the cross.

For those who didn't grow up hearing the Parable of the Sower read to them on Sunday morning at least once every year since they were born, here's the text from the Gospel of Matthew:

Later that same day Jesus left the house and sat beside the lake. 2 A large crowd soon gathered around him, so he got into a boat. Then he sat there and taught as the people stood on the shore. 3 He told many stories in the form of parables, such as this one:

“Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. 4 As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. 5 Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow.6 But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. 8 Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! 9 Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

Doctors in Andahuaylillas

On Monday (May 11), a group of 35 doctors/medical students arrived. They will be providing free clinics and medicine in Andahuaylillas and the neighboring towns and communities until this Wednesday (May 20). This is a regular trip that they have made for four years now. Our main role with the doctors, as bilingual people, is to act as translators during patient consultations. We give them our free hours. They brought a few translators with them, and a few of the doctors are bilingual, but I found that generally they needed me whenever I was around. This is part of that idea of apostolic availability – we're available to do other work besides our assigned worksites.

Here are my diary entries regarding working with the doctors over the past week.

Visitors!

Part of saying Yes to JVC was accepting that I wouldn't see many familiar faces for these two years. But happily, “not many” doesn't mean none at all. The weekend of April 25 and 26 I met up with three friends.

Boston reunion above the plaza in Cusco.

On Saturday, I met up with Trisha B. and Nora C., a mother-daughter pair of family friends who are in Cusco to hike the Inca Trail. Nora is in the midst of a gap year and using her time to travel Latin America. She's been in Nicaragua for a few months working with the anti-canal movement*, and after the Inca Trail is headed to Quito for an intensive course certifying her as an English language teacher. She's a brave, bright young woman. If you're interested in her travels, check out her blog.