My host family: Soña (my mom), Sancheez (the 9 year old dog), me, Pamela (my sister) and Yupi (the slightly crazy 3 month old dog that bites!)
Dia Familiar: This was a celebration of the school the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Every class performed a different traditional dance from a region in Peru. The little ones were so cute! Additionally, the teachers (it ended up being mostly the volunteers) danced the final dance called Pacasitos...we were very orange!
Yoga on the beach: This past Sunday and Monday, the volunteers had a retreat at the beach about 45 minutes from Tacna. It was a great time to relax and continue to learn about each other.
It´s been a while since I´ve blogged and much has happened, so I´d just like to share some highlights from the past few weeks as well as a short reflection...
The title may sound like a joke, but it comes from an experience of getting into a truck that was questionably working and driving back into Tacna the other day.
The Monday before Thanksgiving, the new volunteers all moved in with our host families (see my family above). I live with my host mom and sister in an apartment near the center of Tacna. My host mom doesn´t work, but spends a lot of her time going out to the family beach house to supervise renovations. We will hopefully be heading there together this weekend! My host sister, Pamela, is 33 and works for a phone company which is actually based in Mexico. My host dad, Lorenzo (or Lucho) works as a topographer outside of Tacna. Every Monday morning he walks two hours to his worksite and stays there for the whole work week. I´ve actually only spent a couple hours with him because the first weekend I was at my house, my mom and dad went to the beach, and this past weekend I was gone. I also have a host sister who lives in the Netherlands and a host brother who was good friends with the volunteers, but recently moved to Spain for post-graduate work in architecture.
Living with my family has been a great way to practice my Spanish and see what the life of a Peruvian family is like. I feel it´s also been nice to have a small family of gals because it´s very chilax and the conversation isn´t overwhelming. I will be staying with them until around Christmas and spending Christmas Eve (the big day of celebration in Peru) with my family at my Aunt´s house (where Ashlen...who is technically my host cousin...is staying).
I had two lovely Thanksgiving celebrations. The first was the Friday before Thanksgiving at the school Miguel Pro in Habitat (where the volunteers live and 4 of them teach) with all of the teachers. On Thanksgiving Day, we prepared dinner and ate with the volunteers, Father Fred (the American Jesuit Priest who has been in Tacna since 1959), and Laura (an American friend of the volunteers), her Peruvian husband Richard and their adorable 5 month old Alea. I also had the chance to talk with my parents, Shelby, Grandma and Aunt in Sacramento and Colin in Indiana...it was really nice to hear their voices!
Most of my days have been spent at Miguel Pro observing and now teaching English classes. When we arrive in Andahuaylillas, Mateo and my job will be to teach English in high school as well as set up a Campus Ministry program that ties in with the youth programs Sam and Jessica will be running at the church. It´s a bit difficult to prepare for the Campus Ministry part of the job because much of it will be based on the kids in Anda and our getting to know them. So for now, my preparation is focused on teaching and Spanish.
This past Saturday-Sunday, I went on a beach camping trip with the students from third grade in secondary (basically high school freshman), Seamus and another teacher. This is the class that we will be spending Mes de Mision with. It was great to get to know them a bit outside of the school and see a glimpse of how they may be for Mes de Mision. Although, as it turns out, teenagers use a lot of slang while talking so I can understand even less when I´m around them. But no matter, I´m still learning! On Sunday we headed to another beach down the road where many of the students and their families were for the day. We swam in the water (well I waded in the water...it´s really cold), played a lot of volleyball and Frisbee and had some delicious ice pops. Then all of the volunteers headed to a beach house for our retreat.
Some delicious food I´ve discovered:
choclo (giant corn) cakes served warm
Chiffa - Peruvian/Chinese food
picarones - a dessert that tastes kind of like funnel cake, but looks like a doughnut and is served with syrup
bread - in general the daily baked bread is delicious
patazca Tacneña - a delicious soup
there are more, but to be honest I can´t remember their names...!
Final reflection: I had a good talk with a fellow JV the other day about the beginning of immersing yourself in another country; specifically when you aren´t speaking your native tongue. Being here is like being a child again. I don´t understand a lot of what is being said. I don´t have the experience of living here to understand cultural nuances or why things are the way they are. I rely heavily on other people to get around, understand and navigate my way through a day. To quote Henri Nouwen´s Gracis!: A Latin American Journal, "We can come to experience our basic vulnerability, our need for others, our deep-seated feelings of ignorance and inadequacy, and our fundamental dependency". This is at times very frustrating, but also humbling. In a way, it is also a chance to renew or experience a new aspect of faith in our lives. I am forced to rely on others which strengthens our community. I am forced to look at my strengths, my weaknesses, my beliefs and see how God is working in my life...
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment