I dont understand the first hint:(

Call me stupid but I am not being able to understand the first hint in the mission which is:

NEIGHBORS = ((-1, -1), (-1, 0), (-1, 1), (0, -1),
            (0, 1), (1, -1), (1, 0), (1, 1))

Exactly which cells is (-1,-1),(-1,0)...etc referring to? Why is it needed? To be honest I don't understand the entire mission and have no idea what to do but that's another story. Thinking about how to solve it since 1 week and still no progress:(