Three Days in Tacna

No, this isn´t a travel guide for Tacna because, unless you´re visiting me or you´re a Chilean looking to take advantage of the exchange rate, there´s not much to do here (and certainly not enough to fill three whole days). While I might not put Tacna on your Peruvian trip itinerary, that´s not to say I don´t love living here.

I post blogs rather infrequently and, when I do, I tend to write my reflections, observations, or complaints on random subjects. Rarely do I write about the inconsequential events or mundane details of my daily life, but those ordinary, everyday moments are what make my life here special. Last weekend was very busy and full of beautiful moments – perfectly exemplary of why I love my life here. So, I wanted to share.

Friday

            After school, which ends at 12:45 on Friday, I went straight home to meet up with my community mate, Megan, and our group of students from Mes de Misión. (Mes de Misión is the month-long service program that volunteers do in January with 15-year-old students from Miguel Pro School and Megan and I were co-leaders of one group.) We invited the students over to bake brownies with us; most had never baked before, so it turned into a lesson on measuring, mixing, and following a recipe! As we ate the brownies, we chatted about their plans for the future and answered many questions about high school in the United States. They had come over at 2 PM and Megan and I thought they´d be out of there as soon as the brownies were done – what kid wants to hang out with their teachers on a Friday afternoon? – but it´s a testament to our infinite coolness that they wouldn´t leave until after 4:30. We felt pretty awesome.

I planned on going for a run in the afternoon, but was surprised with a phone call from our former community mate, Brittany, who´s back in the US. Those who knew me before JVC may find it hard to believe, but instead of blowing off Britt in order to run, I actually skipped the run and talked to her for over an hour (which was wonderful and exciting). Yep, I´ve changed a bit since coming to Peru.

Later in the evening, I went into town (we live 20 minutes south of Tacna) to the other volunteer house to hang out with Joanna, a volunteer from Chicago (she lives in a house with a hodgepodge group of independent volunteers who all work with the Jesuits). We drank a S./ 5 (about $1.80) bottle of wine at her kitchen table and talked for hours and hours. True to form, I was home and in bed before 11:30 PM. So, in other ways, I haven´t changed at all.

Saturday

            On Saturday, I unexpectedly had a full school day (though this being Peru, it´s not entirely unexpected). I taught my classes, graded papers, planned classes for next week, and got distracted by a website that has free PDFs of famous short stories.

I had lunch plans that day with Brittany´s host family (they are wonderful and so hospitable, we all have a standing invitation to have lunch with them whenever we want). It was a beautiful day, by desert standards (i.e. really hot), so I decided to take the one hour walk there instead of going by bus. After passing burned dog carcasses, impromptu garbage dumps, and a llama grazing in the median, I ran into a good friend of ours, Martin, who was waiting for the bus. He walked with me for a bit and we chatted about Argentinian heavy metal music.

            Lunch with Lucia and her kids, Jorge Luis and Yessenia, turned into a three-hour affair (which is normal, encouraged even). We ate chupe de frijoles and ice cream and drank Inca Cola. Jorge Luis told me about his classes in the university, where he is majoring in geology, and the field trips they take to collect rock samples. Lucia chatted animatedly about her kids and told me stories about her childhood.  All the while, neighbors stopped by the family store to buy soda, beer, and laundry detergent.

            At 5 PM I had to go home to help prep for the party with our host families that night. Allie was in the kitchen when I arrived, hard at work on burgers and guacamole. For the next two hours, we chatted about the week (we frequently go days at a time not seeing one another even though we all live in the same house! How is that possible?). I made a mayonnaise-drenched broccoli salad and Allie experimented with a Peruvian cocktail made from Pisco, strawberry jam, and condensed milk (it´s actually delicious).

Although the party/barbecue was supposed to start at 7 PM, our families trickled in between 7:30 and 9:30. Our house was filled with lively conversation, the table was over-laden with food, and we were wonderfully content. Incongruous to most Peruvian parties, our guests left at 11:30, but I swear we didn´t kick them out.

Sunday

            The church bells rang at 7 AM, as they do every Sunday morning, and we cursed the illogical whims of our beloved Padre Fred, the 92-year-old American Jesuit who loves having early morning mass on Sunday.

            After mass, we had an impromptu breakfast (of left-over cornbread, guacamole, and cookies from the night before) with our friend Pedro (a Spanish volunteer), his best friend Javier (who was in town visiting), Hermano Quique (a Jesuit), and Denis (a Jesuit novice). Impromptu breakfasts after Sunday mass have become one of my favorite parts of the week. It sounds corny, but coming together to literally break bread around our table – with people from all over the world – is a great reminder of the amazing community of people who share our lives.

            I was on market duty with John, so we made the long haul into town to Mercado Grau. We bought S./ 125 (about $45) worth of food for the week, then crammed our 20 to 30 kilos of food onto a crowded bus for the 30 minute ride home. The second adventure of market duty is cleaning the old vegetables out of the fridge and putting away the new food, which takes another hour. Still, I prefer market duty to bathroom, kitchen, or patio duty (it´s nice to have a friend to work with)!

            In the afternoon, we went to a parrillada, a cookout, to celebrate our neighbor Edith´s birthday. It was a beautiful afternoon spent out on their patio eating canchitas, pescado a la parrilla, carne a la parrilla, papa a la huancaína, and ensalada. Though we announced at 3 PM that we really had to get going, since we all had work at home to get done, we didn´t make it home until 4 PM, given that we still had to eat cake, sing, take pictures, and say a second round of goodbyes.

            I had every intention of spending the rest of the afternoon doing my laundry and planning classes but, having had no down time the rest of the weekend, I decided to watch Love Actually and read the aforementioned short stories.

            The final event of the weekend, like every Sunday night, was community check-in and community night. We eat snacks, share about the highs and lows of our weeks, and participate in a community night that is planned in turn by each one of us (movies, games, activities, lo que sea!). It is the perfect chance to find some calm in the busyness of our lives, to reflect on the past week, to bring our weekend to a close, and to start a new week with calmness, tranquility, and community!