Wanderings and Ponderings in Lima

I finally have some time to write about my first visit to Lima last week! Technically, Huaycan, the city where I live, is in the Province of Lima and is very connected to Lima, but its actually about 45 minutes or more (depending on the horrible traffic) away from the center of Lima. Lima is a massive city- it reminds me of Mexico City- and very spread out- there are hardly any tall buildings. It is extremely cloudy, cold and misty at this time of year in Lima (its winter here!) and I immediately realized how grateful I am that despite the quarks and dirt of Huaycan, we have sun almost every day. However, Lima does have palm trees, a few patches of green grass and flowers! I think that greenery and nature is one of the things I miss most from New England. The first thing we did in Lima was walk to the central downtown plaza to see the changing of the guards at the national palace at noon. I don't know much about the history of this ritual, but many people gather in front of the gates to hear the marching band play, see the elaborate hats and outfits they wear, and see them marching back and forth. Those guards can certainly kick their legs high in the air! All of the buildings around the palace are painted bright yellow (see photo in my previous Lima post) which is a cheerful contrast to the gray skies. We then spent a good while wandering about the downtown looking for the post office museum which Kendra, the person who organizes our excursions, had read about in the guide book. We were all curious to see what such a museum would consist of since the postal system here is extremely inefficient. After asking many people who shook their heads at us, we realized that either such a museum doesn't exist or no Peruvian has even been to it. It remains a mystery! When we were standing outside one of the churches in the city, the hundreds of pigeons that were roosting on the outside of the church suddenly took flight and circled low over our heads, surprising us. It was a beautiful and and startling experience (see photo in Lima post.) After visiting some other parks and churches, as well as walking past many mcdonalds, payless shoes, dunkin' donuts and other American chains, we took a bus to Miraflores, which is another region of Lima that is know to be touristy and nice. We also walked by an entire street that just sold dental chairs and dental tools. Very bizarre! Anyways, one of my friends from high school named Aaron Davis lived there this summer, researching Afro-Peruvian dance in a town nearby and working at the Peruvian Ballet and it just happened that my first day in Lima was his last. We met up with him a falafel restaurant (we were craving non-Peruvian food after eating it everyday) and it was delicious! It was really surreal and amazing to see Aaron in Peru and to share our Peruvian experiences. I am really hoping that we will get a chance to visit El Carmen, the place where he was doing his research! We took a picture in Parque Kennedy or "Parque de los gatos" (the park of the cats) because a bunch of cats nap there all day long. I'm not quite sure how we got back, but thank god Kendra can navigate the crazy buses here! There is no sense of a personal bubble here, so I oftentimes find myself in squished in spaces that I didn't think were possible to fit in and holding on for dear life. Everyday is certainly an adventure here!

Thoughts from my first week of teaching

This week has been my first week teaching on my own or with the help of a "co-teacher" here and its definitely been exhausting! Everyday, I have 3-4 classes that I have to plan lessons for and teach and they are located all over the city of Huaycan. I have a huge variety of classes and some of them are definitely more challenging than others. The Basic class for kids ages 6-9 is a huge handful- they are definitely in the "test the new teacher mode" right now. I am trying very hard to teach the classes only in English (this is what my program supports and has been proved to be best for language learning) but its difficult especially because the kids know that I speak Spanish! They are always saying "Espanol, Miss!!!" I will be known as "Miss" for the next four months, because that is the standard name for all English teachers here. However, I have had a lot of fun and inspiring classes and tutoring sessions. I have really enjoyed working one on one with the boys that I tutor in English. I work with a boy named Eduardo who loves to stump me at hangman and another boy Frankie who yesterday created a whole doctor costume out of paper and a plastic bag when we were playing vocabulary charades (the kids here are very independent and creative with limited resources!) Its really nice to be able to get to know the kids and cater the learning activities to what the kids really enjoy and benefit from. I also teach an intermediate adult English class which is really interesting because I am teaching students my own age; their English is very impressive and I love it because we can talk about cultural difference between Peru and the United States. Another benefit of having students our age is that it gives us a chance to hang out with Peruvians and speak Spanish with them during our free time. Yesterday, we had a volunteer-student volleyball game (I hadn't played for years!) that was a lot of fun! I has been really interesting for me to learn Peruvian slang because it is completely different from Mexican slang. As I get into the swing of lesson planning and teaching, I'm sure it will get easier to plan what kind of activities work well with each class. However, I'm already discovering new ways to engage the students and learning a lot about how challenging English is to learn! Sometimes I wonder what the benefits of teaching English are to students here and my whole experience here is causing me to reflect a lot about non-profits working in poor regions of the world and the role of education in these kinds of communities. I definitely don't have the answers, but I am very grateful to be able to be here and have this kind of first hand experience of non-profit work. My only conclusion that I have come to so far is that no matter what, establishing relationships with people from different cultures who speak different language and learning from them is eye-opening and life changing. Furthermore, my experience living in this community has not only made me grateful for what I have, but also aware of what may be missing or wrongly looked down upon in American culture. I am sure I will have more concrete observations to share about this in upcoming blog posts!

Visiting Lima- Photos

Every Wednesday there is an opportunity for us volunteers to go on a day excursion to somewhere outside Huaycan. Last week we went to downtown Lima and Miraflores, a touristy district of Lima to see some churches, parks, the changing of the guards at the national palace and experience the city. We also met up with a friend of mine from high school, Aaron Davis, who was doing research for his thesis on Afro-Peruvian Dance this summer. It was so amazing to see him and hear about his experiences in Peru. More to follow about my experience in Lima...I have been VERY busy planning tons of lessons and teaching lots of classes! Everything is going well so far, but I definitely wish I had a little more downtime to write some blog posts!

Betzabe

This is Betzabe. She is Frankie's (pictured below) little crazy cousin. She likes to watch when we tutor Frankie in English and last time we kept her busy coloring. We told her she had to be completely silent and she took it to heart, telling the pencil sharpener and the door to be quiet too by shushing them with her finger over her mouth. It was hard to keep from laughing! She also likes to play hand games, show us the tricks she can do with her dog and as you can tell from this picture, she doesn't sit still! She is quite the adorable trouble maker.

Frankie

Frankie is one of the students I will be tutoring one-on-one in English. He is a very sweet 13 year old boy who loves to sing the silly songs we have as part of out curriculum and draw. In order to get to the community kitchen- the room where we teach- We have to take a very bumpy bus ride up the side of the steep hill, then hike up a path and then climb a steep staircase. By the time, I get there, I am out of breath and Frankie greets me with a smile and a "Hello Miss!" (That's what all the kids call English teachers here.) From here, you can look out and see hundreds of houses and shacks covering the mountains. Its an intense and incredible view. Frankie is already one of my favorite kids!

Sketching the view

The quick sketch that I drew of the view out my window, complete with rooster.

My window view of Huaycan

So far I haven't taken many pictures because I don't want to draw anymore attention to myself as an American by taking out my digital camera to take touristy pictures. But here is a photo of the view from my window in the volunteer house. We can see across our neighborhood, on to the roofs where chickens, dogs, cats, bunnies and pigeons roam. All of the houses here are made of brick and are constantly in construction. As soon as people get enough money to buy more bricks, they add on another floor or room. The neighborhood is filled with an abundance of sounds- the roaster crowing, horns beeping, church bells ringing, and children playing. Our road is not even paved, but somehow we have really fast internet!

Meeting the kids

While its the weekend in the US, for the volunteers working in Huaycan we are in the midst of the work week! Our classes are offered from Friday to Tuesday so that we can provide weekend classes to students here. Thankfully I am shadowing the woman who has been teaching all of the classes I am going to be teaching for one week before she leaves (and she is also named Sara!). This allows me to observe how she teaches and get to know the kids before I become the lead teacher for the next four months. I am going to be teaching kids from age 6 to adults and I am teaching in a variety of locations and number of different levels so I am really going to get a wide range of teaching experiences! I am also going to be tutoring several students one-on-one. Yesterday, I accompanied Sara in a Combi (small vans that are used as buses here) up to a higher Zone (neighborhood) in Huaycan. As the van packed with people slowly climbed the mountain, I was glued to the window watching the houses on the side of the road turn to shacks. Zone Z is high up on the dusty mountain and is one of the poorest areas of Huaycan. The classroom where we teach the kids is basically a wooden room with a couple of windows and a single light. This is not a school, but a community room where people meet but it was still a huge shock to see how bare and rustic the classroom is after my experiences teaching in the full stocked, beautiful classrooms of the US. Despite the poverty of this place, the children are filled with life and laughter. They arrived in the classroom and gave us a cheek kiss as a formal greeting (Like many countries, this is a formal greeting). We do an hour of sports with them- playing volleyball and watching them climb up a very treacherous slide that would never pass in the US and then 1 hour of English. These kids were ages 6-9 and very rambunctious, but they are smart and have surprisingly beautiful cursive handwriting. I am definitely going to have my hands full with these kids! One girl brought her dog to the class- I'm going to have to put a stop to that! This morning, I co-taught a class in Zone D, which is in a classroom that belongs to Light and Leadership and it right up the street from our house. This is a very nice classroom with lots of the kids artwork on the walls and lots of school supplies for the kids to use. We had a class of 5 girls ages 11-13 who are very sweet and really enjoyed designing clothing as part of our clothing vocab lesson. They are also very skilled twister players! There are lots of new things to get used to and I am still having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that I am here in this environment, witnessing a way of life so different from home. However, I am very inspired by all of my fellow volunteers and the people living here. I am already learning so much!

My first day in Peru!

Its my first day in Peru and I have some free time, so this is a great time to write my first blog post and introduce you to my upcoming adventure here! I arrived last night and was very nicely met at the airport by Kendra, a woman who is in charge of running the activities and logistics for the house where all of the volunteers live here. As soon as we left the airport, I almost felt like I was back in Mexico because of the crazy traffic and little mototaxis buzzing around everywhere. I am going to be teaching English with an organization called Light and Leadership which is located in Huaycan, a poor city about 45 minutes outside of Lima. The organization has a house off the main street of the city where currently 10 volunteers live together (all woman, so it almost feels like Smith!) When I arrived in my room, a crazy rooster was crowing outside even though it was midnight! I have decided to name him Loco (which means crazy in Spanish). I have a very nice roommate from St. Louis and there are people here from Canada, England and the US! Everyone has been very welcoming and I am very excited to get to know everyone during my 4 months here. This morning I chatted in Spanish with our cook, Dina, who makes very delicious and healthy meals for us. It is very dusty and brown everywhere- we are located in a dessert and when you look out at the horizon, you see brick houses, cacti, dogs and water barrels- the only bright spots of color are people's laundry hanging on their roofs to dry. I went with Kendra to the food market today and the streets are lined with people selling all kinds of fruits, potatoes, meat, candy and random things like one woman was just selling little yellow rubber ducks. The entire time we walked around, I did not see another "Gringo" (American). Everyone was very friendly and one taxi driver blew us a kiss. Despite the poverty here, there are all kinds of things being sold on the street and elegant couches are displayed beside piles of rustic potatoes. It is definitely going to take time to get used to this world, although I feel like Mexico definitely prepared me and I don't feel an extreme feeling of culture shock. I don't know if I will ever get used to crossing the street though- no one ever stops for pedestrians! Tomorrow I will meet with Lara, the director of the program and find out more about what kind of English classes I will be teaching and where. I am excited to meet the kids and start teaching them even though I know its going to be a challenge and lots of work! Thanks everyone for reading my blog and I promise to post some photographs and more information soon!