UNA SEMANA DE MI VIDA…

About a year ago, I believe, I kept track of my activities for a week and shared in this blog the daily routine of my life here. As I get close to my departure from Chimbote, I thought it would be interesting to repeat the excercise, without reviewing my previous effort, as a comparison and record to look back on. Therefore, for those who might be interested you can continue reading to get an idea of my current weekly schedule and activities, specifically from Sunday, July 5, to Sunday, July 12. I like that in my life here, no week is exactly the same, but the schedule and commentary below gives a basic idea how I pass my time.


SUNDAY, JULY 5TH
7:30 Get up, boil water, buy bread, head weights
8:30 Walk downtown, buy blended papaya/pineapple/apple juice, quick market trip
10:00 Meeting/rehearsal: parish theater group
12:30 Go to lunch at the sisters` house with housemates to celebrate July 4th.
2:00 Talk with family on the phone, friend Roger stops by
3:30 Walk downtown with Courtney and Jane – they go shopping and get coffee, I make some copies of song sheets for choir/confirmation in the evening
5:10 Meet my confirmation group (called Friar Bernard) so they can practice a song and dance for the competition next weekend. At 5:10 one person (out of 17) is there, at 5:30 eight, at 5:50 they start rehearsing with 12. I visit with them and others who gradually begin arriving for the normal 6:00 pm meeting.
6:30 Begin confirmation meeting with a couple games, and then my choir comes to rehearse the songs that we will be singing shortly in mass.
7:20 I go with the choir to the church to set up for singing at the 7:30 mass.
8:45 Mass ends, we start our weekly JUMIFRA (youth council) meeting, focusing on a fundraiser we will be doing in a couple weeks for a planned trip to Cajamarca in August.
10:00 Return home, a snack and then off to bed.

MONDAY, JULY 6TH
6:00 I get up, stretch
6:30 put on water to boil, leave to go for a run into the country a bit
7:05 buy bread, shower, eat breakfast
7:40 out the door – to catch a car to the National University of Santa in Nuevo Chimbote.
8:05 Arrive and lead a conversation class for second year students studying to be English teachers (I started going one Monday a month in June). The last 20 minutes they serve papas a la huancaina (potatoes with cream sauce) to celebrate Teachers` Day – all grade and high schools have the day off.
10:30 take a car back home
11:00 Help Courtney and Jane clean the kitchen, smash and take the pile of plastic down the street to recycle them, repair the faucet in front of the house that broke on Friday evening and since has been temporarily fixed by inserting a large screwdriver, wrapped with a rag, into the pipe end. At 12:00 Julie gets back from work and begins cooking lunch
1:15 Lunch, prepared by Julie (rice, beans, cucumbers and tomatoes).
Wash dishes
½ hour nap
3:15 Prepare plans/lessons for evening English classes
Do some work on drawing up aproxímate plans of the existing parish buildings, using measurements that Padre Carlos and I climbed onto the roof last week to obtain. With approxímate existing plans, we can work out possible floor plans for the planned youth center addition. No AutoCAD, just graph paper and a ruler.
5:30 Walk to an Internet café for an hour to send a mixture of Confirmation, JUMIFRA, and personal emails.
7:15 Pack my bag and head to the parish for English classes. Tonight I teach our intermediate students – our highest level group – theme is adverbial clauses of time.
9:30 return to the house, and walk the couple blocks to Susan`s house with Courtney. The two of them have some coordinating to do for their Confirmation group (called Santa Clara). I tag along to visit, and end up also helping Olga – Susan`s older sister – a little with questions about her English homework. Afterwards we hang out and watch a little TV on their very comfortable couches.
11:00 Return home and head to bed, after a snack of some `quaker` -- oatmeal drink with milk

TUESDAY, JULY 7TH
6:10 I get up, stretch, run, boil water, buy bread, eat breakfast (bread and quaker), shower, journal/reading in Spanish
9:15 Go downtown to buy tickets that we`ll sell for our upcoming JUMIFRA barbecue fundraiser, stop by the supermarket and the Progreso market.
11:00 On the way home, I stop by the sisters` house to use the Internet, among other things to send invitations to various groups of young people to planned weekend activities: concert by Alfareros (Catholic music group) on Friday and the Confirmation morning of games on Sunday.
12:15 Head back to the house to cook (pasta with tomato sauce, meta/non-meat versions)
1:30 Lunch with Courtney (Julie working, Jane out with visiting aunt and uncle)
2:15 Work on plans for evening English classes, drawings for youth center plans
4:00 siesta
4:40 Make copies nearby
5:00 meeting with Father Carlos at the parish about youth center project, trip to Cajamarca, upcoming fundraiser
6:15 hang out at the house with Jane and her aunt and uncle, Roger, Courtney. We sing few songs (her uncle also plays and sings)
7:00 go to parish – coordinate English plans with Roberto and Paul, intermediate students of ours who tonight are covering the Basic Level class, since none of the girls are free. Also, our Confirmation group meets to practice the song/dance for Sunday.
7:30 English class -- with the beginner group tonight I teach colors, clothing, and possessives.
9:15 back at the house, Susan and Roger stop by to visit
11:00 Time for bed

WEDNESDAY, JULY 8
7:00 get up, buy bread, boil water, head weights
7:30 walk downtown, take some photos of different neighborhood sites where our mayor is working (she puts up/paints `thank you` signs to make sure people don`t miss the fact that she is working.)
8:45 breakfast back at the house
9:00 Friend and English student Laura stops by for help with a translation that she is doing for someone else.
10:00 Shower, work on projects at the house: plans for English classes, organize ticket sales for JUMIFRA fundraiser
1:15 Go to lunch at Victor`s with Julie and Courtney when they get back from hospice work (Victor`s is our favorite `menú` (soup or ceviche, main dish, and drink) place, price is 4 soles ($1.40).
2:15 Write in journal, work on writing up reports about a couple of past JUMIFRA projects – starting to think about how to leave a trail about my work here, so Jenn and the group don`t have to start from scratch on activities next time around.
5:15 Guitar class with Roger and Courtney
7:10 Pack bag for English class, head to the parish
7:30 English class – with our Basic I group, I teach imperatives, body and health vocabulary.
9:15 After English, I join the in-progress JUMIFRA meeting. Topics include the upcoming fundraiser as well as a city-wide art/poetry/choir contest that the we will put on in late September to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the approval of the Franciscan order by the pope.
10:15 I arrive at the house – we were to have community night with the four of us, but Julie is sick and Jane is tired, so both are in bed. Corina and I have hot chocolate and we do some guitar practice.
11:30 Go to sleep.

THURSDAY, JULY 9
6:00 I get up, stretch, put water on to boil, go running with Susan (stop at her house to pick her up), buy bread, eat breakfast, head weights, write in journal
9:00 Give myself a haircut, shower
10:00 Computer work in the house (JUMIFRA fundraiser/trip, Vìa Crucis report, blog)
1:30 Lunch made by Courtney (fish/noodle soup)
2:30 Finish off June blog update
3:15 Visit Susan at her house
5:15 prepare English class plans for the night
6:30 Guitar practice
7:15 pack bag and got toe the parish for 7:30 English class – with the Basic II group I teach there is/there are, houses/rooms/furniture
9:30 Back at the house, meet with Yuri, Consuelo, and Courtney to plan for the Sunday morning confirmation morning of games. We usually use this time to plan for the Saturday evening Confirmation session, but instead we coordinate details for the upcoming special event.
10:00 Friends Anthony, Colver and Roger stop by to visit.
11:00 Go to sleep.

FRIDAY, JULY 10
6:10 I get up, stretch, start garbanzo beans cooking, put on water to boil
6:40 Go running – Susan was going to come, but overslept
7:15 head weights, eat breakfast, journal, wash socks and a couple dark shirts
8:40 Susan stops by to visit for a little while on her way to work
9:20 Shower, dress
10:00 Walk downtown: buy a Peru soccer jersey (on the list of things to do before I leave), pay water and electric bills, stop by friend Lenin`s house to talk and drop off his fundraiser tickets to sell, trip to the Progreso Market, quick internet at the sisters` house to send a couple emails and print something out
12:30 Return home to cook (make hummus, tortillas, rice, tomatoes, red pepper, cucumber)
1:45 Lunch
2:15 Clean house (my job this week is to sweep inside)
3:00 Four friends of Jane arrive from the US to the house
4:00 Courtney and I go to the parish to meet young people who are gathering to go to a Catholic music concert. We are the third and fourth people there.
4:45 The 15 people gathered head in three cabs to the concert, which is taking place at the fairgrounds near the bus Terminal and soccer stadium.
5:45 The 5:00 concert begins, with a couple of opening acts
8:00 Headline group, the Alfareros from the Dominican Republic, begin playing. Their mix of salsa, merengue, rock and ballads is catchy and prayerful. I enjoy sharing the experience with Susan.
10:00 Concert ends, we return home. Gathered with Jane and her friends are a few folks from the parish and we talk, play music until nearly 12:00. Then, off to bed.

SATURDAY, JULY 11
6:00 I get up, stretch, put water on to boil
6:40 run, head weights, breakfast, journal
9:00 wash and hang clothes, shower
10:00 Some fun brainstorming/drawing of possible plans for the new youth center
12:00 Cook and eat lunch (beans and rice)
2:00 Go to Susan`s for a visit, help her with some English homework
4:30 back at home, I practice guitar
6:00 Meet with Yuri and other Confirmation leaders at the parish to plan the evening`s session
7:00 Confirmation meeting – theme is the life/person of Jesus, who is Jesus for them. At the end, each of the two Confirmation groups has a short meeting to coordinate for Sunday (pay for our group T-shirts, who is going to bring materials, etc). There is a little tension in that a couple of the kids who have leadership roles within the group feel that others have not contributed their fair share, but all ends well.
9:15 I join the in-progress theater group rehearsal (we are preparing a doctor`s office themed series of comedy skits for a bingo fundraiser that the sisters` clinic will host on Saturday, the 25th of July).
10:15 Choir rehearsal, which I join slightly late (the 9:30 rehearsal itself began late).
11:15 Return home, begin typing up song lyrics for Sunday night`s mass.
12:15 Go to bed.

SUNDAY, JULY 12
6:30 Get up, put on water to boil
6:50 Walk to Progreso market to buy snacks for the Confirmation games event, buy the daily bread for the house on the way home
7:30 With Courtney, prep materials for the day, make a bucket of `chicha` flavored drink with water I`d boiled in shifts the day before and powder packets bought from the store down the street.
8:10 Courtney and I head to the parish
8:30 youth begin showing up, little by little, preparing shirts, cheers, etc. We set up the sound system in the patio, benches, etc.
10:15 Games finally begin, beginning with a `concurso de barras`-- basically a competition of a group cheer and introductions. Sack races, three-legged races, water balloon toss, dance competition and several other contests follow. Despite some minor disputes as to which group won a couple of events, the morning goes well and we all have fun.
1:45 After the groups left around 1:00 and several of us stay to sweep and clean up It`s Jane`s turn to cook today, but she is out showing her visiting friends around Chimbote. Julie had joined us the second half of the morning at the parish, so we three have lunch at Victor`s.
2:30 Return home, finishing typing song lyrics for the choir to use at Mass in the evening.
3:20 Show up late for a 3:00 choir retreat at the parish
6:00 make a printout and copies of songsheets at a nearby Internet café
6:30 Choir rehearsal
7:30 We sing for Mass
8:45 JUMIFRA meeting, a bit longer than normal
10:30 Arrive home, have a snack of quaker with milk, and say goodbye to Jane`s guests
11:30 Happily, it`s time for bed.