Domingo (Sunday)

Today I got to talk to Mom on Skype.  It was good to see a familiar face and hear a familiar voice.  She got to see Tino, Lauren, and some of the place where I'm living.

I'm starting to feel a bit more at home here.  I think the initial anxiousness is wearing off and I'm starting to settle in a bit.  I think anyone who knows me well knows that I'm really hard on myself.  As far as teaching goes, I'm trying to just take a deep breath and know that I'm doing my best with these kids.

This morning, Lauren and I thought we were going to go with Emil and the man who he and Ylva tutor to see a church.  We thought it was closer by, but when we realized it was in Concepcion, we decided to stay in Huancayo and walk down to the Sunday market.

Walking along the Sunday market.

We walked along and more people asked where we were from.  We saw more tourists wandering about, so we figured that it's beginning to be tourist season.  We got various things and then walked back up toward the house.

I bought a few things from this woman.

I got a chicken burger for lunch.  They are really cheap and pretty tasty.  They are less than a dollar, which is insane.  They actually put french fries in the bun with the burger.

Chicken Burger...yum!

After the market, Lauren and I wrote up an exam for our older class and then I watched a movie.  We all went to La Rustica for dinner, which was really good.  I got a big salad, chorizo, and a skewer of corazon (heart).  There was really good service and the prices were better than the touristy restaurant we went to last Sunday.  Max got a pisco sour and Emil got a pina colada.  We told him that he had to tie the cherry stem in his mouth and after awhile he took it out and said it was too hard.  He hadn't eaten the cherry!  We had a good laugh about that.

Now we're back at home and tomorrow we start all over again...

Ingenio, Concepcion, y San Jeronimo

Today we went in a combi to Ingenio with Mari.  We went to the bus station to make sure we would all get seats.  Emil was trying to be a gentleman and give a woman and her kids a seat.  Mari said, "Oh, no, he shouldn't have given up his seat."  She said it for two reasons: he would have to stand for the hour-plus drive to Ingenio and since he is so tall and the buses are made for shorter people, he would have to stand hunched over.  Somewhere along the way, Lauren stood and he sat.

The trout tourist attraction in Ingenio.

When we got to Ingenio, we went to the trout tourist attraction.  There were trout in large pools of water.  There were spigots that had water rushing out of them in a sort of waterfall and every so often a trout would jump up into the waterfall.  We got a bit of the way into the attraction when it started to rain and then to pour.  We stood underneath an overhang for awhile and a woman came by selling umbrellas and plastic tarps.  After we had waited a bit, we decided to go out in the rain and get lunch.

Trout with garlic sauce, potatoes, salad, and mate de manzanilla.   Yum!!!

They had various types of trout dishes.  I got trout with garlic sauce, Lauren and Mari got grilled trout, and Ylfa got trucha crocante (crispy trout - sounds weird in English :) ).  Max doesn't like fish, so he got pachamanca.  Emil also got pachamanca.  The pachamanca is cooked underground.  There was pork and beef, potatoes, sweet potatoes, a sweet sort of tomal, and corn.  All of that food for just five dollars.  All of the food was yummy!  After we ate, we went out behind the restaurant and a man who worked at the restaurant gave us some large coins to play a game.  There was a tall box to throw the coins at, and if you got it into one of the holes in the top they would fall into a slot that indicated how many points you got.  We also saw the cutest puppy there.  Everyone was playing with the little puppy.

The game we played a the restaurant.

After that we went to some of the artisan shops on the side of the road.  Tino's sister owns one of the shops there so we stopped there.  I got a purse and a poncho made of alpaca.  After we poked into all of the little shops, we went down to get a combi to Concepcion, where Lauren and I teach in the mornings. We hiked up the stairs to the statue of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.  We were all wheezing by the time we got to the top.  Lauren go to the top the fastest, then me, then Max and Franci, and then Mari and Emil and Ylfa.  Max was proud because he smokes and he still got up there faster than some of the non-smokers.

The statue of the Virgin Mary, where we climbed to the top.

  Lauren and I climbed the stairs up to the top of statue.  We lost our breath again going up the steps.  The final stretch was on some metal stairs that culminated in a small platform at the top.  We both barely fit and were being very careful as we took pictures of each other.  There really wasn't much safety precaution up there.

At the top of the Virgin Mary statue.

We waited for the others to go up to the top and in the meanwhile, went to look at the cart with souvenirs.  I bought some keychains there to remember it by.  When we were walking back down, I was talking to Mari.  She was telling me that Tino had gotten into an accident when he was in a bike race and had ripped up his face really badly.  She had been paying for some pots and had to tell the lady that she couldn't buy them anymore because her husband needed medical care.  The woman told her just to use the meat off of crickets to heal the wounds.  So Mari went out and looked under rocks for crickets.  She said that she got hundreds of crickets and they tore off the legs and put the meat onto his wounds.  She said that he barely has scars from that accident now.  So crazy!  She said she encountered scorpions and spiders when she was looking under rocks for the crickets.

As we walked down the streets to catch a combi to San Jeronimo, some women from on top of of a building started whistling at Max and calling, "Amor!"  It was really funny when he looked up and realized they were all howling at him.  He turned bright red and everyone laughed.

San Jeronimo rainbow.

When we got to San Jeronimo, there was a big rainbow in the sky.  I haven't seen a rainbow in so long.  It was so pretty!  There are lots of shops selling silver and gold in San Jeronimo.  We peeked into a lot of shops and I ended up buying a really pretty heart necklace.  We were all tired by then after a long day, so we hopped in another combi and went home.

Lauren and I went into town to drop off our laundry.  She only brought one pair of jeans, so she was wearing shorts.  We couldn't go a block without men whistling and catcalling.  It was pretty funny.  Even a couple of policeman whistled at her.  I was laughing so hard.  We went to the store there and she got some leggings to put under her shorts so she wouldn't have that problem anymore.  Haha!  We were going to head on home, but then Lauren wanted to stop in a shoe store to get some flats.  I looked at some of the boots (I know, dangerous) and I ended up getting a pair of really sweet reddish boots.  I know I need to control myself in that area because I really don't have much room in my luggage!  At least I have one pair of Peruvian boots.

When we got home, Mari and Emil started playing chess.  We ate dinner while they were playing and Mari brought out popcorn after we had finished eating dinner.  I was hoping to go to karaoke, but it's raining and we're all tired...so another time.  Now it's time for sleep!!!

Jueves (Thursday), Viernes (Friday) and Victor, and Sabado (Saturday)

On Thursday I was feeling a bit discouraged with my classes because I felt like they were getting bored with what we had been doing.  They were still following along, but my younger class seemed like they were either daydreaming or talking to classmates.  They were getting bored of the same old games and I was trying to figure out how to fill the time.  My older class looked like they were falling asleep.  I had put them into groups, mixing the guys in with the girls since the guys seem to know more than the girls for some reason.  It sort of worked, but when we had them present in front of the class, they spoke so softly and some of the other kids were talking.  I need to find some way to boost all of their confidence!

Thursday night I was so tired and was wondering how I was going to survive teaching for three months.  It's really hard to figure out what they already know, accommodate for all of the different levels in one class, and keep them all engaged.  I'm not sure when to move on from a subject either because some of them get it and some of them don't.  Plus, they have a harder time pronouncing things than writing them down.  If anyone has any tips...  :)

On Thursday afternoon, I went to the mountain school with the other volunteers.  I am planning to go there every Tuesday and Thursday when I'm not working on the website.  Those students are very frustrating to work with.  They are bright, but they act up a lot.  Students are yelling to ask if they should copy things, yelling out answers, yelling that they don't want to do it, yelling that they are done copying, and yelling that they need a pencil.  Because there is so much yelling, I found myself yelling and not having so much fun.  I had told Franci that we should do the Hokey Pokey since they were learning body parts.  She was helping in the classroom I was in since Emil was sick and had stayed home.  We told them to go outside to do the Hokey Pokey and they immediately started playing other games.  It took a good while to get them all rounded up and then I had to scream the Hokey Pokey twice.  My voice was stretched to the limit.  I told Dave I'd come back from here with lungs of steel because of the altitude, and he said either that or with lungs of a heavy smoker.  After yelling for so long, I was coughing and coughing.  The kids are great at the mountain school, but they are really wearing.  I must admit I enjoy teaching the students at Concepcion better than at the mountain school.

Thursday night and Friday morning I had a few epiphanies.  I found some books in our small library that I could use for both classes on Thursday after coming back from the mountain school.  On Friday morning, I woke up and thought of doing Simon Says with the younger students after teaching them some parts of the body.  For the older students, I wrote up some homework for the weekend.  I felt a bit more enthused to go to class.

My younger students had a little bit of trouble with the body parts and Simon Says, but it was something different and I think it helped them to remember some of the vocabulary.  I keep going over simple phrases every day, like "How are you today?" and "What day is it?"  It can get a little bit discouraging when they answer, "My name is..." or "It is January."  I know some of them are understanding and others are just guessing.  After that I read them "Go, Dog, Go."  They really liked the pictures and I think they started to understand what was going on in the story.  They were laughing and some of them asked me to please read it again.  We didn't have anymore time though and so I said I might read it next week.  I think books are a good way to go!  If anything just to hear English more.

At the beginning of the class for my older students, I wrote all the homework on the board.  They all copied it down and then I explained what they were supposed to do.  I'm hoping to see good results and hopefully Lauren and I can come up with an exam to give this week.  I think that might get them to study some more.  I had brought a book called, "I Need a Friend."  There were three copies but also two new boys in the class.  They had to share them three to a person.  We went around each person reading a page aloud.  Then we went page by page to work on the vocabulary.  I had to do a lot of acting out so that they could understand what was going on.  There are a group of three boys who like to blurt out anything that comes to mind.  A lot of times they are right, too.  They were laughing at me when I was acting out "feel sorry."  There's a page that says, "All by myself I can skin my knee, but I need a friend to feel sorry."  So I was going up to a girl and saying in Spanish, "Pobrecita, lo siento que no te sientes bien."  They were all laughing at me, but they finally understood what it meant.  We had fifteen minutes left after we finished with the book and so I quickly improvised.  Lauren and I drew a picture on the board and they had to tell us what it was in English.  Most they were shouting out in Spanish and then we were helping them with the English word.  Lauren and I were laughing so hard, mostly because of our bad drawings.  That's where Victor comes in.

Victor, a student in my older class at Concepcion.

Victor is one of the smarter students and usually knows what's going on.  He isn't afraid to try to figure out what we are saying in English and most of the time he has a good idea of how to say it in English also.  When I drew an ocean up on the board, he and the other two boys who are vocal, shouted out, "Mar!"  I kept on having to remind the class that we wanted the English word.  So then he shouts out, "Mer!"  I think that maybe Lauren and I were in a delirium since it was Friday at the end of class.  I laughed and told him, "Now you are speaking in French!"  He smiled and we had a good laugh.  Then I wrote, "Have a good weekend!!!" on the top of the board and Lauren and I sighed in relief because we had survived the first week at school.

When we caught a taxi in Concepcion, it was starting to rain pretty hard and when we got out of the taxi in Huancayo, it was sprinkling.  We have quite a few blocks to walk to get home from the Plaza Constitucion, so we started walking hurriedly.  There was thunder and it seemed to be following us.  We walked faster and faster and got home ahead of the rain.

In the afternoon I stayed at the house to have my Spanish lesson and to brush up some more on how to create a website.  I also started to look up the favorite songs of the students in my older class.  One of them is "Club Can't Handle Me."  I think it will be fun to present some of the songs and get them to learn more English vocabulary that way.  When I looked up the lyrics, though, I realized I needed to have someone translate the English for me in some parts.  :)  It may not get them to learn too much, but I think it would be a fun thing to do nearing the end of the week when they are falling asleep.

When the others came back to the house, Lauren and I went for a walk to find the other artisan market that we had gone to with Emil and Ylfa the first week.  We walked around and I bought more scarves.  They have such beautiful scarves for so cheap that I couldn't resist.  I was also looking for a sweater for my mom, but I didn't see anything that jumped out at me.  After that we rushed home to be in time for dinner.  Mari is such a good cook!  She always makes something that is so tasty.  They eat a lot of meat, potatoes and vegetables here.  In the mornings it seems she always has a different kind of porridge.

It's Saturday morning now and we are going to Ingenio, a tourist fishing town, with Mari.  It is known for its trout, although she said they also have some places to take walks and some artisan shops.  We are going to eat lunch there and she said that there are many dishes with trout, like ceviche, as well as other non-trout dishes like pachamanca.  Pachamanca is a typical Peruvian dish that is usually cooked under the ground.  Different types of meat can be used for pachamanca although I think lamb is one of them most common.  Max doesn't like fish, so I think he is going to try the pachamanca.

One day this week, Leslie, my Spanish teacher, told me that there is a karaoke bar nearby.  I've convinced the other volunteers to go out with me tonight to the karaoke bar.  They said they weren't going to sing, but it should be a good time anyway.

Miercoles (Wednesday) y Milagros

The view outside the window of Tino's house in Huancayo.

It's been raining a lot lately in Huancayo, which makes the roads muddy.  Even so, it still seems pretty dusty.  Most of the rain comes at night.  It was raining pretty hard just now.  The rain doesn't stop people from shooting off fireworks though.  It seems to be a regular event to hear the loud pops of fireworks.  I'm not sure if it is year-round or just leftover from the New Year's celebrations.  Leslie, my Spanish teacher, says that New Year's is a really important day here.

This morning Lauren and I had to go to the school at Concepcion by ourselves because Tino had to take care of some paperwork for the school.  We knew we would get there okay, but we were a little unsure of getting home.  Tino gave us a little map of where to catch a taxi in Concepcion and where to have the taxi drop us off.

Today in the class with younger students, they were pretty well-behaved because they wanted to do an exercise I had them do yesterday for the first time.  They kept asking me if we were going to do the same thing.  I had written down seven verbs, one for each student, and had them repeat the verb and then tell me what it was in Spanish and then act out the action.  They are all so cute.  They were a little shy to sing by themselves, but when I had them do it all together, they all sang the same song.  I think I like the exercise as much of them.

The little girl whose picture I posted is Milagros.  When I asked her what her name was the first day, I repeated it as only Milagro.  She made sure I knew it was Milagros.  I thought it was amusing because she's not just a miracle, but more than one.  She is pretty well-behaved and pretty smart, although a lot of times she tries to see what other people are saying before she says anything.  Unfortunately she's not smiling in the picture, but she's always smiling in class.

Milagros, one of the younger students in my class at the school in Concepcion.

When I went upstairs to teach the older class, Wendy, one of Lauren's students, was still upstairs.  Her eyes lit up and she came running to me and said, "Teacher!"  She gave me a big kiss.  She is the cutest little girl I have ever seen.  I've been thinking about packing her in my suitcase to take her home with me.

Our older class was sleepy today.  They all looked like they were about to fall asleep although they were all still following the lesson.  I tried the same exercise with the verbs as I had done with the younger kids and they all looked like they were too cool to do it.  I guess we'll have to try something else.

Lauren and I walked to where Tino had told us to go to find a taxi.  There was only one and people were getting in just as we were coming up to it.  Thankfully we remembered where we had caught the taxi the first day with Tino and went there.  We made it back without a hitch and I got to practice some Spanish with people other than Tino, Mari, and Leslie.

After lunch I had my Spanish lesson.  She liked the story I had written and we talked more and I did more exercises.  I'm getting better at it!  Little by little.

I worked on creating a button in Photoshop for the webpage this afternoon.  It's going to be slow going, but hopefully I'll be able to get the hang of it pretty soon.

I'm exhausted.  The garbage truck woke me up at 6:45 this morning with it's funny music.  I'm going to finish my homework and go to sleep!  Sleep well everyone!

Martes (Tuesday) and Paola

Today was only my third day of teaching.  I'm getting more comfortable at it, but I have so much respect for all of my teachers.  It's hard to come up with something interesting to teach them each day that isn't too much of a review.  They really need work on pronunciation, although they write everything pretty well.  I still didn't have a whiteboard in the classroom, but I bought a notebook yesterday of Fresita (Strawberry Shortcake) and used that to write down the lesson.  The little girls said they were envious of my Fresita notebook.  ;)

I really wanted to learn the students names, so I took pictures of them when they came in the classroom and made sure I matched them with their name that they wrote down for attendance.  Some of the names are quite different from English names, so I was having a little bit of a hard time remembering how to say them.  Anyway, I thought I would share a picture a day of one of my students.  They were so cute when I took their pictures.  Some of them smiled shyly and some of them looked like, "What the heck are you taking my picture for?"  The girl I'm showing you today is Paola.  She is a good student and isn't one of the ones who acts up.  She is very sweet and smart.  I was sitting in the seat next to her yesterday since we have a very small table in the classroom where I am teaching them.  Today, someone wanted to sit next to her and she said, "No, that is where teacher is going to sit."  Such a sweetheart!

Paola, a student from my class of younger students at the school in Concepcion.

Today after the morning class, we took a combi back to Huancayo instead of a taxi.  Tino said that the taxi takes 30 minutes from Concepcion to Huancayo, a combi (like a small van) takes 45 minutes, and the bus takes an hour and twenty minutes.  I asked him how much the taxi costs since he said tomorrow he can't come to the school with us.  He has money from the government that he has been using to pay our transportation, so we don't really know how much it costs.  Anyway, he said that a taxi was 3 soles per person.  That's like a dollar per person for a 30-minute taxi ride.  Insane!  If taxis were like that in the US, I doubt anyone would have a car!  

I stayed at home this afternoon to try to get familiarized with photoshop and dreamweaver.  I'm slowly remembering what I learned about creating a website.  If anyone has any pointers, let me know!  I was just reading up on tutorials and it is slow going.  I did get some things accomplished though, so I felt good about that.  

I had my second Spanish lesson today.  I don't think I talked to much about my Spanish lesson yesterday, but she said that they had karaoke here in Huancayo.  I asked the other volunteers if they would come with me and they said they would come to watch me make a fool of myself.  I'm hoping that Leslie, Tino's niece and my Spanish teacher, will be able to come with us sometime.  My second lesson went really well.  I'm glad to be able to have some time to practice Spanish in a continuous conversation.  She was helping me with some of the verbs I have a harder time with, which is exactly what I wanted!  I have to write a story for my homework, so I have to get started with that soon.

After dinner, Ylva told me that Tino was going to take her to get yarn on Thursday and that I should come since I wanted to start the weaving lessons after her.  I'm so excited because I'm sure the yarn will be much cheaper than I can get it in the US and it's alpaca wool.  So nice!  I can't wait!  So sue me that I'm getting so excited about getting cheap wool to weave and knit.  :)

Backtrack to Last Night

Last night Tino had a talk with all of the volunteers and it turned quite hilarious by the end.  He was asking everyone what they thought needed to happen as far as discipline at the mountain school.  They have a lot of energy and end up talking to other students, rocking in their chairs, and standing in the windows.  The other volunteers also said that the kids would disrupt the other classes when they had their five minute break, so Franci said that there should be a bell for all the classes to get out and come back in.  Emil said we could get a cowbell and then Max said that we could put it around Emil's neck so they could hear us coming up the hill.  Everyone was dying laughing.  

After the group talk, I helped Tino with his English.  He asked me about the bell and asked if it was a "campana de vaca" (cowbell) that they were talking about.  I told him he was right and he said, "I thought I was following it right, but I wasn't quite sure."  Then he told me that they use those bells for alpacas here.  Then he was asking me questions about items in the kitchen.  If anyone can tell me what the piece of furniture is called that is in the kitchen and has glass in the doors so you can see the dishes, let me know, because I was at a loss for what this was called.  He was so excited though and kept saying we should stop and then he would ask another question.  We didn't leave the table until around 10:30 PM.

Lunes (Monday)

The Virgin Mary of Immaculate Conception.

This morning, Lauren and I went with Tino to the school at Concepcion.  This time Lauren and split up the younger students into two groups.  I took the older of the two groups.  We had to make do without a whiteboard, which was a little bit hard.  They all seemed to be doing well, although I'm trying to think of some ways to make the class a little bit more interactive and fun.

After my younger class, I went upstairs to help teach the class with the oldest students.  I really like teaching this class because Tino sits in on the class.  At one point he said that the class was more for him than the kids.  They know a lot of English, but they have trouble with the pronunciation.  We are thinking of giving them homework and Tino suggested doing an oral exam.

This is the statue of the Virgin Mary that is above the town of Concepcion, where I teach in the mornings.

When we came out of the school, I took a picture of the statue of the Virgin Mary that is on the hill above the town.  Tino said we could walk up there one day if we had a little bit of time.

Pretty soon I am going to have my first Spanish class with Tino's niece Leslie.  I'm excited to be able to speak in Spanish more and get better at harder verbs and vocabulary.

Instead of going to the mountain school in the afternoon on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I am going to help Tino with his websites.  He wants to sell his art on a website and also the volunteer who helps maintain the volunteer website is glad that I will be able to help him out.  Tino also wants me to help his daughter Pilar to learn how to use Dreamweaver so eventually she can maintain all the websites.  I told him I'd need a week to get to know it myself!

Tino told me that on Tuesday and Thursday, when I go to the mountain school, he would like me to help organize the students.  For instance, he wants to know who isn't going to school and why, who's acting up in class and not paying attention, and who is doing well.

Also, I am going to teach Tino and Mari English during the evenings.  I think that some of the other volunteers may also take turns doing this.  I think I might be better at doing this than some of the other classes, since it is easier for me to work one-on-one with people, plus they know what they want to learn.

Things are going well overall.  I'm enjoying the people most of all!

Street Market

Today the six of us went to the street market that is a few blocks away from us.  There are stalls filled with many different things: hand-woven bags, rugs and scarves; knit hats, scarves, gloves, and sweaters; clothing like pants, shirts, shoes, and underwear; food like yogurt, fruit, vegetables, meals, and even live guinea pigs and rabbits.  I bought some things there.  Here are a few pictures:

Hand-embroidered alpaca scarves.

An alpaca sweater...see the little alpacas woven into it?

My hat with alpacas on it and fingerless gloves.

The hand-woven purse I bought at the market.

Tonight we went to a restaurant and I had Lomo Fino a la Parilla.  There was so much meat on my plate, but it was quite tasty.  One of the other volunteers got deep-fried guinea pig and it came out with the head, hands, feet and all.  It was quite interesting looking.  Almost each of us had a taste.  It tasted kind of like the dark meat on a turkey.  They were playing 80s music in there and Milli Vanilli, "Baby, Don't Forget My Number" came on.  I couldn't believe I was listening to Milli Vanilli in the middle-of-nowhere Peru.  

Torre Torre

Today I woke up not feeling so well.  Mari made some special tea for me with some herbs to help me out.  I wasn't sure if I was going to make it on the hike to Torre Torre today, but I managed to work up the energy to go with the rest of the group and Señora Nona and her daughter.  Torre Torre are rock formations that were formed by water that look like towers.  They are up above the mountain school where we teach.  Here are some pictures from our hike.

Hiking Torre Torre.

Near the beginning of the Torre Torre hike.

Higher and higher we go.

La Escuela en la Montaña

After lunch we all went to the mountain school to teach the kids there.  We went in a bus up there and it is amazing.  Mari, Tino's wife, was telling me that all of the kids live up in the mountains by the school.  She said they are "inquietos," which in a nice way would be full of life and in another way would be troublemakers.  :)  There are three classrooms and the kids are broken up into three classes.  One of the volunteers from Germany really wanted to teach math, so he has a class full of the kids who want to learn math.  I was paired with Emil, the volunteer from Iceland.  It was sort of hard to teach with two people in the room, or maybe it was just because he tended to take over the class.  I suppose it was just a conflict of teaching styles.  After the class we went out to play with the kids.  Some of them were painting their nails, even the boys.  The girls even painted both of the male volunteers' nails.  We were laughing at them at dinner with their pretty nails.  I eventually ended up playing volleyball with a bunch of the kids and I am really bad at it, but they were all nice to me and told me I was doing well.

After we finished playing volleyball, the kids went to brush their teeth.  We bring toothbrushes and toothpaste for them.  They don't usually brush their teeth because there is not enough clean water.  I was sitting down and watching the kids and one of the older girls who had been playing volleyball on my team sat down by me and started asking me all kinds of questions: where I was from, how old I was, what my parents' names were, what my profession was, did I live with my parents, etc.  The thing I think I liked the most was that when we got there and when we left almost all of the kids gave us kisses and hugs and said, "Bye, teacher," or "Bye, Miss."

After we left, Lauren, Ilva, Emil and I went to a market in town where they sell all kinds of arts and crafts and jewelry.  I bought a pretty, purple scarf for about 7 dollars.  I love it!  I think I might come back with a suitcase full of scarves!  We bought tickets to the movies and so we are going in a few minutes!  Fun!

Escuela de Concepcion

This morning we had mango, bread and hot chocolate for breakfast.  Then Lauren and I went with Tino in a taxi to Concepcion.  There were three classes of different age groups.  Lauren and I taught the younger ones together.  We taught them the alphabet, numbers and how to say "My name is" and "I am X Years old."  They are all very sweet.  After that class, Tino brought the older students over to us.  They know more English than the younger ones.  We asked them to answer what their names were and where they were from in English.  Then Tino told us to go over colors with them.  They asked us how to say many different colors in English and then told us what colors their shirts, shoes, and pants were.  We told them how to say many different types of shoes and I tried to draw high heels.  I told them I'm no good at drawing.  :)  I asked them to tell us what type of animal they would like to be.  Tino started laughing at that question.  He said he wanted to be a tiger.  After that, they asked us how to say many different types of animals.  We were having so much fun with them that we went over our time.  Lauren said she'd never seen kids so happy to be at school and learning.  Tino said they were all very happy.

We walked down the street to find a combi, but when it came by, it was really full so we didn't take it.  While we were waiting for another, we saw a herd of cattle coming down the road with the owners hitting them with sticks to keep them moving.  Lauren had her camera and took a picture.  I'll have to bring mine so I don't miss another opportunity like that.  I asked Tino why there were so many dogs on the street.  He said he wasn't sure, but he thought there were probably more dogs than people.  We ended up taking a taxi back to Huancayo instead of riding the combi.

The other volunteers were already eating lunch when we got back to the house.  I hadn't realized how hungry I was and at the soup, cucumber and avocado salad, and chicken pasta way too fast.  Lauren said she did the same thing and we were both holding our stomachs.

We have a few hours to relax before we go up to the mountain school.  After that will be dinner and then the other volunteers and I are going to watch a movie in town.

Desde Lima Hacia Huancayo

Juan told me Wednesday night that we had to get up early to get to the train station on time, so we got up at 6.  Juan made us scrambled eggs, toast and tea.  I had gathered all my bags by the door and when Blenda and Raymond came out to tell me goodbye, Raymond said Blenda should learn how to pack from me.

Juan and I took a taxi over to the bus station and checked in my bags.  I had about an hour to wait, so Juan sat with me in the waiting area until it was time to board my bus.  He gave me a big hug before he left me in the line to board the bus and said that I should come to visit him in Cancun when I go to Mexico.

I had chosen to sit in the front of the bus where there was a panoramic view, but it was right in the middle of a family, so I scooted back a row since I was just planning to sleep for awhile anyway.  I was glad I did because the last half of the trip, the little boy was suffering from altitude sickness.  I started to feel a little queasy too.  

After the first two movies (I don’t know who picked the movies because they were all pretty random: Furry Vengeance, Prince of Persia, Hellboy, and Beverly Hills Chihuahua), they served lunch and then we played Bingo.  Amidst a bunch of Peruvians, I actually won Bingo.  They gave me a free ticket from Huancayo to Lima on Cruz Del Sur.  When I told Tino later, he said that I was the only volunteer in 9 years to win Bingo.

When I got into the train station, there were several taxi drivers outside of the station asking me if I needed a taxi.  Another man asked if I needed a hotel.  I wasn’t sure if Tino was going to come because the bus arrived later than he had thought.  I found a little pay phone and called the house.  Shortly after, Tino arrived apologizing for being late.  

When we got to the house, he gave me my key, showed me my room, and then sat down with me to talk and drink tea.  He was happy that I spoke so much Spanish since the other volunteers spoke little to no Spanish.  He told me some of the history of Tinkuy Peru and said that Tinkuy means meeting in Quechua, the native language of Peru.  He also asked me if I could help with a web page to sell his art.

After we had talked awhile, the rest of the volunteers arrived from the school: Ilva and Emil, a couple from Iceland; Franci and Max, a couple from Germany; and Lauren, a girl from Canada.  We talked a bit and then Ilva and Emil led us on a walk into town to check movie times and buy a few necessities.  The town is hard to describe.  One place on the internet said you would feel like you had gone into the Old West.  In a way I did feel like a tumbleweed would roll down the street, but then we went into the mall and it looked like something you could go to in the US.

When we got back to the house, we sat down to eat rice, and omelette type dish, and bread.  As always, we drank tea.  After dinner, we talked some more, and Ilva, Emil, Lauren and I played a dice game called Farkle.  Luck was on my side still and I won by a landslide.

I then wrote an email and figured out the Wifi situation with Tino.  Electricity and Wifi are expensive, so he told me that he would prefer if I don’t use it after 10.  Also I can’t use it at the same time as he uses the computer upstairs, so we will have to schedule around each other.  It seems that a lot of things don’t work well at the same time, for instance, there is no hot water if more than one shower is in use at a time.

In the morning, Lauren and I will go with Tino to the school of Concepcion, which is a half an hour away.  He said there are three classrooms there and he is going to cross his fingers and try to teach one of the classes.  His English is very limited.  After that we will come back for lunch and then go to his mountain school.  This definitely is the start of an adventure!

Con La Familia De Blenda

Blenda y yo con la papa a la huancaina y Inca Kola.

Today Blenda, Raymond, Juan and I went to eat lunch at Blenda's mom's restaurant.  Her sisters, Estefania and Jocelyn, help out there.  Raymond and Blenda got chicken soup for an appetizer and Juan and I had papa a la huancaina, potatoes with a creamy sauce.  Raymond got pollo a la norteña, which is chicken with rice and beans, and Blenda, Juan and I got olluquito de carne, which is Andean potatoes with beef and rice.  It was muy rico.

Raymond, la mama de Blenda, Estefania, y Juan.

Blenda's sister Jocelyn has the cutest daughter named Michaela.  She is adorable and her whole family says Michaela looks exactly like Jocelyn when she was younger.

Jocelyn con su hija, Michaela.

After we said goodbye to Blenda's family, we went back to the house.  Juan and I took a taxi to by my ticket for Huancayo and Blenda and Raymond went to visit her grandma.  After I bought my ticket, we went in a combi (a small bus) back to our neighborhood.  Juan bought me a little keychain from a guy on the combi as a souvenir.  After that we went to a bookstore and I bought a book by a Peruvian author, Jaime Bayly.  We also bought some palomitas (popcorn) to eat while we watched a movie and waited for Blenda and Raymond to come back.

El llavero que me compro' Juan y el libro que compre'.

I fell asleep while Juan and I were watching RED and then Blenda and Raymond came back.  Blenda helped me call Tino in Huancayo, who is the man who runs the school where I am going to volunteer.  He agreed to pick me up from the bus stop and said another volunteer would be arriving the same day also.  Here I come, Huancayo!

Since Juan and I only ate palomitas, he is going to bring back sandwiches and chicha (a drink made from corn) from La Lucha for Raymond, himself and me.  Yum!

Papas fritas, sandwich de pavo, y chicha.

Con Blenda

Tuesday was a relaxing day with Blenda.  I ended up sleeping until noon when she arrived at the apartment with Raymond.  Shortly after Blenda, Raymond, Juan and I went to her favorite sandwich shop called La Lucha.  We got some of the best sandwiches and french fries there.  Blenda was making fun of Juan because he talked to their uncle while we were eating and told him that he was just having an appetizer and would love to come have lunch with him.

Afterwards we came back to the apartment and relaxed for the remaining part of the day.  Blenda's mom and one of her sisters, Estefania, came to visit us.  They are such warm, beautiful people.  Just like Blenda! We ordered dinner in and watched the Bucket List, which is called Antes De Partir in Spanish.

Lima

I was exhausted by the time I got onto the plane.  Right after we took off they served food and I figured I should probably eat whatever they offered me even though it was 2 AM in Cali.  I got about four hours of sleep and just before we landed I got to talking to the English guy sitting beside me.  He said this was the first time he'd ever traveled by himself and he didn't speak a lick of Spanish.  Hopefully he made it to his trip trekking along the Inca Trail okay.

Dave had told me that the customs and declarations areas were crazy, people pushing in a line 3-people wide.  I guess since I left at 1AM, it helped out because there were only people from out flight at customs.  I got through there really quickly and then went to go get my bags.  It seemed like it was only the people from our flight in the whole airport, getting our bags and breezing through declarations.

El globo que Juan trajo para mi.

After declarations, I looked amidst a sea of people for a sign with my name on it.  Blenda's brother, Juan, had forgotten the sign, so he'd bought a balloon and written "Amy!!!" on it.  We got a taxi and he spoke to me in both English and Spanish as we made our way into the town of Miraflores.  Blenda and Raymond rented a place overlooking the ocean.  Here is the view:

Afuera la ventana en Miraflores.

I took a shower while Juan cooked some fried rice with fish for us.  He is a chef in Cancun, so it was quite tasty.  We washed it down with Inca Cola.  After that, we took a walk down by the ocean and through El Parque Del Amor.  He said that people would come and write their names on the walls there, so the mayor eventually made a park dedicated to people in love.  The brightly-colored mosaics on the benches include poetic lines and the couples or person who wrote them.  I loved looking at all the poetry and took pictures of almost all of them.  Here is an example:

Un banco en el parque del amor: "Mi recuerdo es mas fuerte que tu olvido."
("My memory is stronger than your forgetfulness.")

After the park, we walked down to Larcomar mall.  Juan bought us both lucuma fruit ice cream.  I had never tried lucuma before and it was really tasty.  We walked around and peeked into some of the shops selling items made from llamas and alpaca.  When we'd taken a look around the entire mall, we made our way back to the apartment, dodging all the skateboarders.

We watched The Town with Spanish subtitles and drank canela y clavo (cinnamon and clove) tea.  After that, I could have fallen asleep standing up, so I went to sleep.

LAX

Dave met me in the reLAX Lounge in LA because he's always up for a random adventure.  We hung out there for three hours eating Chex Mix and Cheez-Its and drinking tea.  We took this picture at 10 PM right before Dave dropped me off at the security checkpoint.

FYI: if you ever have a long layover at LAX, this is the place to go.  There's not much food offered there, but the chairs are comfy and you don't have to hear all of the airport noise.  :)

Only hours until I leave

My parents are going to drive me to the airport in a few hours.  My flight to Peru was delayed, so I'll have a nice long 6-hour layover in LAX.  My good friend Davey said he'd meet me in the reLAX lounge.  What a pal!