Back in Action!

Hello after a very long time of not writing.  Can you believe that I have been here 11 ½ months????  This time a year ago I was heading off to orientation for Cap Corps.  I cannot believe that a year has blown by so quickly and with only about 7 months left in Peru, and only 5 months more with the boys, the last part of my time is going to fly by! It already is! So I will try to update you as much as possible while trying to not be too long winded :)

I hope this finds everybody extremely well, healthy and happy!  Things have gotten very busy for me in the past month or two. No I did not forget about my blog, it was more that I never had a big enough chunk of time to sit and write an update.  So there's my excuse, you can buy it if you like, if not, just know that I have been very much thinking about you all.

So recently, work in San Antonio has been going splendidly. I am still learning quite a bit about patience, but I believe I have learned quite a bit and have been doing much better, some could say good.  I have been really trying to stay positive and keep negativity out of my reactions to the boys, and on top of that enjoy the time that I have with the boys. 
I am also getting better at differentiating between how I react to each of the boys. I feel that I now know the boys much better and can work on my relationship with each of them personally.  It is still a challenge for me since there are 34 boys.  To be realistic, it is hard to give each of the boys the attention that they need since the ratio is what it is, but I'm trying. 
Right before vacation (I'll get to that soon), there were some major changes in the personel of the three younger pabellones.   Two of the women that I was working with moved down to a younger house while 2 new women, one from the youngest pabellon and one from Sonrisa (where I worked last year, but with different women). So for the two weeks before vacation, I assumed some more responsibilities since the two new women had to adjust to our boys and the way things are handled within San Antonio.  Which seems like there is not much difference, but it is considerable since we have much older boys compared to the other pabellones.  I was trying to help as much as possible which hopefully was helpful and I didn't overstep my boundaries, I don't know.  Either way, it was a busy couple of weeks.  So I was relieved and thankful that those couple of weeks ended in VACATION!!

Renee and Karl had joined me in Peru at the beginning of July, they spent a couple of days in Lima, getting to know the boys, my work and Lima.  It was wonderful to see them, they then headed off to Cusco.  Once my vacation started we were able to meet up in Arequipa, which is a beautiful city.   We did a 3 day trek to Colca Canyon, which was amazing and breathtaking, and ended all too quickly.  Spending the first night in the canyon was a great experience. Only three years ago (according to our guide) did the canyon get electricity. So the place we stayed the first night only had one building with electricity, the rest were just bungalow with beds in them.  The vastness of the  night sky was more than evident.  We were able to see more stars than I ever remember seeing before, a couple of shooting stars and the milky way.  I wish I knew more about constellations, and even more so about southern constellations because I don't know when I'll be able to see them so clearly again.
One of the best parts about traveling with Renee and Karl, besides being able to spend some time with them, was the mindset that they brought and live.  They are such  wonderful examples of what it means to live a true Catholic life, to be present to God always and always know that He is in charge and we can only do so much.  Working in my prayer time was not at all difficult because we always seemed to be praying!  It was extremely refreshing and a great way to get jump started again on getting back into prayer life.  I'm not sure that I can fully explain with words how great a blessing it was to have them present and be able to spend some time with them.  It was great.

After returning from Arequipa, I said goodbye to Renee and Karl.  And then quickly got ready to head down to Buenos Aires.  Now to go back a while, when I first came down here I had to stay overnight in El Salvador because TACA had overbooked my flight with Mike, the other volunteer I came down with.  So TACA was kind enough to give us some money for a future flight, and I had to spend it before the end of August.  Rachel and Tanya, the two English volunteers that had been here at Ciudad for a while had been traveling around and were planning on going to BA, so the natural choice was to join them there and see a new city.
So off I flew to BA and met up with Tanya and Rachel. Buenos Aires was completely different from Lima and anywhere else I have been in Peru.  It was definitely more European than I expected, yes, I had heard that BA was the Paris of South America, but I was still surprised at how much European influence there was.  It was in the architecture, the food, the style of dress, the overall aura.  Argentineans are very fond of their coffee, pasta, and carne.  We made dinner out of pasta the first two nights I was there and I must say it was very good pasta.  We went out for dinner the next night and had the famous argentinean carne done on the grill. I must say, it was very good, almost like butter. It melted in my mouth as I was eating it, no salt no spices necessary. Pure deliciousness! 
BA is also known for it's ice cream, and for good reason.  The only down side was how expensive everything was in BA, much more expensive compared to Peru. It might have been a blessing in disguise because I would have eaten much more ice cream if it was cheaper.
Now that we got through the food, I can tell you about what else we saw while there.  We found a tour company offering free tours of BA, so we did the two that they offered, which recounted much of the history of BA and Argentina, including the Dirty War, Evita and a bunch of other things.  It was very interesting and I was glad that we did the tours, it offered a very good overview of the sights in the city and gave us a good base to know what we wanted to spend more time doing.  We were able to go see the famous Recoleta cemetery, saw some beautiful mausoleums and Eva Peron's grave (not that exciting).  We saw the Madres of the Plaza de Mayo (mothers of some of the people that disappeared).

After our dilectable dinner, we asked our waiter if he could point us in the direction of being able to see some tango that wasn't a tourist show.  He directed us towards a place a few blocks away. We entered and a class was still going on (at 11pm). We waited until about 11:30 watching the lesson and then the milonga (tango social event) started.  More people kept coming. We saw people come in with instruments, thinking that we would hear some live tango music, but by 1am they still hadn't even sat down in their places.  The tango nonetheless was absolutely amazing to watch, especially after having watched some of the lesson and seeing how hard it is, so it was great to watch the different partners dance together and see individual styles coming out.

And then I had to come back....which isn't a bad thing, but it's always sad when vacations end. To make things easier, I did get some majorly big hugs and kisses on Sunday when I saw the boys for the first time in 2 weeks.   Prayers are still very much necessary for work life.  The two women who had changed into my pabellon just before vacation did not return to finish out the year, so as of right now, the only 'official' tutor (worker) in the house is Flor and then there's me, and a new volunteer who is here for a couple of weeks.  1 full time tutora, 1 full time volunteer and 1 short time volunteer vs. 34 boys...and monthly school exams are coming up as well....so as I said, prayers are very much needed.

My music class is on it's way, at least it's trying to get on it's way.  It is definitely comparable to the little engine that could.  I keep chugging along, sometimes the boys don't come, sometimes they aren't allowed to come (still don't understand that one), and sometimes other things get in the way.  They are now able to read whole, half, quarter, eight and sixteenth notes, rests are coming along.  We are going to be starting learning to read staffs soon, and learn a piece called 'Stick Schtick' (look it up on youtube) for the anniversary celebration we have in October.  I am very nervous because I would love to see the boys succeed, but as of now I feel very crunched for time especially since I have to teach them the rhythms, so I'm working on being patient and knowing that we'll do what we can and with God's help we will do amazing things.

The new Cap Corps volunteers are coming at the end of this month! SCARY....not because they are coming, that's good news, scary because that is another reminder about how little time I have left here. Time flies and will continue to fly!

I pray that you are all well, you are in my thoughts often and I miss you all!

Much love,
Jeanette