Most of my time is divided between musical activities and teaching English. In terms of music, I am LOVING my fourth and fifth grade choirs in Fe y Alegría. The fourth graders started off with terrible behavior, talking while I was talking, talking while they were supposedly singing, running around and falling on the floor and hanging on each other and messing up the chairs instead of coming into my rehearsal space like civilized people. (I rehearse with them either in the auditorium, the library, or the chapel, depending on which space is available, and I always go early to set up the chairs in a half-circle, which they they proceed to destroy... It works better in the library where there's less space to move the chairs in.) They seem to be getting the idea of how I expect this group to work. Two weeks ago I gave them a good ten-minute talking-to about paying attention, working together, taking the choir seriously--and then started carrying out my threats to send people who misbehaved back to class, and it worked wonders. I guess they thought I wasn't serious before.
Since they have very good ears, they're way ahead of where last year's fourth graders were at this time. I'm trying to prepare them to sing a round for the Mother's Day performances... without me, because I'm taking my vacation time in the US from May 8th-19th! It hurts me to abandon my little pollitos, but I suppose it's worth it in order to go to Jamie's graduaton, Jen and Matt's wedding, see my mom for Mother's Day, spend my birthday at home, and see Maryland in spring again... (sigh of nostalgia.) Fifth grade will help the 4th graders with the round, anyway, and I'm leaving a 10th grade student in charge of saying, 1, 2, 3, go. He's preparing a little harmony on the zampoña (Andean pan pipes) that will go before and after the kiddies sing their round (later when I'm actually there to facilitate, he'll play it with them.)
With fifth grade, I have problems with attendance, because the kids feel stressed out because they miss their work. The teachers have told me that they won't do anything important during those hours, and every time I go to talk to them they say, Oh, yes, of course they can miss, it's no problem, normally we won't have group work on Fridays, it was just for today... But the kids still feel a lot of pressure almost every week to finish things they're missing. Grr. I need to talk to the vice-principal about it. Fifth grade is pure fun once they're there, though. Yesterday when our time was up, they all started saying, No, no, One more time! One more time! and then they asked me to sing them Oh Holy Night, which (thanks to last year's Christmas event in the church) was printed on the same page as their Virgen de Guadalupe song. I didn't, but it was really cute anyway. And then they all come up to kiss me on the cheek and say, Chau, Señorita! Tuesdays and Fridays from 4:30 to 5:50 is my favorite favorite time of the week. :)
My second-favorite job is probably my advanced English conversation group, a collection of friends and Caty's students from last year, which meets at my house in Tupac on Saturday and Sunday mornings. This is great because I just sit around talking my language with people, and they get to practice and ask me questions, and it's a bit of socializing outside the school. It's been harder for me this year to connect with other young people... probably because my social organizer decided not to renew her volunteer service ;), and because I'm busier, and my friends seem busier too. But last weekend, in full Peruvian style, every social event imaginable happened from the 25th to the 27th, after what felt like the whole month of April sitting at home on Saturday nights with nothing to do and no one to go out with. There were two birthday parties, a prayer group, a movie followed by live musica criolla and dancing, shopping (in the market of Tupac with Sister BJ for a cute little black dancing shirt!), conversation group, and a party with the sisters for Magda, who has recently gotten certified as an Energy Medicine practitioner. (aka: Jedi. Just so you know, I will be becoming her in the future. And then I will open a business at the Renaissance Fair, Rowena ye Energie Healer, and wear an awesome shimmery dress and unblock the flow of people's energy for money.) I slept a total of 11 hours from Friday to Sunday but it was worth it.
Then there's the church choir, as always. There's my students who come to the house on Tuesdays and Thursdays for guitar lessons (three 19- or 20-year-old girls who are really sweet) and English (José Osco who's moving to Australia and takes his English very seriously.) And Liliana, who I tutor in reading and writing in the special-ed program two mornings a week. Those kids are even more affectionate and even more terribly behaved than my fourth-grade choir. Every time I walk in, they scream, Señorita Catalina!!! and during their class they write me cards with little pictures and messages like, "Señorita Catalina, you are very beautiful, you are like my mother and you teach English very well" (I have never taught them any English, but they always ask me to speak it) "and you teach Liliana to read. Señorita Catalina I love you with all my heart thank you for coming and you are very pretty" etc.
Me, Sara, and the Adelante class. The one on my lap is Liliana.
Sara, their teacher, says that many of them come from broken families and are looking for affection that they don't get at home. Before starting the class, they get their school breakfast, a roll and a mug of Quaker, and Sara leads them in some prayers, which they really like. It seems to calm them and bring them together as a group. The kids are also constantly asking me if I'm married, if I have children, or if I'm going to get married. Last week Liliana told her teacher, "Señorita Sara, tell Señorita Catalina to marry a man!" I asked her, "What man, Liliana? Tell me that!" and she said with an air of exasperation, "A hot one, of course!!" (¡Con un hombre guapo, pues!)
(Quaker by the way is Peruvian-style oatmeal; the name comes from the brand name Quaker Oats, but the Peruvians pronounce it with the short A as in ball, "Quakker." They mix about 1 part oatmeal to 10 parts water and boil it with a ton of sugar, cloves, and cinnamon until it gets thick and soupy, and you don't eat it with a spoon, you drink it. It's delicious.)
Meanwhile, until Liliana brings me my hot man, I'm enjoying my role of temporary nun. I've implied to various Peruvian guys that I might enter the convent in the future, when it seemed like a good idea. And considering how much I like being here, I won't say that I was lying. One never knows about the future. But for now, I've realized that since two years is a long time, I have to live my life while I'm here in terms of going out with friends, having fun, seeing Lima, taking advantage of being here, instead of trying to devote 100% of my time to service.
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