Harvest Will Fill The Barn

SETTLING IN…

The last few weeks in my life have been full of movement. As I’ve mentioned, my host family has been talking about moving practically since the day I walked in the door back in September. The last three months I have been living out of a half-packed suitcase because I would be told, “This weekend we’re moving.” And then we wouldn’t move. Then I would be told, “This weekend. It’s really going to happen.” And then we wouldn’t move. Then I’d be told, “We paid for one more month in this house, but we’re going to start moving stuff over to the new place slowly and calmly.” And then we wouldn’t move anything. Long story short, I came home one night and it was actually happening! I packed up the rest of my stuff quickly and at 8:30pm we started making trips over to the new house. We didn’t stop until 3:00am and everybody had to work the next day. I just had to laugh. They were so proud of themselves for supposedly packing so well and being so organized for this move compared to others, but I was screaming internally at the disorder and chaotic nature of it all. And almost three weeks later they still haven’t completely finished. The kitchen stove, dining room table, and washing machine – all quite essential items to a home – have not yet been moved.

I haven’t lived in one place for more than 9 months at a time since I lived at home during high school. I thought I was going to break that record this year, but we moved right at the 9-month mark. It was actually a good test to see if I could fit everything in my suitcase (which I could!). I’ve gotten settled here and am actually enjoying the new arrangement. The TV is now in the living room instead of one of the bedrooms, so we have actually spent a lot more family time together especially now that the World Cup is happening. My true soccer fanaticism has come out, and I fit right in.

SOME SAD NEWS

Two weeks ago I was traveling with another group from the PC(USA) that came to visit the Joining Hands Network and a few of the associate organizations. I went with them to Huancayo. We left on Thursday morning early and got back Saturday afternoon. On Wednesday night before I left, I came home to a pretty visibly upset host mom. I sat down next to her and asked her what was going on. She explained to me that her sister Violet, the one who had a stroke about a year and a half ago, had a really bad day. She’s been on the decline for the past few months, but I did not realize how bad it had gotten. She lost a ton of weight, wasn’t really able to eat or keep down any medication, had an infection that started in her kidneys and then spread to the rest of her body, and now was having trouble even breathing. We sat and she cried a little and talked in a roundabout way about the probability of her sister passing away. The next day, on Thursday morning after I had already left on my trip, Violet went to be with the Lord. They had the funeral the next day, which I also missed, and a mass a week later, which I was able to attend.

The death really hit my host mom and the whole family hard. They had been more or less expecting it, but it came so fast. They had all thrown their time and energy and money and hope into Violet’s recovery and to see that all come to an end was really difficult. Please be keeping them in your prayers.

…AND WRAPPING UP

Here is a quick itinerary of what I have coming up! I have three weeks left of work and living with my host family. They are really big into doing goodbyes here, so I will get an official “despedida” from my host family, office family, and YAV family at the end of these three weeks. Then we have one last YAV retreat in Paracas where we will spend time reflecting on the year as a whole and what it has meant in the trajectory of our lives. We also get to do some fun stuff like dunebuggying and touring the Ballestas Islands! After the retreat I will spend 2 ½ weeks traveling into the jungle with the YAVs before flying back to the U.S. We will get to see where Spencer has spent his year, take a boat up a tributary of the Amazon until we arrive at the Amazon itself, and tour around Iquitos – the “heart of the jungle” – before flying back to the U.S. on August 6^th.

I feel at a good place of being ready to be done but also knowing that it is going to be insanely hard to leave and say goodbye. It is so strange to think that I am almost done. I am a year out of college now and almost a YAV alumna!

I also just published my first Partnership Program update that I will be writing monthly throughout my time at Gordon-Conwell. If you want to check it out, here’s the link you need: my.gordonconwell.edu/partnership/amiller5

A look over the valley in Chupaca.

Beautiful blue skies!

Sugarcane.

A compost project - they can turn methane gas from decomposing cow manure into gas used with a normal gas stove!

The tiniest and cutest kitten I've ever seen.

“X” by Wendell Berry

Whatever is foreseen in joy

Must be lived out from day to day.

Vision held open in the dark

By our ten thousand days of work.

Harvest will fill the barn; for that

The hand must ache, the face must sweat.

And yet no leaf or grain is filled

By work of ours; the field is tilled

And left to grace. That we may reap,

Great work is done while we're asleep.

When we work well, a Sabbath mood

Rests on our day, and finds it good.

Cause to Celebrate

 This month we celebrated two major holidays here in Peru: Labor Day and Mother’s Day. Labor Day was on May 1^st and meant a day off work. For a long time my coworkers, Daniela and Karín, and I had been talking about visiting EcoTruly Park just north of Lima, so we finally made up our minds to go. I was under the impression this place was an ecological farm where people lived off what they could grow on the land. It was that, but it was also a religious center for the Hare Krishna religion that Daniela is a part of. There was really beautiful architecture – tall adobe cone-shaped buildings – and most of the buildings formed part of the central temple. It was quite a surprise and an interesting experience to see first-hand the deities and idols that they worship and to learn more about their beliefs. I have many more thoughts on this topic if you want to talk more.

Mother’s Day I celebrated with my host mom and all of her sisters. We spent the afternoon together and shared a big lunch. But exactly one week later, I got to see my real mom in person! My family came to visit me for 10 days, and we had all sorts of adventures on Lake Titicaca, at Machu Picchu, and here in Lima. We had a dinner with (almost) all my YAV people and lunch with my host family. It was wonderful for them to be able to see my context and meet the people that have become so close over this past year. It was sad to see them go, but it’s crazy to think that it really won’t be much longer before I am back in the U.S. and will get to see them again.

Dad and I trying cuy (guinea pig) for the first time!

The floating reed island of the Uros people that we visited. 6 families - 21 people - live there.

The women on the island dressed as they dress every day. Look at that ancient musket that they actually use to hunt birds in the reeds!

We got to take a short ride on their reed boat.

On the island Amantaní where we stayed the night with a local family.

The sunset from the highest point on Amantaní.

On the island Taquile where they are famous for their textiles. The women weave and the men knit.

Dad and I got roped into doing a dance with them. I'm a little lost.

After our tour of Lake Titicaca we had some time to kill in Puno. We camped out at Black Coffee and played some cards for the afternoon.

(Almost) to the top of Huayna Picchu. The very top was super crowded.

A gorgeous sunny day at Machu Picchu!

Although not a holiday, this month we also “celebrated” our third YAV retreat. We went to a retreat center run by the cutest little nuns just outside of Lima in a town called Chaclacayo. Besides the nuns, we had the place to ourselves. It was a beautiful oasis of green grass and vegetation in the middle of a desert. The theme of this retreat was finishing well. We spent some time looking back on the year and reflecting on both big social justice type issues and interpersonal issues that we don’t want to cast aside without fully addressing. It was a great exercise that motivated me to continue investing in relationships and my work here even as the year is drawing to a close.

Spencer, Blake, Mary Kate, Abby, and Emma

Right before the retreat, this quote was posted by a friend on Facebook and the phrase “redemptive memory” kept coming to mind as I spent time reflecting:

“How can we engage the present moment in a redemptive way? How can we remember the past in a way that frees us to live – truly live – right now? It starts with redemptive memory, which enables us to remember the past differently – not as an ideal to which we would like to return or as a regret we would like to reverse, but as one chapter in a larger redemptive story we continue to live out in the present moment. God is in the past, however ideal or horrible; he rules over the past and promises to use the past, as it is, to work redemption. He makes all things serve his plan and fulfill is redemptive purpose. There is no Golden Age to which we must return, no hellish experience that consigns us to a lesser life. There is only God writing his story, a story of redemption.” Jerry Sittser, A Grace Revealed