Well today marks my first full week in Tacna so I thought it was about time for a little update. Things are going very well so far, just lots of new people and information and things to take in so its been a tad overwhelming, but poco a poco I'm adjusting (sidenote-i forget how to use spanish keyboards so for now I'll mostly be ignoring punctuation. sorry).
We made it here without any problems last Friday, and all of our community mates plus our incountry coordinator Fr Dolan and the legendary Fr Fred were all at the airport to greet us. Fr Fred is now celebrating 50 YEARS in Tacna, and he is responsible for both the Cristo Rey and Miguel Pro schools where all of us JVs teach, as well as the entire Habitat community where we live. Hes a pretty amazing man, so Ill try to do more justice to his life and work in another post.
Our house is small but very comfortable, and its just down the street from Miguel Pro so Ill have an easy commute to work. Weve already spent a lot of time at the school this week, getting to know some of the teachers and students, learning more about its history and how it runs, as well as observing classes. Its late spring right now in Peru so classes will be finishing up in about 3 weeks, just in time for Christmas and summer vacation (thats gonna be weird!). The observations have been really helpful, giving me lots of ideas on how teachers here deal with their students and classroom management and things like that. Half of me feels so ready to just jump in and start, but the other half is still terrified of getting up in front of a classroom and teaching (in Spanish nonetheless). In any case Im grateful for this time to get acclimated, improve my spanish, and mentally prepare before I actually have to teach.
Last night I met my host family that Ill be living with starting on Monday until about the 20th of December. They have 3 daughters, 14, 15 and a 20 year old who lives in Lima so I should feel right at home. They were all super nice and I had a lot of fun talking with them last night, so Im excited to start that part of my immersion here. This weekend several of us will be joining a group of 35 Miguel Pro high schoolers on their campamento, kind of like an overnight retreat/field trip in a nearby town called Atarata. Im looking forward to seeing a new place as well as getting to know some of these students before we go on Mes de Mision with them in January (Ill write about that later...)
What else...the city of Tacna is actually much bigger than I was expecting, very bustling with lots of markets and open plazas-you can find anything there that youd need. We live about a 15 minute bus ride from the city center.
Oh something else weve been working on is our dance for the big Dia Familiar at Miguel Pro a week from Sunday. Its an all day affair where all the students perform different traditional dances from all over Peru, and the teachers have to do one as well. Were doing a dance called a Huayno and weve had 2 rehearsals so far, so I think Im getting it down. I am definitely not a dancer, but that may change by the time I leave this place because dancing is such a huge part of Peruvian life and culture. We went to a birthday party on Saturday and danced, ate at a restaurant on Sunday and danced whenever we werent eating, and attended a students quincinera last weekend and danced pretty much the entire time. I wish I were more graceful but Im trying to learn a few steps.
Well I think thats all for now, Im off to observe a primary class, but Ill try to update again soon. Happy Friday everyone! Lots of love and besos from Tacna,
Mo
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