Our trip back to the USA

Peruvian airlines charge way too much for a 1.5 hour flight from Tacna to Lima so we decided to ride in style for 20+ hours on the bus to arrive in Lima.  We left Tacna at 2:30 pm on Sunday the 21st and arrived to Lima at 11 am on Monday the 22nd.

Luckily we got good, large, and comfortable seats.

And Katie was happy.

The bus trip is pretty boring as for as scenery goes.

But there are a few fertile valleys from time to time.

When we arrived to Lima we got a room for the day (our flight left just after midnight) so that we could lay down in a bed once on our 48 hour journey to Columbus, Ohio.  We glimpsed a creature chilling out outside of our room.

 

Our flight from Lima to Houston arrived late causing us to miss our connection to Chicago.  We were put on standby for the next flight to Chicago but as others were boarding were told that there would be only one available seat.  We began went to the customer service counter about 100 feet away and while waiting in line had the gate agent run up to us and tell us that there were two seats open.  Someone must have miscounted and luckily she found us to take the seats.  If not we would have been stuck in Houston, missed our connection from Chicago to Columbus and had our 48 hour journey become much longer.

A Wedding

The last night before our departure, we attended the religious wedding of our friends Martin and Edith.  Because of costs and preparation time, it is very common for a couple to first become married civilly and later have a religious wedding.  What often happens though is that couples can't find the time or money to have a religious ceremony once they have kids to raise.  Martin and Edith had been civilly married for almost 20 years before doing their religious ceremony.

The impetus for Martin and Edith was the death of their 17 year old son Jason last July.  Jason was born with a spinal deformity that caused him to be hunched over.  As Jason grew this caused lots of pressure on his lungs.  With decreased lung capacity, Jason had troubles handling respiratory infections.  This past July he had an infection develop into pneumonia and passed away.  Jason meant the world to Martin and Edith.  He was their only child and they were wonderful parents.  In a world where not all parents are fully committed to raising their children, it is sad to see two who are lose their child. 

After the ceremony in the chapel, we went over to their house for a party, which included food, drink, the boquet toss and garter belt toss. Our departure at midnight was considered early (especially since dinner wasn't even served yet) but we needed to get some rest before our 20-hour bus ride to Lima.

Feliz Navidad!

A few of you have asked about how Christmas is celebrated in Peru. We are not going to be here for the big day (more on that below) but we have been going to advent masses and have seen Christmas nonsense explode across stores far and wide, not unlike in the U.S.

However, one difference that we have noticed has been nativity scenes, called nacimientos. JP and I helped put together the nacimiento at the Posta one afternoon a few weeks ago.  Used to what we have at home, I was expecting a stable, Mary, Joseph, the baby Jesus, some shepherds and sheep, maybe a donkey, and some wise men.  However, the Peruvian nacimiento has a whole different feel.  Check it out:

First of all, it starts with the paper--lots of crinkled, painted paper that the doctors used to make a background and a sort-of-cave to put the baby in. As we unpacked the statues, it became clear that there were two sets of Mary and Joseph and baby, so they decided to put the smaller one on the box below the large one.  Then, my favorite part, we started to unpack the animals.  Not only were there your typical stable/manger animals, but there was also the Christmas giraffe, the Christmas ducks, the Christmas rabbits, etc.  But we put them all around the family, chilling and waiting for the baby Jesus.  This seems to be the norm, rather than the exception--we went to a friend's house in town this week for a visit and she had a huge nacimiento with the same paper, and cave, and menagerie of animals.  It is a lot of fun to see the different statues and animals even though the overall concept is very similar.

In terms of our Christmas plans, today is our last day at Miguel Pro, although school will continue for 3 half-days until the 23rd. Grades are due today so we don't expect to miss much in terms of activities, although they may cram in a few last minute things.  We will be leaving Tacna on Sunday afternoon, taking an overnight bus to Lima that arrives on Monday, and then hanging out in Lima for most of Monday until we go to the airport for our 12:30 am flight on (technically) Tuesday morning.  From there will we make our way through a few US airports before arriving in Ohio on the afternoon of the 22nd.  We are very excited to be coming home to celebrate the holidays and catch up with family and friends, but we expect the blog may be quiet for a little bit.  We may try to catch up if we have old photos or stories while we are in the States. 

One more look at the nacimiento:

An early Feliz Navidad to one and all!

Graduation

On Friday, JP and I attended the graduation ceremony as guests of a family we know, only it wasn't for the secondary school graduates, but for a five-year-old "graduating" from preschool in preparation for first grade in primary school next year!

I was fairly confused by this, and at first thought it would just be a simple, short ceremony with maybe some punch and cookies.  We went to visit the family, Beatriz and her son, Jheison (say 'Jason'), the graduate.  This is the family whose house the Brophy trip worked on in 2008.  My first clue that I was wrong came when we were talking with the family and they referred to needing to rent a suit for the five-year-old for the ceremony.  When we got to the preschool, which is right across the street from our house, these boys were decked out:

Of course, they were still five (maybe six by now), so while the teacher was welcoming the parents and congratulating the graduates, they wanted to play with the decorations.

After the welcome, the kids performed a dance for us--a waltz--which mostly consisted of them standing together, swaying stiffly, while the teachers encouraged them to put more feeling into it and the parents told the kids to face in different directions for photos.

 

Jheison, our graduate, is dancing with the very serious Cecilia in the white dress. (Note: both the dresses and suits can be rented and returned, not bought.)  Since I didn't want to be like one of the annoying parents, I did not jump up and knock the other kids out of the way to get a picture.  After that, the kids danced with their parents, so here are Jheison and Beatriz:

Just when we were starting to think we were at a wedding, it was time for diplomas.  The diplomas included an individual and class photo and were individually presented. Here are JP and Jheison:

 

After that, it was time for the entertainment.  The school had hired a payaso, or clown, to come and entertain the kids. 

Through my American lens I was expecting magic tricks and balloon animals, but instead the clown was more like an activity leader, having the kids do a dance off or sing-a-long, and the kids seemed to enjoy it.

The activities went on for a while, and eventually we went outside to stretch our legs from the little kindergarten chairs and talked with Beatriz about the event. She was curious about if the graduation was similar to what we did in the States and we had to explain that we don't make a big deal (ceremonially at least) out of the transition from kindergarten to first grade, and that it seemed kind of elaborate for the age of the kids and the occasion. She explained that the parents pushed for the big event, saying that it marks the end of a stage of their development, and should be celebrated. All of this comes at a cost, of course, and the parents are the ones who paid for the clown and the snacks, and had contributed money for a hot dinner for everyone, plus a three-tiered cake.  She sort of agreed that it was over the top but also that they wanted it to be a good experience for the kids and to mark the transition.  While it was an interesting afternoon/evening (I think we were there for 3 1/2 hours!), I am not rooting for this to catch on in the States.

Here's one last look at the graduates:

Enjoy!

Field Day for Día del Colegio

After officially celebrating Día del Colegio on Monday the 23rd, the school also had a field day on Friday to continue the festivities (and missing too much class time in my opinion).  The students from preschool to high school were separated into 8 teams with an even proportion of younger and older students in each group.

The first challenge was to make a human mural with all the members of the group (about 50 in all) that could be seen from the 3rd floor.  Most groups formed the school emblem (that seemed appropriate I guess).  Cathleen was one of the judges and took some pics:

 The groups them rotated between different stations like:

Singing

Charades

Shooting a basket behind the head
 

The younger kids feeding the older kids

Race to dress dolls

 

Limbo

The day ended with the winning group getting some ice cream that was almost melting on its stick from the intense Tacna sun.

Día del Colegio -- other parts of the ceremony

Before seeing the story of Miguel Pro depicted, a class from preschool did little routine.  The boys' mothers will be able to embarrass their sons for the rest of their lives with pictures like these:

The next act was the ballet group performing their same routine for like the 50th time.

Lastly, the students from 3rd year of secondary (9th grade), who are pretty talented musically and have as homeroom teachers the music teacher and chorus assistant, performed a couple of rock songs with accompanying dancing.  All while wearing weird clothes.

 

Día del Colegio -- The Story of Miguel Pro

Every year Colegio Miguel Pro celebrates what they call its anniversary on November 23rd but which is really the feast day of its namesake Blessed Miguel Pro.  Miguel Agustín Pro was a Mexican Jesuit priest who was executed by the Mexican government on the 23rd of November in 1927.

I was in the group of teachers responsible for decorating for the day.  While I didn't particularly enjoy having to do it, it did turn out nice.

The ceremony is most remembered for the play telling the story of Miguel Pro's life performed by one of the upper grades of primary.  This year the students from 5th grade were in charge of portraying Miguel Pro's life. 

The 5th graders started out telling about Miguel Pro's childhood.  As the 3rd of 11 children born to a mining family (4 of which died very young during childhood), Miguel's early life was not easy.  His family was quite pious demonstrated by the fact that two of his sisters also became religious.

The class then described the events that led to Miguel joining the Jesuits and his training.  During his training, an anti-clerical government came to power and the Jesuit novitiates had to move to Los Gatos, California (where the present-day California-province Jesuits are based) to continue his studies.  He then went to Spain for 4 years to continue his studies before returning to America and teaching for 3 years in Nicaragua.  He finished his studies with 3 year of theology that he completed in Belgium before being ordained a priest in 1925.  His first assignment as a priest was working with miners in Belgium which he completed while waiting to be able to return to Mexico.

Pro returned to Mexico in July of 1926 and began working clandestinely since the government was strongly enforcing many anti-clerical laws.  He narrowly escaped capture many times (shown as some funny depictions by the students) before being arrested in November of 1927 and having the President order his execution.  Many pictures were taken and published in order to discourage the rebellion that accompanied the harsh laws.

More from Día Familiar

As I mentioned before, we got to spend the morning watching the little kids do their dances.  At some schools, apparently, the littlest kids don't dance, but here at Miguel Pro everyone gets a chance to dress up and strut their stuff...or in the case of the three-year-olds, dress up and wander around somewhat confused.  I think they are cute regardless! See for yourself:

 

Next up was the 4 year old class, with a dance that apparently is making fun of the Spanish conquistadors, which is why they have white faces and swords:

This group was followed by the 5 year olds, who did what I call the llama dance.  Here are the girls and the boys:

Here is a short clip I was able to record with my camera--not the most stellar camera work, but at least you can get the idea of the actual dance.  The kids are still somewhat uncoordinated, but I thought that they did a pretty good job for kindergarteners!

  
After the part shown in the video, the girls end up putting their aprons over the boys to make it look like they are actually llamas and had fake whips to pretend to whip them with:

 

 

Hope you enjoyed this set of photos!

Día Familiar

Yesterday was Día Familiar (Family Day) at Miguel Pro.  In practice, this is a day where all the families get together and have a meal and each class does a dance number.  At Miguel Pro, all the dances have to be traditional from Peru or the surrounding areas, and the costumes are wonderful.  In addition, the teachers usually prepare a dance as well and JP and I got to be involved with that this year.

So we spent the morning watching little kids dance, then had a good lunch of fried chicken, then did our dance last.  It is hard to capture the way the whole thing went, but I have tried, and was able to find our song and put a slide show together of some photos from the teachers dance.  This first video is our song, "Que Linda Flor" by Silverio Urbina.  ("Que Linda Flor" means "what a pretty flower")



Ignore the cheesy video and listen to the lyrics while you watch the slide show of our photos:


I think you get the basic idea. In total, 22 of us performed, including all 5 JVs from this year and the 2 new JVs who will start teaching next year. We practiced about 6 times and had a blast!

More to come, including pictures of cute kids dancing and a few more videos, plus catching up on our events from last week, including a field day and the celebration of Miguel Pro, the school's namesake.

Padrinos

A quick apology for being absent on the blog lately--things are getting busier here as the year is wrapping up quickly--it is hard to believe we will be back in the states in less than five weeks!  Hopefully we will be able to share some of the activities that are planned between now and then and keep up with things.

This past weekend, JP and I were the padrinos (godparents) for a 14-year-old girl making her first communion.  The way this happened was a little odd so I thought I would share the background.  A few weeks ago, JP told me at dinner that he had agreed to be the padrino for the baptism of this same girl. He explained that the girl's older sister, who is in her mid-20s and knows JP from when he was a JV here, had come to see him at the clinic while he was working.  He said that he had agreed, and she proceeded to tell him that the baptism was the Saturday of that week and that there were meetings up in town on two nights that week that he needed to go to. As we talked, he figured out that it would be difficult to do it due to his work schedule at the Posta and he felt a little weird because the request was so last minute.  I hadn't been involved with anything like this before, so I wasn't sure about it either, but after we talked about it, JP decided that he would prefer to decline this invitation for the reasons we had talked about.  So, the next day he went and found the sister and declined, we got a present for the girl anyway, and figured the matter was settled.

Then, several weeks later, we received an invitation for both of us to attend the first communion for the same girl. JP was asked to be the Padrino again, and he accepted, telling me it was less of a big deal to be padrinos for a first communion than for a baptism.  A few days later, the sister asked JP if I would be the madrina (godmother) and he accepted on my behalf.  The idea of being a padrino in some cases means that you are committing to support the person emotionally, but in some cases it also means that there is some financial support expected as well.  When JP accepted the invitation he asked about what was expected of us and the sister explained that they wanted us to be in the role of advisers rather than financial supporters. 

So, we asked around to find out what kind of gift we were supposed to get, and I went up to town and found the part of a market where they sell first communion gifts and got a rosary and a rosary guide book.  We got up bright and early on Saturday and walked over to the church.  There were 20 children from Habitat receiving first communion, and they all wore their school uniforms (most from Miguel Pro but a few from other schools as well). 

Here are the kids lined up to receive communion.  The mass was nice, and Fr. Fred said a nice homily.  We were somewhat surprised that photographers came into the church and sold 8x10 photos to the parents of the children receiving communion right in the middle of mass, but no one else seemed to mind or be surprised.

After mass we took the obligatory photos:

 

 JP and I with Candy and Fr. Fred

After mass there was a small celebration for the parents and children at the school, but there wasn't room for the padrinos because there were so many kids in the celebration.  We were invited over to the family's house the following day.  We went over after mass on Sunday morning and had cake and hot milk.  It was the first time I had a chance to talk to the family and we actually had a good visit, talking about our life here and in the states and telling stories.  So even though it was kind of a strange experience, I actually think it went well and the family told us to think of ourselves as another set of aunts and uncles to give advice and be supportive to the girl, which seems like a good idea. 

Downtown Tacna

After posting so many photos of Arequipa and Arica, I realized that we haven't really shown you what the main part of Tacna looks like.

Just like all respectable Peruvian cities, Tacna has a central Plaza de Armas, a main square, although in Tacna's case it is more like a long skinny triangle.  But, true to form, there is the Cathedral, shown above, on one side of the Plaza.  The other main feature of the Plaza, which as far as I know is unique to Tacna, is the arch:

 

At the ends of the arch are statues of two of the heroes of the War of the Pacific, when Tacna was taken by Chile. Their names are Bolognesi and Grau, and as a result there are a million things named after them in town.  One of the main streets our bus goes on is Bolognesi, and the outdoor market where we buy our groceris is called Mercado Grau, just for a few examples.  I tried to get JP to take a picture hanging out with the statues but I was not successful. He did agree to stand under the arch, though.

Unfortunately, this meant that we could see either JP or the arch well in the picture, so we had to show you both.  In this area near the plaza are several pharmacies, banks, and even casinos, so we come here fairly regularly for the bank and the pharmacy, but have skipped the casinos so far.  There is also a yummy ice cream place farther up the plaza. 

 

 

Many of the buildings in the center are pretty, older buildings, like the one above, that have been occupied on the bottom level by businesses. Claro is a cell phone company that is all over Peru and seems to be the cheapest option, so our cell phone is a Claro phone. There are a million little stores like this in town.  I have no idea what is on the upper stories of the building.

 

This is Calle San Martin, which forms one side of the Plaza (you can see the edge of the arch in the left of the photo) and is a fairly typical example of a nicer street in town, with a variety of building heights and stores.

 

This is the same street several blocks farther "up", or away from Habitat. Since we were here first thing in the morning one Saturday, everything was pretty much closed, but you can see the business signs and the buildings. Plus, here is my favorite sign on this street:

I hope you can read it--this is the SUPPA Market! Who wouldn't want to shop there? (In fact, we don't really want to shop there because it is expensive, although we did go in once in search of black beans, but we came up empty handed.

The other thing about Tacna is that most of the outskirts are surrounded by big dirt hills, like this:

We actually took this picture on our way out of town to Arequipa, but you get the idea of the hills and how stark they are.  They are also a blank canvas for various signs and symbols--there is one of the shield of Tacna, for example.

I think those are the highlights of our nice little town. Enjoy!