The Twelve-Hour Journey to Even Simpler Living

Four pillars explain the mission of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, one of which is simple living. I thought I was alreaday living a pretty simple life in Tacna - we live in a modest home with cement floors and a laundry list of repairs that need to be done, and we have no cell phones, television, computers, microwave, washing machine, or AC (and we live in a hot desert!) - but my understanding of simple living was about to be transformed. We boarded a bus in Tacna and, twelve hours of winding roads and a broken bus later, pulled onto the dark, dusty cancha (soccer field) of Chucatamani, a town of 100 people with no internet cafes, no restaurants, no running water, and one public telephone with a town-wide intercom to announce who received the call.  

Mes de Misión is a month-long service trip for students who have just completed their third year of secondary school (the equivalent of ninth grade in the American system) at Colegio Cristo Rey and Colegio Miguel Pro.  Thomas works at Colegio Cristo Rey and accompanied 67 rambunctious boys to Vila Vila, a small town on the coast about at hour outside of Tacna.  My school, Fe y Alegría, does not yet have a similar program, so I tagged along with Allie, Brittany, and Colleen and 25 boys and girls from Colegio Miguel Pro.

The program was launched at Colegio Cristo Rey 42 years ago by Father Fred Green, a Jesuit who had founded the school eight years prior (and the namesake of our community’s house). After an earthquake hit central Peru, Father Fred sent the school’s chorus to some of the devastated areas. From this, the idea of a formative service experience for students emerged. Two decades later Father Fred founded Colegio Miguel Pro and the Mes de Misión program was replicated.

In many ways, Mes de Misión is like a miniature Jesuit Volunteer Corps experience for 14- and 15-year-olds. The students and group leaders live in community together; we sleep in the classrooms of the town’s school (15 girls in one 12’x18’ room), share cooking and cleaning responsibilities (such as collecting water from the river in order to flush toilets), and have open meetings to discuss all issues and ideas. Additionally, the students integrate with the local community by assisting in their homes and fields (digging latrines, laying foundations, painting, and weeding and picking crops) and by planning Catechism and English classes for their children.  The students experience individual, written, and group reflections, such as the Ignatian Examen, anonymous affirmations, and journaling, and have the chance to lead their peers in prayer. For one reflection, the students drew the name of a fellow student from a hat, observed them for three days, and wrote a prayer thanking God for their secret buddy. We then shared our prayers in front of everyone in a candle-lit ceremony. It was beautiful to watch the students develop and become more open spiritually.  

The locations to which we travel expose the students to vastly different lifestyles and cultures where they witness social justice issues facing their fellow Peruvians. Our students learn about health care access, infectious diseases, transportation, road conditions, pollution, water shortages, systems for waste removal, and the role of the local government in community life. Over the course of a month, we accumulated some first-hand knowledge of these issues. One of our students hurt his knee and had to return to Tacna, unable to get the medical care he needed in Chucatamani. We were told beforehand that we would have running water everyday, but there was only water for three of the 28 days. We collected water from the river and a spring, like the locals do, but, when heavy rainfall polluted the river and spring, we turned to collecting rain and filtering murky water with t-shirts before boiling. The majority of us had stomach problems during the month, the result of drinking, cleaning, and cooking with polluted water. We spent days cleaning the town and picking up trash, only to find the next day that more litter had been dumped in public spaces and in the river and that many of our trash bags were never picked up from the bins where we deposited them. The students watched buses and trucks fly dangerously down the same roads and streets where the majority of the town’s children play. The students observed a lack of social consciousness, a product of widespread and recurrent social injustices.

At first, the students complained about the simple lifestyle forced upon them. One girl was counting down the days until she was reunited with her beloved Facebook. I was counting the days I’d gone without a shower. Slowly though, we all began to appreciate the small-town charm of Chucatamani and the warm hospitality of our new neighbors. We played soccer and volleyball against local teams. Gratefully accepted bags of fresh-picked oregano, pears, and plums. Yielded to the sheep and donkeys meandering along the road. Participated in the town-wide log-splitting competition. Stocked up on vegetables and bread at the twice-weekly market, the only times that fresh food could be found in town. Chatted with local shopkeepers or shared a cactus fruit with a new friend. Learned about the fascinating history of the town during the Chilean occupation. And asked about the struggles and challenges facing the residents today.

The kids themselves started to change, too. Cliques and groups disappeared. The shy kids gained confidence – their personalities and humor on display - and the brash kids learned how to listen and work in teams. They taught one another to play the guitar, to draw, to play card games. Long-forgotten playground games resurfaced. They talked about books, music, their dreams for the future. They wrote letters to friends. They told us they missed their families and stopped talking about missing cell phones and video games.  

I chose simple living when I chose to become a Jesuit Volunteer, these students did not get to choose – Mes de Misión is a graduation requirement. Yet, witnessing how they personally grew during a month of simple living reminded me why I wanted to live this way. In fact, accompanying the students through their month-long microcosm of JVC reinforced my love for and dedication to these pillars. Their struggles with community, awkwardness in sharing spirituality, reservations about simple living, and confusion in how to process the social justice issues they observed reflect in many ways my own experience with the pillars of JVC.  Watching how they matured together, developed individually, and cultivated a new understanding of the world serves as an important example and reminder of what is possible when we step off the bus into the unknown and prepare to embrace whatever comes our way.