The Ups and Downs of Volunteering at Aldea Yanapay.

I have now been working at Yanapay for two full weeks and three days. Of course there´s a lot more to it than what I described in my first post on the subject and it is well past time for an update.





From Monday to Friday, 3 to 5 for two weeks I continued to tutor Yanapay´s younger children. Their prior education and attitudes were as varied as their personalities. Sometimes the poor quality of peruvian education, its inconsistency was really obvious... I taught a five-year-old who could read fairly well and a seven-year-old who barely knew their alphabet. Some days involved a lot of sighing on my part; trying to get my students to focus, not understanding a childs spanish, feeling completely useless and boring as a teacher. Others were fun and rewarding; finding a fun way to teach letters, having avid readers not want to stop for circle time, sharing smiles, hugs and high fives.

Every day after the first two hours we gather all the School One kids into a circle, holding hands, and march over to School Two for circle time. Sometimes we go as a train, sometimes we are dinosaurs, other days, jungle animals... Arriving at School Two I pry little fingers off my smock and cross the courtyard to sit with my family, who, all trying to get my attention at once, greet me with many hugs and shouts. Once we are all seated, Janek (or Raquel, or Yuri) counts to three and the school falls silent (well, most of the time). Once we start discussion it is a challenge to keep the kids quiet and focused on whoever is speaking. A lot of them are so busy raising their hands and, obsessing about what they want to say, that, when asked, they have no idea what the speaker has just said. We often get a good laugh from a little girl with Down´s Syndrome, Coral, who is prone to spout off nonsensical bits of information. For example, we were talking about birthdays yesterday and she raised her hand to tell us that on her birthday she would be turning Sunday years old. Alrighty then, Coral... Ylla is one of the youngest (and most adorable) girls. When it´s her turn to speak she uses the most hilarious, incessant hand gestures, causing everyone to giggle through her long and detailed stories.

me with some of my Uvitas

After circle time we have our family classes. I spent two weeks in the maroon smock of familia Uvitas with Natalie as my co-teacher. At first, I found my family overwhelming; they have a lot of energy, to say the least. A couple of especially loud and overbearing kids changed the dynamic of the whole class. Anderson always always wanted to be talking and sometimes would even raise his hand shouting, "¡Profe, profe!" the whole time, without having anything to say. When we called on him he would just umm and ahh incoherently! In my family I learned some important phrases very quickly:

Sientete. - "Sit down."
¡Cuidado! - "Careful!"
Calmense. - "Everyone calm down."
¡Chicos, silencia por favor! - "Kids, quiet, please!"
Escuchen su companero, por favor. - "Please guys, listen to your classmate."

A lot of the time it felt like the kids were paying zero attention and couldn´t possibly have taken in any of what we were trying to teach them... But when it came down to it, they were really excited to learn. Actually, I think that´s were a lot of the shouting and craziness stemmed from; everyone wanted to talk about our topic at once! I was constantly surprised by how much they would remember. The first week our theme was to sing a song in english, about nature. When we all put our heads together, we were able to create beautiful costumes and learn, by heart, the words of the song Natalie had composed to the tune of "You are my sunshine." When our Friday show came along, we presented what we had learned to the whole school and it turned out amazingly. The best part though, was the next week, when my family kept bursting into choruses of, "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make the trees grow. You make birds sing."  They wanted to sing it before tutoring, while making costumes for the next weeks show, on our walk from rock climbing... The song became sort of our family anthem. Even our next presentation, which was about Colombia (featuring Shakira´s World Cup song) and which I thought was a somewhat of a disaster, was a favourite of all the other volunteers.

presenting what we learned about Colombia

This week I am working with familia Sol (Sun), who are 11 and 12 year-olds. I miss my little Uvitas. Even though they were crazy and exhausting, I find Sol more frustrating. The problem is that they have Attitude with a capital "A". It´s easier (I said easier, not easy!) to get them to pay attention, but harder to command their respect. Sometimes they are sweet and affectioante, but it doesn´t feel real.  When I wait with Sol in line to wash our milk cups and the Uvitas come running out of their classroom to wash theirs yelling, "¡Profe Julia!", telling me how much they miss me and asking when I am coming back to them I can tell where I am wanted.

I don´t know how people can stay here only a week. Even after two and a half I still have so much to learn... In some ways I still feel like a newbie, yet at other times I feel I am an old hand; like when I translated for the english-speakers at our Friday volunteer meeting.

I left this update too long to give a full account of all the joys and frustrations of working at Yanapay (fun kids, working with limited supplies), but I will say that it is both uplifting and frustrating, energizing and exhausting, but most of all wonderful, just plain old wonderful.

Con Amor,
Profe Julia de Canada

Walk Like a Cusqueñan.

    When I arrived in Cusco I took a combi, which merits a story for itself, from the airport to what I thought was the main plaza. That day I got lost and took a much longer than necessary walk to find El Hostal Magico. I could have been really frustrating considering my pack (fortunately it isn't very heavy), all the terrible directions I was given, the shock of the altitude on my lungs, the confusing street names and the crazy traffic, not to mention my ever-increasing hunger and general plain-old-tiredness. Somehow it wasn't though. The magic of Cusco's streets had me from my first steps off that over-crowded van. By the time I made it to the hostel the spring may have faded from my step somewhat, but the smile was still firmly on my lips and heart.

Walking in Cusco is... enchanting? Is that too airy-fairy a word to use? It's the one that comes to mind. For one the streets are all cobblestone. Not just one or two for the postcard pictures. ALL of them. The sidewalks cling to the walls. The walls cling to the shoulders of your shirt or jacket. "You have wall on you," is a common remark among my friends. You know that space between sidewalks and buildings called a yard? They don't have those. Or even that little patch of grass between sidewalks and roads? They don't have those either. I know because today I got clipped by a cars side mirror. Okay, I'm not making this out to be too "enchanting" am I? But honestly, I really didn't mind the whole sideview-mirror-to-the-thigh thing...

In my neighbourhood the street dogs all have their blocks. The mean-looking little one with the squashed face guards to corner of Chaparro and Vitoque. A few, less fiercesome, ones squabble playully over the bottom of Calle Fierro. A couple of walls are held up by posts wedged into the street. Most of the walls in the area are faded and crumbling. An interesting thing about this city is that there are barely any visibly isolated buildings, just a single tall wall (stone on the bottom adobe and plaster for the upper) for each block with doors for each store or home. You get a completely different perspective when you get above street level.  In San Blas the streets climb up and up and up, providing such perspective. You can see into the separate courtyards; laundry lines, tin and clay roofs, trees... the moguls-course-like roof of the cathedral. In San Blas flowers spill over the freshly painted white and yellow walls. Pretty wrought iron designs bar the windows. Cusco spreads out below you, the view changing with every twist and turn.

The Plaza de Armas is the touristy-est place in town. Hands thrust leaflets at you from all sides: "Excuse me, lady. Massage?", "Happy hour, 9-11.", "Tourist information?". If you stand still for more than a second the vendors close in... paintings, touques, jewellry, watermelon, sunglasses. Locals and tourists alike relax around the fountain and on the cathedral steps. Come nightfall there is almost always someone thunking out a lazy rhythm on a bongo drum. The glowing Cristo Blanco watches over the city from the hilltop.

Everywhere you go, ladies with colourful bundles slung over their backs waddle along. On the corners, they stop and unbundle their loads, settling onto the paving stones to sell their cargo... They carry everything; from jewellry to choclo (and the stove to cook it on), bread to babies. The babies aren't for sale though. Sometimes I wish they were; Every baby here is gorgeous. Kids chase balloons down the street, jumping and giggling. Others sell gum and candy to passers-by, tearing my heart out each time I see one of them.

I just want to grab their hands and take them with me to Yanapay, but we are full to bursting and can´t invite any more kids. We have anout 80 coming to the schools each day.

An update on my volunteering at Aldea Yanapay is coming up next. :)

With LOVE,

Julia

Sick.

Yesterday I woke up early enough, but a fever kept me in bed tossing and turning until about 9:30. I felt like I would vomit if I got up. Sure enough, as soon as I stood up I was on my knees in front of the garbage can. The spanish couple in my dorm took care of me, holding back my hair and offering me water. I drank some more, took out the trash bag and went right back to bed until 11:30. I showered to rid myself of the previous days rock-climbing sweat and the gross, dirty feeling of being sick. I ate a mango to try to regain some energy. The shower was more successful than the mango; I still felt extremely weak and achy. I helped Natalie do a bit of research about Colombia (our family is studying it this week), tried to go buy something with electrolytes from one of the tiny convenience shops beside the hostel, both of which were closed (on a Monday at 2!?) and finally (imagining all the kids jumping on me) decided I couldn´t go to school. At about 2:30 I crawled back into bed fully clothed and didn´t wake up again until 7:00... a.m. I think it must have been something I ate the night before; Jen was sick too and she had supper with me. I will have to talk to Marla and ask whether she was ill. We all had the same thing... It has been a bad day for many of the volunteers; Janek and Lucy are in hospital with something similar and I heard of a few others getting sick too. This morning I´m feeling a lot better (I should hope so after 16 and a half hours sleep). I had a real breakfast, got dressed and feel like I could walk more than the distance between my room and the bathroom. For which I am very thankful; I already missed one sunny day in Cusco! And actually, though it is another beautiful day, right now I wish I were home. Or that you were here. I miss my real friends...
Con mucho amor, te extraño,
Julia