White Coat Ceremony

This Friday we celebrated with JP at the U of A White Coat Ceremony, where the class of 2014 was welcomed to the med school and given some things to think about regarding the purpose of medicine.  It was a nice ceremony, and we were lucky that a lot of family was able to come down and join us.

The hall where the ceremony was held was quite dark, so I took some long range photos of the med school folks who were presenting but they did not come out.  However, I was able to shoot this (low quality, somewhat dark) video of JP actually receiving his white coat:



After the ceremony, we took photos:

Then we went out for a yummy mexican dinner. The next day, we headed up into the foothills to hang out with JP's family at the resort they were staying at, and had great views:

We got to have a nice time hanging out with a bunch of relatives, including JP's adorable god-daughter:

Don't ask me what JP is doing in the last picture, but she is doing great and just turned 10 months old!

Those were our weekend highlights...I think the white coat suits JP very well!

House Update

Sorry for the extended blog silence--we have been busy getting the house organized and settling into our routines here.  So far we are really enjoying Tucson, the weather, the house, and everything else, so things are off to a good start here.

We wanted to share some pictures of the house after box removal and hanging things on the walls. There may be a few more additions, but for now we feel pretty settled.  Here goes...

Our bedroom looking from the doorway:

And looking toward the doorway (from near the green chair):

The bathroom (not a huge change but more organized):

The living room (looking from the hallway to the bedrooms/bathroom):

The wall with the red couch:

Looking back toward the hallway (right by the front door):

The dining room table area:

The fun yellow kitchen (now there is a basil plant by the window too):

Looking back toward the dining room:

The cabinets/counters between the sink and fridge:

The opposite counter to the right of the stove (with washer/dryer):

So that is what we have been up to!  Plus, we get beautiful views like this of the Catalina Mountains, north and a little east of here:

Plus we celebrated JP's first day of med school with a commemorative front porch photo:

Hope everyone is doing well!

Moving: Boxes, boxes everywhere

So, we got up bright and early Friday morning and met our intrepid moving team at our storage unit at 6:30 a.m.  We were very thankful to our helpers: JP's mom Mary and brother Patrick, my uncle Bill, my cousin Bill and his wife Rebeca!

If you'll remember, our storage was quite full:

But with so many hands we were able to clear out the smaller items, and load the mattresses and couches in the back, then keep on going with desks and boxes and smaller items.  We were finished by 7:15, and took a gatorade break before heading down to Tucson.  I was kind of distracted by the moving so I didn't take a ton of photos but here is the truck before we closed it up:

We were very lucky that Uncle Bill and Cousin Bill went the extra mile (literally and figuratively) and came with us to Tucson to help on the second part of the move.  The drive took less than two hours, and by the time the truck arrived it was probably 9:30.  With the four of us, we were able to get everything out of the truck and in the house by 10:30, including assembling the bed frames.  After a little break we returned the truck and treated the Billys to lunch as a little thank you. 

Since then, we have been hard at work unpacking boxes, organizing our stuff, and setting up house, along with some trips to Target and the hardware store.  Everything was out of the boxes by yesterday afternoon, but the organizing still continues and the boxes do not just disappear on their own.  So, here is a glimpse of the house in progress, boxes and all:

This is our bedroom, and what you can't see is a closet full of clothes to the left of the boxes.  There is also some stuff to the right of the bookcases which is hidden.

This is the bathroom, sort of poorly lit but just a glimpse.  The stuff on the counter was waiting for me to contact-paper the shelves in the medicine cabinet, and I did that since the photo so it is more organized in there.

This is the guest bedroom/office.  This is the least organized room in part because we don't need it all the time but also because someone is going to come work on the windows on Tuesday so things will have to be moved around.

Here is the living room.  Mostly organized, except for the pile of boxes right in the middle, which isn't hampering JP's reading of ESPN.  :)  Plus, the scattered blue chairs, which have nowhere to go with the dining room table because...

There are boxes over there too!  But at least we got the table together and have a place to eat!

The kitchen is actually the most done--see our cookbooks and our lovely knife block and spices--except again for the huge pile of boxes.  Hopefully we will decide which boxes to keep and then give the rest away...maybe on craigslist.

All in all, though, we are settling in and feeling more at home every minute. I start work tomorrow and JP starts at U of A on Wednesday so it should be a busy but exciting week!

Saying Goodbye: Despedida

Note: Sorry for the lack of updates...we have been busy moving and getting organized in Tucson. Picture updates coming soon.  Meanwhile, we'll try to catch up:

Our last week in Tacna was full of goodbyes.  On the last Thursday, we had a nice goodbye dinner with the Jesuit Volunteers in Tacna. They have been great to work with and get to know during our time in Peru so we went over to their house and made tacos.  A few of the JVs helped me with all the chopping veggies and rolling out dough while JP worked at the Posta, and we ended up with a great meal of pinto bean tacos, chicken fajita veggies, salsa and guacamole.  We had a feast and had a nice time reminiscing and sharing stories.

On Friday we hosted a little Despedida (going away party) for ourselves in our little capilla apartment. Since the JVs were going on retreat, we decided it made more sense to split up our goodbyes given our little houses.  We actually made more tortillas and ate the leftover beans from the previous night, along with more guacamole, bread, and popcorn.  Here is JP ready to welcome the guests:

We had told people to come between 7 and 8, so of course being american we had everything ready at 7 and then waited around, wondering when people would come. No one rolled in until 7:45, and most people didn't come until after 8, and this is normal for Peruvians--the things we forget to take into account.  Several of the guests brought some other snacks, so we had lots of good food and had a nice time hanging out and telling stories with everyone. It was hard to squeeze everyone into our little kitchen/dining room/living room but we managed.  Here are a few photos:

Here is JP with the staff from the Posta Medica, from left, Doctora Isabel and Doctora Noelia (dentists), JP, Doctor Richard, and Enfermera Gloria (the nurse).  They have been really great to JP all year and gave him a stethoscope as a going away gift!

Here is JP with our friend Guily.

Here we are with our friends Martin and Edith. 

The Despedida was a great way to repay the hospitality people have shown us over the year and say our goodbyes.  We had a lot of fun, except we forgot that the only problem with hosting your own party is that you have to clean up after yourself! :)  But it all worked out well.

We spent the rest of our last weekend mostly packing and getting organized, along with watching soccer games, and said one last goodbye to the JVs before heading to the bus station. It is hard to believe that was two weeks ago today--it feels like longer!

Coming up: Photos of the move in process...

Saying Goodbye: Nivelación

Our first finale as we wrapped up our time in Tacna was the last day of Nivelación on Wednesday the 30th.  We had survived ten weeks of tutoring, with only a few dropouts on the part of both our primary school kids and the older tutors.  We had several very boisterous second graders, some of whom needed to be watched almost constantly, which kept us adults busy (that included me, Nadia the psychologist I work with, and Maureen, a wonderful Jesuit Volunteer at Miguel Pro).  For the last day, Wednesday, we had some closing activities instead of regular tutoring and gathered all the kids and tutors in one room--there are 38 of them total so we usually spread them out in 4 classrooms:

First we started with an activity where the kids had to illustrate the phrase, "In Nivelación I learned..."
The tutors helped them work although the goal was for the kids to be original in their ideas.

Here is Moisés, one of our trouble-making second graders, who is actually a smart kid if you can get him to focus on his work--apparently he is also a ham.

Here is Alex, one of our fourth graders who worked hard and was a good kid all year.

Here are Xintia and Marilyn (both standing) two of our best tutors, both in second year (the equivalent of 8th grade) with Jennifer and Milagros, two of our more difficult fourth graders. These girls all worked really hard.

After the drawing time was over, we collected the illustrations and passed out cookies and soda, then awarded prizes to the kids who we thought had been the best examples of how Nivelación should go.  To finish off, we took a group picture outside by the soccer court:

In the picture above, you can see Maureen on the left, me on the right, and Nadia in the back row waving.  Overall, it was a good group of kids, but they could be a handful sometimes.  I think several of the tutors were glad to have the session over, while many of the kids will miss the time and support they received from the tutors.  Nadia and Maureen had scheduled a meeting with the tutors to evaluate their experience the following week, and then they will take a break before resuming Nivelación in August or September for the second half of the year.

These are the kids I have worked the most closely with over an ongoing period, so saying goodbye to them in my last week was a nice way to have some finality, and I will miss the kids. 

Whirlwind

We are back in Phoenix, enjoying the chance to relax this weekend after a busy but productive week.  As we mentioned last week, we left Tacna on Sunday afternoon and took the overnight bus to Lima, arriving early Monday morning.  The trip this time was only 18 hours, and I know it is hard to believe, but it really went by pretty quickly.  They show movies on the bus so that distracted us while it was light out, then they serve dinner and it gets dark and we go to sleep.  I can't say that it was a great night of sleep, but there was a lot of time to rest and sleep so we didn't feel too bad when we got to Lima. 

Monday was very relaxing--we mostly relaxed in the room, watched tv, and went out for lunch and dinner near the hostel.  We tried to go to bed early Monday because we got up at 3:45 on Tuesday to get to the airport.  We tried to sleep on the 5 hour flight from Lima to Miami, and after successfully passing through customs and immigration we wandered around in the airport for a few hours before getting on our flight to Phoenix.  We got in and were welcomed by my Uncle Bill, who treated us to dinner before we got to JP's parents' house to rest. 

We went down to Tucson on Wednesday afternoon so JP could do some medical stuff for the U of A before starting med school and stayed with our wonderful friend Megan.  We also started searching for a place to live, and spent Wednesday night and most of Thursday exploring Tucson neighborhoods and looking at possible options.  I also had a job interview on Thursday afternoon and two on Friday, so keep your fingers crossed!  By Thursday afternoon we both had a strong favorite rental house that fit our budget and had a nice homey feel.  We made things official on Friday, so we are moving in next weekend and really excited about how our first few days in Tucson went. 

Hopefully we will have more house pictures after we move in, but for now here is the outside:

A view of the kitchen (one of my favorite parts):

And here is the park that is less than half a block away:

So, hopefully once we have a chance to rest a little here we will catch up on some highlights of our last week in Tacna. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Wrapping Up

It is hard to believe but today is our last day at Miguel Pro.  We have spent the last week wrapping up our projects here and will spend the weekend packing and getting ready to return to the States. 

For me, this week was the end of our Nivelación project for the first half of the year, and we had a nice wrap up session on Wednesday celebrating the hard work of the kids.  I also finished a few other projects for the psychologist and the vice principal.  JP has been working hard at the Posta and organizing donated medications.  It is sort of strange to be leaving since it is not the end of the semester or any other fixed ending point, so everything will continue as normal here even without us.

We will be leaving Tacna on Sunday afternoon, taking the overnight bus to Lima.  We will arrive in Lima on Monday late morning, hang out there for the day and then board a plane early Tuesday morning to return to Phoenix.  Hopefully once we get back we will have a chance to add some pictures of what this last week has been like.  Hope all is well with everyone--we will update the blog when we are back in Phoenix.

World Cup Fever

This week has been full of World Cup excitement here at Miguel Pro, highlighted by the US game yesterday morning.  In addition, we were also excited to enjoy a visit from JP's friend John, who stopped by Tacna after traveling to Argentina and Chile.  He was here from Tuesday afternoon to this afternoon, and we just dropped him off at the airport.  Here are JP and John:

(Note: This picture makes JP look really short but John is standing on a step--they are about the same height.)

During the school day, we have been lucky to stop in to the Vice Principal's office, where she has a tiny TV with a decent picture to keep up with the games.  However, on Wednesday morning we were disappointed to learn that the Peruvian TV channel that airs the World Cup had chosen to show the England-Slovakia game live and the US-Algeria game on tape delay.  As an alternative, JP brought our computer over and was able to get an internet feed of the game so we could watch it and see what happened.  So when I arrived to the office after spending an hour in preschool, this is what I found:

You can see JP nervously following the team in the above picture.

We were able to watch both games simultaneously, and with the US contingent of us, John, 4 American JVs, and a short term volunteer staying in Habitat, we had quite a group to cheer on our team.  It got very tense (especially for JP) but at the end we were jumping up and down and screaming when Landon Donovan finally scored in the 92nd minute. 

The teachers are equally excited, coming in at free periods and breaks to check the scores and discuss scenarios about who will qualify for the next round, so it has been a fun few weeks with World Cup Fever.  We will be continuing to root for the US against Ghana on Saturday and looking forward to enjoying more good soccer in the next few weeks before we leave.

Pan y Palta

Continuing with our food theme, another one of our favorite things to eat is pan y palta (bread and avocado).  Peru grows amazing avocados in a town about 3 hours from here, Moquegua, which are very creamy and delicious.  We are also lucky that there is always fresh baked bread, which comes in different shapes. The bread unique to Tacna is called marraqueta, and reminds me a little of French bread--crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. 

JP indoctrinated me in the correct way to eat pan y palta when we got here, so here he is going through the steps for you.

First, gather your supplies: a palta (obviously), a plate, knife, fork, and salt and pepper:

Then, cut the palta in half longways:

Take out the pit and scoop out the flesh:

After scooping out all the palta, add some salt and pepper and mash it all up with the fork:

Once the palta is ready, it is time for bread. Here is some yummy marraqueta:

You can see how the one in the picture above is divided into three little pieces. We can get ten pieces of bread for 1 sol (33 cents US).  Break off a piece of bread and cut it in half or tear it into pieces, then spread the avocado on the bread:

Repeat and enjoy!

This is one of our favorite things to eat for breakfast after we go to the market, or as a backup meal when we run out of food or don't have time to cook for lunch or dinner.  Paltas have been between 1 and 2 soles each (33-67 cents) so it is a great deal and is delicious!

What's for Dinner?

So, last week I showed you a peek at our market adventures, but I haven't talked much about what we do with all that food once we bring it home.  Last night I made one of our favorite dishes, Sopa de Pallar y Tomate (Pallar and Tomato Soup), and since I was home alone I decided to document the process. Here is the general set up:

To start, Pallar are these yummy huge white beans, that are apparently native to Peru.  Here they are simmering with some oregano and whole garlic cloves after soaking overnight to get soft:

According to wordreference.com the translation of 'pallar' is butter beans. I have never seen these in the States but according to my intrepid mother they sell them in cans at kroger. I will have to try this out when we get back!

After the beans have been cooking for a while, I scald and peel the tomatoes.  The tomatoes are so cute with the little crosses cut in them, pre-scalding:

After a little time in the water, it is amazing how much the skin peels:

Then, I peel and chop the tomatoes, and put them in the frying pan with some chopped garlic. I cook them until they go from looking like this:

to this:

While the tomatoes are cooking, I chop the onions.  We have both red and yellow onions here, but usually buy whichever is cheaper.  There were a few weeks earlier this year where we could get a kilo for 50 centimos (16 cents US) but now they are up to 1.20 soles (40 cents US) and seem a little older, which makes them more potent.

When the tomatoes are done, they get dumped out into a bowl and the onions take their place.

I basically leave them alone for a while until they are good and cooked and nicely browned:

From there, I just dump in the onions and the tomatoes with the soft, yummy pallar and let them cook together for a little while longer.  I add a little bit of lemon juice right at the end and voila:

Dinner!  It was delicious and I had some of the leftovers for lunch this afternoon.

I also spent a little time this morning playing with the blog layout, changing the background and the layout so pictures can be bigger. Enjoy!