Jesuit Volunteer Corps

volunteer stories, international service, education, housing insecurity

Mes de Misión in the Mountains: A grueling month-long mission trip shapes a newly arrived JV

By Camila Biaggi

(Tacna, Peru 2017-19)

Jesuit Volunteer Camila Biaggi (2017-2019) and Faith during their Mes de Mision in the Mountains of Peru while serving with Instituto Educacional Miguel Pro.

EVERY YEAR A GROUP OF ABOUT THIRTY TEENS heads into the mountains on a mission month during their summer vacation. They live together, prepare food together, and work side by side for the month of January in Talabaya, an isolated town of 70 people located in the sierras of southern Peru. This year, a professor in his fifties guides the thirty-some teenagers and two very newly arrived Jesuit Volunteers to continue the tradition of this powerfully immersive experience.

As one of the two JVs facilitating the experience, I watch friendships blossom as participants lear more about each other than they have in their 10 years of schooling together. The students grow closer as they develop skills like cooking over an open fire, working with dangerous farm tools,
and facing new responsibilities of leadership and community. I sense how deeply many of these students believe in the message of the mission and the importance of service to others. Even in hours of rest, the students are looking for ways to help the members of the community, whether it is carrying firewood to their respective houses or playing games with the children of the town.

I often hear older generations complaining about the lack of work ethic in today’s youth: how little drive they have or the lack of respect they have for their elders. After Mes de Misión, I believe it is not quality of character that is lacking in today’s teenagers, but quality of guidance. We have forgotten to accompany our teens, to stand by and be witnesses to their struggle. We often fail to be there when they look back and ask: “Does this make sense?”. At the end of my time in Mes de Misión, I am left with the question: If the pinnacle of a child’s development is their teenage years,
why are we not more present?

Up in the mountains, pulling out weeds and cactus spines, my bachelor’s degree and all of the skills I had picked up in college fall to the wayside.

Camila Biaggi (Tacna 2017-19)

I have learned many things during this month in the mountains as a Jesuit Volunteer. Some lessons are important, some unlikely to be used again (starting a fire with old coals and eucalyptus leaves, for example). There are moments in my month of Mes de Misión that shape me deeply, where I have neither a response nor lesson prepared. I simply need to hold a crying teen in my arms as the process being away from their family for the first time in their lives. Sometimes I even just need to listen without any judgement in my heart as teens unpack their own insecurities to me.

A previous volunteer has described Mes de Misión as “the hardest month of my life.” It is certainly a grueling, often humiliating, all-encompassing excursion. But I find it to be one of the most profound months of my life. As a Jesuit Volunteer I take a lot of the values of my own mission for granted. I live consistently in shared community, engaging with my neighborhood and the city of Tacna through accompaniment and service. Much of my values are lived out simply because my home and workspace are set up this way. But there, in the mountains of Talabaya, I see what it is for my
students to experience these concepts of accompaniment and service for the very first time.
 

In some ways, Mes de Misión is a concentrated version of what it means to serve as a volunteer in a program with a focus on faith in action. A program like this places you in a completely new setting, stripping away all the skills and education that you thought carried you forward and made you a “successful” adult. Up in the mountains, pulling out weeds and cactus spines, my bachelor’s degree and all of the skills I had picked up in college fall to the wayside. At the end of the day, exhausted and much in need of a shower, the only thing left for me or my fourteen-year-old students is the
strength we have in our soul and the passion we feel in serving others.

Stories

  • JVC staff visit to Peru (2011)

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    "JVC's International PRogram gave me the confidence that I had something to offer students and continues to be both a foundation and a hope spring for what I do now."

    Learn more about Michela's time teaching in Peru become the catalyst for a career in education
  • Tomy Christin (Belize City) headshot

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    "The four core values of JVC can be and are lived out in each of our post-JVC lives in a multitude of ways. For me, life as a Dominican Sister is the way I’m choosing to be a woman for and with others as a contemplative in action."

    Learn more about Sr. Christin's relationship building on porches

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    "There is no pressure for words but they are always welcome. As we begin the day, we gradually acknowledge all the chaos that the day could bring, but in our own way, this is our benediction. A daily commitment that we will begin the journey of the day together."

    Learn more about Tate's mornings as a Jesuit Volunteer
  • Capturing artwork in Tacna, Peru during the migrant crisis (2019).

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    “Political instability around the world is causing people to flee their homeland and my country of service, Tacna, Peru is dealing with its own migrant crisis. I’m incredibly blessed to work with such a dedicated group of people. It seems that no matter how difficult the situation, they know just exactly what to do.”

    Read about Catherine's JV experience at the Peruvian border
  • Camila Biaggi (Tacna, Peru 2017-19) with her JV community.

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    “It’s not just about being present and listening, it’s about vulnerability too. You can’t be a good community member without opening that little box of fears and faults and saying, ‘hey, I’m struggling with this’ or ‘you know, I need help with that.’”

    Read more about Camila's intentional community experience in the international program