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Ticaco, Peru

The volunteers in Ticaco: me, Mo, Rose, Ashlen, Seamus and Jess

Picking avas on the chacra

Groups 1 & 2 after a day of moving rocks

We made it back in one piece from Mes de Misión (MDM) and now we´re moving to Cusco! The six of us returned two weeks ago, but I confess I´ve been having trouble figuring out how I´d like to write this blog post. MDM was a time of challenges, joys and growth. I´ve decided to write a narrative of my experience and see what comes out:

After mass on Sunday, January 2nd, 28 students entering the fourth year in secondary (basically high school sophomores), our leader Carlos, two ex-student volunteers, and the six of us JVs boarded a bus. After about 2 ½ hours, we arrived at the school in the small, highland city of Ticaco (about 10,500 feet); our home for the next month. We were divided into five work groups that we would spend the month working with. I was partnered with one of the ex-students who graduated from Miguel Pro last year and we had five students in our group. The first day got off to a bit of a rough/challenging start. As we were group #1, we were supposed to help the cook in the kitchen, clean up after meals and clean the bathrooms. Unfortunately, after waking up bright and early on Monday to begin our work, we quickly realized that no one was coming to cook (Carlos had arranged with the new mayor of Ticaco to have someone be our cook for the month). The seven of us became the cooks for the day. Breakfast was a simple meal of bread (bought from the bread man every morning and tea). Instead of doing the service work, we stayed at the school to prepare lunch: a sort of pasta dish that didn´t look pretty, but tasted okay. Let me pause here to say that, as many of you know, with Sierra Service Project I have cooked many a meal for way more than 37 people. However, this was my first experience cooking over a stove fed with firewood in a small room with a tin roof. I really wish I had a picture of the kitchen, but sadly do not…it had a small sink, a table, and a sort of concrete box with two holes in the top (for pots) that you fed wood into the side of it. The students were amazing in planning and taking charge of the meal! That was what stands out to me from the first day.

Routine of the days and weeks: Wake up at 6:30 (unless you were on kitchen duty it would be 5:30). Breakfast around 7. Off to work at 8. Return to the school for lunch and then a break at noon. Return to work at 3. Showers and free time at 5. Dinner at 6:30 followed by free time or reflection. In be at 9…that was the gist of the day, but usually more fluid. I don´t think we ever left to work by 8. During the last 1 ½ - 2 weeks it down poured every afternoon so we couldn´t work. And usually we went to bed between 10 and midnight. We usually worked Monday-Friday and had a sport day on Saturday and rest day on Sunday.

Side note: it was very cold. When Mo came back to Tacna during the first week, I had her get both sets of my long underwear and a hat. Every morning and night I´d wear several layers of long sleeves, my sweatshirt and usually my flannel. Then it rained every afternoon the last couple of weeks so we were cold and wet and would spend much of our free time in sleeping bags. To shower we washed our hair in the outdoor sinks and blazed through the shower inside because it was so cold. Jess and I are unsure how we´re going to handle the showers in Andahuaylillas.

Most of the work we did was clearing rocks (large and small) from the foot paths surrounding the town. The people have terraced farms along the steep hills of Ticaco and they, and their animals, reach the farms by foot; descending and ascending the paths multiple times day. Other work included picking up trash in the streets and the canals of the town, picking ava beans to both sell in Tacna and eat for our meals, and collecting firewood. (Side note #2: as I´ve been writing this, it has taken me a moment to remember certain words in English because I learned the Spanish word in the context of what we were doing, not by translation…how funny). Anyway, about once a week, each group would descend to a farm to collect firewood for our meals using machetes then hike back up about an hour to the school. The wood wasn´t really thick and usually not super heavy, but I tell you I have lungs and buns of steel now!

Challenges
Spanish. It was very hard and humbling speaking little of the language. I was often very frustrated with myself. Because of my experience with SSP and as a youth director, I know I can communicate well and on a deeper level with high schoolers. But it was so hard to have a lengthy conversation; even the not so deep ones.

Whining. There is a culture of whining unlike that in the US. It seems that everything – meals, working, talking to people – included a high pitched whining that was very hard to stay patient with; especially when I felt like I couldn´t respond in a calm manner in Spanish because I was just trying to get my words out quickly enough to stop the whining.

Partner Change. The first two week I was paired with an ex-student as my co-asesor. Unfortunately, he wasn´t very helpful as a leader. This was tough because I would have liked someone fluent in Spanish to help lead the group. After two weeks he switched groups and another ex-student joined me. She was more helpful at getting the students to work.
Weather. This wasn´t a major challenge, but an ever-present one…mentioned this above.

Joys
Despite my frustration with my Spanish, I was able to connect with a few of the youth, especially those in my group. That was very special for me.
While MDM wasn´t about the volunteers, it was a wonderful time to get to know and share with the five other volunteers. They were a huge support and source of joy throughout the month.

The town and surrounding area of Ticaco is beautiful. It was amazing to be there every day.

It was great to have Carlos, the Miguel Pro teacher, as our leader. He has led 7 or 8 MDM trips and really has a sense of how to make it a growing experience for the students. Plus he´s just an all around awesome guy.

Growth
While, like I said, Spanish was frustrating, I really feel my language skills improved so much during the month. Because I wasn´t always around the other volunteers, I had long chunks of time where I was forced to speak only Spanish and work things out only in Spanish. I also feel more confident with Peruvian students. My commands in Spanish have greatly improved!

I feel like the time on MDM broke me down to a humble place. I was often frustrated or didn´t know exactly why I was there or what I was doing. I had several moments of culture shock where I didn´t understand or was angry with the way “they” (Peruvians) do things. I wasn´t always proud of how I reacted in certain situations, but I feel it was a time of huge growth for me in how I will navigate through teaching and my next two years and a time of personal growth.

And now it is time to close the chapter on my life and experience in Tacna and begin the next chapter. Today we are moving to Andahuaylillas. We finally went down to Chile yesterday to get our visa paperwork and leave in a few hours for the 17 hour bus trip to Cusco…with all of our bags, Cara´s bags and two boxes of books!
I am nervous, excited, sad and anxious for this change. I will keep you posted (of course with pictures) about my new home.

My address, should you like to send anything, is:
P. Oscar Morelli, SJ
Mallory Naake
Triunfo 339, Apartado 276
Cusco – Perú

A few of you have been asking what you can send me in Peru. I have thought of a list of suggestions (mostly snacks we can´t find here or they´re different) should you feel so inclined:
Pictures (of us together or your life now)
Letters
Chocolate (anything…)
Peanut Butter
Delicious snacks from Trader Joes (like cat cookies for people or trail mix)
Tea
Chai tea mix (it´s been a huge hit amongst the volunteers)
Books (we have a small library of books, but are always looking for more…you can ask first if we have the book)
Contact solution (hard to find and expensive)

But please don´t feel obligated to send anything! I would love to hear from everyone on what´s up in your lives.

Until next time…much love and peace.