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.

Mid-Year Ponderings

Arequipa by night

Hi friends!
I hope you're all enjoying the summertime up in the Northern Hemisphere. I've been a little jealous lately looking at all your pictures of summer BBQ's, beach days, the 4th of July, etc, but I can't complain too much about winter in Tacna-it's definitely not nearly as bad as Worcester. Time continues to amaze me as it flies by. It's really hard for me to believe that it's already August...JVI orientation ended yesterday for all the new volunteers that will be joining us this year, most of my friends that did JVC after graduation are already finishing up their year of service and heading home in the next week or

two, and here in Tacna we just hit the halfway

mark of the 2010 school year. Being a JV in another country thousands of miles from home, living in community, being a first-time teacher, teaching in a culture, language, and educational system that are not my own, and being without my family and friends continue to challenge me in ways I'd never experienced before, but also bring me so many blessings that have absolutely enriched and changed my life for the better.

Just about 9 months into my JV experience, I can easily say that I am exactly where I'm supposed to be right now. I've definitely struggled over the past couple months, at work and in community, but in general this experience has been so

overwhelmingly positive for me. The people I've met here at Miguel Pro, in Habitat, and throughout Tacna have brought so much joy and meaning to my life, especially as I've settled in and really cultivated those relationships over the past few months. One of the best feelings after coming back from my mid-year vacation to Arequipa last week (my first extended time away from Tacna since February) was getting off that bus in Habitat, walking into D-10 (the JV house) and feeling truly at home. I almost immediately starting making the rounds to visit all of my neighbors, call my host family and close friends so that I could see them all and catch up after my week away. It's nice to feel so comfortable here, and to be able to share in this experience with so many wonderful people.

Now, about my vacation...Seamus and I spent our week off in and around Arequipa (the 2nd biggest city in Peru, about 6 hours from Tacna). I absolutely loved it there, being in a big city surrounded by so much natural beauty. One of Arequipa's claims to fame is Misti, the 5000m volcano that towers over the whole city. It's also famous for Santa Catalina, a beautiful 400+year-old monastery for cloistered nuns, and the mummy Juanita (aka the "Ice Maiden"), an almost perfectly intact Incan princess found in the Andes in 1995. Arequipa is also known for its delicious food and chocolate, so needless to say I had a wonderful time. After a weekend exploring the city, we hopped on a tour bus to Colca Canyon, the 2nd deepest canyon in the world, about a 5 hour drive from Arequipa. Our tour took us first to the condor lookout where we watched the impressively huge birds coast above the canyon, and then to the small town of Cabanaconde where we started our 12km trek down to the bottom. The second day we hiked through the valley, where I drank chicha beer (a typical Andean corn beer fermented by people's spit-yummy) and chewed coca leaves for the first time. They're supposed to help with altitude sickness and increase your stamina, but all it did for me was make my tongue really numb. We spent the rest of that day lounging in the pool at the beautifully green and relaxing oasis, and at 5 the next morning we started the hike back up to the top. It was pretty steep, and a lot harder than I was expecting, but we made it up in under 3 hours and all before the sun got too hot which was my only saving grace. (The picture of me above is while I'm on my way up the canyon.) Once at the top we had breakfast, drove to the town of Chivay where we enjoyed the beautiful natural hot springs, then headed back to Arequipa. I had a lot of fun with our tour group, a mix of 9 people from the States, Australia, New Zealand and France, as well as our Peruvian guide Diego. Our hostel booked the all-inclusive tour for us (transportation, guide, food, and lodging for the 3 days) for only $40 usd, so I'd say it was a pretty good deal.

After that week off we went back to school for 2 days, then had the rest of last week off for Fiestas Patrias (Peru's big national holiday). I think I enjoyed that time almost as much as my vacation in Arequipa, just hanging out in Habitat with all my neighbors, visiting my host family, and catching up with people I hadn't seen in a while. Highlights of those days include starting a rendition of the Peruvian national anthem in a crowded bar at midnight the night before July 28th, visits from Cara's sister and former JV Dan Robb, learning how to make aji de gallina (my favorite Peruvian dish), and being invited to SO MANY delicious meals! I've also been working a lot with the choir lately and we've been doing some exciting stuff. I translated one of my favorite Paul Melley songs into Spanish (my choir director at Holy Cross who also composes liturgical music) and Cara and I taught it to our kids for a mass we sang at last week. It came out so beautifully, and now Carlos the music teacher is teaching it to all the music classes in primary! I have lots of videos of the kids singing but these computers are way too slow to put them on here so I'm still working on a way to get them online.

So overall life is great here. I'm missing you all a lot and thinking of you all the time, but I am very very happy here in Tacna and so grateful to have another full year ahead of me. I look forward to hearing updates from all of you and hope all is well wherever you are. Here are a few pictures from my trip too-enjoy!

Mucho amor y paz de Tacna,

Mo

At the condor lookout in Colca. It was freezing if you can't tell (-2ºC). I'm wearing every shirt that I brought under that sweatshirt.

At the hot springs in Chivay; beautiful landscapes in the canyon; our group after reaching the top of the canyon; Drew (a Santa Clara student who volunteered here for a month), Seamus and me posing with Misti in Arequipa; in Arequipa's Plaza de Armas; inside Santa Catalina Monastery

A long time coming

My sincerest apologies to all my loyal blog followers, I realize it's been an embarassingly long time since my last post. You're all either dying to know what I've been up to the past 3 months or you've given up on me completely. Well in my defense we were without Internet at school for most of March and April, and since then my only excuse is I was busy...but I'll do my best to fill you in briefly on all we've been up to lately.

Tacna Highlights March-June:
1. Right before Easter we got to do a really cool caminata (pilgrimage-type walk) from Miguel Pro up to the top of one of the sand dunes that surround Tacna. They do this every year to start off Holy Week, and I thought it was a really cool activity. So on Friday night we all met at school (5th graders up to 5th years of secondary) for a group reconciliation service that ended in a school-wide singalong of "We Are the World" (in Spanish of course). Then we spent the night at school (aka napped for 2 hours on the floor of the teachers lounge) and met up again at 3am to start the caminata. We walked in the dark for about 2 and a half hours, stopping several times for readings/reflections. We reached the sand dune just before 6 and climbed it as the sun was coming up which was pretty cool.
For Easter the following week we had a really nice brunch at our house with our Habitat family (all of our closest neighbors and friends). We don't have guests that often so it was fun to open up our home and share that day with the people who have taken such good care of us down here.

2. I don't know if I should call this a highlight, but on May 5th we experienced a small earthquake. Actually it was a 6.4 but it was short so it didn't really feel that strong. There was no damage but school was canceled for 2 days just as a precaution which meant that we watched all 13 episodes of Glee that are out on DVD and are now OBSESSED. We've downloaded all our favorite songs and have frequent singalongs in our house, and we're already anxious to get the rest of season 1 when it comes out.

3. On May 22nd one of our Mes de Misión students asked us to do a surprise dance performance at her quinceñera party. Cara choreographed a whole mix of songs and we spent weeks practicing in secret for the big performance. It turned out pretty awesome and the kids loved it. I have the whole thing on video so someday whenever I have the time and patience I'll try to post it on here. We've whipped it out at several parties since then so the JVs are becoming quite renowned for our dance moves...

4. For the first 2 weeks of June we had delegates here from USF doing a couple different projects at school. A group of dance students taught lessons in primary using movement/dance, and also organized a little performance at the end of the week for the kids to show the community what they'd learned. They also sent a group from the School of Ed (as well as a professional muralist from San Francisco) to help paint a mural on the outside wall of the school. We had all the kids draw pictures of what service means to them, then the artist helped arrange all the best images on poster paper. A small group of kids colored it all in and put the images on the wall in charcoal, then we all got to help paint it. It turned out really cool, and it was a lot of fun seeing the whole community get involved in the project. They left us with a whole bunch of materials too so hopefully we can paint another one to cover up some of the graffitti around Habitat.

5. We finished our first bimester (quarter) at the beginning of May and now we're already halfway through the 2nd. Teaching is still hard and I have lots to learn, but it definitely feels good to have one quarter under my belt. Everyday I feel a little more comfortable in the classroom and I've learned a ton about what works with different groups of kids and what doesn't. They test my patience all the time (especially my very special 2nd graders) but despite all of the stupid and annoying things they do I really am growing fond of these kids and love working at Miguel Pro.

6. Next week we're going to a big English teacher conference at one of the private language institutes in Tacna and the US embassador is going to be there! We've been invited to a fancy dinner in his honor so hopefully we'll get to talk to him. I'm looking forward to meeting some other English teachers in the area and learning some useful teaching strategies and activities.

So I think that's about it for now. The only other big news around here is World Cup fever. Everybody's talking about the Mundial and the kids try everyday to get us to turn on the TV at school so they can watch (which we did yesterday when the US played). We're using it as an opportunity to teach them our national anthem which Cara and I are hoping to sing at lunes cívico on July 5th (that's the all school assembly we have every Monday morning where we always sing Peru's national anthem). We've got vacation coming up at the end of July after the 2nd bimester ends so I'm hoping to do some traveling, and there will be lots more gringos passing through (family and friends of my 2nd year community mates as well as some former JVs coming back to visit) so that should be fun to keep sharing our lives here with more people from home. Unfortunately for them summer vacation in the US means winter in Tacna and it is getting cold here! I mean it's no Worcester winter but definitely lots chillier than I was expecting, plus our houses don't have heat here so we really have to bundle up at night. I had a nice surprise this morning when I got back from a very chilly run and jumped into the shower only to find the gas tank was empty which meant frigid water-I'm still cold and that was almost 5 hours ago!
Alright I'll leave you with that, and promise I'll try to be better about writing in the coming weeks. Hope all is well wherever you are and I look forward to hearing from you soon! Muchos saludos from Tacna,
Mo

Back to School, Back to School...

I’ve always loved “back to school” season. As sad as it is to see summer vacation come to an end, there’s something so refreshing and energizing about starting a new school year, seeing all of your friends again, showing off new outfits, haircuts, and summer tans, and who doesn’t love shopping for new school supplies? That was always such an exciting day for me when I grabbed my school supply list and hit up Office Depot to pick out all my notebooks, binders, and pretty new markers. And remember what a big deal it was in grade school to see the class lists posted a few days before classes started, or in high school getting our schedules in the mail, and then promptly calling EVERYONE to figure out who was in each of our classes?

And then there were the college back to school days. Showing up at Logan Airport with my neon green luggage and waiting for some kind friend to pick me up then chatting the whole way back to Worcester, moving into new dorm rooms in the August heat and humidity, shopping sprees at Target to decorate, trying to figure out which books you don’t really need to buy in an effort to save a few hundred dollars at the bookstore, and frantically running around campus to find all the people you haven’t seen for 3 months. Those were the days....

Well here I am going back to school again, confused because it’s March and not September, and because for the first time in my life I am not returning as an eager and excited student, but as a nervous and inexperienced teacher. These past couple weeks have definitely been a little weird for me, trying to get used to my new role in academia and figure out what the heck I’m doing, but overall I think it’s safe to say I’m off to a decent start. At the very least I didn’t show up on the first day to kids sitting on their desks and throwing paper airplanes at my head...luckily that kind of behavior would never fly here. I'll be teaching English to preschoolers (3-5 year olds), 2nd and 3rd grades in primary, and the advanced group of 3rd years in secondary. I'm also "co-tutora" (kind of like homeroom teacher/counselor/overall go-to person) for the first years in secondary. I'll be working with Carlos, the same teacher who led Mes de Mision and who's also in charge of the choir/all things music and campus ministry related around here so I already know him well and will be working with him a lot over the next 2 years.

To give you a snapshot of what life is like here at Colegio Miguel Pro, I’ve come up with a few major differences (some good, some slightly frustrating) between our school and the school system I’m used to in the States.

Top 10 choques (culture clashes) I've experienced at our school so far:

10. When I walk into a classroom, all the kids stand up to one side of their desks and greet me with, “Buenos días Señorita Maureen” like little robots. All the formality seems a little unnecessary to me but it’s kind of cute and can definitely give you a power trip.

9. Maybe this would happen in the States too but I was pleasantly surprised at how entertained my third graders were by simply singing “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” over and over again at varying speeds.

8. Showing up five minutes early on the first day of school with one pen, one notebook (covered in Marvel comic book characters I might add-it used to belong to a student), and no schedule and getting here before the principal.

7. Being handed my schedule for the first day at 8:40am and then walking into class at 8:45.

6. Having all the teacher meetings begin after the first day of classes to talk about things like schedules, goals for the year, mission of the school, etc...why waste vacation days to plan those things in advance right?

5. Not having any sort of supervisor or department head telling me what I need to teach, nor following up to make sure I’m actually teaching English in my classes. Our “supervisor” if you will doesn’t really speak English, she just checks in with us once a week to make sure we’re still sane and talk about whatever problems we’re having.

4. Kids nearly in tears when they realize the notebooks they bought are lined and not graph paper (everyone uses graph paper notebooks here). That happened in Cara’s class, not mine, but I thought it was pretty funny.

3. Shopping for school supplies in the old cabinets in the teacher's lounge instead of at the local librería. I could easily spend my entire stipend on new materials if I wanted to, but since we're trying to live simply I'm just going to borrow indefinitely from the JVs and former students of yesteryear who have left things behind.

2. Two + weeks into classes and still no set schedule...they finally gave us a working schedule last Friday but a lot of us are still double-booked certain hours, missing classes, or both in my case. They try too hard to make all the teachers happy with their schedules which makes this process impossibly complicated, but hopefully they'll figure out a way to fix it this week so I can actually go to all of my classes.

1. And my favorite thing about working here so far...walking to school everyday and being bombarded by hugs, kisses, and shouts of Profesora, Miss Maureen, Señorita, or Tía Tía! by hoards of little children. No better way to start the day. :)

As soon as I figure out a more efficient way to upload photos I'll try to post a visual summary of our February travels which were wonderful. But in the meantime Happy St Patrick's Day tomorrow (I'm going on a hunt for green food dye today since I'm on dinner duty tomorrow...), and happy almost spring to all of you in the northern hemisphere! I guess it's fall here but our seasons would be better described as hot and less hot, always dry and usually sunny. We're still in hot and sunny season. Oh and 2 exciting sidenotes: after many days of waiting around in Lima and hassling the migrations office Seamus and I are finally legal residents of Peru!! We got fancy little DNI's (ID cards) with fingerprints and everything. This is excellent news for several reasons: 1. we can no longer get kicked out of the country, 2. the police can't fine us for not having ID when they randomly pull over the city busses and ask for it, and 3. we can finally cross the border into Arica, Chile where my housemates tell me the ice cream is to die for. Second piece of news: we don't do daylight savings time here so that means I'm one hour closer to everyone in America (unless you're on the east coast in which case you're now an hour ahead of me). Keep this in mind if you ever want to make my day with a surprise phone call.

That's all for now friends! Hope all is well wherever you are and I'll do my best to keep you posted on my adventures in the classroom. There are sure to be many...

Mucho amor y paz,

Profesora Señorita Miss Maureen

Hogar, Dulce Hogar

We're back!! I'm happy to say I made it back to Tacna last Sunday happy, healthy, and very grateful for my first Mes de Mision experience. This will probably be a long post because I have lots to tell, but if you're interested and have time read on! (this first pic is me with my small group and our favorite baby goats at one of the farms where we worked)

We spent the last month living and working in Ite, a beautiful coastal town about an hour and a half from Tacna. We were surrounded by farmland and Ite also has these really cool marshes (called humedales) so it was a really nice change to see ocean and green everyday. We stayed at a school up at the top of a huge hill, so we had a beautiful view of the ocean and incredible sunsets every night.
Ite has been given a lot of money in recent years as compensation from the mining companies for all the contamination they caused, so fortunately for us the municipality was able to take really good care of us. We had a wonderful woman named Sra Olga who cooked all 3 meals for us everyday, and we ate so well! I had heard many a horror story from JVs past about getting sick and losing tons of weight from the horrible/scarce food on MdM, but that was absolutely not the case for us. Her food was delicious and served in huge portions, and we almost always had enough for seconds. We also always had plenty of water, which was not the case last year.

In terms of the kids, I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised by how respectful and well behaved they were. Sure they whined a lot (especially to me since I was team nurse), and we dealt with all kinds of teenage drama (including a Mean Girls-esque intervention that Cara and I staged with all the girls to talk about their feelings and how they were treating each other) but never anything too serious and overall this was a really good group of kids. I shared a lot of laughs, songs, a few tears, and really good conversations with a lot of them, especially those in my small group, and that was really important to me. The best part about Mes de Mision for us as teachers is that it allows us to really get to know these kids on personal levels, interact with them outside the classroom, and gain a better understanding of why they are the way they are so that we can serve them even better once we get back to school. I was not expecting to build up so much confianza (trust) with these kids as a newbie volunteer, but within days I had lovesick teenage boys pouring out their hearts to me, girls reflecting on changing friendships, and found myself willingly sharing my life with curious 15 year olds I had just met. It was pretty cool, and I have to admit I kind of miss working and chatting with them everyday. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be teaching any of these kids next year, but I hope to remain in their lives at least as a mentor and friend through the upcoming year.

Besides all the talking and playing we were actually there to work, so I'll try to sum up what we did all month. None of the projects we thought we'd be working on at the beginning ever ended up materializing, but we did help out at a number of different farms and I think the kids learned a lot about all the different kinds of labor involved in maintaining those chacras. Jobs ranged from pulling weeds to planting or harvesting corn, picking up garbage at the beach, catequesis sessions with local kids, to everyone's favorite site...the muni. That's short for municipalidad, a project of the municipality that raises goats and cows, and also grows corn and onions. Basically they run different experiments involving what the animals eat, mixing different types of corn, etc. We sent groups there everyday and got into a nice rhythm feeding the animals, cleaning their corrals, working in the greenhouse, and helping out with different projects. We got to know Alejandrina, the woman in charge of the goats, really well which was important for the kids because we didn't have a lot of contact with the people of Ite otherwise. She was a very sweet lady and always made us really delicious cheese! My favorite part of the muni though was playing with the baby goats. 3 were born during our 2nd week there (all named after our students) and they were pretty darn cute.















Girls watching Alejandrina make cheese









So that's Mes de Mision 2010 in a nutshell. The work was pretty light which disappointed some kids, but I think they still learned a lot, got to try out different jobs, and at the very least grew from the experience of living in community with their peers, away from home/parents/Internet/familiar comforts, and sharing in responsibilities they often don't have at home (kind of like a month of JVC!). Once a week the kids exchanged letters with their families (we delivered letters home on Thursdays then brought responses/packages back on Fridays) which was always exciting for them, and I think they all learned to value their parents and homes a little bit more. Overall a huge success, for both students and profes alike.

Well that's it for now friends. The Tacna JVs will be home until Sunday, at which point we'll be heading to Arequipa for a 5 day silent retreat with the Cristo Rey teachers. After that the 5 of us are going to aprovechar the rest of our month off to do some traveling in the north of Peru! Possible destinations include Trujillo, Cajamarca, Piura, Lima...wherever the wind takes us. I'm excited to see more of the country and also spend some time all together as a community, since Nate was on a different Mes de Mision all month with the Cristo Rey boys (the other school Fred started, where Nate teaches) I'll keep you updated the best I can, but for now I'm signing off until classes start up again in March. Cuidense mucho and enjoy the fotos!














Kids and profes goofing off in the kitchen















Profe Gabe and 2 boys from my group at the muni















JVI Tacna 2010, visiting Nate at his Mes de Mision in Sama















Much love,
Miss Maureen

Mes de Misión

Hello family and friends and Feliz Año Nuevo from hot and sunny Tacna! I just wanted to post a quick greeting to let you all know that starting tomorrow I'll be gone on Mes de Misión with 3 of my community mates, one other Miguel Pro teacher, 2 Jesuits, 2 former students, and 33 rising 4th years (they'd be rising 10th graders in the states). Mes de Misión is one of the cornerstones of a Miguel Pro education, a mandatory month-long labor intensive service trip for the 4th years every January. This year we're going to a coastal town nearby called Ite, where we´ll be planting olive trees on a farm and doing some shepherding!
This month is going to be a definite challenge with the intense work, desert heat, and spending an entire month with 33 15 year olds who for the most part have never left home before, but I'm sure it will be a learning experience too. It's usually very formative for the kids so that part will be cool to witness as well. In the evenings we'll do lots of reflections and community building activities, plus once a week we get a day off to go to the beach so there will be some fun parts too.
So if you don't hear from me for several weeks (which you probably won't) don't worry, and I'll be sure to get in touch as soon as I can after we get back on the 31st. Please keep my community mates and me (and our sanity!) and all of our students in your prayers as we embark on this adventure, as well as our beloved Padre Fred who traveled back to the States yesterday for cancer treatment. All of Tacna is hoping he will hurry back in good health!
Best wishes for the new year, and be sure to check back in a month for all my Mes de Misión stories!