Back to School (written March 8, 2009)

It´s still hot here, but summer has officially ended for students in primary and secondary schools, who went back to school this past Monday or will do so today, March 9. Apart from uniformed kids walking (or getting walked by their parents) to classes in the mornings as I go running or make the daily trip down the block to buy bread, other signs of the yearly ritual include busy tellers at most librerías (book stores) and workers giving a yearly coat of paint to the outer concrete walls of educational institutions. Students here are given a list of supplies that they need for the school year, as the schools themselves provide few resources – at some schools, at least, teachers even charge students for photocopies. Purchasing supplies such as notebooks, etc, follows the pattern of most stores here: the US norm of browsing through aisles to fill a cart or handbasket is rare except in a few supermarkets. Instead, one gives a list – written or oral – to a clerk or attendant (for larger stores downtown) or to the owner at smaller neighborhood shops, after which they look for and pull out items one by one. On the subject of schools, I hear from multiple sources that in Peru there exists a surplus of teachers and it is very difficult for a university graduate to find a job, especially on the coast. Apparently in the more remote Sierra, or mountainous region, teachers are still sought out, but such posts are not desireable for many due to the lack of services, infrastructure, and distance from family. Other oft-mentioned concerns over public education concern the quality of instruction methods (a lot of dictation, memorization) and systematic corruption and misuse of resources. A large number of private schools, both large and small, religious and not, also exist here and reputedly offer a higher level of education – at a price, of course. Monthly tuition at the small school down the street runs 70 soles ($20) per month, and other larger private schools, such as the Christian Brothers´ Mundo Mejor (Better World) must cost significantly more. It seems that the majority of primary school students attend school in the morning shift, 7:30-12:30, with high school students alternately drawing the morning (7:30-1:00) or afternoon (12:00 – 6:30). For this reason, all of our youth meetings at the parish begin at 7:00 or later to allow time for the afternoon students to arrive.

In other news…
At the house, Courtney´s sister Allison visited last week – they spent the first few days seeing Cuzco and Machu Picchu and then a couple nights here in Chimbote, where she met a ton of people in a short time, saw Courtney´s work sites (Hospice and two medical clinics), went to the beach, joined in on English conversation night, and of course tried ceviche. We four IWM´s met with Sr. Juanita on Saturday for a long overdue check-in on ministry, etc, and cleared up some miscommunciatons concerning our house budget – the way appears clear now for us to receive the money to buy a fridge soon. Another current project is the compilation of a two-CD mix of selected favorite songs, each one of us contributing nine songs that we have on CD here. Together with a booklet of the lyrics that I am putting together, I hope it will be a fun way for them to learn new vocabulary and practice their listening. In addition, it´s a fun way for us to share a little bit of our musical culture in a culture that is itself enamored of music. JUMIFRA commissions have started working on preparations for our Way of the Cross in the streets that will take place Good Friday – costumes, the crosses, fine-tuning the script, inviting parish youth, etc. I also met with a subcommittee on Sunday to develop a draft of statutes for the group – structure and expectations that we hope will help JUMIFRA be a successful, functioning group of youth and young adult leaders in the parish into the future. Articles treat areas such as the group mission, how new members join, member rights and responsibilities, roles of officers, etc. I think it is a positive step. Well, I´ll sign off for now – have a great couple weeks! Look for another entry after we return from our annual IWM retreat, this year five days in Tortugas, on the coast about 45 minutes south of Chimbote. God bless.