A Day in the Life of a Huaycan Volunteer

(The Zone D classroom- our nicest and biggest classroom where we teach most of our classes) I have been here for 3 weeks and despite the fact that everyday is an adventure here, I have started to settle into the routine of living here. This post is going to describe what the "day in the life" of a volunteer (aka me) is like in Huaycan. I usually wake up around 8 or 9 in the morning and I make myself oatmeal with ground peanuts (the closest thing to peanut butter here), bananas and milk and sometimes raisins (they are super juicy here1) We also have fresh bread every morning. I say "hola!" to Dina, our cook who is usually busily preparing our lunch- chopping avocados and peppers and frying onions and garlic- it always smells amazing! I also greet Queta, our house cleaner, caretaker and healer (she knows all about natural Indigenous medicines). Then I head out to teach a class, either a block away in our "Zone D" classroom or I take a bus up the mountainside to another Zone. This is always quite the experience because so many people are packed into tiny little buses and I often find myself in very strange positions (and sometimes tripping or accidentally sitting in people's laps!) In Zone Z, we turn on the one light in the classroom, open the wooden windows and wait for the children to arrive. If they show up, they usually come at least 15 minutes late (time isn't really a big concern or priority here.) When teaching the younger kids, we try to incorporate a lot of games to keep them engaged- pictionary, bingo and charades are very popular. The other day, we were learning weather vocabulary and I had the kids make a rainstorm by snapping, clapping and stomping. I don't know if they really got it though because I don't think it ever rains here. If it did, the streets would turn to mud and it would be horrible. Anyways, I am trying to incorporate as many songs, games and art projects as possible, but they are still really young to sit through an English class and the minute its over they RUN to the concrete court where we play sports. The kids here play soccer on hard, hard pavement and go down a slide that is like 10 feet off the ground and has rocks under it. They are tough cookies! Sometimes we play volleyball, Twister was a big hit last week..and I made the mistake of teaching a couple girls how to play "monkey in the middle" and now they always want to play...sigh! Anyways, after teaching, all the volunteers return to the house for the delicious lunch prepared by Dina. We all sit around the dinning room table and chat about our day or crazy experiences people have had in Peru. Usually Lara, the director of the organization, joins in and tells us about things that have happened over her years of working in Huaycan. The best part about lunch is that we always end up laughing! After some rest time and last minute lesson planning, we head out to teach afternoon classes and if its the weekend, evening classes for adults as well. These days are very long, but the adults are super easy going and understand why I'm tired when I tell them about my day! Last class, one of my adult students brought me a cookie from his hometown in northern Peru. The box said it was "cookies," so I opened it and was prepared to share them with the class (Peruvians are excellent sharers- whenever they eat or drink anything, they always share it with everyone). However, I opened it and discovered it was one giant hunk of layered graham cracker like cookies with peanut butterish, pineapple jelly and condensed milk caramel layers. Not very easy to share without knives or napkins! I did share this strange cookie with the volunteers later and none of us could actually decide if we liked it or not...It was different than any cookie I have ever eaten. In the evenings, its time to do more lesson planning, catch up with email and and sometimes we go to "Quince" the main street in Huaycan to buy food or hang out with friends here. Just walking down Quince is an unbelievable experience- the sidewalks are lined with people selling every possible thing you can imagine. There are people frying food, selling cellphones, sneakers and clothing, showing bootlegged videos on flat screen TVs and hawking pineapples. The buses are honking, the "cobradores" (the people who try to get you to board their bus and collect the fare) are yelling and the mototaxis are weaving in between everyone. I love this experience but I'm usually pretty tired by the end of the day and I like to relax in the house. By the time its around 10pm, tengo mucho sueno (I'm sleepy) and ready for bed!