Ojala que todo vaya bien en la vida de cada uno de Uds.! I continue to think about you often and pray for you as well!
Well this blog post marks a very important milestone. I've reached ONE WHOLE YEAR living in Peru. ONE YEAR has already gone by, can you believe it? I know I'm having a hard time believing it.
My one year anniversary with Peru came up on me and took me a little bit by surprise. I only really noticed that the time had come because the new volunteers arrived in Peru! Three new volunteers will be joining me and Tania here at Ciudad. Ryan, Michael and Laura. They've now been here two weeks and on Friday they will be moving into the apartment with us and start working. I am looking forward to living in the community with the three of them. We've gotten together various times in the past weeks and I don't think anybody could've sent a better group down here. Once again, change is in the air!!!
Updates on other parts of life: Work in San Antonio is still a lot of work. They did hire a new Tutora for San Antonio, Doris. She is a sweetheart, spent a good number of years in a convent and about 10 years ago left her order. You can tell she lived in a convent because I don't think she has a mean bone in her body, I'll be surprised if she ever raises her voice at the boys. So, to make the point, it's wonderful to have another person in the house, but it definitely does not exactly lighten my load of work.
The boys just finished up trimester exams. Oh boy, what a week it was. Waking up at 4am to keep studying, going to bed early, it got tiring. It also was tiring because the boys I know work with (6, 3rd graders) did not bring me back very good grades. And by not very good grades I mean, absolutely failing grades or well below their average. It was quite a frustrating experience to try to exert them to study, make worksheets, test them orally, and at every word that came out of my mouth it was answered with a complaint or "I already know this stuff" or "if we do this, after can we go play." 3 of the boys I work with are already repeating third grade, and one is just too old to begin (11). It's hard to help them grasp the gravity of the situation. I blamed myself for the grades that they were getting, even though they necessarily weren't doing their part to help the situation. Oh, it was just frustrating, but after a while, and with much talking to Flor, I came to understand that I was internalizing much of what was going on, and I had to remember that these boys are not my children and I need to learn to set boundaries for myself because it's not healthy to internalize everything that happens. My body has definitely been showing those effects, plus not running daily hasn't helped either.
But don't worry too much, I finally had a full day of this past weekend, with no commitments, I was able to sleep, run and actually relax without having to worry about anything for the first time in 3/4 weeks, so I am feeling much better and rejuvenated. Tania also bought some ice cream, so that helped as well :)
My relationships with the boys have been evolving recently as well. With many of the boys I am able to relax quite a bit and be affectionate and not worry about losing my authority. With some of the others, they are fitting the fact that I am evolving my way of reacting to things, and so they are reacting negatively towards me and towards anything that I do/say. Win some, lose some, paciencia as Flor always says.
The olimpiadas (Olympics) are this weekend. Me and Flor are on the Yellow team, we're going to be ninjas. The boys are starting to get excited, their competitiveness is coming out, but also their ability to show love and care is also showing as well. All of the teams (yellow, blue, red, green) have a mix of all ages, so the older boys play with the younger kids and help keep them in check and motivated (or vice versa sometimes!). I'm getting excited, probably more excited that some of the boys, but me and Flor have had a great time creating our team cheer and some cheoreography for the cheer too, and for the costumes. The other team captains originally wanted to be ducks. And not the mighty ducks sort of ducks, just ducks or chickens, solely because they are yellow. Flor and I shot that down because what can ducks do better than other birds? Nothing that I am aware of. So ninjas it is! Soooo excited! I'll let you know how it goes!
Other exciting news is that my parents are coming to visit too this weekend, and I'll be traveling with them starting on Sunday evening. I am excited to see them after a little over a year of not seeing them! We'll be traveling to Cusco and Machu Picchu which I still haven't seen yet!
The boys in my music class are coming along in Stick Schtick. We have our 2 meter long poles now and we've almost got 4 rhythms going at one time. Some of the boys are more rhythmically challenged then others, but we should have a decent bit to present in 2 months for Ciudad's Anniversary.
I think that's about the update for now!
What I've learned: (forgot this in the last blog post)
- I'm really missing mangoes, they aren't in season yet and I'm desperately awaiting their arrival
- Paciencia, paciencia, paciencia....still a work in progress
- the boys listen mucho mejor (better) when I'm not upset and am instead just authoritative
- Ice cream, like chocolate, always helps
- It's going to be hard to say good bye to the boys in December
- Robinson Carusoe has no chapters (I kept reading, saying 'I'll stop at the next chapter,' I read for a while before figuring it out)
- I still haven't put pictures up, and I haven't since March....whoops
un abrazo,
Jeanette
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