Peru

I was planning on updating my blog today, but things got pretty busy!  I have started writing about my experience at the soccer game, but don't think I will finish it until tomorrow.  I also need to update you on my school.  Friday was a great day and I taught a few classes.  One to a kindergarten class and one to 9 high school boys.  It turned out better than expected!  It was a great weekend, but I am exhausted.  I will update my blog tomorrow on the soccer game and last Friday. I hope everyone is doing well.

It is amazing how quickly time passes. Monday we had the day off and a couple volunteers and I spend the morning wandering around the beach area. It was a beautiful day and the water was full of surfers and the rocky beaches had a few people trying to get some sun. We ended up walking out on the pier and having a drink in the fancy restaurant. We then had to catch a cab and rush back to the house so that we could make it back in time for lunch. After lunch Sarah and I wanted to go to a museum that was recommended by previous volunteers. It was one man’s collection of art, mostly pottery. The building I think used to be his house and it was beautiful. What I found most interesting was that the majority of the people visiting the museum were speaking English. The museum was quite small and we spent about an hour there before returning back to the house. It was a nice day off and we were able to explore a little more of the city.

Some of the schools were still closed because of the government holiday, so Sarah (her school was closed) came to school with me. We worked with two different 2nd grade classes teaching one class the song about colors and the other class “Head and Shoulders”. It was a little crazy, but it went well. I had no help from the teacher this time, so it was nice to have Sarah. I’m not sure how well it will go when I have to do it by myself. I guess I will find out Friday. On our way back to the house we were told by Mario (another driver) that there is a soccer game this Saturday between Peru and Paraguay. Sarah and I had been talking about maybe going to a game if there was one, so needless to say we were pretty excited. Mario told us where we could buy the tickets and as soon as lunch was over we were off to get them. We didn’t have much time because we had Spanish class at 3:00pm and it was about 2:20. After Spanish lessons we had to go to the travel agent, so we decided that it would be the best time to go. When we pulled up to Wongs (a grocery/everything store) we wandered around for a few minutes trying to find out where to buy the tickets. We finally asked someone and we were told that the booth was on the second level. We then went upstairs and found the ticket booth, but were then instructed to go downstairs to “door 3”. So we go back downstairs and have no idea where “door 3” is. By the time we find out and get to the ticket booth, the person working it had gone to lunch and wouldn’t be back for an hour. So we catch another cab and get back to our house just in time for Spanish class. After our hour long Spanish class we quickly went back to Wongs to buy our soccer tickets before we had to be at the travel agent. We get to the ticket booth and the guy tells us that it is cash only. Sarah only had her card, so we had to go find an ATM. We luckily found one across the street, bought the tickets and took a cab down to the travel agent and arrived 10 minutes late, but all was well. After spending an hour in the travel agent and booking a couple trips, it was then a quick walk back to the house. I had about 45 minutes to shower and get ready to meet up with a friend we had made. 6:50 pm and we were out the door with my hair still wet. We met up with Gianina for yogurt and a little Spanish practice. She speaks English, but we told her that we needed to practice our Spanish so she couldn’t speak to us in English anymore. It was a good evening. We were home by 9pm and I was ready for bed! It was a good, busy, but productive day.

Dinner is in 9 minutes and we are having chicken. I walked into the kitchen about an hour ago and saw her cutting it up, not sure I will be able to eat it!

I arrived at my school Friday morning ready to teach my three lessons, two English lessons to Kindergarten classes which was just going to be a song and coloring and then my English class with the high school students.  When I arrived at the school I wasn’t sure where the Kindergarten classes were so I one again went down to Patty’s office to ask.  Patty then told me that once again, today was going to be a different day.  There was an assembly planned for the whole time that I was there so that meant there were no classes.   I decided that I would go out and watch the assembly which was just about to start.  Antonio (the teacher in charge of the guinea pig project) came up to me and said something about me singing and sitting in one of the chairs in the front.  I didn’t really know what he wanted me to do but I told him that I don’t sing.  I also wasn’t too sure about sitting in the chairs in the front so I decided to linger in the back behind all the students where I knew I would be safe.  So after they were able to get all 1,000 or so students settled the assembly started.  I think that the assembly had multiple purposes, but I was still slightly unclear the purpose.  It seemed to be an assembly to celebrate the birthday of the school and to end the “Olympic Games” that the students had been participating in all week.  The assembly started off with the Peruvian nation anthem.  Then there are two nuns who work at the school from Angola and they sang their national anthem.  Then they played the Spain national anthem to represent the teachers from Spain.  THEN they played the school anthem!  I think there might have been a few other songs in there also, but it was too many to keep track of.  So then Antonio who seemed to be running the show was saying the names of the countries that other people from the school are from and he said Germany and then he said the United States and said my name, how old I was and where I was from.  At that moment is when I figured he was asking me if I would the national anthem and was still hoping that he wasn’t going to call me down in front of the whole school.  Lucky for me, he didn’t. So after all the national anthems were sung, the students, teachers and parents all sang Happy Birthday to the school.  I honestly think they sang it about 7 times in a row. It was pretty ridiculous.  Now the next part of the assembly I am not quite sure if I understand, but I think they were giving gifts to God.  They had an alter with the Virgin Mary on it and a few of the students when up and placed gifts at the alter.  The first two gifts were backpacks, I didn’t quite understand why.  The next few gifts were a hen, a duck and two guinea pigs!  But my favorite thing about it was that there was stray dog following the students who were holding the animals.  They of course just stood next to the alter with the animals, if not I bet the dog would have gone after them!  After that was done there was a skit of the history of Fe y Alegria (at least I think that is what it was).  Whatever it was, it was pretty cute.  The students who did the skit looked like they could be first or second graders.  They were all dressed up in costumes or holding what looked like a scarecrow type doll.  There were students dressed with no shoes, holes in their pants and dirt on their faces.  The opening scene was them dancing in a circle around a headless doll.  I think it was representing what life was like before the school was there.  If not, I have no idea what they were doing.  Then some kids came out holding a few posters, then a boy dressed as a priest, a few of the scarecrow type dolls, a girl dressed as a nun and a girl holding a poster of Jesus which was so large that you would only see her fingers wrapped around the sides and her shoes peeking out of the bottom.  Once they were all out they walked in a circle for a while and then it was done.  Whether is was the history of the school or not,  it was cute.  There were a few more skits and presentations that represented the integrity and beliefs of the school.  After all that was over with, it was time to give out metals to the top performers in the Olympic Games.  They started reading off names and having the student going up there one at the time to get a metal with tweedy bird on it.  I think by this point it had been close to two hours and half of the students had lost interest.  The assembly was outside and there are so many students that a few here and there got up and started to wander.  It seemed a little out of control.  Anyway, after they were able to get though all the awards, it was time for a few more games to end the competition.  They school had been split up into teams, the red team, blue team, and green and yellow teams.  They started off with a food eating competition.  What I thought was pretty funny about it was they started it off by playing with what seemed like kindergartners.  They looked so small!  There were two students per team and they each had to eat a banana, a roll and drink a mug of soda.  They were pretty slow, it was cute.  After the food eating competition they had a tug of war.  They used two pieces of rope and tied them together in the middle to form the knot.  They had gone through a few of the grades and then it was time for the last group to go.  It was the high school kids and some of them are pretty big.  So as soon as they pulled on it the knot came loose and the students on both teams went flying backwards to the ground.  Mind you this was in front of the whole school, oops!  They retied the knot and had the final tug of war.  By this point the assembly had been going on for maybe 3 hours.  The volunteer from Germany had met up with me half way through and was watching it with me.  We then decided to go get coffee in the teachers lounge, we had had enough of the assembly.  I peeked through the window of the lounge a time or two just to see what other games they were playing.  I saw all the students take off their jackets and sweaters and tie them all together to make a long rope.  I have no idea what the purpose of that was.  We drank our coffee and left the lounge in time to see the final round of games which consisted of the teachers bobbing for apples and the moms doing a race of peeling potatoes.  It was interesting to say the least! Oh yes, the assembly officially closed by once again singing Happy Birthday to the school.  Feliz Cumpleanos Fe y Alegria!

As I was on my way out of the school a little girl was leaving with her mom and she saw me and ran up to me and gave me a kiss.  I’m assuming she was in the second grade class, but it’s so hard to remember all the students!  It seems like more and more students each day know who I am and say hi to me, it’s a nice feeling.  Soon enough I will take my camera so you all can put a visual to my stories and experiences.

There is no school Monday, it’s a holiday.  I think we are going to go wander around the city and plan our Machu Picchu trip.  I’ve very excited for that!

Other than that, things are well.  21 volunteers showed up this weekend for a week, so it’s a busy house!  They range in age from 20 to 57 and come from all over the US.  It should be a good week.  I can’t believe that it’s already week 3!

Everyone in the house seems to be getting sick!!  People have had bad colds and now people are getting either food poisoning or the flu!!  (Including my roommate)  I am not particularly careful about not getting sick.  I brush my teeth with the tap water (most of the volunteers don't) and I will drink the coffee from my school.  Who knows how clean the water or the dishes are.  Anyway, I have yet to get sick and I keep hoping that I won't!

There was an assembly/competition at my school all day today so I didn't teach any of my classes.  It was very interesting to watch, I wish I had my camera.  To give you an idea, they played the national anthem for 3 different countries (I think they wanted me to sing ours), they sang Happy Birthday about 13 times (all to the school), there was a skit of the history of the school by 1st or 2nd graders and a food eating competition.  The kindergartners were the first round and they had to drink a mug of soda, a banana and roll.  It was pretty crazy!  I will write about it in detail later this weekend.  Some of the volunteers and I are heading out to a birthday party for a Peruvian woman that we met.  It should be fun, and a good opportunity for me to practice my Spanish.

I will write again soon.

Tomorrow is Thursday and there is nothing big on the schedule planned and I am glad!  As much as I wanted to actually “do something” at my school, I was quite nervous for both of my jobs.  I wasn’t too sure what I was going to do with the second grade class.  Kique gave me a sheet of songs to teach to the kids but they were all in Spanish, and I was supposed to be teaching them English.  Luckily there was one song in English and Spanish, it was about colors.  So I decided that would be the song that I would teach the kids.  I wasn’t really sure what else I would do with the students, but I just figured that I would go with the flow.  I arrived at the school and I wasn’t sure what classroom I was going to be in so I went and found the director of the primary school (who isn’t very friendly) and she told me that it was going to be a little different than originally planned.  I guess the plan was that half of the students were going to be in PE and the other half would be with me.  The thing that the PE teacher was gone and so I would be working with all 39 children!  Lucky for me, the teacher in the class was really nice and had a few ideas to go along with my song.  She wrote the song on the chalkboard and then the students and I sang the song together a few times.  Then she thought it would be a good idea for each table to sing the song, so I went around and the 7 different tables and I sang the song, then again once more with the whole class.  It was pretty cute.  After we sang the song about 13 times the students then copied the song down and drew little pictures next to the phrases.  I think that they enjoyed it.  What I also enjoyed was just seeing how a primary classroom was ran and what it looked like inside.  The walls in the room were bare and there were no books to been seen. I think the biggest difference was that there were 39 students and only one teacher.  I don’t know how she does it!  After our activity it was time for the kids to have snack.  It was sweet because 3 or 4 of kids came right up to me and offered me some of their snack.  I of course said no thanks, but it was a nice gesture from children who don’t have much to offer.  It was then time for recess and my short time with the second graders was over.  It was once again time for PE.  I worked with a really sweet group of girls (15, 16, 17 years) who preferred to learn children’s songs in English and since Luis Alberto (the PE teacher) doesn’t seem to care what we do, that is exactly what we did.  I taught them “If you’re happy and you know it”.  It was a nice change from volleyball.  The class ended and Luis Alberto was playing ping pong with some of the boys, so I went over to watch.  I then saw a little boy running toward me yelling my name.  It was one of the boys from the second grade class.  He ran up to me and gave me a kiss on the cheek (that’s how you greet hello and goodbye).  It was a nice way to end the day.

So things went well yesterday, but I was really nervous about this English class.  What brought some ease to the morning was when I walked into the school the second grade class who I helped yesterday was walking somewhere and when they saw me they started yelling my name and hugging me and one girl started to sing the song.  It really made me realize that I do prefer to work with the primary grades.  Anyway, there is another volunteer at my school (not with my organization) who I have met a few times and I decided to work with her in the morning tutoring these girls in English.  The English teacher wants them to learn and sing the song, More Than Words by extreme.  It was interesting to say the least, given that the girl doesn’t know the song very well and we don’t have any music to practice the song with.  I am going to help again with that tomorrow.  So I then asked the other volunteer if she would come and help me with my English class and she said she would.  After our Spanish tutoring she took me to the teacher’s lounge, which I didn’t know they had.  It was more or less a small room (which I guess might be someone’s living room) with a long table and you can order coffee, tea or other snacks.  I didn’t have any money on me, so the other volunteer (I don’t remember her name!) offered to buy me a coffee for .50 centimos (about 15 cents).  I was brought a cup of hot water and then I pour what looked like syrup into the hot water and that was the coffee.  It was odd, but it tasted good.  After our coffee it was time for the English class, but we first had to figure out which classroom it was in.  After figuring out the room, we had to wait for the class that was in there to end.  The last person to leave the room shut the door and it locked.  We then had to go hunt down a key!  After probably 20 minutes we were able to gather the students and get them settled in the classroom.  Lucky for me, only 8 of the students showed up (30 students were on the list for today and 20 for Friday).  There were 2 boys and 6 girls and they were 12 and 13 years old.  We worked on basic things like “I am a boy/girl”, “You are a boy/girl” and “She is a boy/girl”.  Some of them had trouble with it, but we made a game out of it so that it was somewhat fun.  We then worked on numbers and parts of the body.  I asked if they knew any parts of the body and they didn’t, so I thought I would teach them Head and shoulders.  They actually seemed to enjoy it.  I started really slow and then went faster and faster and I had them laughing by the end of it.  The English teacher then showed up to see how things were going and the students started saying, “I am a boy.  You are a boy.”  It was nice to see that maybe they had learned something!  The class was then over and I went to sit by the entrance of the school to wait for my ride.  Three of the girls who were in the class walked by me and were singing “Head and Shoulders”, it was pretty funny.  My day then ended with a girl from the primary school giving me this baby to hold (who started crying) and then bringing a few of her friends over to talk with me.  They were in 5^th grade and I had a difficult time talking with them, but I sure tried!

 At first I was worried that I wouldn’t get to know the kids very well because I work with so many of them, but now I think I will be making a lot of friends!

I am enjoying my school more and more.  Tomorrow will be a slow day, but that’s OK.  Friday I will be working with two kindergartner classes and the second English class.  This time I’m not so worried.

Today has been a long day and I am exhausted! I would like to write about my day and about my worries for tomorrow, but all I want to do is crawl into bed!   But just some quick notes.

-I worked with a second grade class today.  I taught them a song about colors, in English and Spanish.  They seemed to really enjoy it.  It was a nice change from PE.

-I have been waiting to start tutoring the high school kids in English and today I was given the list of the students who need help.

-50 names on the list, and the teacher asked me what I was going to teach!!  Teach?!?  I thought I was just going to tutor a few students!  So tomorrow I will have a class of high school students, no material or lesson plans!  I’m scared! 

Anyway, I will plan to write tomorrow and let you know more about my experience with the second graders and how things went teaching English! 

The weekend came and went.  I was looking forward to sleeping in and I did just that, not crawling out of bed today until around noon.  This is also because everyone in the house went out late last night and slept in.  I find there isn’t much to do in the house.  I woke up around 8 and then waited a while to go have breakfast.  I ate breakfast at 9 which consisted of a roll.  I am craving an American breakfast!  The MESA CAFE!  Since everyone was still sleeping I went back to bed and played on my computer, uploading photos and other things.  At noon when the rest of the house decided to wake up my roommate Sarah and I went to pick up our laundry which was suppose to be done yesterday but wasn’t.  On our walk down to get our laundry we saw something that we haven’t seen before, the sky!!  The thick cloud coverage that is usually there was still present, but it wasn’t as bad.  We could see some blue and we could FEEL the sun.  For the first time I got HOT and it was wonderful!  Now I can only cross my fingers that it will happen more often.  After we got our laundry we had lunch and we were off to Casa de Panchita.  (I wrote it wrong on my pervious entry when I said it was Casa la Panchita)  When we arrived we expected to assist in the language classes again, but one of the teachers was absent so they wanted one of us to teach the class.  I said I would do it if one of the other volunteers did it with me, and Johanna agreed.  I was shown the classroom and given a white board marker and told to teach something.  No lesson plans, no material, I was on my own.  There were only 4 students in the class which was nice and they were all new to the program.  There ages were 18, 20, 55 and 57.  They didn’t really know any English so we worked on the basics.  We worked on greetings, numbers, colors, the alphabet and parts of the body.   The class was two hours long and time flew.  Earlier this morning I wasn’t too sure if I wanted to go, but I was really glad that I did.  After Casa de Panchita two of the other volunteers and I went to a sports bar where they show NFL games.  The Seahawks were playing and I really wanted to watch the game.  We got there at the end of the 2^nd quarter and stayed until the 4^th quarter.  We had to get home for dinner at 7pm.  It was a slow but good weekend.

Tomorrow is a new week and I wish I was positive about my school, but I have a feeling that I won’t be doing much tomorrow.  On my schedule is the “Guinea Pig Project” and I usually do nothing for that, and then PE.  Both of those activities I find myself not doing very much.  On Tuesday and Friday I am scheduled to work with the 5, 6 and 7 year olds which I am looking forward to.  I will be teaching them English, or at least trying to.  I am going to give my school one more week and if I still feel like I am not doing much I am going to go to a different place.  There are a few other facilities where the volunteers work with children and they seem to be quite busy and helpful. 

I have uploaded my photos onto flickr.com so please feel free to look at them.

http://flickr.com/photos/14173192@N06/

Goodnight.

I wrote this BLOG on Thursday night but was unable to connect to the internet to get it on, so here it is now.

 

 

I have been here for week today and I can't believe it.  It feels like I have been here for a lot longer.  Even though this week at my school was not so great, I know that next week will be better.  Kique came with me to my school this morning and I think he helped out a lot.  I had him talk with the teacher who is in charge of the "Guinea Pig Project" just to make sure that I was fully understanding what was going on.  The teacher doesn't speak any English, so who knows what is lost or misunderstood in translation.  Then Kique talked to the principal about me doing less PE and more work inside the classroom, preferably with the younger kids.  So I went and talked with the principal of the primary school and we set up a few days where I would be able to come in and sings songs and play games with the 6 and 7 year olds.  So with a better understanding of the "Guinea Pig Project", having the list of the students who need tutoring in English AND helping out with the primary kids, I think next week will be a great week. 

 

Anyway, after Kique left me I played a game of volleyball (which was not so great) and then a game of soccer (I think I scored 3 goals) and then another game of volleyball.  The kids seemed to be more interested in me today and by the end of the day my team in the volleyball game was cheering me on.  For the first time I think I really enjoyed being at my school.  BUT, I have small purple bruises all over the lower half of my arm because my team though I was the best at serving and they kept wanting me to do so, or they knew that if I did they didn't have to hit the terribly hard bad!  Either way, it was a better day and I know that next week will be even better.

 

It’s time to get to bed, I need to get enough rest to help work on the pens for the Guinea Pigs tomorrow!

 

 

Our first day was finally here, and I was pretty nervous.  The van ride that we took yesterday to Villa El Salvador felt too long, but the same van ride today didn’t seem long enough.  When we got to my school I was crossing my fingers that Kique would walk in with me and stay for a while, but that didn’t happen.  Kique walked me into the school where we found the principal and I was given my weekly schedule.  My schedule consists of helping with PE, English and with Proyecto Manos Productivas which is the project with the guinea pigs and ducks.  I wasn’t thrilled with the schedule for today, which is to work with the PE teacher all morning, nothing else.  The other thing that I wasn’t thrilled with was that I would be working with the secondary school, not the elementary school which was what I wanted to do.  So I was introduced to the PE Teacher, Luis and then Kique left me.  Luis was a nice guy who spoke minimal English, and by minimal I mean maybe ten words.  So I followed him to the basketball court where I watch a group of girls play basketball.  The court was small and the cement was covered in dirt.  For some reason I just wanted to sweep it, I thought maybe they could play better.  Well anyway, I just watched for about fifteen minutes and had no idea if I should be doing anything.  Then the bell rang and it was time for a new class.  Luis took me down to the field and told me that a couple classes would be coming to play soccer.  The students arrived and Luis introduces me and then wants me to introduce myself.  Yikes!  I pretty much said what he already said because I didn’t know how to say anything else.  After the applause that Luis has them give me, he tells me something which I don’t quite understand.  He motions blowing into his whistle and in English says, “watch” and leaves to go referee another basketball game.  I wasn’t quite sure what he wanted me to do.  Did he want me referee the soccer game?  I turned around to see what the kids were doing and they had already started to play.  There were two games going on, on the same field with the same goals.  A girl’s game and a boy’s game.  There were probably 40 kids on the field wearing the same uniform.  There was no way I was going to ref either of those games.  So I decided to just “watch”.  There were large cement benches on the side of the field so I just sat and watched the chaos.  Now when I say field, what I really mean is a area full of dirt and massive rocks, not to mention broken glass and a stray dog or two wondering around.  There were goals at either end and that was about it.  So I just sat there and watched, for about 45 minutes.  I wasn’t very happy.  I wanted to be interacting with the kids and helping them, not watching them play soccer.  While I was sitting there I noticed the primary classrooms and all I wanted to do was to go in and help.  Well after that class was over Luis came back and asked me if I wanted to work with the girls in the next class.  It was a large class of 16 and 17 year olds, but it was mostly boys, only 9 girls.  I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting myself into but I had to say yes.  So we went into the classroom and Luis explained the situation to the students and then left with the boys and left me inside with the girls.  The kids from the previous class didn’t really seem to care that I was there and I was worried that these girls felt the same way, but 4 or 5 of them were really nice and helpful to me.  I guess there was a break before PE class started, which I didn’t really understand, so the girls gave me a tour of the school.  It is a very large school and they have classes like woodshop and sewing.  When break was over it was time to start PE and they decided that they wanted to play volleyball.  So we got a ball and passed it around but that didn’t last very long because the girls thought the ball was too hard.  So we decided to play a game of soccer.  We split up into two teams, 4 on 4 (I had lost a couple girls by this point) and we played a good game.   It was then time for them to go to class and time for me to be meeting a new group of students.  I said goodbye to the girls and then went to find Luis who was at the other side of the school with some boys playing ping pong.  I helped him put the tables away and then we wondered to the next class.  It was a group of 14 and 15 year olds.  He once again introduced me and then had me introduce myself and then I think the wanted me to work with the girls again, but this class had a large group of girls and I was going to leave at any moment.  I told Luis I wouldn’t be around for much longer and he took all of the kids.  We all went up to the basketball court were the kids got into small circles and did some exercises to work on their balance and coordination.  Again I just sat and watched, but at least this time Luis didn’t leave me.  We watched for about 15 minutes and then Luis said he was going to go to his office (maybe for lunch) and I could just go sit in the office and wait for my ride.  I went to the office and waited for Jorge to arrive (our driver) and about 10 minutes later he did and I couldn’t have been more excited.

I left the site feeling frustrated and disappointed. I felt like I didn’t do anything and I felt that working in a PE setting isn’t something that I really wanted to do.  Tomorrow will be a different day with different activities, and no PE.  I am going to stick it out for the week and see how it goes.  If things don’t work out the program is very good about putting the volunteers into a situation that is better for them.  I just want to feel like I am helping and am making a difference.

When we got back to the house we had lunch and then a brief meeting to discuss our feelings about our first days.  Then we had a Spanish class which went well, considering all I wanted to do was take a nap!  I then took a nap, ate dinner and then took an exciting hour long taxi ride.  Some of the other volunteers and I piled into a taxi to go see some fountains at a park (we were told they are really neat).  I guess they are big and lit up with different colors, and it’s something different to do.  So we get about a block away from our house and the girl in the front seat says she doesn’t feel well but will be OK.  Two stops at restrooms later (which were not easy to find) we make it to the park to find that the fountains work everyday except for Monday and Tuesday, oops.  So we stay in our taxi and head back to the house, but not without stopping at another bathroom.  All in all, it was a nice tour of the city. 

Anyway, I am going to call it an early night, I need to get some sleep for my big day with the guinea pigs and duks!

Today was our first day which was more of an orientation day.  We went to the local community Villa El Salvador where we will be volunteering.  This community is just south of the Lima, about a twenty minute drive for us.  It was obvious when we entered Villa El Salvador as the sidewalks turned to dirt, the houses were often missing walls and there was an abundance of stray dogs.  It wasn’t like any place I had ever seen.  The community seemed to go on forever and ever, and so did the car ride.  We finally arrived at Los Martincitos, which is an organization that is specialized for the elderly.  150 local senor citizens go to Los Martincitos three times a week for meals and other organized classes.  As we entered the facility we were greeted with hugs and kisses from the women and smiles and waves from the men.  They were so excited and happy to see us, but sadly we were only there for an orientation on Villa El Salvador.  Around 1960 many people had migrated to Lima from the mountains and other small coastal towns.  The city was getting overcrowded so around 200 families got together and decided to stake out on empty land nearby downtown lima and call it home.  One day when the police were organized with an international event in Lima, the 200 families took woven mats and turned them into houses on the empty land, stuck a Peruvian flag on top and called it home.  The government didn’t want the families to be in that area so they made a deal that they would be given other land to live on and assistance with electricity and water.  Around 10 days after those 200 families made there homes on the land they were being moved to their new homes along with 4,800 families that joined them.  The land there were given was nothing more than a massive sand dune.  No water, no electricity, nothing at all.  Through careful planning and organization, the families were able to build a community which is now known as Villa El Salvador and is now home to 160,000 people.  After we were given the history of Villa El Salvador we were taken to the different places where the volunteers would be going to.  They include a daycare/school for families who are living in extreme poverty.  I think they said that what considers extreme is a family of 4 living on $1 a day.  The children spend most of the day being fed, especially the babies and toddlers.  Another place is a school for children with disabilities.  We walked into a first grade classroom while the students were eating (there was only 5 of them) and this one girl who is Autistic got up and looked at all of us closely and when she got to me she decided to wipe her face on my jacket.  Mind you she was eating and half of her lunch was on her face, and now my jacket.  Lucky me!  Then we went to the school where I will be working, Fe y Alegria (faith and happiness).  This is one of the better schools in the community and goes up to 11^th grade.  We only had time for a brief tour and meeting with the principal.  She asked if I knew any American dances to teach.  Me!  I don’t think so!  Then asked if I could teach cooking!  For those of you who know me well know I can’t do either.  She then asked about sports and I said that I could do a PE class, soccer maybe?  My main purpose will be tutoring 7^th graders in English who aren’t doing so well.  She also informed me that they are raising ducks, and guinea pigs (probably to eat).  This should be interesting!  After our tour of Villa El Salvador we went back to the house for lunch, but Kique (the program director) had a surprise for us.  When we got out of the van he handed us all a piece of paper.  Mine said:

“You are part of the CCS (Cross Cultural Solutions) PR team.  Buy the ingredients necessary (French bread, English ham and Edam cheese) to fix six servings of the favorite recipe in Peru.  Once you have made the sandwiches, go out and give the sandwiches to people in the street.  Don’t forget to smile during the whole exercise.”

Needless to say I wasn’t thrilled when I read this.  I was planning to eat lunch and take a nap!  Buy lucky for me, another girl had the same task so we decided to do it together.  We got some money, walked down to the grocery store and bought the supplies and then returned to the house and made the 12 sandwiches.  We then went out near our house and found 12 people to give the sandwiches to.  I think the people thought we were crazy, and some even rejected us.  I was glad once they were all given out!  The point of the exercise was to get us involved and familiar with the community.  I guess it wasn’t that bad.

After lunch a friend and I went to the Indian market and I bought my Alpaca hat and some AMAZING slippers for $10!  If they had a UGG sticker on them, they would cost a lot more than $10!

I’m still trying to figure out the best way to post my pictures.  I will let you know soon.