Help support my work with NDMV for 2008!

On February 5th, I will head back to Peru to serve as a Notre Dame Mission Volunteer in Lima for the year 2008.

I have learned a lot this past year about the kind of work that is feasible for me and valuable for the community I serve. At NDMV's missioning service for the 2008 international volunteers, I spoke a little about my experience trying to make a difference in Lima and how the true value of my service goes beyond my actual projects to include the simple fact of my presence to the people there, and their presence to me. Sometimes the most profound effects of one's presence at a service site are interpersonal and invisible--for example, friendships that let two different cultures come together and lead to changes in perspective on both sides. And yet above and beyond these connections, I have also had the privilege of making a small difference in the neighborhood of Tupac Amaru by teaching English, teaching music, directing my fourth grade chorus at Fe y Alegria, and serving in the parish of Jesus Artesano.

Although progress is often slow on my projects and the difference they make seems small, I reassured everyone present at the missioning service that beyond a doubt, my work in Peru is worth it. Its effects extend even beyond the community where I serve, because living in Lima has drastically altered my perspective on the world and encouraged me to share what I've seen and learned with those who are close to me in the United States.

As a nonprofit organization, Notre Dame Mission Volunteers relies on donations to support its volunteers abroad. If you are interested in helping to support my work in Peru for 2008, I invite you to make a donation to Notre Dame Mission Volunteers. Checks can be made out to Notre Dame Mission Volunteers, with "Kathleen Fritz--Peru" in the memo line, and mailed to:

Notre Dame Mission Volunteers
403 Markland Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21212

Or, you can donate online at www.ndmva.org (follow the link to "donate" and indicate "Kathleen Fritz--Peru" as the purpose of your donation.)

Any amount that you feel comfortable donating will make a difference. Even a small amount of money by American standards can go a long way in Peru! The donations received by NDMV will be used to support me during the year so that I can dedicate my time to my classes and to the parish community.


On a musical note, I'd also like to invite you to support a group of young Peruvians from my parish who are beginning to establish a musical career as performers and composers. This group of young people, called Voces Juveniles or "young voices," has no formal musical training or music education in their backgrounds, but they have learned from one another and from other musicians. In the past two years they have come together to form a group of singers and instrumentalists that performs both traditional Peruvian folk music and their own arrangements of popular music.

This year the group entered an original song in a competiton with the theme of justice and peace, and the song was selected as one of six finalists to perform at a daylong youth workshop on that theme. You can view a video of the group performing their song at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bovg_SBCu90

Guess who the tall blonde one singing on the left is! :) Besides being up-and-coming musicians, these people are my friends from the parish. They have been incredibly supportive and welcoming to me and it has been an honor to be involved in their music-making. More than anything, I am constantly impressed by how much they can produce from virtually nothing--aging instruments, no training, a cold rehearsal space with other young people doing less wholesome activities on the sidewalk outside, etc. They even have to combat their own tendency to be chronically late to rehearsals and engagements, which in my mind is one of their biggest obstacles to success--but somehow they manage to progress anyway!

Just for being selected as finalists, we got to record our song professionally on a CD with the other finalists. It was a really exciting opportunity, and the experience gave these young musicians a taste for a more professional level of performing and recording! Our goal for this coming year is to record an entire CD of our own original songs. To help us toward that goal (studio time is expensive even in Peru!), we are selling the CD of the six songs selected as finalists in the competition. Song #4 is ours, the only one in traditional Andean style with panpipes and a quena flute, but the other tracks are also original compositions by young Peruvian musicians and several of them are quite good.

The cost of the CD is 21 soles, or 7 US dollars, and it comes complete with a translation of all the songs into English by yours truly. If you're interested in supporting this group by purchasing a CD, you can contact me at:

email: ksfritz@gmail.com
phone: 410-750-6324

Many thanks for all the support you have given me over the past year and for your continuing generosity! The Sisters of Notre Dame and I will be praying for you and wishing you all the best in this new year.