Surprise of the Century

Nothin like best friends...captions: me, Alex, Jeana and Emma on the hammock in the patio of my house; all 5 of us in Tacna's Plaza de Armas

Hello friends and family,

So, I had kind of an interesting week last week. And by interesting I mean the most incredible surprise of my life. Let me set the scene for you...

It was Monday afternoon April 4th, approximately 1:45pm, and I'm in the middle of teaching 3rd grade just like any other Monday afternoon. They were being a little unruly as per usual so I was probably yelling at someone and starting to get kind of frustrated, when suddenly my housemate Ashlen (who also teaches at Miguel Pro) appears in the doorway, with a look on her face like she was fighting back tears, and says, "Mo can I talk to you for a minute?" I seriously thought someone had died, she looked so upset, and so I asked her what was wrong, my first thought being I can't leave these hellions by themselves unless it's a real emergency. She didn't tell me, just responded with, "I just really need to talk to you, can you please come out here?" So I followed her outside and around the corner of the primary building. As soon as I stepped outside I saw something resembling Emma Pace's fish pillow that she takes with her everywhere, poking its head around the corner of the building. I remember thinking to myself, "Hm that's weird. Somebody here has almost the exact same fish pillow as Emma." Then as I rounded the corner, wondering what the heck Ashlen needed to talk to me about so urgently, I found none other than Emma Pace (it was in fact her fish pillow), Jeana Greco, Alex Swiatocha and Avanti Peters standing there, right in front of my face, at my school in Tacna, Peru!! You might ask if I was expecting a visit in Tacna from my best friends? NO! I had absolutely no freaking idea that any of them was coming! I mean I was hoping that someone would come visit me at some point this year, but up to now no one had really said anything to me about making travel plans so I didn't think anyone was gonna come. Yet there they were...

I didn't even cry or hug them right away when I first saw them I was in such shock. I just stopped dead in my tracks and kept yelling at them, "But how did you GET here?!" (Seamus was actually filming me at this point so I'll try to put that video on here someday). I was so confused, trying to piece things together in my head but couldn't do it. Eventually I was able to move again and we all hugged and cried and it was beautiful, and Seamus and Ashlen told me they had already planned things for the rest of my classes for that day so I was free to go be with my friends. It turns out that the 4 of them started talking about coming to visit me when they saw each other over Christmas, and pretty much as soon as my parents got back from their trip in early January my friends got in touch with them to start plotting. I was on Mes de Misión at the time so they had to book their tickets without consulting me first, and then they just decided not to tell me at all. At some point in February they got in touch with my community mates, and then everyone was in on the secret except me. I have to say, everyone involved did an incredible job of keeping the whole thing a secret, from my community mates and other friends in Tacna who found out, to my parents, to all my Holy Cross friends who knew. I've been in touch with all of them since January, and even asked them all directly if they were still thinking about coming to visit, and no one let on a thing. I was absolutely, 100% in the dark.

SO needless to say last week was wonderful. My friends' visit was very quick, they were just here Monday to Thursday then headed back to Lima to spend time with Jenny and Fernando, but it was so, so cool and special to have them here in Tacna with me, even just for a few days, to share with them, in a much more real way than emails and skype calls can express, what it is I've been doing here for the past year and a half. They spent a whole day at school with me, following me around to all of my classes, and that was really fun for me to play show and tell with them and watch them interact with my students. I think they also appreciated the chance to see a "day in the life of JV Mo," in action both at work and at home in community. They got to spend a fair amount of time with my community mates too which was also really cool for me, weird how my universes were suddenly colliding, but really awesome too to look down the table and see Jeana deep in conversation with Seamus, or Ashlen talking running with Alex. Seamus and Ashlen were nice enough to cover all my classes on Wednesday so I was able to take the whole crew on a little adventure to Tarata/Ticaco (the closest towns to us up in the mountains, where I did Mes de Misión this year). We had a really nice time admiring some more typical Andean landscape, hiking the Inca Trail and swimming in the thermal baths. On their last day here, Alex and Avanti spent most of the morning with our neighbors and good friends Charo and Fancy Carmen (who also cook us lunch everyday) and they helped Charo make causa, one of my favorite Peruvian dishes, while Emma and Jeana hung out at school with me. I escaped my afternoon classes to enjoy my last precious hours with everyone, and then I took them to the airport and we said goodbye. Just as quickly and unexpectedly as they were here in Habitat, they're gone again, back to their lives in each of their respective corners of the States, and now the whole thing kind of seems like a dream. As my life also went immediately back to normal, I keep asking myself, "Did that really happen? Were they actually here, just a week ago?" Yes they were. And yes, without a doubt, I have the absolute best friends on the face of this earth. No question.

Feeling blessed in friendship, both near and far...I love you guys!!

En paz from Tacna,

Mo

A few pictures from the surprise visit: (above) Emma and Jeana with the 1st graders in the chapel (they're some of my most affectionate and favorite students); All 5 of us at the end of our hike in Tarata; out to pizza with my 4 community mates in Tacna; with Emma and Jeana at my house in Habitat; and the 3 of us doing our "road trip pose" in Tarata.

Mes de Misión, Take 2

I just wrote this reflection on Mes de Misión for a JVC publication, so I thought I'd post it on here too in case you want to read a little more about what we Tacna JV's do every January...

Every year the Tacna JV’s (and this year the crew headed to Andahuaylillas too!) accompany groups of secondary students from two of the schools where we teach on a month-long summer service experience called Mes de Misión (Mission Month). Fr. Fred (the legendary Jesuit who founded both Cristo Rey and Colegio Miguel Pro) started Mes de Misión in the 70's after a severe earthquake/landslide in the northern mountain region of Peru left hundreds of people dead, injured, homeless, and orphaned. Fred took a group of Cristo Rey student volunteers during their summer vacation to help animate the people there, lift their spirits, and bring whatever relief they could after the disaster. Year after year they continued these voluntary service trips in various poor areas of Peru, and several years later Fred made the experience a mandatory part of the Cristo Rey education. When he founded Miguel Pro in 1992, Mes de Misión was included as one of the hallmarks of a child’s education here. Now both schools participate in a Mes de Misión every summer during the month of January for students who are entering into 4th year of secondary (they’d be rising 10th graders in the States), and the JVs have become an integral part of the experience as we provide a lot of support and man/woman power to the teachers who run it.
This year Miguel Pro (accompanied by Seamus, Rose, Ashlen, Jessica, Mallory and me) did its MdM in a small town in the mountain region of Tacna called Ticaco. For the entire month we stayed at the school there, sleeping on the floor of empty classrooms with our 28 students, and working during the day. Ticaco is beautiful, surrounded by mountains, rivers, and breathtaking views (definitely a welcome change from the sand dunes of Tacna) but it also sits at approximately 3200m above sea level so that meant doing manual labor at altitude, and huffing and puffing up the side of a mountain everyday (often with firewood on your back) to get back to the school. Being in the mountains in the middle of rainy season also meant pretty regular downpours every afternoon, really cold nights,and the coldest showers I have ever taken in my life. We took to only bathing every 2 or 3 days just because we couldn’t stand it-that water was so cold it made your head hurt!
There are tons of paths that lead from the pueblo down the mountain to all the farms where the people work, and those paths were full of rocks, so our job was to move them out of the way to make the walk a little easier for all the campesinos. It was a little boring and rather tedious work, but not particularly strenuous so we didn’t suffer too much. But probably the most memorable day for me was the day Seamus, Rose, Jess and I took our groups on a hunt to find firewood. The tiny “kitchen” at the school only had a wood-burning stove, so every couple days we had to bring wood back to cook with, and it was incredibly difficult to find. So one day our cook’s son led us to a river at the very bottom of the valley where he said we’d find tons of leña (firewood). It took us well over an hour just to get to the bottom, and the last half hour or so we were wading back and forth across the river, up and over huge rocks,over plants where we couldn’t tell if they were on solid ground or halfway under water to reach this giant tree that would supposedly provide us with days worth of firewood. Well we finally got there, tired, sweating, scraped, and with wet feet, and the boys went to work with the machetes while the rest of us attempted to craft devices to carry the wood out of plastic sacks, pieces of string, and long-sleeved shirts. We loaded up with as much as we could carry and then proceeded back through the river, over the rocks, and back up the entire mountain, breathing as if we had just run a marathon with sticks poking into the backs of our legs. When we finally made it back to school, unloaded our prized leña outside the kitchen and collapsed onto the ground, our cook looks at the pile of wood and says something along the lines of, “That’s all you brought? Well maybe it’ll last us 2 days.” What?! That meant after all that work, someone would have to go look again the next day. But I guess we learned to appreciate a little more what it means to live off the land-the work never ends! All in all the month was a success, the people of Ticaco were extremely appreciative of the work we did, and the kids learned a lot about hard work, living in community, and how to value the things they have at home. And I learned a lot too, mostly about my students whom I was able to see in a totally different context than I had known them all year in English class. A lot of my laziest and most difficult students actually turned out to be some of the hardest workers on MdM. There were definitely moments (a lot of them) when they tested my patience and drove me crazy, but I shared a lot of nice moments with them too, singing with them while they played guitar (I taught one of my kids "Ripple" by the Grateful Dead and the song from the movie Once, and I helped some of them compose their own song in English!) answering their questions about my family and life in the US, and listening to them talk about their families and hopes for the future. While it’s one of the harder things we have to do during our JVexperience here, I think Mes de Misión is also one of the most important, and one that we will definitely never forget.

Below are a few of my favorite pictures from this year's Mes de Misión.

1: All the JVs at 2 of our students' "quinceañero" (15th bday party), in our students' clothes that they made us wear to the party. Who knew we still fit into 15 year olds' jeans!

2: At one of the picturesque lookout spots in Ticaco.

3: The girls on our last day of work on the camino.

4: Sporting our new MdM t-shirts on our last day before coming home.

Reunions and Homecomings

Hola amigos!

Well after many travels and summer adventures with family, students, and friends, I'm finally back in Tacna for good. The past two months have been a whirlwind of experiences and emotions, full of reunions and so many wonderful people. At the end of December I enjoyed a very special visit from my family, and we spent Christmas here in Tacna with all my community mates and adoptive families and friends. After that we traveled to Cuzco for a week to check out all the Sacred Valley ruins, and of course Machu Picchu. Everything there was beautiful, absolutely breathtaking-they don't didn't name Machu Picchu one of the wonders of the world for nothing. After Cuzco we spent New Years in Lima and then parted ways again, as the McCarty clan traveled back to the States and I returned to Tacna. I was home for approximately half a day before Seamus, all the new female volunteers and I took off again for Mes de Misión with Miguel Pro (the month-long service trip we do every January with the high schoolers). The rest of the guys accompanied the Cristo Rey students on their Mes de Misión. Overall it was a successful month, exhausting and sometimes very frustrating, but also a really great opportunity to spend time with some of the kids I had all year in English class but in a totally different context and environment. More reflections on that month to come later...

After Mes de Misión we FINALLY had summer vacation, so this month for me has been full of catching up with all my friends and neighbors I'd been too busy to see since December, resting, a little traveling, and a much-needed retreat just across the border in Arica, Chile. 2 weeks ago I took a solo trip to Lima, just to get away and catch up on some R&R, and while I was there I was able to reunite with Cara and Nate, two of my community mates from last year who left at Christmastime (Nate is still traveling all around South America, and Cara is returning to Peru to do a 3rd year at the new site in Cuzco) and my dear friend Jenny from Holy Cross who has been living in Lima since July. It was so great to see all of them, and to have some alone time too after an entire month with 15 year olds and a whole year of being surrounded by people, both at school and at home. After that trip I went to Arica with a small group of colleagues for a 6-day (mostly) silent retreat. I say mostly because Peruvians are not very good at being silent so there were more than a few whispered jokes and conversations in the midst of my reflections.

As of yesterday I am back in Tacna again, this time for good, and it feels so nice to be back home again. I always love coming back to this place after extended times away because Habitat seems so peaceful after traveling, and I love that feeling of coming home to a place that, not so long ago, felt so strange and foreign, but now is as comfortable and familiar as if I had lived here my whole life. I love Tacna! Vacation has passed way too quickly so now I only have one precious week left to soak up the summer sun and get myself organized for another school year, but I'm really looking forward to my second year living in the Habitat/JV community and teaching at Miguel Pro so it'll be nice to get back into a routine again. I have literally hundreds of pictures I'm trying to organize from the past couple of months so hopefully later this week I can write about each of the major experiences I've had since my family's visit at the end of December with a few visuals for you all to enjoy.

But for now I'll leave you with one of my favorites from Mes de Misión of the JVs with our baby alpaca friend whom we named Albert. He had HUGE eyes, and was very affectionate. Also, one of all 9 of us the day we went to visit the boys at Cristo Rey's Mes de Misión. We hadn't seen each other in over a month, so that was a very happy reunion too. I hope you're all well and enjoying the new year so far. I was thinking of you all in a special way last week, since here in Peru they celebrate "Día de la Amistad" (Friendship Day) on Feb 14th instead of Valentine's Day. I'm grateful for each and every one of you and the friendship that you've blessed me with over the years. Take care and I promise to write/put up more pictures this week!! Chau, un besote!

Feliz Navidad!!

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to wish you all the happiest of holidays this Christmas morning, and let you know that you've all been in my thoughts and prayers today. I hope you're all enjoying the day with family and friends and feeling my Christmas love all the way from Tacna!

I've had a wonderful 2nd Peruvian Christmas so far, sharing in many beautiful moments (and meals) with both my outgoing and newly arrived community mates, all my Peruvian friends and adoptive families, and of course my real family that came to spend this Christmas with me here in Tacna. It's been so special finally sharing this place and these people with them after living here for over a year. We enjoyed a lovely Christmas Eve mass last night in Habitat (and I even got to sing a song in English this time-Breath of Heaven, one of my all-time favorite Christmas songs), passed out Christmas baskets to some of the poorest families in Habitat while singing carols, avoiding stray bottle rockets that were being lit all over the neighborhood, and simultaneously inflating Fr. Fred's flat tire, then headed uptown to Greg's host family's house with him, Gabe, Seamus, and the entire Regan clan who is also here visiting. That family has always been wonderful about opening up its doors to all of us volunteers, so it was really nice to spend the evening with them. I'll be spending a quiet day here in Tacna today with my family, then tomorrow we're hitting the road to spend the rest of the week in Cuzco and finally see Machu Picchu. I'll be home New Years Day but only for a matter of hours, then first thing in the morning on the 2nd we're off for Mes de Misión round 2, the month-long service trip we do with the high school kids every year during summer vacation. So you may not hear from me again until February, but when I'm home for good I'm sure I'll have lots of stories and pictures to share so stay tuned.

Thank you all for your continued support, love, and well wishes from afar-it really means the world to me to know that I have so many people thinking of me back home, and in JV sites all over the world too. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and many many blessings for 2011. Cuídense mucho, I love and miss you all!

Un beso muy fuerte,

Mo

P.S. I haven't been able to upload any of our Christmas pictures yet, but here's one of all 12 volunteers with our good friends and neighbors Carmen and Charo a couple weeks before Christmas. More to come in February, chau!

October and November in Photos

Ok so I know I promised updates on all the exciting things that have been going on here these last couple months, but there's just too much to write about and never enough time so I'm going to attempt to summarize the highlights with pictures and captions. But in short...life is good, things have been crazy but fun with all the new volunteers around, Día Familiar (our big dance festival to celebrate the school's anniversary) was a lot of fun and a huge success last Sunday, and we only have 2 full weeks of school left before Christmas, summer vacation, and my family's visit! That's both very exciting because I'm definitely in need of a vacation-both kids and teachers are gettin pretty antsy these days-but also kinda scary because so much has to happen between now and Dec 20th. But just like finals time in college I know it'll all get done when it needs to get done, and for now I'm just trying to enjoy these last weeks wtih the 2010 JV community and not get too wrapped up in all the work and activities to the point where I forget why I'm really here. Well I think this is the most successful blog picture upload since I've been here so I hope you enjoy them!

ReO/DisO: The big year-end retreat we do with JVC staff that comes to visit. We spent a wonderful 6 days at the beach with our beloved staff members Margaret and Dan, fellow JV Catherine who came up from Santiago, Chile and our incredible cooks Rosa and Celestina. The first picture is right after we all jumped in the ocean. We're supposed to be making polar bear faces, but most of us just look confused. The second is the whole group of us right before we left the beach. Until next year!

Halloween:

The Tacna JVs have a tradition of making a haunted house for the neighborhood kids every Halloween. We recruited a few friends to help us make it extra scary this year. More than one kid ran out of the house crying before we could even give them their candy-success! Here's a pic of our house all done up for Halloween, 4 of us in costume with our neighbor Margarita, me in my mad scientist get-up slicing Gabe open, César eating some of Gabe's "guts," and the whole group of us in our scary outfits.

Jenny's Visit!

Halloween weekend also meant a visit from my good friend Jenny who's currently living in Lima. She was my first visitor from home and we had a lot of fun catching up that weekend. Here we are underneath the famous Tacna arch in the Plaza de Armas, and at my friend's house for a barbecue.

Birthday! My 24th birthday was definitely a memorable one as it also marked the arrival of all 7 new Peru volunteers, and since I shared my birthday week with my housemate Cara we were treated with lots of celebrations with all of our friends, students, and neighbors. The first picture is the first of many bday parties with our friend Vicky, who also had a November bday. Nate decided to add up all the years we were turning when he put the candles in our cake (109) so it resembled a giant fire ball when they brought it to us. The second pic is us with our good friends when we went out the night before my birthday, next is me with my homeroom kids when they came to my house to sing to me, me with one of my favorite preschoolers and her cousin (Brigitte and Briza) who also came to visit me that day, Cara and me right after getting cake smashed in our faces (one of my favorite Peruvian birthday traditions) at our party, and all the volunteers and friends at our famous couples-themed birthday party.

Miscellaneous Fun

This first pic is of me and my good friend Giuly at her despedida (going-away) barbecue. Giuly married her Spanish boyfriend a few months ago so right after my birthday she moved to Madrid to be with him. We're all very happy for her as she starts her new life there, but I miss her a lot! The second one is the new JVC rock band, fittingly named: JVC-USA! Our friend invited Cara and me to sing at this rock band contest at the Cultural, the English-language institute where he works, so we put together a whole band with Profe Carlos on lead guitar (our music teacher, and my co-tutor and good friend), our 5th year student Alfredo on drums, new Cuzco volunteers Mateo and Jess on bass and keyboard, and Cara and me on vocals. We made it to the final round with our rendition of "Killing me Softly," then Cara sang "Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia and I did "Suddenly I See" by KT Tunstall at the final contest. We did not win, but we definitely had the best fan section and had a lot of fun. Unfortunately those 3 volunteers are all leaving me for Cuzco in February, but I'm looking forward to at least a few more good jam sessions before they go. The third picture is me as the godmother of the little boys' soccer team at Miguel Pro. I had to go to their game and they presented me with flowers, then we processed around the field together. I kinda felt like I was in a beauty pageant, but it was pretty cute. The last one is at Thanksgiving dinner at the JV house! We were able to find a turkey and a pumpkin so we prepared a pretty legit and delicious Thanksgiving meal. I was on mashed potato and pie duty, so here I am with my apple and first ever from scratch (as in from a real pumpkin!) pumpkin pies-you can ask my friends, but I think they turned out pretty tasty. :)

Día Familiar 2010!

So if you remember from my blogs from last year, Día Familiar is the huge yearly dance festival at school. All the schools here have them, usually corresponding with the school's anniversary. We spend basically the entire month of November preparing for it, with each class (and teachers, parents, and alums too!) learning a different typical Peruvian dance, and it all culminates at the end of November with a day-long festival of food, contests, music, dancing, and family fun. It's always a cool experience for the new volunteers because we invite all of them to dance with the Miguel Pro teachers, so within their first weeks here they're thrown right into Peruvian culture, learning dances and getting to know these teachers. This year the dance was almost pure gringos since there are so many of us! I also decided to dance with my 1st year tutoría (homeroom) kids this year, so I had a lot of fun learning that dance with my kids and getting to put on 2 crazy cholita outfits (cholita is kind of a term of endearment for the ladies from the highlands, the ones who wear the big pollera skirts, long braids, and bowler hats). So here I am in outfit number 1 with my 1st year girls (I'm 3rd from the left)-we did a typical dance from Ayacucho-and with Profe Carlos, my co-tutor or homeroom teacher, who also danced with us. Below is a pic of all the profesoras in our outfits for the teacher dance, a dance from Piura called Pacasito. Those neon orange blouses were pretty hideous.

And last but certainly not least....the 2011 Tacna JV community!! From the left are Greg, Ashlen, Rose, me and Seamus (the 2 veterans). We're all pretty excited about our new community and getting to share this next year together, so I'll do my best to keep you posted as Seamus and I kick off round 2 of this crazy adventure. Wishing you all the best this holiday season and hope to be in touch soon! Paz, amor y muchos abrazos,

Mo

Miguel Pro-Siempre Más Alto!

Hi friends! I have so many things I want to write about and only a few short minutes so I just wanted to give a quick shout-out on this year's Día Del Colegio (the 18th anniversary of our school, Miguel Pro). Things have been CRAZY around here lately as they always are this time of year, but the most exciting events of late have definitely been the arrival of the new volunteers and my birthday! Which happened to be the same day. It was a little hectic, but a fun birthday present too to meet so many new and wonderful people that I'm going to be sharing the second half of this experience with. They're all so full of energy and curiosity and so ready to dive in and start their lives here. I remember so vividly what it was like stepping off that plane just over a year ago, meeting my community mates and neighbors, students and coworkers for the first time, and thinking to myself, "I am never going to remember all these people's names," and "I have SO much to learn!" But the months flew by, lots of incredible experiences and deep conversations happened, relationships were started, built upon, strengthened, and continue to grow and deepen everyday, and all of a sudden it's November again and I can't imagine being anywhere else. I feel as at home here as I do in my neighborhood in Seattle, and I've met so many incredible people that I won't ever be able to forget (and I thought I wouldn't be able to remember their names!). Teaching is still a challenge for me sometimes...a lot of times...but I really love my students and feel so lucky to be a part of the Miguel Pro community. We had our annual Thanksgiving mass and dinner last week with Fr. Fred and all the teachers and as we went around the circle sharing all the things we wanted to give thanks for, we all got pretty emotional talking about all the blessings in our lives, and how happy we were to be a part of this community. It was a pretty special moment to take part in.
Anyway besides all the reflecting on my first year and marveling at how fast the time has gone by, I've mostly been busy coordinating orientation activities, class observations, host families, and Spanish classes for all the new volunteers. JVC is starting a new community near Cuzco this year, so they sent us the 3 new Tacna JVs plus the 4 new people they're sending to Cuzco so we can help them get oriented a little bit before they head up there. It's been crazy having so many gringos around, but really fun too getting to know them and share my life and experience here with them little by little. They surprised me when they stepped off the plane with a giant happy birthday sign, and then got to share in the party Cara and I had together to celebrate both of our bdays. It was probably a pretty overwhelming first week for them, but also a good opportunity to meet all the people that are going to become their good friends and support people here. Also on my birthday my tutoría kids (kinda like my homeroom students for the year) surprised me at my house with a song and some presents, all of my classes sang to me that day, AND my sneaky community mates coordinated with my friends from Holy Cross to send me letters. I received over a dozen letters that day from friends from home, some from people I haven't talked to at all since I've been here, and that absolutely made my day. It was so special to hear from those people that mean so much to me, and to feel so celebrated from both near and far. So thanks again to all of you who helped make that day so wonderful!
Alright I gotta run to choir practice-we have a big mass tonight we're trying to get the kids ready for. But I'll try to write again soon because so much has happened these past couple months! Be on the lookout for updates on...my trip to Les Peñas, Chile in October, ReO/DisO with JVC staff, haunted house spectacular on Halloween, visit from Jenny, and my new rock band?! yes that's right, i participated in a rock band contest last weekend. and i'm not talking about the video game! Haha love and miss you all and hope all is well. Take care and Happy Thanksgiving!!
Un abrazo muy fuerte,
Mo

P.S. The picture is all 12 of us gringos at our first lunch out together the weekend after the newbies arrived. We love Patroncito!

Ciudad Heroica...TACNA!

Hello and happy spring from Tacna! Time continues to fly down here, and the past couple months have been full of activities so I wanted to take a few minutes to fill you all in on a few of them. Just about a month ago (Aug 28th) we celebrated Fiestas de Tacna, the 81st anniversary of the day Tacna was reincorporated into Peru after 50ish years of "captivity" under Chilean rule. Tacna is known for being one of the most patriotic cities in Peru because of this temporary period as part of Chile and its fight to be reincorporated. Its nickname, la ciudad heroica (the heroic city) comes from this too. I have to say Tacna Day was much more exciting than the national holiday, Fiestas Patrias, that we celebrated at the end of July. The entire month of August was spent preparing parades and reenactments, listening to the Tacna polka (where the title of this post comes from), learning and singing the Hymn of Tacna every Monday morning after the national anthem, and bearing maroon and gold ribbons or bougainvilla pins (the colors/flower of Tacna). It was a lot of fun seeing the whole city get so involved in celebrating this day, especially at the end of the month for the culmination of all the activities. The last week of August I went to a huge Peruvian food festival, two concerts (Olga Tañon, a Puerto Rican singer, and reggaeton super star Daddy Yankee!), helped direct our choir in a presentation of Tacna songs at the municipal theater, and watched all the activities at school on August 27th. All the preschool and primary kids dressed up as traditional Tacneñan señoras and caballeros to process down the street, the streets were decorated with traditional alfombras (literally carpets, but they're actually designs made out of colored sawdust, kind of like sand art), and the secondary kids marched around the streets of Habitat military style for their annual marching contest. It was a little weird to see them all marching around like that, but impressive to see our playful and mischievous students so disciplined and serious...at least for a few minutes.
On the 28th we headed uptown to see all the alfombras and watch the official procession of the flag. The story goes that during the years of Tacna's captivity, the people weren't allowed to sing their national anthem, wave a Peruvian flag, or show any kind of loyalty to Peru. But they begged the Chileans enough that they allowed the women of Tacna to make a Peruvian flag and process with it one day a year, in complete silence. So the women of Tacna got together and made the hugest Peruvian flag anyone had ever seen, just to stick it to the Chileans, and they processed around Tacna in silence every year until the Chileans left. Now, 81 years later, they still process with the very same giant flag, and all kinds of people are invited to join the procession. The streets were absolutely packed with people following the flag, throwing bougainvilla petals and yelling "Viva Tacna! Viva Perú!" It was pretty cool to see, and the culmination of a really fun weekend. The celebration ended with a lunch at Seamus's host family's house of Tacna's typical dish, picante a la tacneña (a stew-like concoction with potatoes, hot peppers, and huata-cow stomach! yum! i usually try to swallow those bits whole so i don't have to chew or taste them) and maraqueta bread. All in all a fun and full month of August.
Oh and sidenote about the Daddy Yankee concert that I mentioned earlier...that was a huge deal that he came here, because big name performers NEVER come to Tacna. But the people here went crazy for him, and the venue (a huge outdoor amphitheater) was absolutely packed. Some people paid up to 300 soles ($100, which is a lot here) to sit up front in the vip section. I was actually dead set against going until the last minute because I don't particularly like reggaeton music, I didn't want to pay for it, and I knew he wasn't going to start his show until after midnight, but in the end all of our friends went and I had nothing else to do so we made it a community event and ended up having so much fun. I still don't like reggaeton, but I knew more of his songs than I thought just from hearing them all the time when we go out, so it was a lot of fun just dancing around and making fun of his not so profound lyrics with all of our friends.
Alright friends that's all for now. Here are a few pics of the Tacna Day festivities, and you can check my facebook account in the next few days for a massive photo update because I just uploaded picture highlights from the whole time I've been here. Enjoy, and I hope to hear from you all soon!
Un abrazo muy fuerte,
Mo

Gabriel and Brigitte, two of my 4 year old preschool students, all dressed up for Tacna Day. If that doesn't tug at your heartstrings, I don't know what does.

Cara, Gabe, Cokey (Cara's host uncle), Seamus and our good friend Giuly watching the procession of the flag.

The giant Peruvian flag processing down the street (above).

All of us with our friends Martin, Edith and Giuly checking out the alfombras in town.

The whole crew at the Daddy Yankee concert.