Tuesday, November 30, 2010

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

























































































































































Tuesday, November 23, 2010

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!