We're closing in on our last week together as a team! Our progress at school has been amazing. This week we finished the roof, and we are well underway on the painting of the structure. We had a very week since we've returned from our trip last weekend. We had the Ifejant meeting on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we worked full days, putting putty on the cracks in the walls, sanding and painting.
On Thursday we visited another primary school in Villa Maria for working children. We had a great presentation (with our translator) and we learned more about the working children's school system, and what it means to grow up in such a poverty stricken area. The school we visited is funded through organizations, and as Peru becomes more of a "developed country" the government gives them less and less money. An example of how this affects the kids is this school used to have 4 classes, but as of now they only have funding for 2. Schools like this one are especially important where families cannot afford to send their kids to the public schools. This school costs 20 soles (about 7 dollars) for one families children to attend. And the family can pay the "tuition" whenever they have the money throughout the year. For a child to attend public school the family needs to pay anywhere from 80 -100 soles at the start of the school year, per child, not per family.
After our visit at this school we went to our school to work for another half day. Friday was by far the funnest day of work this week. We worked with Miguel a lot and actually got along with him! Also, Dora caught me trying out one of the Spanish swear words and when she started yelling I told her Miguel taught me and ran away...hehe But overall it was a cool day because we actually got to interact through our broken Spanish (which is improving) to learn a bit more about the school and the lives of the locals through a local person, not through the eyes of an organization.
Also on Friday we had a surprise visit from the mayor of Villa Maria, and the ministor of electricity. They came by, took some photos with us and asked about what supplies we needed to finish the project. They've also said they will be coming by again on Monday. While all this whas happening Miguel told Suud that they've come by before and done the same sort of thing, but pretty much they come by, take pictures and leave.
After work we came home, went out for dinner on Pizza Street, which did not live up to the expectations of some participants, then we went for drinks and dessert at cafe z.
Pretty much the past three weeks have been an amazing experience, the group is awesome, our project is coming along great, and I've gotten to learn so much more about such an interesting country.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Huacachina Weekend
We had the day off work last Friday, so we headed on down to Huacachina. After a 5 hour bus ride we arrived to flind much nicer weather than the rain (mist) we left behind in Lima. We hung out at the hostel, this time we could actually enjoy the pool, minus the questionable water and the random dragonfly or bee we found in it. There are many activities huacachina offers including: winery tours, sandboarding, boat tours and the Nazca lines. Since I'd done three of the four activies last year, I figured I would see something new. So six of the nine of us signed up for the tour for the next day.
Our group's taxi/bus was suppose to leave at 8. So we are down there ready to go and as we're about the leave the guy at the hostel asks if we have our passports. Well not knowing ahead of time this was going to be the plan, only two of us had them. We explain that we've only got copies, and ask if that would be fine. The man working there calls the airport, and after a half an hour delay, we're on our way with the impression that copies of our passports will be fine. The drive to Nazca is a long dusty highway with a few twists and turns through the mountains that should have taken about 2 hours. On our way we asked to stop for breakfast, the driver tells us we will stop in 1 hour... we never ended up stopping, but we did get to stop when we were pulled over by the police for about half an hour. Our bus that we paid an extra 7 dollars for, because we were told was a shorter ride, ended up taking 3 hours. We arrived at the airport, and the six of us were too heavy to ride in a plane all together, so we were suppose to be split between planes, first 5 together, 1 separate, then 3 and 3, eventually we ended up 2, 2 and 2 in different planes. Side note; airport tax was 5 soles more than the hostel said it would be.... not cool. Also, it was about 12 and none of us had eaten all day, so we went and got these yogurt drinks, strawberry flavour, SO gross. Suud and I were in the same plane, and we went after Rory and Matt. We had specific placements in the plane, I was in the back on my own. These were 6 person planes, and the seats were pretty much on the ground. The ride is only about 30 minutes, and 2 mintues into the ride you see the first figure. I was feeling nauseous before even seeing the first figure. I took a few pictues before anything terrible really set in, and I tried to look out the window, when they said we were passing by a figure. But eventually I couldn't turn my head and sat there with my sunglasses on, eyes closed, head back, wishing time would go by faster. Somewhere between the spider and the condor figures I got sick. A few mintues later another guy on our plane got sick too, so I didn't feel like such a nub anymore, and I realized there were a bunch of bags in the seat pockets for a reason.
Felt sick the whole rest of the day, the drive home only took 2 hours, but we did get pulled over another 2 times by the police, no idea why because of the lack of spanish skills. Once we got back, Steph and Carley told us that one of their guides that day for a different activity told them that 2 in 10 people get sick while seeing the Nazca lines. For our group it was 2 out of 6. And in my plane it was 2 out of 5. They should really warn you about these things. Anyway, we had a great dinner that night, and a fun time at the hostel club that night.
The next morning we went on a sandboarding tour, complete with a dune buggy to get us around. It was awesome, and I have a great souvenir sunburn.
Today we only had a half day of work becuase we had another meeting with Ifejant. This time the founder was there, he talked with our group once last year too. This time was different because he asked us questions and he had a lot to talk about regarding the philosophy behind this orgnaization. We also had more conversation with Dora about work, but we had a translator so it was quite helpful. We got to ask questions about things we had been wondering about but could never ask, such as why do only some of the kids wear uniforms at school, when does their school day start, just whatever had been on our minds since we've started the project. The buildings are really coming along, and we've alreay started the supports for the roofs on the next two buildings. Crazy to think we've only got 9 days of work left! One more weekend with the group and then people start going their separate ways. Meaning only a couple weeks until I move north to work at the surf camp!
Our group's taxi/bus was suppose to leave at 8. So we are down there ready to go and as we're about the leave the guy at the hostel asks if we have our passports. Well not knowing ahead of time this was going to be the plan, only two of us had them. We explain that we've only got copies, and ask if that would be fine. The man working there calls the airport, and after a half an hour delay, we're on our way with the impression that copies of our passports will be fine. The drive to Nazca is a long dusty highway with a few twists and turns through the mountains that should have taken about 2 hours. On our way we asked to stop for breakfast, the driver tells us we will stop in 1 hour... we never ended up stopping, but we did get to stop when we were pulled over by the police for about half an hour. Our bus that we paid an extra 7 dollars for, because we were told was a shorter ride, ended up taking 3 hours. We arrived at the airport, and the six of us were too heavy to ride in a plane all together, so we were suppose to be split between planes, first 5 together, 1 separate, then 3 and 3, eventually we ended up 2, 2 and 2 in different planes. Side note; airport tax was 5 soles more than the hostel said it would be.... not cool. Also, it was about 12 and none of us had eaten all day, so we went and got these yogurt drinks, strawberry flavour, SO gross. Suud and I were in the same plane, and we went after Rory and Matt. We had specific placements in the plane, I was in the back on my own. These were 6 person planes, and the seats were pretty much on the ground. The ride is only about 30 minutes, and 2 mintues into the ride you see the first figure. I was feeling nauseous before even seeing the first figure. I took a few pictues before anything terrible really set in, and I tried to look out the window, when they said we were passing by a figure. But eventually I couldn't turn my head and sat there with my sunglasses on, eyes closed, head back, wishing time would go by faster. Somewhere between the spider and the condor figures I got sick. A few mintues later another guy on our plane got sick too, so I didn't feel like such a nub anymore, and I realized there were a bunch of bags in the seat pockets for a reason.
Felt sick the whole rest of the day, the drive home only took 2 hours, but we did get pulled over another 2 times by the police, no idea why because of the lack of spanish skills. Once we got back, Steph and Carley told us that one of their guides that day for a different activity told them that 2 in 10 people get sick while seeing the Nazca lines. For our group it was 2 out of 6. And in my plane it was 2 out of 5. They should really warn you about these things. Anyway, we had a great dinner that night, and a fun time at the hostel club that night.
The next morning we went on a sandboarding tour, complete with a dune buggy to get us around. It was awesome, and I have a great souvenir sunburn.
Today we only had a half day of work becuase we had another meeting with Ifejant. This time the founder was there, he talked with our group once last year too. This time was different because he asked us questions and he had a lot to talk about regarding the philosophy behind this orgnaization. We also had more conversation with Dora about work, but we had a translator so it was quite helpful. We got to ask questions about things we had been wondering about but could never ask, such as why do only some of the kids wear uniforms at school, when does their school day start, just whatever had been on our minds since we've started the project. The buildings are really coming along, and we've alreay started the supports for the roofs on the next two buildings. Crazy to think we've only got 9 days of work left! One more weekend with the group and then people start going their separate ways. Meaning only a couple weeks until I move north to work at the surf camp!
Sunday, May 15, 2011
One Week!
Yup, we've been in Peru for an entire week already, but it feels like we've been here forever. The group gets along great, minus the random arguments betwen Ryan and I, but you know gotta keep it interesting for everyone else.
The past couple of days at work have been super interesting. With Milo directing the group around he often singles out jobs as "man jobs" and will only ask the guys to come help. Which leaves the female participants feeling bored and frustrated. But usually the girls just get up and help anyway. The other day Milo said he needed "two guys" to bring up more wood, and Matt corrected him and said he needed "two people." He's taken the hints we give him but doesn't do too much to be inclusive, he's mostly concerned about getting the job done as soon as possible.
Then he was concerned that we wern't going to pay him enough for the time and work he's put into our project. Milo, Dora and I had a conversating where I established with him that he was only needed for translation since I have participants who've paid to be here and work but often end up sitting around while he takes over. Milo style of working is he'll do the job and you get to hand him the screws, nails or drill that he needs. We also talked about who would be paying him to stay on board as our translator. From my understanding DWC was going to be paying him but Dora seemed to have heard that if he was to be paid it would be coming out of our budget. Communication at its finest. So that afternoonn he gave us direction only, and then went and sat down at the school. That afternoon is the most I've seen the entire group working together so far.
When we got home I sent off and e-mail to DWC explaining what happened and then told me I could use the "communications" part of the budget to pay Milo for translation. As a group we came to the decision that we can get by without him, and that since we are here as volunteers who've already paid to be here, someone else should not be making money off of our situation. Someone who would otherwise be sitting at home all day. When I e-mailed Milo explaining our decision he said that he had not signed up to be a charity or work for free and that he was misunderstood on our goals of the project.
As our group had discussed, we're here to work with the people of Villa Maria and learn from them, not go in there with our Western ways and power tools to get a job done as fast as possible. We want to work, but we also value the interaction and times spend with the kids and residents of the town. If that's the way we wanted things to get done we would have stayed home and worked in Canada. This project isn't about a building, but its about appreciating another part of the world and working together with them. We can't kid ourselves that we're going to go into that town, build a few rooms and save the world. They've made it this far with little help from the Western world, and when we leave they will continue to make progress on their school. So much has changed in a year since I was last here and who knows what its going to be like in another year or two.
On another note-
My second Peruvian birthday was amazing!
In the morning I had 3 cards to open, two from home and one from the participants. I skyped with my parents and they sang me happy birthday, complete with a cake and candels..which my mom blew out for me. During the day we went to the park and to cafe Z for lunch for the second time, where we had our first pisco shots of the day. We walked by the water and then headed back to get ready for a night out. I wanted to go to a restaurant called Mangos, but couldn't remember exactly where it was, so of course Ronal walked us there. But he blanked on where it was too and took us on a ten minute walk in the opposite direction. We soon figured it out and took cabs, for 6 soles, (roughly $2) to the restaurant. When we first got there they said it would be a 20 minute wait, but we ended up getting a table in 5-10 minutes, right on the balcony outside, overlooking the water! How lucky hey? After dinner we took cabs home, without the help of a Peruvian for the first time, Matt was a stellar barter and we got them for 6 soles again.
I got home to find the roof of casa rodas decked out in birthday decorations, complete with a mini bar! Balloons, streamers, flashing lights, and of course a Peruvian flag next to the Canada flag that last years group signed for Ronal. Next came the cake... no it did not get shoved in my face, Jorge and friends had not arrived yet so it was just us Canadians and Ronal there. But everyone was stuffed from dinner so we made the decison that it would be eaten for breakfast this morning. Around 10 our Peruvian amigos arrived and then around 11 or so we went to a bar located right on the beach. Jorge had put us on the guest list during the week, so no line no cover. Overall, it was an awesome birthday!! Oh ya, and Suud made videos of the pre party with my camera with I have yet to watch, should be interesting!
The past couple of days at work have been super interesting. With Milo directing the group around he often singles out jobs as "man jobs" and will only ask the guys to come help. Which leaves the female participants feeling bored and frustrated. But usually the girls just get up and help anyway. The other day Milo said he needed "two guys" to bring up more wood, and Matt corrected him and said he needed "two people." He's taken the hints we give him but doesn't do too much to be inclusive, he's mostly concerned about getting the job done as soon as possible.
Then he was concerned that we wern't going to pay him enough for the time and work he's put into our project. Milo, Dora and I had a conversating where I established with him that he was only needed for translation since I have participants who've paid to be here and work but often end up sitting around while he takes over. Milo style of working is he'll do the job and you get to hand him the screws, nails or drill that he needs. We also talked about who would be paying him to stay on board as our translator. From my understanding DWC was going to be paying him but Dora seemed to have heard that if he was to be paid it would be coming out of our budget. Communication at its finest. So that afternoonn he gave us direction only, and then went and sat down at the school. That afternoon is the most I've seen the entire group working together so far.
When we got home I sent off and e-mail to DWC explaining what happened and then told me I could use the "communications" part of the budget to pay Milo for translation. As a group we came to the decision that we can get by without him, and that since we are here as volunteers who've already paid to be here, someone else should not be making money off of our situation. Someone who would otherwise be sitting at home all day. When I e-mailed Milo explaining our decision he said that he had not signed up to be a charity or work for free and that he was misunderstood on our goals of the project.
As our group had discussed, we're here to work with the people of Villa Maria and learn from them, not go in there with our Western ways and power tools to get a job done as fast as possible. We want to work, but we also value the interaction and times spend with the kids and residents of the town. If that's the way we wanted things to get done we would have stayed home and worked in Canada. This project isn't about a building, but its about appreciating another part of the world and working together with them. We can't kid ourselves that we're going to go into that town, build a few rooms and save the world. They've made it this far with little help from the Western world, and when we leave they will continue to make progress on their school. So much has changed in a year since I was last here and who knows what its going to be like in another year or two.
On another note-
My second Peruvian birthday was amazing!
In the morning I had 3 cards to open, two from home and one from the participants. I skyped with my parents and they sang me happy birthday, complete with a cake and candels..which my mom blew out for me. During the day we went to the park and to cafe Z for lunch for the second time, where we had our first pisco shots of the day. We walked by the water and then headed back to get ready for a night out. I wanted to go to a restaurant called Mangos, but couldn't remember exactly where it was, so of course Ronal walked us there. But he blanked on where it was too and took us on a ten minute walk in the opposite direction. We soon figured it out and took cabs, for 6 soles, (roughly $2) to the restaurant. When we first got there they said it would be a 20 minute wait, but we ended up getting a table in 5-10 minutes, right on the balcony outside, overlooking the water! How lucky hey? After dinner we took cabs home, without the help of a Peruvian for the first time, Matt was a stellar barter and we got them for 6 soles again.
I got home to find the roof of casa rodas decked out in birthday decorations, complete with a mini bar! Balloons, streamers, flashing lights, and of course a Peruvian flag next to the Canada flag that last years group signed for Ronal. Next came the cake... no it did not get shoved in my face, Jorge and friends had not arrived yet so it was just us Canadians and Ronal there. But everyone was stuffed from dinner so we made the decison that it would be eaten for breakfast this morning. Around 10 our Peruvian amigos arrived and then around 11 or so we went to a bar located right on the beach. Jorge had put us on the guest list during the week, so no line no cover. Overall, it was an awesome birthday!! Oh ya, and Suud made videos of the pre party with my camera with I have yet to watch, should be interesting!
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Day 4 and 5
May 10th
Gotta love the communication issues of Peru. The group is up and ready to go at 8, but Dora is no where to be seen. At 8:15 I check my e-mail and realize Dora had sent me an e-mail in her broken english saying we were going to ifejant for a meeting at 9:15. So we wait around for her to come over. 9:30, she's not here. So she calls the hostel saying we're suppose to be meeting her there, but we have no way of getting there on our own. So naturally Ronal, superhero that he is, takes us there and attends the meeting with us for a while.
At the meeting, there was a translator who helped us to understand the philosophy behind ifejant and what they are trying to accomplish.
A few things I learned at the meeting
- ifejant works to provide rights to working children, rights that include treating them as equally as adults and providing the opportunity for them to work and provide for their families
- children in other rual areas of peru work because it is a part of their lifestyle and it is what they are brough up with, but kids in the city work beccause their families live in poverty and have no other option
- ifejant works with about 5 schools around Peru to create these opportunities for kids
- they want to break away from the western ways of thinking that kids should only attend school to obtain an education
- through working they are able to further their knowledge, but ifejant does value education, and creates programs with schools so that kids can both work and attend school
A pretty interesting philospohy if you ask me.
We also learned that Lima is one of the fastest growing cities in the world, with 90 percent of the population living below the poverty line. We learned about some of the issues and needs of the population. One of the resons there is so much poverty here, is that many people move from the andes region of Peru, but they come to Lima and cannot find much work and end up living in the slums.
After the meeting, we went to Villa Maria for another half a day of work. Savannah and I painted a classroom, and the others worked on similar projects from the day before. After about 3 hours we went a played soccer with the kids.
Meanwhile, Dora and the principle of the school had gone into town to get supplies for the school. We were suppose to leave at 5, but at 5:20 she still was not back. After waiting around for about an hour, she shows up saying their combie had a flat tire. She arrived in a truck full of supplies that we then had to unload.
Once that was done we were allowed to head home. But its much harder to get a combie to Miraflores for 9 people at night, so one half of the group took a mototaxi to the bottem of the hill, and the other half took a combie that was aleady full. So we had about 20 people in a small bus that seats roughly 13 people.
So then we had to take another combie from the bottem of the hill of Villa Maria to Miraflores and its well past 7 by now. Things started to look up when the combie that Dora found was the same one our group took last year! Getting into the combie the driver recognized me right away and was stoked to have our group. We arranged to have him drive us each day.
Once we got home Ronal was waiting for us and he helped us order Chifa (Peruvian Chinese food). It was a pretty big hit and unlike last year, we didn't have any leftovers.
May 11th
We get into the combie pretty much on time today, to find a translator sitting on the bus!! Dora managed to work her magic and got her neighbour to come to work with us today. His name is Milo and he is awesome. He brought a suitcase full of stuff to help us out at the work sight and he even brought power tools.
We started building today. First we had to move everything that we had moved the day before to the top of the hill. The only people who fell were Savannah and I...go figure. Next, the boys stated making walls for the stucture, because Milo insisted that was a man job. So the girls did a lot of sitting around today. But, we did move some old doors, and walls from a previous building up to the top of the hill where we were working, and once they were there we had to take the nails out of them and pull the pieces apart so that we could cut them up small enough to make a fence out of the material.
We finished work around 3 today, and there were no kids around to hang out with so we got to leave early, and come home to our showers. It was my shower day today, but the water kept shutting off and going from hot to cold... not cool.
After first showers the boys and I went grocery shopping for dinner and lunch food. When we realized how many bags we had we realized we couldn't easily carry everything home so we (mostly Ryan) decided we would take the grocery cart home with us. No one seemed to mind. Matt and Ryan pushed it along and I walked behind with Suud and Rory naturally scared we would get in trouble.
We made a huge pasta dinner, and it was awesome. We didn't even have Ronal to help us this time!
Gotta love the communication issues of Peru. The group is up and ready to go at 8, but Dora is no where to be seen. At 8:15 I check my e-mail and realize Dora had sent me an e-mail in her broken english saying we were going to ifejant for a meeting at 9:15. So we wait around for her to come over. 9:30, she's not here. So she calls the hostel saying we're suppose to be meeting her there, but we have no way of getting there on our own. So naturally Ronal, superhero that he is, takes us there and attends the meeting with us for a while.
At the meeting, there was a translator who helped us to understand the philosophy behind ifejant and what they are trying to accomplish.
A few things I learned at the meeting
- ifejant works to provide rights to working children, rights that include treating them as equally as adults and providing the opportunity for them to work and provide for their families
- children in other rual areas of peru work because it is a part of their lifestyle and it is what they are brough up with, but kids in the city work beccause their families live in poverty and have no other option
- ifejant works with about 5 schools around Peru to create these opportunities for kids
- they want to break away from the western ways of thinking that kids should only attend school to obtain an education
- through working they are able to further their knowledge, but ifejant does value education, and creates programs with schools so that kids can both work and attend school
A pretty interesting philospohy if you ask me.
We also learned that Lima is one of the fastest growing cities in the world, with 90 percent of the population living below the poverty line. We learned about some of the issues and needs of the population. One of the resons there is so much poverty here, is that many people move from the andes region of Peru, but they come to Lima and cannot find much work and end up living in the slums.
After the meeting, we went to Villa Maria for another half a day of work. Savannah and I painted a classroom, and the others worked on similar projects from the day before. After about 3 hours we went a played soccer with the kids.
Meanwhile, Dora and the principle of the school had gone into town to get supplies for the school. We were suppose to leave at 5, but at 5:20 she still was not back. After waiting around for about an hour, she shows up saying their combie had a flat tire. She arrived in a truck full of supplies that we then had to unload.
Once that was done we were allowed to head home. But its much harder to get a combie to Miraflores for 9 people at night, so one half of the group took a mototaxi to the bottem of the hill, and the other half took a combie that was aleady full. So we had about 20 people in a small bus that seats roughly 13 people.
So then we had to take another combie from the bottem of the hill of Villa Maria to Miraflores and its well past 7 by now. Things started to look up when the combie that Dora found was the same one our group took last year! Getting into the combie the driver recognized me right away and was stoked to have our group. We arranged to have him drive us each day.
Once we got home Ronal was waiting for us and he helped us order Chifa (Peruvian Chinese food). It was a pretty big hit and unlike last year, we didn't have any leftovers.
May 11th
We get into the combie pretty much on time today, to find a translator sitting on the bus!! Dora managed to work her magic and got her neighbour to come to work with us today. His name is Milo and he is awesome. He brought a suitcase full of stuff to help us out at the work sight and he even brought power tools.
We started building today. First we had to move everything that we had moved the day before to the top of the hill. The only people who fell were Savannah and I...go figure. Next, the boys stated making walls for the stucture, because Milo insisted that was a man job. So the girls did a lot of sitting around today. But, we did move some old doors, and walls from a previous building up to the top of the hill where we were working, and once they were there we had to take the nails out of them and pull the pieces apart so that we could cut them up small enough to make a fence out of the material.
We finished work around 3 today, and there were no kids around to hang out with so we got to leave early, and come home to our showers. It was my shower day today, but the water kept shutting off and going from hot to cold... not cool.
After first showers the boys and I went grocery shopping for dinner and lunch food. When we realized how many bags we had we realized we couldn't easily carry everything home so we (mostly Ryan) decided we would take the grocery cart home with us. No one seemed to mind. Matt and Ryan pushed it along and I walked behind with Suud and Rory naturally scared we would get in trouble.
We made a huge pasta dinner, and it was awesome. We didn't even have Ronal to help us this time!
Monday, May 9, 2011
Day 3, First day at Villa Maria
Dora the explorer got us to villa maria safe and sound! We took a random combie, and life just seems to work out sometimes because they are picking us up and driving us to work tomrorrow!
So as we're driving up to the school the first thing I notice about the school is our mural that we painted last year is still there facing the street! Once we get there we are greeted by Edwin, the principle of the school. We visit two classrooms where the kids introduce themselves, and Edwin explains why we are here. He also talked a lot about all of the hard work our group put in last year and how happy they are to have us. Afterwards they gave us a small tour of the village and the school.
The school looks amazing!
Photos to come, but the classrooms are completed with paint, windows and ceiling. Theres a small shop where one of the mothers sells snacks where that little blue shack with the random toilet and garbage used to be. The washrooms we built last year are still standing. They have windows at the top and have proper doors. The thing is, they are not being used as washrooms atm. Washrooms that were built by a previous group of volunteers that were not being used last year are being used now. They designate some for the kids and some for the teachers.
This year we are building an additonal establishment to the school a little higher up on the hill. I did not full understand Dora's translation but what I got out of it is that we are building 3 rooms. One is a kitchen, one is a living room, and another room of some kind that I am slightly lost on the purpose of.
We didn't start on that project today, today we only worked a half day. There is a new staircase leading up to the school, and today we built a rock wall around it and smoothed out the path leading up to it. We had some help from karla and Alexander of course.
We made our first home cooked meal today! Ronal helped a lot...mostly. He made the Rice, the group cut up the veggies and chicken, Sav stirred the chicken.. and I poured the veggies in the pan.
We also had a spanish lesson in the kiten while cooking, Savannah showed off everything she learned in spanish class and Ronal got mad at me for not being a good teacher and not listening enough. He says I say "whatever" too much.
Tomorrow we have our first full day of work!!
So as we're driving up to the school the first thing I notice about the school is our mural that we painted last year is still there facing the street! Once we get there we are greeted by Edwin, the principle of the school. We visit two classrooms where the kids introduce themselves, and Edwin explains why we are here. He also talked a lot about all of the hard work our group put in last year and how happy they are to have us. Afterwards they gave us a small tour of the village and the school.
The school looks amazing!
Photos to come, but the classrooms are completed with paint, windows and ceiling. Theres a small shop where one of the mothers sells snacks where that little blue shack with the random toilet and garbage used to be. The washrooms we built last year are still standing. They have windows at the top and have proper doors. The thing is, they are not being used as washrooms atm. Washrooms that were built by a previous group of volunteers that were not being used last year are being used now. They designate some for the kids and some for the teachers.
This year we are building an additonal establishment to the school a little higher up on the hill. I did not full understand Dora's translation but what I got out of it is that we are building 3 rooms. One is a kitchen, one is a living room, and another room of some kind that I am slightly lost on the purpose of.
We didn't start on that project today, today we only worked a half day. There is a new staircase leading up to the school, and today we built a rock wall around it and smoothed out the path leading up to it. We had some help from karla and Alexander of course.
We made our first home cooked meal today! Ronal helped a lot...mostly. He made the Rice, the group cut up the veggies and chicken, Sav stirred the chicken.. and I poured the veggies in the pan.
We also had a spanish lesson in the kiten while cooking, Savannah showed off everything she learned in spanish class and Ronal got mad at me for not being a good teacher and not listening enough. He says I say "whatever" too much.
Tomorrow we have our first full day of work!!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Day 1 and 2
We are in Peru!
First of all, this is so surreal. 8 months of recruiting, organizing and planning and somehow I'm finally here with my group of 8 volunteers!
We are staying at Casa Rodas 1 this year, its located maybe 3 blocks up from Casa Rodas 2, just 1 block up from Plaza Vea . This hostel is more open than Casa rodas in that the main hallway where the rooms and kitchen branch off of has no ceiling. There are 5 rooms, all with a diferent number of beds and of course there's a roof top balcony. The showers are a little short for some of the guys, but overall everyone seems to be happy with it!
Day 1
Our flight gets in right on time, everyone is tired but excited to have arrived after having been travelling for an entire day. To go through customs in Peru you hand in your customs form, and you press a button that flashes green or red. Green lets you go right through, and red means you get your bag checked. We ALL got green! So we get through fairly quickly, only to realize that Ronal, our host from the hostel isn't there to pick us up. So I tried to use a pay phone to call the hostel, twice, but couldn't figure out how to work the phone. Luckily we started talking to man from Green Taxi company and we got to the hostel on our own and Ronal met us there. Turns out he was expecting us the next night, so he wasn't prepared from us and was short 2 beds, so our group became very close very fast.
The next morning, after a long night's sleep, we wandered Miraflores, saw the beach and the love park and best part is that its about 24 degrees, clear skies with a cool breeze. A little nicer for sight seeing than the smog that coverd the sky for most of our trip last year.
We ended our journey with dinner from our favourite cafe from last year, Cafe Z. And of course I had the Vegetarian Omlet. Afterwards the group went out on the town for the first time, accompanied by our Peruvian friends, Jorge, Jeremy, Carlos and of course..Ronal!
Day 2
We went to the "Indian Market" which is a huge market in Miraflores where you can buy all kinds of Pervian souvenirs. Afterwards we came across a magic show, in spanish of course. I would think Anissa would be proud, we saw him juggle with 7 balls.. did the Calgary Jr. magic club ever teach you that?
At dinner a participant ordered ceviche, and was a little taken back by the raw fish that showed up on her plate when they brough the food, but another participant ate it anyway. Yay for our first Peruvian meal!
First of all, this is so surreal. 8 months of recruiting, organizing and planning and somehow I'm finally here with my group of 8 volunteers!
We are staying at Casa Rodas 1 this year, its located maybe 3 blocks up from Casa Rodas 2, just 1 block up from Plaza Vea . This hostel is more open than Casa rodas in that the main hallway where the rooms and kitchen branch off of has no ceiling. There are 5 rooms, all with a diferent number of beds and of course there's a roof top balcony. The showers are a little short for some of the guys, but overall everyone seems to be happy with it!
Day 1
Our flight gets in right on time, everyone is tired but excited to have arrived after having been travelling for an entire day. To go through customs in Peru you hand in your customs form, and you press a button that flashes green or red. Green lets you go right through, and red means you get your bag checked. We ALL got green! So we get through fairly quickly, only to realize that Ronal, our host from the hostel isn't there to pick us up. So I tried to use a pay phone to call the hostel, twice, but couldn't figure out how to work the phone. Luckily we started talking to man from Green Taxi company and we got to the hostel on our own and Ronal met us there. Turns out he was expecting us the next night, so he wasn't prepared from us and was short 2 beds, so our group became very close very fast.
The next morning, after a long night's sleep, we wandered Miraflores, saw the beach and the love park and best part is that its about 24 degrees, clear skies with a cool breeze. A little nicer for sight seeing than the smog that coverd the sky for most of our trip last year.
We ended our journey with dinner from our favourite cafe from last year, Cafe Z. And of course I had the Vegetarian Omlet. Afterwards the group went out on the town for the first time, accompanied by our Peruvian friends, Jorge, Jeremy, Carlos and of course..Ronal!
Day 2
We went to the "Indian Market" which is a huge market in Miraflores where you can buy all kinds of Pervian souvenirs. Afterwards we came across a magic show, in spanish of course. I would think Anissa would be proud, we saw him juggle with 7 balls.. did the Calgary Jr. magic club ever teach you that?
At dinner a participant ordered ceviche, and was a little taken back by the raw fish that showed up on her plate when they brough the food, but another participant ate it anyway. Yay for our first Peruvian meal!
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