This Crazy, Beautiful Life

La Ciudad Heroica

Fierce

It seems like I´m always saying the same, but I´m really not sure where time has gone. I realized that the last time I updated my blog and thus updated you all with things going on in my life was about four months ago! Far too long! Therefore, utilizing the pictures, I´m going to give a few "snapshots" of my life over these past few months. August was one of the most fun months that I´ve spent here. It was filled with lots of action...mostly in celebration of the reintegration of Tacna to Perú. Tacna at one time was a part of Chile, but years ago was reintegrated into Perú, hence the celebration every August. I have mentioned before that Peruvians have a lot of pride, but I´d almost say that people in Tacna are equally, if not more, proud of being Tacneño than being Peruvian. It´s a fierce pride and so are the celebrations! It was a month filled with lots of exciting events. My roommates and I decided last minute to participate in a 5K that was being held in honor of Tacna Day. It was tons of fun to all run together. Afterwards we went out to eat ceviche with the mayor. He has taken a liking to the volunteers and likes to spoil us every so often with a delicious ceviche meal. Thanks Mr. Mayor!

     A highlight of the Tacna celebrations was participating in the parade. I spent the vast majority of my weekends and many evenings learning to dance "Saya". It´s a beautiful dance that many people near the tri-frontera of Perú, Chile and Bolivia dance. The dancers use these incredibly ornate, beautiful costumes. The women´s part is lovely, but I have to admit that I like the men´s part better! It´s just so energetic! They jump and stomp and spin like crazy. The bells on their feet make it all the more impressive. There are actually some women that do the men´s part, but I decided for my first year I´d just do the normal women´s part. It turned out to be a wonderful and truly unforgettable experience. The best part though, was actually participating in the parade. It was incredible being cheered on and it meant so much to me especially to have some of my friends and my roommates there supporting me. They were running along the parade route cheering and bringing me water. The only downside was the high-heels we had to wear for several hours, which would have been bad enough itself, but the situation was only worsened by the fact that approximately one minute after starting my strap broke! I tried to tie it and did the best I could, but I really messed up my feet. Just some battle wounds though!                  

     The day after the parade is when all the Tacneños hit the streets for the "passing of the flag". Early in the morning the people line the streets of the center of town. The streets are decorated with "alfombras"...literally "carpets" of flowers and painted sawdust. They make these incredibly elaborate pictures and sayings on the streets that are subsequently ruined during the procession, but they are beautiful while they last!!! Later in the morning women from Tacna pass through the streets carrying a giant flag. As I understand, it is done by women because during Chile´s occupation here only the women were allowed to carry the flag of Peru through the streets and only in silence, so that same tradition continues. Now though, they celebrate Tacna´s reintegration to Peru, and the celebration is anything but solemn. As the flag passes, Buganvillas (the flower of Tacna) rain down from the rooftops as the people cheer and wave, and a sense of pride for being from Taca is almost tangible in that moment.

A time to Relax                                                       I don´t think I´ve ever appreciated vacation time as much as I do now...nor have I ever needed it as much! Recently my roommate Rose and I took a trip to hike in one of the deepest canyons in the world, Colca Canyon. They were several really special days just being out in nature, enjoying the incredible views and especially the site of the condors flying high above. It was interesting learning about the different communities that inhabit the canyon. We jokingly said that the next Jesuit Volunteer community can be in the middle of the canyon where the only way you can get in and out is a pretty intense climb or by way of   mule. :) It was also interesting learning about some of the native beliefs. Although Catholocism was imposed on the people by the Spaniards in many parts of Perú, and in many of the communities in Colca for example, the people continue to practice their indigenous beliefs. One obvious example was their respect for and devotion to nature, such as the piles of rocks that could be found in parts of the journey. These piles of rocks were actually offerings that people made before crossing the threshold of the mountains for example. As I understand it, rather than simply entering they first make the offering to essentially ask permission from the spirits of the mountains. 

In Arequipa, before heading out to the Canyon.

Pretending to be condors :)

the offerings

La Casa Embrujada

Look what our students have done to us- made us go crazy
and turn into zombies....hahaha

The JVs here in Tacna like to connect with their students in a unique way during Halloween....by scaring our kids and (unintentionally of course) making a few cry! It is the tradition that every year we transform our house here in Habitat into a haunted house! Through the years and with the help of a lot of generous people from the states and locally we have accumulated a lot of stuff that we use to help with the transformation. We spent the majority of Saturday cleaning and preparing the house and then when the time came we worked on our own transformation as well. We painted our faces, dressed in old clothes and then went to work scaring the kids. The story this year was that the volunteers had all gone crazy (thanks to the students of course) and our house was actually the psychiatric ward of a hospital. I actually had a lot more fun then I expected. I´m not a huge Halloween fan, but it was actually tons of fun getting into the act. It was neat seeing how much the kids enjoyed it, too. Basically this whole year they´ve been bugging us about when we were going to do the haunted house, and when the time came I realized just how much the kids love it! Over 200 kids came! But not just students, some random kids from the nighborhood, and some adults, too! We collaborated with the other volunteers that were here visiting, our boss from the U.S., our neighbors and friends. It was a definite success, and all the money we made (we charge the kids a small fee to enter) is donated to Mes de Misión. So the kids actually help contribute to their classmates´ upcoming service trip. The best part of the night was afterwards when many of the students entered our house to take pictures with us, to talk to us, and a few poor kids in search of some loving because they were scared. It was also a highlight to hear my kids tell me they were going to behave better since they now know how scary we can be! ; )

My head was Miss Maureen´s "surprise" when the
kids opened the box.