Living at 10,000 feet...

Inside the church in Andahuaylillas (the organ is just to the left!)

Mateo and I at the primary school of Fe y Alegria (don´t have pics of the secondary school yet, but it´s similar)

Walking from Andahuaylillas to Urcos: Miffy, Katie, Leti (Engish girls), Sam, Silvia, Cara, Jess, Mateo and me


I´ve been in Andahuaylillas now for almost two weeks and am starting to get a handle on what life will be like here for the next two years! Here´s what´s happened since I last blogged:

The bus ride from Tacna took a total of 19 hours including a stop / bus switch in Arequipa. It was definitely the nicest bus I´ve ever been on with reclining seats and movies. Since a lot of the ride was overnight, it was pretty uneventful. The town of Andahuaylillas is an hour bus ride south of Cusco. There are about 2,000-3,000 people living here with many more small communities in the mountains surrounding Anda. Andahuaylillas is in a skinny valley called Quispicanchi. Urcos is the biggest city with about 5,000 people and it takes about 15 minutes to get there on the bus. We will do most of our food shopping in Urcos and the Jesuits all live there. In between Anduaylillas and Urcos is another town, about the size of Anda, called Huaro. The three towns each have a breathtaking church built in the 17th century and they´re currently being renovated. They have amazing frescoes that are being restored and much of the column work and statues are painted in gold. The church in Anduaylillas is called the Sistine Chapel of the Americas and has the oldest organ in the Americas!

Andahuyalillas itself is built on a hill and has a grid of cobblestone streets. Right now we are staying at the retreat center in the parish behind the church, but once renovation is finished on the bathrooms in the volunteer house we will move in there. It is literally a block from the center square where the church is and about 4 or 5 blocks from the secondary school of Fe y Alegria where Mateo and I will be working. I still can´t believe this is where I´m going to live for the next two years! It´s so beautiful. It´s crazy to think, but JVC is currently interviewing for next year and will probably have two new community-mates for us by the end of March! Cara will be leaving us at the end of this year (triste). We´ll also be living with Silvia this year; she´s a Peruvian Anthropology grad student from Cusco who is volunteering here and working on her thesis. She´s already been here a year and is amazing, knows a ton about the community, and I´m excited to live with her. It will also be a good chance to practice our Spanish all of the time (she understands English as well, but is too shy to speak it).

Also here right now are three English girls who are volunteering with the kids at the parish and will be here for two more weeks. They´re on their gap year before starting university. It´s fun to have them around because it brings me back to my time at Durham and I´m remembering all of the fun British-isms.

Padre Oscar is our main local contact. We´re so lucky to have him and I´m really excited to work with him and get to know him! He has such a real handle on the issues in Anduaylillas and Quispicanchi and is really excited for the volunteers to bridge the gap between the school and the social programs at the parish. Sam, Jess and Cara will be working at the parish and running the following: the cafeteria that feeds 400 kids a day (all funded by entrance fees that tourists pay to see the church), the library, a game center, the Internet room, choir, guitar and piano lessons, tutoring (which all 5 of us will help with), a women's artisan shop, faith classes for kids and their parents (stuff like first communion and confirmation as well as special classes), and probably teaching some religion classes at elementary schools in Anda. We´ll all be eating in the cafeteria during the week with the kids.

Mateo and I will be teaching English for 12-17 year-olds in the secondary school as well as being a part of the pastoral team with Chema (menor), a Jesuit brother in training from Spain, and Sisters Rosario and Melin, 2 nuns who are both awesome and challenge the teachers to be a part of the students´ development as a whole--not just their subjects in school. Padre Chema (mayor) is the director of the school. He´s an older Spanish Jesuit who has been in Peru for over 50 years and in the area for I think 38. He has a great knowledge about the people and history here and I really want to read his book. He´s a bit kermudgeony, but I´m excited to get to know him more. By the way, if I don´t say where people are from it means they´re Peruvian.

Last Monday, we started meeting with all of the teachers from both the primary and secondary schools of Fe y Alegria to talk about the mission and values of the school and then to work on specific plans for the year. Mateo and I are developing a 5 year English plan which is a bit daunting, but also really interesting and cool to be a part of. Realistically we´ll only be using the first, maybe second, year at first because the students have had little to no English. Another exciting part of teaching English is that it will be a tri-lingual classroom. About 90% of the students´ first language is Quechua and then they learn Spanish in school. So while we will be mainly using Spanish to run the classroom, Padre Oscar has asked us to use Quechua to teach translations of words and phrases!

We are working with the Pastoral team to develop a plan for the year that helps the students recognize and develop the importance of their faith and it´s connection to community life. It will include weekly activities and community groups amongst the classes as well as retreats, events for important festivals / holidays, and possibly even a play.

It´s very exciting to be a part of, but I´m still struggling / getting frustrated with my Spanish. I can definitely understand more and more everyday...I find the more I understand, the faster I learn new words. And I may not understand every word, but I definitely get the sentiment and follow the flow of the conversation. However, I´m still having trouble speaking and thinking in Spanish at a pace that doesn´t slow down the conversation. Especially at the school, I´ve barely been talking at all because I feel like I´ll interrupt the conversation and not really have anything insightful to say because I can´t express it very well in Spanish. I know it will improve, but it´s still hard.

I´m sure I left some stuff out, but hopefully that gives you all an idea of what´s been happening. We start school on March 9th and things will get really busy then!

I´d love to hear how you´re doing and what people are up to. Mucho amor y paz...