Returning to New Experiences
While I experienced a range of emotions leaving Quispicanchi last summer from joy to sorrow, I was comforted in knowing that my two months as a Project Companion did not have to be my last. I am so thankful for the opportunity to return to my friends and family here in Quispicanchi while supporting the summer 2022 team as the Encuentro Program Coordinator. From visiting old friends like Ines, Estela, and Julia from the parish center in Andahuaylillas to fostering new relationships with the school teachers in Sullymayo, who have restored normal classes after almost two years online, returning to Quispicanchi this summer has been full of both familiar and new experiences.
Sullymayo is a remote community of roughly 300 families and about two hours by taxi from the Huaro municipality in the Quispicanchi region. During my time as a Project Companion, I spent three days a week there with a host family. With a spirit of accompaniment, I was able to build friendships with my host parents, Julia and Daniel, and host siblings, Freddy, Briscila, Ruti, and Rodrigo. From waking up early before school to herd the family’s llamas with Freddy to spending time by the river skipping stones with Ruti and Rodrigo, I learned about their daily reality through living it out alongside them. Through moments like these, I experienced a beautiful, interconnected, and yet equally challenging way of life all in the hopes that it would somehow shape me into a more compassionate and thoughtful person.
Last week, Emilio, the director of the Virgen del Rosario secondary school in Sullumayo, invited Paul, Martin, Jake, and I to stay two nights at the school with him and the other teachers. I was excited for the chance to form a new community at the school as well as have the chance to reconnect with my host family from last year.
On Thursday, we walked to the plaza, a weekly market where Julia and other members of the community congregate to sell and trade goods. Just like last summer, Julia and Nelson, another friend from the community, invited us to lunch. Together, we constructed a Huatia, a traditional earthen oven used to cook potatoes and lima beans. After heating the pieces of tilled Earth that formed an igloo-like structure and cooking the vegetables for about half an hour, we gathered around one large pile of food. We caught up with one another through sharing stories from the time we had been apart. Later that afternoon, I visited Julia and Daniel’s home and was greeted with hugs and smiles from Ruti and Rodrigo, two of my host siblings who are twins and turned 4 years old two weeks ago. There, Briscila heated me up some ‘sopa de chuño’, a typical soup made with a special type of dried Andean potatoes native to the region. These familiar moments stirred up memories from last summer that I associate with a beautiful way of living in community with one another.
There has been something very nostalgic about my experience this summer through returning to a place I would consider a second home with people I would consider to be part of my family.
On the other hand, I have simultaneously found myself in situations where I am experiencing something new, unaware of how the moment will unfold. Last Wednesday night, the teachers invited some of the students back to the school after sunset to a ‘fogata’, or campfire, on the school grounds. Passing around mugs of ‘ponche de habas’, a traditional sweet lima bean tea, we shared stories amongst ourselves about our past experiences and how we found ourselves to be working or spending time in Sullymayo. After warming up, I suddenly found myself dancing with some of the students and teachers to ‘huayño’, a popular genre of Andean music and dance. Not knowing anything about how to dance this style of music, I followed the lead of my friends as we laughed together. In these moments, I was vulnerable to what there was to learn from my friends in Sullymayo. While sometimes associated with fear, I believe there is a certain beauty in the unknown, because it allows us to be humbled and then grow alongside those who are teaching us.
Now halfway through my experience in Quispicanchi this summer, I have enjoyed and look forward to relishing in the memories from the past, being present to those I am with in the moment, and embracing what I have yet to experience during my time here. I want to end with the following quote, because I believe it best conveys how I interact, reflect upon, and process my experiences in Quispicanchi:
“Every time we make the decision to love someone, we open ourselves to great suffering, because those we most love cause us not only great joy, but also great pain. The greatest pain comes from leaving. When a child leaves home, when the husband or wife leaves for a long period of time or for good, when the beloved friend departs for another country or dies…the pain of the leaving can tear us apart.
Still, if we want to avoid the suffering of leaving, we will never experience the joy of loving. And love is stronger than fear, life stronger than death, hope stronger than despair. We have to trust that the risk of loving is always worth taking.”
–Henri Nouwen, Catholic priest and theologian
Reflecting on my time in and away from Quispicanchi, I find myself mysteriously drawn back to this place and other similar experiences. Through living intentionally among people that break my heart (in the best way possible) to expand its ability to love, the only conclusion I have drawn to explain this process is Christ’s strong presence within others. Living a Christ-informed life is equally beautiful and life-giving as it is challenging and somewhat unattainable; however, I often find that often the good outweighs the bad and the journey is worth the risk. As for the rest of my time in Quispicanchi this summer, I look forward to how it will unfold and what there is still to learn.
Very well written!!
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