Okayyy... Not a frequent blogger.
So- here's an easy-read, bullet point update of what I've been doing here since my last for those interested:
- Summer school ending, holding a great little party for the children with face paints, pass the parcel and water war
- The week after trawling the sandy hills of Alto Trujillo talking to families about our school. Surprised how poor and bleak some areas were, with no water supply, though they have been established for over a decade! Also at how negatively a lot of people responded to the offer of free education for their child- 'there's no point'; 'he doesn't want to go to school...' A lot of shame and embarrassment surrounding the subject.
- Spending a dance filled, paint covered, carneval weekend in the awesome town of Cajamarca, about 3 hours sleep in 3 days
- Leading the mothers group, enjoying chatting and gossiping with them while making recycled crafts- retro wallets from milk cartons, papier mâché jewellery, rag dolls- really cool project to be involved in!
- Going to see the new school, which is a tiny borrowed room with no floor - when we got there we found a man camping out inside and the one table was used to bar the window, with a few buckets full of something yellow im pretty sure belonged to him in the corner. Spent a lovely morning clearing that out!!
- Teaching older children who WANT to learn in school, including a 12 yr old who couldn't read at all, doing one to one with him for a week and watching it FINALLY click!
- EATING- guinea pig, more heart, ceviche, chicharrones, papa reina (inside out Cornish pasty), milanesa, Palta rellena... Pisco sours and jungle juice and drinkable YOGHURT, which I drink so much of, I worked out it would be actually cheaper to have a weed addiction here
- This week and next there are five dentists with us, and I'm translating for them in the hospitals. This is fun and intense, and really interesting, meeting lots of people and learning about caries! And brilliant span practice!
- Being stepped on accidentally on a night out and having my own medical experience- hobbling round the streets if Trujillo on doctor's orders to find an X-Ray centre. The centre was a room under a house with one chair, a table, half a floor, three quarters of a roof, and the nurse didn't leave the room and wore no protective clothes! Erk.
- Not watching a bull running festival because we arrived way too late, beers on the beach instead
- Friends leaving, friends arriving
Ciao X
Friday, 25 March 2011
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Week two
I feel so HAPPY.
I spent the first half of my gap year working in a small, nice shop in Shrewsbury, selling kites and pens and cards to lots of nice people, and living at home hearing about everyone's awesome fresher's weeks and interesting, exciting lives, not appreciating my family enough because I definitely felt ready for change!
Really good experience for me living more independently, and rocket fights when the shop was empty were great, as was the extra time with the fam, but after a fantastic summer filled with people and things those few months felt very unstimulating and slow.
I'm loving meeting new people every day here, practicing Spanish, learning to teach, being taught, and being challenged with something new every day. And I love Peru- getting daily doses of sunshine is fantastic, the food is drool worthy and every Peruvian I've met so far has been lovely. I'm also appreciating my parents much more out here and loving Skype conversations!
Spent a busy weekend with friends- on Friday we took advantage of the pool at our friend Carlos' house, then Saturday visited ChanChan, one of the ancient sites near Trujillo. It was the elaborate capital city of the huge Chimu empire and is ridiculously big itself- hundreds of acres of ruins. To get to it you have to walk down a deserted desert road feeling totally lost, then you suddenly come across a massive touristy entrance building with 'I've been to Chan Chan' caps and all.
Spent the rest of the weekend at Huanchaco again, surfing and chilling. It was also the 127th anniversary of Huanchaco, a South American excuse to fiesta! On Sunday we were planning on going surfing in the afternoon as well as the morning but cancelled the afternoon, telling our surf instructors we'd be back tomorrow (day off), and at the same time inviting them to come to a salsa club with us that evening. In the end we decided not to go, assuming they'd be with other people anyway- when we got back to the surf shop next morning we were told we could have free lessons, plus a free trip out on the reed fishing boats native to the area- turned out they thought they'd stood us up the night before and were making up for it, oops!
The same morning found me wandering around the beach in my pyjamas in search of a beach yoga class....
Yesterday I went to the baby shower of two women from the mothers group. We chatted about knitting etc, drank inca cola, then Peruvian time caught up with us and the speaker that had been booked turned up, an hour late! She's a psychologist, and gave the mothers a crash course in parenting as a whole in about half an hour, and did it very well- but I was more than shocked when she told them it was fine to hit your child if on the third time of asking they don't obey!! I couldn't believe a trained professional was giving this as solid advice to mothers- it's a very common occurrence here, and kids have come to school with bruises before, but to actually say that you SHOULD do it is ludicrous!!
Another weird part- as a fun game for them to do after the talk they were given word searches. About half of these women are illiterate, if not with minimal education- it was simply embarrassing for most of them. I could see the woman on my left hiding hers, and looking over to see mine- weird choice.
Veronica, who used to help lead the group, is leaving in a few days, and they've asked me if I want to take her place as I've taken interest in the group. Very surprised as I've only been to two sessions! Not being what I consider to be mother age myself, I don't want to seem condescending to them, some of whom have daughters my age, so can hardly join in on the whole 'mother solidarity' thing... I've said a provisional yes as I'd love to support the group, just wondering if I'm the best for the job?!
Off to buy some mega cheap pirate movies and an unhealthy amount of junk food...
Hasta luego! Love, x
I spent the first half of my gap year working in a small, nice shop in Shrewsbury, selling kites and pens and cards to lots of nice people, and living at home hearing about everyone's awesome fresher's weeks and interesting, exciting lives, not appreciating my family enough because I definitely felt ready for change!
Really good experience for me living more independently, and rocket fights when the shop was empty were great, as was the extra time with the fam, but after a fantastic summer filled with people and things those few months felt very unstimulating and slow.
I'm loving meeting new people every day here, practicing Spanish, learning to teach, being taught, and being challenged with something new every day. And I love Peru- getting daily doses of sunshine is fantastic, the food is drool worthy and every Peruvian I've met so far has been lovely. I'm also appreciating my parents much more out here and loving Skype conversations!
Spent a busy weekend with friends- on Friday we took advantage of the pool at our friend Carlos' house, then Saturday visited ChanChan, one of the ancient sites near Trujillo. It was the elaborate capital city of the huge Chimu empire and is ridiculously big itself- hundreds of acres of ruins. To get to it you have to walk down a deserted desert road feeling totally lost, then you suddenly come across a massive touristy entrance building with 'I've been to Chan Chan' caps and all.
Spent the rest of the weekend at Huanchaco again, surfing and chilling. It was also the 127th anniversary of Huanchaco, a South American excuse to fiesta! On Sunday we were planning on going surfing in the afternoon as well as the morning but cancelled the afternoon, telling our surf instructors we'd be back tomorrow (day off), and at the same time inviting them to come to a salsa club with us that evening. In the end we decided not to go, assuming they'd be with other people anyway- when we got back to the surf shop next morning we were told we could have free lessons, plus a free trip out on the reed fishing boats native to the area- turned out they thought they'd stood us up the night before and were making up for it, oops!
The same morning found me wandering around the beach in my pyjamas in search of a beach yoga class....
Yesterday I went to the baby shower of two women from the mothers group. We chatted about knitting etc, drank inca cola, then Peruvian time caught up with us and the speaker that had been booked turned up, an hour late! She's a psychologist, and gave the mothers a crash course in parenting as a whole in about half an hour, and did it very well- but I was more than shocked when she told them it was fine to hit your child if on the third time of asking they don't obey!! I couldn't believe a trained professional was giving this as solid advice to mothers- it's a very common occurrence here, and kids have come to school with bruises before, but to actually say that you SHOULD do it is ludicrous!!
Another weird part- as a fun game for them to do after the talk they were given word searches. About half of these women are illiterate, if not with minimal education- it was simply embarrassing for most of them. I could see the woman on my left hiding hers, and looking over to see mine- weird choice.
Veronica, who used to help lead the group, is leaving in a few days, and they've asked me if I want to take her place as I've taken interest in the group. Very surprised as I've only been to two sessions! Not being what I consider to be mother age myself, I don't want to seem condescending to them, some of whom have daughters my age, so can hardly join in on the whole 'mother solidarity' thing... I've said a provisional yes as I'd love to support the group, just wondering if I'm the best for the job?!
Off to buy some mega cheap pirate movies and an unhealthy amount of junk food...
Hasta luego! Love, x
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
Buenos todos!
Sorry this is quite late... I am still alive and well!
To catch up:
Monica was a lovely bubbly 30 year old peruvian and the perfect guide to the city. We spent The best part of the day eating our way through the centre- she wanted me to try EVERYTHING so empanadas, chorizo, picorrones(fried squash donuts in syrup), cow heart and more were forced down my groggy self, washed down with plenty of Inca Cola, the national pop ( yellow Irn Bru + sugar), while experiencing the fine sights of the capital. It's a prettier city than I had expected, with loads of colonial mansions about and a few well-kept parks and plazas, and loads of policemen- I got a packed minibus home a little too late without a map, and found 3 helpful ones on my way home.
I've been in Trujillo, a city about 9 hours north of Lima (a 9 hour bus ride cost about a tenner, including food, ultra comfy duvet-chairs and newspapers- far nicer than a 9hr AA flight) for just over a week now, and am loving life here. I'm living in the bustly centre, a few minutes' walk from the main square and market, in a flat with 8 other lovely volunteers. When I first arrived I was greeted by an English woman, a Scotswoman and an Irish woman, apparently I was the first to make a joke! These were Ilana, Julie and Veronica, who is the funniest, sauciest, most impressive 66 year old I've ever met. Later that night Zac and Taylor, from Pennsylvania and Chicago, turned up, and in the morning I met Felicia, a Canadian volunteer who has returned 4 years after her gap year here, Ollala from Spain, and Garion, a fellow Brit.
Felt right at home here pretty quickly, it's a great mix of people!
So- this past week I have been finding my feet teaching the kids in the tiny classroom up in the poorest part of the city, Alto Trujillo, which is a 40 minute bone shaking drive away on a custer bus. It's a very run down area, but is very colourful at the moment with huge murals supporting the candidates for Peru's presidential election in April.
Up till march is the Peruvian summer holidays, which are being used to teach the 5-6 year olds the basics they need to join the main school- these aren't kids who have missed any schooling, but a lot of them have missed out on a stimulating home life so benefit hugely from learning basic literacy skills beforehand. A lot of them still won't get into school this year, and some not at all, which means that without the lessons at Bruce they'd grow up totally illiterate, as many of their parents are.
That's in the mornings- in the afternoons and saturdays we take shifts on running a library for all the kids in the area, where they can draw and read and play, or make us draw and read and play- I reckon I could be a Disney illustrator after working here a while!
There are also what I thought were Pregnant Teens' meetings on Tuesdays which has apparently changed considerably since the website started! They are now a group of mainly mother-aged women who mostly already have children and just want to learn to sew etc- there one pregnant one who's due tomorrow, and came today!!
Sorry if that's a bit long winded...
What else.. Spanish is going good! A few funny lost in translation moments- today I was for some reason given 3 meals at lunch, which I didn't complain about!
Loads of awesome people; for Zac's birthday last Thursday we went to a microbrewery with a load of peole Felicia met over Coachsurfing from about 20 different countries. Spent a chilled weekend at huanchaco beach in a mega cheap hostel, really cool crowd, live music and the biggest hamberguesas I've ever seen!
Ok that's me pretty much updated- hope you're all well and please please all stay in touch with fbook skype etc! Love, P
Sorry this is quite late... I am still alive and well!
To catch up:
Monica was a lovely bubbly 30 year old peruvian and the perfect guide to the city. We spent The best part of the day eating our way through the centre- she wanted me to try EVERYTHING so empanadas, chorizo, picorrones(fried squash donuts in syrup), cow heart and more were forced down my groggy self, washed down with plenty of Inca Cola, the national pop ( yellow Irn Bru + sugar), while experiencing the fine sights of the capital. It's a prettier city than I had expected, with loads of colonial mansions about and a few well-kept parks and plazas, and loads of policemen- I got a packed minibus home a little too late without a map, and found 3 helpful ones on my way home.
I've been in Trujillo, a city about 9 hours north of Lima (a 9 hour bus ride cost about a tenner, including food, ultra comfy duvet-chairs and newspapers- far nicer than a 9hr AA flight) for just over a week now, and am loving life here. I'm living in the bustly centre, a few minutes' walk from the main square and market, in a flat with 8 other lovely volunteers. When I first arrived I was greeted by an English woman, a Scotswoman and an Irish woman, apparently I was the first to make a joke! These were Ilana, Julie and Veronica, who is the funniest, sauciest, most impressive 66 year old I've ever met. Later that night Zac and Taylor, from Pennsylvania and Chicago, turned up, and in the morning I met Felicia, a Canadian volunteer who has returned 4 years after her gap year here, Ollala from Spain, and Garion, a fellow Brit.
Felt right at home here pretty quickly, it's a great mix of people!
So- this past week I have been finding my feet teaching the kids in the tiny classroom up in the poorest part of the city, Alto Trujillo, which is a 40 minute bone shaking drive away on a custer bus. It's a very run down area, but is very colourful at the moment with huge murals supporting the candidates for Peru's presidential election in April.
Up till march is the Peruvian summer holidays, which are being used to teach the 5-6 year olds the basics they need to join the main school- these aren't kids who have missed any schooling, but a lot of them have missed out on a stimulating home life so benefit hugely from learning basic literacy skills beforehand. A lot of them still won't get into school this year, and some not at all, which means that without the lessons at Bruce they'd grow up totally illiterate, as many of their parents are.
That's in the mornings- in the afternoons and saturdays we take shifts on running a library for all the kids in the area, where they can draw and read and play, or make us draw and read and play- I reckon I could be a Disney illustrator after working here a while!
There are also what I thought were Pregnant Teens' meetings on Tuesdays which has apparently changed considerably since the website started! They are now a group of mainly mother-aged women who mostly already have children and just want to learn to sew etc- there one pregnant one who's due tomorrow, and came today!!
Sorry if that's a bit long winded...
What else.. Spanish is going good! A few funny lost in translation moments- today I was for some reason given 3 meals at lunch, which I didn't complain about!
Loads of awesome people; for Zac's birthday last Thursday we went to a microbrewery with a load of peole Felicia met over Coachsurfing from about 20 different countries. Spent a chilled weekend at huanchaco beach in a mega cheap hostel, really cool crowd, live music and the biggest hamberguesas I've ever seen!
Ok that's me pretty much updated- hope you're all well and please please all stay in touch with fbook skype etc! Love, P
Monday, 31 January 2011
Blag-a-blog
Hello lovely friends, and whoever else might be reading this!!
I am now going to blag-a-blog. Apologies if it isn't a literary masterpiece, I am a fledgling blogger. AND I haven't slept in 30 hours.
So I'm here in Lima for a night before moving on to Trujillo, where I'll be working. Flight went smoothly, plane food not bad, and met lots of interesting people, including a woman from Honduras who has been living in Sweden for the last 30 years, who got confused at customs and was taken aside, then dragged me in too to translate for her (which I felt pretty chuffed about); a bunch of jamaicans including a guy whose brother plays Simba in the west ends lion king, true story. Then a far- too chatty Peruvian on my final flight who wanted to tell me allll his plans to open a motel, then literally told me his life story, how he immigrated illegally into the states, etc, while I stared zombily at him.
Now am in Miraflores which is by far the nicest part of town, the rest of the city I saw was as I expected, a mix of really modern and developed buildings, next to crumbling ruins of others- driving down the sea front there were huge piles of rubble and sand and people camping out amongst it, then every few hundred metres there was a little childrens play area, according to the taxi driver they were starting developments but had to stop for a bit due to money issues- seems odd to start construction with the play parks!
Meeting a lady called monica at some point today who has offered to show me a bit of the city, a random contact I made the day before I left!
I am now going to blag-a-blog. Apologies if it isn't a literary masterpiece, I am a fledgling blogger. AND I haven't slept in 30 hours.
So I'm here in Lima for a night before moving on to Trujillo, where I'll be working. Flight went smoothly, plane food not bad, and met lots of interesting people, including a woman from Honduras who has been living in Sweden for the last 30 years, who got confused at customs and was taken aside, then dragged me in too to translate for her (which I felt pretty chuffed about); a bunch of jamaicans including a guy whose brother plays Simba in the west ends lion king, true story. Then a far- too chatty Peruvian on my final flight who wanted to tell me allll his plans to open a motel, then literally told me his life story, how he immigrated illegally into the states, etc, while I stared zombily at him.
Now am in Miraflores which is by far the nicest part of town, the rest of the city I saw was as I expected, a mix of really modern and developed buildings, next to crumbling ruins of others- driving down the sea front there were huge piles of rubble and sand and people camping out amongst it, then every few hundred metres there was a little childrens play area, according to the taxi driver they were starting developments but had to stop for a bit due to money issues- seems odd to start construction with the play parks!
Meeting a lady called monica at some point today who has offered to show me a bit of the city, a random contact I made the day before I left!
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