So begins the month of December

Well, it has nearly been a month since our arrival and time seems to have flown. In recent times we have met with people from all over the city of Tacna, and from various organizations. Our communication and experience with them has been invaluable. Listening to their advice and insights should prove vital to our progress and feeling assured about the direction in which we are going. In order to cache some knowledge about how to best prepare ourselves and how to be of the greatest possible availability in Andahuaylillas come February, we have spoken to a director at Miguel Pro (School) here in ´Habitat´, Hermano Ramón, Padre Emilio & Padre Paco at Colegio Cristo Rey, and we have spent a good deal of time with the Sisters who run Fe y Alegría. Between the communities we have engaged in Tacna and the people charged with the care of the Jesuit network of schools, we are slowly beginning to develop an idea of what our future community will look like. The two most important things (I´ve learned thus far)is that, before anything else, knowing the people and living with them is paramount, and that it´s all about the "aportar"--the what we can contribute. Apart from our groundwork here we have been adjusting to life in Perú at large. To say that Perú is complex does it a great disservice. Perú is very rich and extremely unique indeed, and at times hard to contemplate. Living with our host families has provided and invaluable insight into the sentiments of life  here in the border state of Tacna, and how the migration and commerce affect the flavor of the city itself. People are very forthcoming with their opinions and are extremely curious about things in Gringolándia as well. There is a solidarity between the Latino community here and how they feel the effects of whatever happens to affect the Latino community in the U.S. Sometimes I wonder just how reciprocal this solidarity is. In any case, our Peruvian families are very accomodating and eager to learn about, share and they are excited to participate in our "trying things for the first time", or the development of our Peruvian vocabulary. It´s a veritable feast of human interaction. We celebrated Thanksgiving and it was quite the production. Everyone cooked and we even ate pumkin and apple pies made from scratch. It was excellent. It was also great to call home and to be able to talk with everyone all at once. It was nice to have community at such a sentimental time as that. The weekend after Thanksgiving was full of family gatherings and folkloric dances here at Miguel Pro. It was very fun to experience the Día familiar here, and to see all of the students in full regalia, dancing to really cool music. My host family put on a breakfast Sunday morning, and I think I ate and talked with them for about 3 hours straight.

Anything you could think of to make your breakfast delicious was present, and extremely appreciated as we await the ominous "mes de misión", where some manual labor accounts for an average loss of 7 kilos. Recently I have been splitting my afternoons from teaching/observing at Miguel Pro to tutoring after school at Niño Trabajador right next to Mercado Grau. It´s about a 2 mile walk from my house and the kids there are excellent. They have so many questions and I get to amp-up my vocab by reading children´s stories and teaching math in Spanish. Today I substituted for Gabe´s 4th/5th English class. It was an incredible amount of fun. We hope to have the students learn some Christmas songs in English(viansícos?) in order to go around the school bringing everyone Christmas cheer. I can´t wait for the weekend: birthday party, retreat, a trip about Tacna. The following Saturday--after the going away party for the 2nd year JV´s. Roberto--the Peruvian dad at my homestay--is putting on a parrillada with some of his friends who are musicians. Should be great. I highly recommend that if anyone can find it, they should rent or watch "La Teta Asustada". It´s an excellent Peruvian film. Below is a picture of the anticucho that Cara and I ate last night. Mmm, corazoncito de vaca.