From the eyes of a 'chinita'.. who is not actually a 'chinita'.. and is more of a 'gringa'.. but doesn't look like a 'gringa'... (whose parents are coreanos, anyway).. (refer to Oct 15 blog)
I'm going to really miss the transportation system here.... If it was like this in Los Angeles, I wouldn't have purchased a car.. or maybe I would have, but would only drive it once a month or so, which isn't really that worth it... but anyway.. it's very entertaining and at the same time efficient and cheap...
Basically how it works is that there are two sorts of buses.. micros (large buses) and combis (minivans)... in their window they have a letter (and sometimes #).. from the type of bus it is and the letter in the window, you know what the route the bus goes (well, this is known just from asking people and personal experience)... from there, all you have to do is go anywhere on their route and you flag then down when they drive by, they pick you up and then you get dropped off anywhere on the route you want (you don't even have to walk to a bus stop or bus station...).. in fact, you could get dropped off just 10 feet from the person who just got off before you.. though that's obnoxious... it costs 1 sole or 1.5 soles depending on the distance which is pretty much 33-45 cents... its half price for students.. and if you have a kid, as long as their sitting on your lap, the kid doesn't get charged...
The buses themselves have to be the most rattiest vehicles i've ever seen.. I imagine they would be awesome to take to burningman... a couple times i've been in ones that the cobrador (the guy you give your fare to) was sat there holding the door closed!... once the top of the door fell out of it's socket and they spent 5 minutes putting it back in...
in the combis (minivans) they squeeze about 16 passengers (plus the driver and the cobrador; making 18).. and then they usually will squeeze in two more people who are standing there bent over.. of course no ones wearing a seat belt.. but these cars are so ratty that a crash would probably not save you with a seatbelt anyway.. HOWEVER the passenger(s) do need to wear a seatbelt or at least appear to be wearing one...
This is true of the taxis as well... in a station wagon, we've fit about 9 people before.. which is fine, and we don't get pulled over as long as the front passenger has their seatbelt on...
Pretty much anywhere within the main part of Trujillo costs about 4 soles ($1.33)... going all the way out to huanchaco in a taxi which is about 20 minutes in taxi is about 10 soles ($3.33)... the taxis are often just as ratty as the micros/combis...
The other cool thing is that there are always some sort decorations in the taxis (and micros) ... it's usually men taxi drivers (though i've had a couple women taxistas)... who have the ever popular bobble head dogs... sometimes mickey mouse characters stuck/hanging from the front windshield... lots of stickers all over the inside of their car saying anything from "no escupa" (no spitting)... to stickers about not accepting fake money...
some photos of a micro.. our trip to the zoo with the kids... actually the seats don't usually look this nice...
I'll keep my summary very brief as Nadia's is very thorough..
Basically spent a few days in Cusco, then went to Agua Caliente, Macchu Pichu, Ollantaytambo, then back to Cusco.. with a couple day trips to Tibón and Pisac... Cusco is sooooooo incredibly different than living in Trujillo... it's even a different sort of touristy than Mancora and Mantanitas, Ecuador was... There's international food (like Korean food?!? and Indian... mmmmmmmMMmmmm) and so many tourists, I was not used to seeing so many non Peruvians... I was also not used to spending so much money. I can get a 2 course meal and a drink for 4 soles.. and we were going to restaurants where the plates were 40+ soles... All I thought was that I could eat lunch for 2 weeks on the cost of this one meal!!! But I really had to get over it, cuz it was just one week and I was treated for a few meals, so it wasn't breaking the bank so much. For Macchu Pichu, we didn't do a 4 day trek.. we took the train there and the bus to the entrance... Overall I think this was nice to save some days to hang out in Cusco more and have a more mellow unrushed time... plus gave us the extra energy to make it up Wayna Picchu which is a bit exhausting with the altitude.. and Britta and I did the extra Gran Caverna loop, which was sort of like climbing WP again... I was super spent after that and ready to pass out. I had alot of difficulty with the altitude and consumed quite a bit of coca products (tea, chocolate, candy, etc) while I was here because otherwise I had a horrible headache and lightheadedness (which I took tylenol every day as well to cope)... Learned i have great bargaining skills and can tell someone off in the worst way in spanish if i really needed to.. (which I almost needed to because,... well long story, but they redeemed themself, so I didn't).
Oh.. and i got really sick at the end of my trip... had nausea for 2 days before the 'runs' started (and lasted for about 5 days) and immodium wasn't helping.. at one point when i got back to trujillo, the nausea left and I hate a huge meal which immediately exited keeping me up until 2am... I went to work the next morning (waking up at 6:30am)... It was gone and came back for another go for a few days.. strange thing.. it was the sort that didn't give you stomach cramps before hand, it was just a constant run to the bathroom.. sorry probably not something you want to know details about, but it's a part of living here I think.. Hadn't had it this bad before though.. wonder what was in Cusco....
It was suuuuuuuuuuuuper cool to see everyone...
What else... Well I'm on my way out tonight to someone's farewell party, so I'll leave it at that... for now.
My nursery kids, riding the micros/combies, surfing in huanchaco, liz (but will see her new years!!), the other SKIP volunteers, cebiche, 4.50 sole menús (like $1.50 for a drink and 2 large course), potatoes gallore (the best french fries, fresh not frozen), carts on street (to buy watermelon, papa relleno, meals, marcianos, acuñas, etc), dance class @ the gym, speaking spanish all the time, Grupo 5 and cumbia (hehe it grew on me), tortillas (egg kind), farmacias (don't have to go to the doctor for every little thing), chinita (grew to like this nickname that folks gave me here :)), traveling, exploring all that is Peru...
What I won't miss: having a bad infestation of lice, talking on skype w/ brentt (and not having him in person), tons and tons of random bug bites all the time, whistling and cat calling (and taxis honking and waiting for you even though you DIDNT wave for them), unavoidable tanner/freckled skin (so much sun despite being caked on with sunblock all the time), coming home from work with dirty feet (though the flip side is going to work every day in flip flops was very cool!), so many meat options, 'the runs' every other day (tho i think it kept the weight down! heh)...
So, I plan to come back to the states for about 6 months before heading out for part 2 of my travels. Which means I will be in the states just long enough for the holidays and New Years and then the first week of January I plan to head out to Patagonia with Brentt and work my way up through Central America. At that point, I plan to sort of "settle down" somewhere and travels from there are will be 2 weeks here and there as vacation time allows from wherever I'm working permanently.
For the 6 months I'm here, I'm trying to decide if I am going to live in near Pasadena (Where Brentt is going to school and lives) or on the West Side (if job prospects are more over on that side)... I am going to sign up with a temp agency that I have known several social workers to use and have liked. I'm slightly concerned about the bad economy and being able to find a job, but at the same time, feeling confident that there has to be some sort of social work job out there... Just hope I can also get myself some good health insurance (since I will have NONE the minute I step on US soil). I'm looking at this as an opportunity to work with a different population... maybe with children? I would like to stay in Mental Health.
I have moved to the cute beach down of Trujillo, called Huanchaco. Though this adds about 30 minutes each way to my commute, I thought it would be a nice move for my last month here so I can surf as much as I want and have a bit of a slower paced lifestyle on the beach. The volunteer house is now about 16 people, and although I miss the always-something-happening in the house and getting to know the other volunteers more, I am also enjoying the privacy of living with only 2 other people.
It'll take me a bit to catch up on blogging on Cusco/Machu Pichu, but I wanted to send out a thank you to all that donated stuff for SKIP. A majority of it was from Nadia and her coworkers (THANK YOU!!!) we received baby clothes, memory games, tracing paper, markers, kids scissors, toothbrushes (btw, the kids looooooooooooooove their new toothbrushes, they were so excited to get them), frisbee, and some adult clothes and a super nice camera donated by Britta (thanks!!).
Thanks to my friends who also brought down yummy gifts for me =) choc covered blueberries and other trader joe treats from A, music goodies (cds and an mp3 player!) from the terrakroma folks (my ipod had stopped working too so this was great!), chai tea from michael/britta, chocolate from brentt...
Hey folks,
Sorry my Peru blog has been quiet for a while... I´ve been in Cusco for the past week and half..
In the aiport right now on my way back to Trujillo, just trying to hold it together!! I´ve had 4 days of nausea, 2-3 days of "bicicleta" (or the runs as they say in the states), a stomach ache like someone has punched me... and probably collectively have eaten about 3 meals in the last 4 days since everything i look at or smell makes me want to throw up... and therefore feeling quite lightheaded and delirious at the moment... fortunately this happened after Machu Picchu so I was able to enjoythat... I´m still able to walk around, so I don´t think i need to go to the doctor quite yet, but Im thinking if i can´t hold more food down or if the immodium doesn´t start working soon, Ill need to take a few more days off of work and see the doc... haven´t been this sick yet in Peru... my only other bad case of sickness was just like a half day of tummy ache and was gone...
Hopefully in the next week I will be able to update on:
1. My move to Huanchaco Beach (I´m no longer in the SKIP volunteer house). Though still working for SKIP of course.
2. Vacation in Cusco with A, E, Britta, Michael, Nadia, Anthony, and Misty!
- Plus generous SKIP donations from Nadia and Britta!
3. Future plans back in the states!
4. Things I will miss here in Peru (already have started a list!!!)
Decided to blog more about the nursery.. but this could potentially be very boring.. just sort of describing how it's structured...
so basically the day is split up between 20 minute segments.. each segment having a direct purpose.. even "free toy play" promotes preference and autonomy... Also each week has a letter, number, color and shape of the week. I had attempted to ahve a theme of the week as well. but it was way too complicated for me to try and incorporate that heh...
So we start the day with organizing the classroom, putting the alphabet mat out, chairs/tables, etc... and then they have free toy play (which all the toys also have some sort of educational purpose)... then we start the morning gathering.. with these three songs "si estas feliz" (if you're happy and you know it), buenos dias (good morning) and dias de la semana (days of the week).. then we review the behavioral board (this 3 light system, everyone is on green, there are 4 simple rules.. no fighting, listen while the teacher is talking, walk in a line together (when going outside), and ask to go to the bathroom one at a time)... if you break one of the rules you move to yellow and this involves a discussion, then if it happens again, you move to red and this involves timeout)... on the flip side, there is the "star" chart, where if they have good behavior for first half or second half of the morning, they have opportunities to get a star, and after 5 stars they get to choose something from the prize box (sticker/card/other)..... then we go into talking about "what day/date/climate/season is it", who my helper of the day is, and review again the #/letter/shape/color of the week... then we read a story and do a language activity (for example reviewing the letters and writing 'Dd' like 8 times), then it's sport (there are two outdoor sections of the day) this is a directed sport/game that i teach them.. then we come back wash hands for snacktime and they brush their teeth after eating, then it's storytime.. relaxation/quiet time (to start learning to calm self, stress/emotional management, etc).. then we do a maths activity (using numbers, shapes, or other concept), then english (songs, alphabet, face/body, emotions, etc.), then art and personal development (personal development is sort of just learning the role of things in the world; self awareness and awareness of others)... then 'recess' for free outdoor play.. then back inside for music before putting all the classroom stuff away again for the end of the day.
Quite a full day, activities seem to work out pretty nicely to fill out the 4 hours.
So.. originally we had called "time out" "the corner"... but unbeknownst to me, one of our boys has "the corner" in house being a dark scary corner where there are rats that he is terrified of... so in addition to already not be used to our discipline techniques, he was terrified that we were sending him to "the corner"... which was when we changed it to "time out"... alot of times our kids are used to just being spanked when they do something bad.. so that's been predictable for them.. since we dont do that at the nursery, it seems they have gotten a bit afraid of the unpreditability of that and a few of them have sort of regressed into crying when their mothers leave (when previously they were fine)... hopefully that will improve as they see it's just time outside of participating when they do something wrong..
It's been really fun to see what works and doesn't work for games and activities. Something as easy as follow the leader and having them copy me as various animals is one of their favorite games.. they also love the "london bridge" game (este puente va a caer, va a caer, va a caer.....)
So, I'm having a heck of a time balancing the administrative aspects of coordination and then on top of that doing all the teaching and lesson planning. And then having to explain to the volunteers that are assisting me, what their role is in the classroom, as well as the mothers who we have each one volunteer one day a week (sort of as a parenting class sort of thing)...
It is not your role to watch me try and control 10 kids on my own. It is your role to assist me in maintaining order!! Grr.. I'm not a teacher, and even that seems common sense to me. When I'm having difficulty getting the kids to pay attention, you don't sit back and just watch me. But OK.. i understand that maybe these are all things I need to explain very explicitly... The folks helping me, have been a huge help in other areas... I'm not ungrateful... 'cuz I wouldn't have been able to keep my sanity this far if it wasn't for their help. Though, they could be of more use.. So yeah, apparently I'm also training volunteers as well. Oh, though I should mention that one of my mates, Jean Claire, has been super awesome in helping in the nursery.. taking on teaching some of the lessons, super great with discipline and helping with everything else without any sort of prompt... Elliot has been great too and the only difficulty has been his lack of spanish, but he's good with discipline and paraticipating in the nursery :)
In my state of frenzy of trying to start the morning and talk to 2 mothers at the same time (since the volunteers i had assisting me that morning didn't speak any spanish, I couldn't leave it up to them to lead the class), I allowed two more children into the program, just making things much more difficult, but my head was spinning at the time and it didn't come mind that: 1. It was going to make things more difficult for myself by adding two more kids. 2. It's better for the mothers to know and learn that if they want to participate in a program, they must follow the rules, which included going to several meetings, and having attended from the beginning of the program.
But oh well.. One of the new girls who came today is very ready for school and wasn't difficult to integrate into the class. The other family came, but just to let us know she couldn't attend because she had very bad tooth problems (her cheek was very swollen). Hopefully, she'll be easy to integrate into the class....
Whew..
On the flip side (yay, there's a flip side or I'd be having a nervous breakdown and ready to come back to the states right now)... the kids are absolutely adorable... They already have been copying things I say often... For those who have spent time with me long enough, you know i say "OOPS!" all the time. When I've done something, when someone else does something, an "OOPS!" comes out. Well one of my kids has decided to do the same hahah... It was adorable too because it was out of no where.. he came and tapped me on the shoulder and said "OOPS!"
The kids are real sponges and have been learning things really fast. The other day we sang a color song that included spanish and english (sing with me! to the tune of: Fere Jacques) Red is rojo, green is verde, blue- azul, negro-black, Yellow-amarillo, purple is morado, Brown-café, gray is gris.... So anyway, today I showed them some colors and they remembered the song from yesterday and were saying "blue azul!" and "rojo red!".... yay! that's exciting for me hehe... today we read a book that had sentences in english and spanish, and they were very eager to repeat the english words after me. Probably more so because they see the amusement in my face of them speaking english.... so adorable!!
But alas, they seem to be in the storming phase and in addition to all the stress I've mentioned above, they have begun to stop listening to me, and doing things to test my patience... which i generally have alot of, but will likely turn into an ulcer if i dont figure out how to manage it soon!! :P
Any tips welcome. As I've said, I've never worked with kids 3 & 4 before, so I need all the help i can get. Oh and if anyone's curious.. the budget for the nursery is $350. All the supplies it took to start it up was about $300.. ongoing budget is the rest...
Oh, and BTW, my knee is still F'd... continues to look like a fat, swollen knee.. can go upstairs properly now, but with extra support from railings when on that leg, but can't go downstairs without taking each step slowly and not bending my knee (cuz it doesn't support my weight going down). However, don't think it's anything a doctor can do anything about, so I'm just ace bandaging it and waiting for it to heal. Aleve helps.
Well, I dont believe in 'karma' per se... my beliefs are more taoist.. but just for kicks we can call it karma...
After my little bragging session, I've very much screwed up my knee (however, I remind myself that it could be worse, like the peace corp volunteer here who broke his back in several places and had it treated here and fortunately is still standing/walking!)..
it's very big, fat and has a nice little cut on it.
I think a few posts back, I posted about my bad knee... well... Basically just fell down some stairs and because i was holding my computer i didn't have my hands to balance nor stop my fall and i landed on a corner (like pointed) edge of concrete against the side of the knee cap of my bad knee... i have a nasty cut and the knee is very fat and swollen now.. i can barely bend my knee, though i can somewhat tolerate the pain if i just keep the leg straight and keep total weight off of it. it was one of those injuries that instantly you know you've done something very wrong to it.. not just a scrape or bruise, but something has been damaged. was very close to tears heh.. and i can tolerate quite a bit of pain... after it happened i had to sit there for a while cuz basically my mind went black and couldn't do anything else... i'm goign to see if the swelling goes down tomorrow and how things are in the next few days and hopefully it'll start to heal without having to see a doc... right now i've got quite a headache; feels like the pain has sort of dulled and my brain is tired of numbing it... took an aleve... hopefully that helps...
So, my name's on the Nursery Page of the SKIP website :) http://skipperu.org/index.php/general-skip-news/nurserybegins.html Decided I wanted to blog/brag a bit, and I feel slightly justified because of the sweat and tears from the past couple months and insecurities from having never done this sort of work nor worked with this age group.
So basically, it's been running quite smoothly :) activities were quite on target, daily schedule working out to fill the day. All activities corresponding with developmental milestones. etc etc... today I was quite elated because the kids are learning the songs I'm teaching them and a bit amused because they're saying some of the phrases I often say... (hopefully they won't learn my horrible pronunciation of 'r')...
So my bragging story is that in addition to various compliments by my fellow volunteers, one of them is an actual teacher and was asking me about my schooling I've had with child development and education (which again, is almost none, I remember a child development class in my psychology b.s. and maybe 1 in my m.s.w. and no classes on teaching).. and saying that she sees me using quite a few methodologies that are really good. She was describing some to me that I'm apparently using and how its been diverse to meet different styles of learning that the children exhibit. :) yeeeeeeeeee!!! Estoy feliz sobre esto porque pensaba que yo no sabía que estoy haciendo!
Apparently I'm doing something right! Never taught before... apparently it's something I can do :)
More pictures later, cuz i defo want to show off how i've decorated the room :) and show sports activities we've done :)
I've mentioned that things have been relatively safe since I've been here, with common sense precautions...
However, there have been two incidents in front of the house since I've been here. (though none at the SKIP office which is generally "more dangerous"... )
The first incident occurred during the evening. I wasn't there, but apparently my housemates were in a taxi getting ready to go out, and some guy tapped on the window saying something. Lourdes who is Peruvian, was telling them to not open the door or roll down the window, but apparently no one heard, because they then rolled down the window. The guy then pointed into the car and stated that he left his wallet in the car. They were looking around and he then said something along the lines of having seen it right there and pointed on the ground. I'm not sure at that point who opened the door, but he reached right in and grabbed the purse of one of my housemates. She apparently had keys to our house, ID and money (not sure what else)... After that, we had to change the keys to the house, which was quite expensive.
Second incident was a housemate who was coming back to the house after going to the camera repair store to get her camera fixed. She had only keys, her camera (in a case) and 200 soles (in the case). The cord of the case was wrapped around her hand. As she was unlocking the door, a man ran out, pushed her, and then grabbed the camera case. She has a nasty cut on her hand from it and was quite spooked by the incident. The guy ran into a cab and they drove off (the cab had a passenger in it). Liz and I rode around with her to the tourist police station to have her give a statement so she can claim it on her insurance.
So nothing quite violent... but very close to home...
May make this short, so i can continue working on lesson plans for the nursery.
Had thursday and friday off last week and a few housemates wanted to take a trip to Cajamarca, which was on my list of places I wanted to visit in Peru. I listened to spanish nursery rhymes and slept for most of the 9 hour bus ride there, so apparently I missed quite a bit of beautiful countryside, however, there was plenty to be seen beyond the bus ride!. Oh... and I can't forget to mention.. there was NO bathroom on the bus for the 9 hour bus ride. Which was ok because they did make one pee stop.. but was not ok, because apparently I ate something poor beforehand because I had a severe intestinal emergency and had to make them stop. Thought I was going to have a very embarrassing moment there, but after some pain and sweating, and some really nice bus drivers, my crisis was averted. (HUGE TANGENT: my housemate had just told us a story where she needed to go to the bathroom and the bus drivers refused to stop and stated that the bus was not going to restart if they stopped it. After some time, she ended up threatening to pee on the bus if they didn't stop and they went ahead and stopped the bus. Like clockwork, the bus did not start again.. and like clockwork, it started raining... everyone was very pissed off at her and they ended up being rescued by some truck that had railings above the cows they were transporting. They spent the next 3 hours riding the top of a truck with cows underneath them. Fortunately, this was not the fate of my situation!!).
So in Cajamarca... did lots of stuff like go to some hot springs: walk around town visit ruins (ventanillas de otuzco) the town is quite rural saw awesome rock formations, petroglyphs and aquaducts in Cumbe mayo.. including rock formations that look like other things (one part looks like a face facing our left): Also went to an old hospital that was run by nuns, went shopping, bought some cheese, presents for friends/family, and saw a Jesus play with vignettes.
The altitude of Cajamarca is 2,700 m (8,900 ft)... which is a bit short of what Cusco is at 3,300 (10,800 ft).. and I had no altitude problems at all. In Cumbe Mayo which is slightly higher than Cusco (though we only stayed for a couple hours), I did get a bit dizzy, but nothing unmanageable.. we were hiking around quite a bit too. It was quite cold (i had long johns, jeans and long sleeves and jacket).. and I was told cusco is colder than that.. about 60 F during the day at best is what i was told; nighttime of course much colder.
Actually, in a couple weeks i'm spending a weekend in Julcan, which is just about the altitude of Cusco.. So we'll see how the altitude feels there for a few days (I've been a little worried about the altitude adjustment in Cusco, cuz i've had problems in colorado when visiting my sis). Seems like it's not really gonna be a problem.
SUPER!
More photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/frunkus/sets/72157616582699603/ Many of these fotos are better viewed by clicking the option "all sizes" at the top of each picture. Or slideshow option. Don't forget to click on info for description. :) Disfruten!!!
Alberto Fujimori is sentenced to 25 years. Activists say the verdict shows that even former heads of state cannot expect to get away with serious crimes.
By Adriana Leon and Chris Kraul
April 8 2009
Reporting from Lima, Peru, and San Agustin, Colombia -- Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was found guilty of mass murder and kidnapping Tuesday and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, a rare instance of a former head of state being found guilty in his own country on human rights charges.
So, I was meaning to take a nap right now, but thought I might upload a couple fotos for you guys to see with the nursery :) There were 3 days this week, Monday being the first day of the nursery, and my weekend starts today because it's Semanta Santa (Easter)... Thank goodness, because after yesterday, I was so exhausted, I was a bit concerned about how I'd be able to keep all this up until I leave for the States in July. There's an awesome psychologist who just arrived who has been helping me out quite a bit with advice. At one point yesterday I was so mentally exhausted, I just couldn't talk/hear more about the nursery (not even stuff that would help ease the day).. but after a good night's sleep and an easier day today, I was ready to work on some improvements with the psychologist.
The way I have it set up, the 4 hours are all split up into 20 minute segments, these include: morning gathering, toy election (when they have choice to choose a toy, promotes independent thinking), storytime/language, mathematics, personal development, music, art, quiet time, sports, and snack time... each having an important role in child development. I've got 8 kids in total. Also have integrated a parenting skill objective (since one mother is to stay for 1 morning a week). Handwashing and teeth brushing every day (which the kids love, it's so cute!), folders for each kid with weekly reports, a piaget assessment, and will have all their finished work that they're parents can pick up at the end of the week... We've changed up the schedule to have two sports (1st directed by us and 2nd free choice/child-directed) activities, since the kids get ansty and it's tough to be in the same room for 4 hours... We've included a component where they help us set up and put the equipment away (not just the toys)... which helps me quite a bit because it's part of the time they're there (saves me 15 minutes before the 4 hours of nursery) and the kids learn and feel a sense of responsibility...
Grr.. the pictures aren't loading on blogger... you'll just have to wait for me to upload them to flickr, but that may be a while...
anyway, the nursery went as well as I think it possibly could... and then on top of that, having been created by someone who has never run a nursery, much less worked a nursery (other than the 3 recent days I 'observed'), and then it being done by someone who's spanish is barely intermediate... not so bad if i say so myself
My brain is absolutely pushed to it's limit... not only did I do the planning, I'm doing the coordination, lesson plans, and I'm the primary teacher... and as I've mentioned, on top of all this, I'm doing this all in spanish (which is still a struggle).. I think I've never pushed my brain so hard...
(hope i dont sound too much like i've been complaining in my last posts about the nursery)... just more expressing/sharing how difficult it has been and how, yes, outside of all the surfing and having fun on weekends, I'm working my ass off during the week...
the kids are absolutely adorable though... not trying to have favorites (at least being aware that I do is the first step to not showing favoritism right?) but there is the cutest little boy that just tries to do every I'm teaching and is just so happy when he's got something down.. raises his hand for everything.. is very independent, and kind to the other kids.... so adorable! :) all the kids are super cute. makes the stress worth every minute of it.
Until reading my friend's blog, I nearly had forgot about the sauna incident.
So, I'm used to going to the korean bathhouses in Los Angeles... in fact it's almost like my body craves going ... it's like a reset button for your body and mind.. you go sit in the sauna until you're delirious and then jump into the cold pool..do this several times.. and at one point in the process you're scrubbing all your dead skin off.. so by the time you leave you're feeling refreshed and clean inside and out... the whole process is like 4 hours...
So, i was quite delighted to find a bathhouse here... They had a dry sauna and wet sauna, and a cool pool (not quite "cold", but still alright)... oh and a gym... though I won't be returning, because I think there was a chance we had visited a brothel.....
So the incident went like this... I was laying down on the bench in the dry sauna.. and the chick who is naked on the bench next to me (which I'm used to because it's like that in korean bathhouses.. nudity represents something very different than in the americas.. it's not all sexualized) so then the chick looks at me and says "quieres bajar?"... and, as usual, i wasn't quite sure what i heard.. and so i have her repeated it.. "quieres bajar?"... so i think about this for a while.. literally this means "do you want to go down?"... i'm on the bench so i'm thinking maybe she's refering to us being on the bench and she's asking if i want to leave?... like get off the bench and go outside.. and then i thought she was asking me if i wanted to "bajar" my clothes.. cuz i was wearing a bathing suit.. and maybe she was telling me that the culture is fine to be naked in the spa... so very confused all i answered with was "esta bien"... "it's ok"... so then gets up and she walks over to me like expecting something.. and i look confused .. and then she said how since i'm not from around here i don't understand..
and then leaves the room...
some other strange incidents include the drunk chick (this was at like 2pm we were there) was insisting on teaching me how to use the spa's gym equipment... and she was exercising with her high heels on...
So... The past 8 years I've worked with mostly vietnam veteran vets.. mostly men.. occasionally I'll have a few women (ran a woman's group).. and occasionally i'll have someone who is a woman (but biologically a man).. occasionally i had someone who was as young as 20... there was a time 9 years ago when i worked at a group home for teens... and then even longer before that while i was in college that I worked with infants until the age of 2. That being said.. who more perfect to plan a new nursery program for 3 & 4 year olds! Heh.. anyway, yeah so here's my HOW TO guide to putting a nursery together by a person who has never worked in a nursery nor has any sort of experience with this age group.
1. Get excited about working with kids and then begin to freak out about how much work this is going to involve. (especially when you initially thought you were assisting someone else, and then it turns out you're the one doing it and no one is assisting you with the planning process and you're the primary teacher). 2. Spend endless hours reading about child development. 3. Spend endless hours reading about child development in developing countries. 4. Spend endless hours searching for an assessment tool, just to find out there isn't one available free and having to type one up yourself based on Piaget... 5. Spend endless hours researching nursery programs and what exactly it is. 6. Spend endless hours gathering ideas for lesson planning (also doing this in spanish) and what should be included in the curriculum. 7. ..... researching what the best sorts of classes should be scheduled for the day and figuring out the schedule (20 minute segments for each subject). 8. ..... researching how to setup the classroom (in regards to supplies/toys/etc) and what sorts of toys are best for learning 9. ..... researching spanish nursery rhymes and songs (and learning all of them). 10. ..... observing in a nearby nursery to actually see first hand this age group and their level (of attention, ability, etc.) 11. .... meeting with the mothers and organizing that end of it. 12. ... making posters, educational decorations and games (so you're not spending all of the small budget allotted) 13. ... researching parenting objectives (since the parents are participating and the nursery includes a parenting skills component) 14. .... planning lessons and then doing all the worksheets for all the lessons. 15. .... shopping for all the supplies (this is everything from paper to the locked cupboard to the mat on the floor small chairs/tables... educational toys.. etc...), then organizing/setting them up in the most efficient way. 16. .... writing up a guide so that the next person who takes over doesn't have to start from scratch. 17. ... translate everything into spanish so that spanish speaking volunteers understand.
I may have missed some steps, but that maybe gives you an idea... I did get some assistance with #11 and #15... and have gotten praise hehe.. which is encouraging...
So I recently found out that the corrugated roofs that most of the families in porvenir and many in trujillo are made of asbestos... they're almost exclusively used in the Porvenir's schools....
Also, in Porvenir there are many people who cook using bricks of charcoal that burn for an entire day. When walking around Porvenir, you can smell this burning.. well its either that or all the trash fires.. none of this can be good for their health... There have been SKIP volunteers who have attempted workshops teaching the mothers how to do these simple adobe ovens with metal pipes as the chimney that would save quite a bit of money, but of that the group that attended i think it was only 1 family that made one. Change is hard to implement...
Have I written about safety already? Alot of guide books talk about how unsafe Peru is... I have found that it has been safe enough for me, though that's with some common sense about safety. I hardly ever go anywhere with more than 50 soles ($17). I never use my phone in public (if i can help it... if i feel particularly safe i'll pull it out to make a phone call, though with concealing it). Although I wear a ring Brentt gave me, the bead bracelet A gave me, and my earrings my mom gave me, I'm generally unflashy with my flip flops, worn out tshirt and sweatshorts.. Though as we bring in our boxes of random school supplies to the SKIP office, we have been warned that there are certain unsavory people who have been watching "the gringos"... at this point we need to be careful to lock our door behind us and make sure the door is shut the whole time (we have high walls with barbed edges as well). There was a time, not long ago that a few volunteers were held at gunpoint at the SKIP office (some convicted murder named Pato Negro or something).. they took a laptop, leather jacket (which the volunteer shouldn't have taken to SKIP in the first place), cell phone and lots of cash. Seems that it resulted in the police taking action and some sort of shootout happening by Indoamericano one of the schools we work with. Don't know much more about that...
Britta asked me today sort of what the living is like here because it's hard to imagine. I would say it is definitely something that is hard to understand unless you're there to see it. And even then, it's easy to forget when you return to your comfortable mattress, internet, and running water. Where I live, although it looks more like the dirty part of downtown Los Angeles (in regards to sketchiness and standard of living, not in regards to having large 20 story buildings..), I'm actually in the middle-class area... It's quite different from the dirt floor dirt brick houses of Porvenir. There are random sounds of sheeps on roofs, chickens clucking, the smell of something rotton, dog corpses... at the Plaza del Armas, which is relatively nice and clean (Center of town), you'll see an old beggar woman with arthritic hands asking for money (she's sat on the same spot every time i've gone to the center of town)... you see alot of folks like this. Not to mention the children asking you to buy something.
So, there has been drama lately with our organization for months now... but I should say that we only find out recently that there is drama because we were not an active participant in the drama.
Basically another organization here has for some reason felt threatened by us (and i'll elaborate on my thoughts of why) and created a mock website pretty much having copied the front page of ours (literally copied.. like a print screen copy or something) .. and what i mean by mock website is that they used the domain www.skipperu.xxxx (something else, ours is org) and then at the bottom they have something about the "REAL" history of SKIP and then they have a banner saying something about how our director in 2003 stole their project and named it SKIP. this eventually links to his site.. where he has yet another link to a webpage devoted solely to naming all the ex volunteers who "stole" his project, took it somewhere else, and renamed it...
So... my thoughts on why this guy feels threatened and has started to pick on us... apparently from things i've heard and read from ex volunteers of their organization (and i know a few people who used to work for them) is that despite the outragious volunteer program fees that they charge, the volunteers are not supplied with even basic materials such as paper and pencils for the projects they are doing... that among other problems (such as the organization not doing nearly half of the things it claims on it's website)... so basically the thought is that if the money isn't going towards the program... ... it's going into a particular someone's hands... so that being said i'm guessing we are a threat because recently a few people have chosen to come to our organization instead of theirs, taking away his precious income... it seems that he's been watching us for a while though because we only launched our new website format in january, and it appears (from his whois on register.com) that he coincidentally updated his mock one.
In our research to find out what else he may have been writing about skip, we came across quite a many negative reviews about that organization.. actually, an ex volunteer had told me that she had done some investigation on various projects that this guy claimed to be in the budget and turned out that these projects do not exist, but her apartment was broken into and her computer and files were all stolen... she decided not to further pursue this.
We were thinking it may be a good news story because from reading all the reviews (and from personal experience of some folks we know), it seems like theres a pretty good chance there is fraud going on.. and this is quite unfortunate because it is taking advantage of a giving community and putting a really bad slant on it. I would imagine he may be receiving grants and other sorts of funding... it is unfortunately if all this stuff is actually true that this money is going into one person's hands instead of helping a community that is really in need. I'm not one to yell and scream "DOWN WITH THEIR ORGANIZATION!" but if what's being claimed by many people is true.. then someone needs to expose what's going on... alas, none of us know any journalists... I dont even know that this would be a big enough story anyway, despite my thought that they would find out he and his wife are running a fraudulent game...
Anyway, it's annoying that he's bringing our name into it.. it just looks unprofessional for the both of us to be playing this "SKIP stole my project" game. When has helping a community been an original idea to steal? And besides, we are far from doing what he's doing... we're actually spending our money on projects that we claim to be doing.. and no one here is getting any sort of "profit" (except hopefully the families we are working with... hehe well and the intrinsic rewards for us of course; but lets not get cheesy here). :)
On another note.. ive been having quite a few migraines.. have i mentioned before i think how much MSG is in the food here.. i'm thinking this is a likely contributor.. also seems to happen on the few weeks that i have decided i need a bit more energy (such as the last 2 weeks pounding away at the nursery planning).. and divulged in some chai tea for the caffeine... and i haven't been so particular on the foods i'm allergic to (which also seem to be related to my migraines)...
another ailment i woke up with was my knee in a bit of pain.. it's right in the front of the knee slightly to the right (on my right leg) its swollen and hurts to put pressure on... probably didn't help that i attempted to surf today. i say attempted because although the waves were beautiful today, they were slightly over my level and i barely made it up for 3 seconds twice heh..
Trujillo, Peru to Montanita, Ecuador and back... Trujillo to Tumbes 9+ hours in bus (Emtrafesa) 45 soles ($15) Tumbes to Guayaquil 6+ hrs in bus (CIFA) ($7) Guayaquil to Montanita 3+ hours in bus (CLP) $6 Same route back home ~20+hrs $28 Hostel in Montanita: $6/night 3 nights = $18... Total costs: $74... plus food/drink costs...
So just got back from Ecuador to renew my visa.. mostly went unscathed, however had a bit of an argument at immigration office on the way back to Peru.. at first they were going to give me 3 months.. i have about 4 months and 1 week left here in Peru.. after some argument about how i'm here volunteering (not earning money) and spending my money in their country and how i dont have money to buy another plane ticket out for an earlier date, etc, etc, etc.... ... i somehow managed to get 1 more month in there... so i'm legal for about 4 months, but that takes me to july 20th more or less and my ticket out is july 23rd.. so i'm illegal from the 20th to 23rd... basically that just means that i pay $1 each day that i'm over.. i continued arguing with the chick (however in my own head for some reason i thought i was 2 weeks over and kept saying this, she probably thought i was such a nut).. but anyway, it just doesnt look good in any way to be overdue.. and i'm hoping it doesn't affect future traveling plans, but i dont plan to be in any one country for more than 1-2 months in the future anyway...
on the way to montanita, we met this young chick from denmark who was traveling alone so she hung out with us most of the weekend... we also met a group of guys traveling together from canada/san francisco/switzerland who we hung out with for most of the weekend as well... didn't get around to surfing, though it was supposed to be the premier surf spot in ecuador.. apparently last week there were 9 foot waves, but this weekend the waves were a bit lame.. plus i ended up being a bit too exhausted to want to surf... mostly vegged out and did a bit more nursery program planning.. the food costs in montanita was quite expensive (though expensive being that it's 1/3rd the costs in the states instead of 1/9th which i'm used to in peru)... tried the cebiche which was ok... though maybe wasn't that representative, since i bought it off a cart on the beach (though didn't get sick!).. tried a cebiche right on the border on the Peru side which was very tasty..
For pictures click here.. ecuador was surprisingly very green.. I didn't realize it was so jungly right on the coast... i have just about 30+ mosquito and sandfly (?) bites on arms and legs....
On the way back, on the bus, as i'm ready to fall asleep... some guy came on to the bus talking VERY LOUDLY .. at first i wasn't paying attention but then i looked up and noticed a gross picture he was showing of someone's naked backside and a huge pile of worms.. .. and right next to it, a face of a very infected looking baby... the guy apparently was talking about worm infestation in order to sell his herbal product. Almost forgot to blog about it because I forget that that's not normal... while on the bus to pretty much anywhere, there are always people coming on to the bus selling something, whether its food or some other product... this actually comes in handy when I forget to buy water, or i'm starving... as of yet, i have not gotten sick from anything i have bought from them...
my ceiling continues to fall on me.. in general, buildings in peru are not equipped to handle rain... the house i live in is no exception.. so when it rains, one part of the ceiling in my room leaks.. the other side of my room ceiling has paint that just continues to peel whether or not it's raining... came home to a huge chunk of paint on my bed.. probably not good for my health heh... oh well...
So, I can't keep track, but i'm pretty sure it's been about 5 packages that have been sent to me (possibly 6??)... and i'm at 100% of packages being mailed... the motivation to post this particular post was that I received one in RECORD TIME!!... Brentt sent me a book that was meant to stay with me, but got carried onto the plane with him :) tho it was well read and sent back to me... I received it within 6 days of mailing. AMAZING...
So, just a quick update.. i'm continuing to plan the nursery.. been doing alot of research on developmental stages, nursery programs, lesson planning, and various other related stuff like nursery songs in spanish.. etc...
We have just about 6 mothers or so who are interested (possibly more after a meeting this past weekend)... I dont think we can handle more than 10 nursery kids at this point... So to give you an idea of what it's been like to get a program like this going at SKIP.... fortunately we have a monthly meeting for all the families at SKIP... so they're supposed to come to the office (though not all do)... but if you want to get information out to them otherwise.. its this inefficient system of going out to each of their houses.. this means walking through the sand to each of their houses, which are at times .5-1 mile apart.. if you're lucky there's a bus that goes near their house.. and if you're really lucky, one of them either has a phone or knows someone who does.. so this needs to be done each time we've been wanting to meet with the mothers for the nursery program. though slowly but surely, it'll all come together...
on another note...found out the other day that one of the kids (14 y/o) has been working in a shoe factory for 70 hours a week just earning about $5 for the week. SKIP has talked to the parents and discussed how we can change this (alot of times the parents don't know the maths and don't know there may be other options available)...
We found a scorpion the other day in the room next to mine.. it was small, but just as scary as they look with their pinchers and huge spiky tail.. will need to do some research on what to do if i get stung heh...
continue to feel homesick.. though i'm sticking it through of course...
Summer camp ended over a week ago.. We took the kids to the zoo and ended the last day with an Open House.
I'll be starting the planning for a new nursery program ... something I've never done before (though i had never planned a summer camp before and that happened!)... if anyone knows anything about nurseries (better yet, a nursery in a developing country), I'm all eyes/ears...
I have about 4 months left.. it would seem this would be an easy home stretch ... but with Brentt's visit, it seems to have reset my "homesickness" and the last month has been a bit of a struggle.. though, i'm looking forward to the nursery program, trip to Ecuador to renew my visa, trip to macchu piccu (with a, e, britta, michael, nadia, anthony and possibly others?), and then ending my "Part 1" travels with the Shamanism conference in Iquitos...
Oh.. one last note.. i was really excited this past friday night; we had found an electronica party with the type of music i like (tech house)! Only took 5 months, but there is hope :) the best selection i have found of electronica has been some cheesy house music...... it was outdoors, on the beach, under the stars :) I was in bliss.
So I get a kick out of the stats related to my website.. (have i already posted about this?)... So I'll share with you some of the interesting stuff...
From the beginning, approx Sept 26, 2008 to today...
I've had 714 visits from 31 different countries to my blog (top 10 countries in order of visits is US, Peru (probably me blogging), Solvenia, Canada, UK, Germany, Japan, Australia, Mexico, and India) 56% of my visits are from returning visitors :) yay! thanks for coming and reading my stuff :)
When someone has come to my website through a google search, here is some of the stranger keyword searches: christine xxxxx (last name censored)---woah! someone came to my website after searching for you Christine... weird?!? lice ---hah great.. glad people are finding me with that.. bush falls off cart in peru--huh??? chinitas peru coreanita freckles ---i would imagine that they would have had to been on the 1000000000th search page to have mine pop up..??? peruvian mancora creamy yellow salsa recipe---tasty.. too bad for the person for not finding this recipe on my blog.. hah... peruvians are missing parties beach in peru this summer--wow very strange google search... show me what peru looks like right now --huh?.. shrimp unfridgerated skip peru lizette--hrm.. who's searching for me?
not sure if that's interesting to anyone else but me.. :) but thought i'd post it...
There's no running water where I work.. so in order to flush the toilet, I need to go to the well and fill up a bucket... As I'm filling up the bucket, i hear a plop and my heart sinks because i know just what it was.. I dive into the well and grab the phone, but none to early, it's completely drenched from the inside and with each shake theres a rain of water...
This is the phone I use in the states... and for those who know, it's EVERYTHING... my schedule, my contacts, my alarm clock, all sorts of information that doesn't fit in my head, goes into this phone.. etc etc etc... and was quite a bit expensive at that.. Made me contemplate quite a bit about my attachment to this phone and whether that's something I need to change...
Anyway, one of my peruvian friends informed me that you can go to a phone place in the center of town and get it dried/cleaned.. Feeling quite defeated, I went for it, though I figured all the circuits were probably blown and I would need to invest in a new phone and unfortunate it was that i had spent so much on this one...
Well.. S/.20 (which is about $6) & 50 minutes later--including a nap in the store--- my phone is once again functional... yay!!
In addition to our constant fund needs for education and related activities, we are currently seeking donations of the following items: books for the skip library Books in Spanish for children : dictionnaries, atlas, fairytales, school books, comics Books in English: fairytales, dictionnary Books for the parents and the volunteers, preferably in Spanish: psychology, health etc paint, play dough, pens and pencils Gardening tools, Athletic gear: balls, shirts Notebooks, Caligraphy books, Pens, Pencils, Paints, Crayons, A4 paper, All other scholastic materials. Childrens toothbrushes
Well, there was definitely good reason to invest in the industrial strength nit/lice comb... looks like i've got lice again.. it's no wonder, because i'm in the classroom all day with the kids... no one else in the house seems to be getting them but me..
so the old wive's tale is that you get them if you don't wash your hair enough.. but from studies, it's actually that lice prefer clean hair... so just so you know I am keeping myself clean!! :)
Did I mention that I'm at my halfway mark for Trip 1 of my travels. I will be coming back to the states at the end of July which is in about 4.5 months.. I had decided that likely Trip 2 (other countries in S Amer and Centr Amer; --S.E.Asia?--) will be after the holidays (need to talk to Cassanna about that!!)... so i'll be home for a good 6 months before heading out again.
There's this whole thing with one-way tickets costing more than round trip tickets.. and i have spent hours and hours researching the best cost to get home.. up until today the best cost i could find was about $600... until...........
Not exactly sure how I came to do this, but I decided to check out a ticket from Lima to Miami instead of Los Angeles.. lo and behold, they are half as expensive, if not less than that... so that got me on to a search for one way tickets from miami to los angeles, which are really not to bad either... so after months of searching I have finally found a route that will take me from lima to miami (avianca) to los angeles (american airlines) ...(all will be done in one day 5:50am - 8pm) for $434 (including all taxes)!!...
I'm booking this tomorrow as I feel wiped out tonight and don't feel like dealing with it right now.. but it looks like i'll be coming home for a little over $400... yay!! And I'm setting the date for 23rd of July... (might set it for 24th of july if that's easier for someone to pick me up)
-----------update
TIckets bought... will be arriving in LAX approx 8pm on Thursday July 23rd.
It was so wonderful to have Brentt here visiting me for 3 weeks. Was counting down the days since buying the plane tickets. So I took a 9 hour bus to meet him in Lima since we were taking off by plane to Iquitos from there (Iquitos/Amazon can only be reached by boat or airplane!). While in Lima, I found a cookbook that is ONLY available in Lima.. if you try and buy it online it's only sold for like $200+ ... had been searching for it in Trujillo and it is indeed ONLY available in Lima... was still a bit of a hefty purchase for a book, but I figured it was going to be my one big gift to myself... has great reviews on amazon and is quite an amazing cookbook with explanations on all the foods unique to peru... I am definitely going to miss the food here when i get back home so I had to invest in a really good cookbook. I've already got brentt sold on the papa a la huancaina.. and he tried and really liked the aji de gallina (which of course we'll substitute the meat with some sort of tofu or something since his vegetarian hiaitus was only for his time in Peru)....
So.. we got to Iquitos.. a friend of a friend was to pick us up from the airport, but he was preoccupied with work and forgot to pick us up... which turned into an interesting ordeal because the mototaxi guys are a bit insistent and finally we allowed one to call this friend (since i ran out of minutes on my phone, which sucked as it was, since we were a bit stranded cuz i neglected to get the address of this friend since i thought he was picking us up) we weren't actually sure if he actually called my friend and hestitatingly got into the mototaxi not really sure where we were going... as we're in the mototaxi, this guy in a motorcycle comes by and they just nod at each other and the mototaxi guy starts following him... brentt and I are staring at each other like.. what did that mean? is that my friend (neglected to ask him to send me a picture so i had no idea what he looked like) how'd he know that was him with just a nod... ... anyway, end up at the guy's house and there's a frenzy to get the backpacks out into the house, which added to our strange suspicion.. I look at the guy and i'm like.. "are you xxx??" to which he says yes... anyway, it turns out it really was him, but it was an odd experience for us... to add to the oddity, so my friend had offered for us to stay at his place, so i cancelled our reservations at the hostel... he neglected to mention that his bedroom/apartment is one room... this was a bit awkward as it has been 4 months since brentt and I have seen each other and were hoping to have some level of privacy to catch up on our lives and have alone time... it was an incredibly generous offer for him to allow us to stay at his plce, but a bit awkward .... so we ended up going back to the hostel with our cancelled reservations where the lady kept going on and on about how she had reservations for us and we cancelled them and now she doesn't have them... to which we explained the situation, but she continued going on and on about it.. oh well... my friend found a hostel down the street for us, so it all worked out....
so the next day we were off to the jungle lodge... it was incredibly surreal.. just sort of amazing that a place this beautiful exists naturally.. It was the start of the rainy season so there were alot of half "flooded" trees, flooded houses (houses only used during farming and therefore flooded during rainy season?), houses on stilts... Some animals we saw were venomous/nonvenomous snakes, friendly/domesticated monkeys (who were very cute and polite), iguana, praying mantises (alot of them!!! which was cool cuz brentt and i are obsessed about them), anaconda, armadillo, tarantulas, frogs, poisonous catapillars, massively huge ants, parasitic trees, pink dolphins, lots of amazing plants, ... etc etc etc... it was surreal to turn around in the canoe to find a tarantula crawling by next to me (actually it was the ants that scared me the most)....
we were covered in head to toe in the heat, because the mosquitos are relentless... i had just about 100 bites on my hands and feet/legs... we used alot of deet, but any oportunity they could get to bite where there wasn't deet or bite where there was deet they did... we did end up taking malarone pills, you take it for 1-2 days before you enter the malaria area, then during the time you're there until 7 days after you've left. I didn't notice any side effects.
It was strange (and must have been strange to the guides at the lodge), when we arrived, there was an australian couple who were leaving.. where the guy was white and the woman was asian, then there was brentt and I, and then couple days later, another couple white/asian came (from england/japan)... there weren't alot of guests at the lodge, so this really stood out...
one of the coolest experienced was furiously canoeing for 1.5 hours in a thunder/lighteningstorm back to the lodge... our guide told us to take off any metal we were wearing as we could get electricuted.. it was quite fun though, we were all just laughing and jokes as we were having sheets of rain pouring down on us and still a long way to get back to the lodge... our guide kept telling us to take our raincoats off because the rain was healing... I spent most of the time bailing water out of the canoe, as our two guides and brentt were rowing ... though i did put some of my share of rowing to give the others a break every once in a while :)
one of our guides caught an anaconda in his fishing net the night before and showed it to us.. turns out he was going to "domesticate it" with tobacco leaves and then let it roam their home to eat rats and possibly one of their dogs??.....
on one day we ended up at a work party, where people from the people from the village get together and have a little party with lunch before they help clear a garden for a neighbor. They gave us a taste of some armadillo that they were just finished cooking...it was like rubbery chicken.
on our last day in iquitos we went to the butterfly farm.. there was a tapir there; did you know if you rub a tapir, it loves it so much it'll roll around on the floor?
At all times there are beautiful sounds all around you.. tried to capture the sounds one night:
It was incredibly loud at night, but soothing at the same time..
On the way back to Trujillo, we took a 3 day boat ride to yurimaguas... 3 days of this.... life is tough eh?? We needed to buy hammocks for the boat ride..
Brentt ended up getting sick in Yurimaguas to Tarapoto, so it was good that we spent one night in Tarapoto before heading to Trujillo.
The trip to Iquitos with the jungle tour, flight from lima, boat/bus ride back, and everything came out to just about $550 for two people more or less... (if you're curious how much it would cost to go to the amazon jungle... )
Back in trujillo, brought brentt around to see Chan Chan, the Huacas del Sol y de la luna, to Huanchaco for surfing (which brentt turns out to be a pro!! and the only skills i was able to show brentt was surfing on my knees and falling), went out dancing with my housemates ( ), cooked some yummy japanese curry (which was not quite japanese curry, but got rave reviews anyway), trip to hermalinda, the movies, porvenir (where i work), and the center of town... had a very full awesome time in trujillo.... even saw a "fake Bones" ..
one story to end off with... we came to this one restaurant to eat and were deciding on a dessert... he was set on one but I was a bit insistent on him trying "tres leches" which has become one of my favorites here... so after a good long discussion deciding which one to choose, we got the 3 leches, which it turns out he wasn't so impressed... so we came back the next day to try out his choice... but then we we had another long decision session (keep in mind too, that brentt and I are probably the two most indecisive people in the world)... we finally decided that since we had come back to get this one dessert, we're going to choose that one... so we ordered it to go since it was brentt's last day and we were in a bit of a rush to catch the bus back to lima... we stopped off at this one store on the way home to pick up some cookies for brentt to take back... got home, now ready to eat the cake we had been waiting 2 days to try... it's gone.. likely at the one store we stopped at, we never got to try it...
back at the airport in Lima, we lost an hour of time together because when we checked in, they told brentt he had to get to the gate 2 hours before the plane leaves... that sucked, but his leaving was going to suck anyway :P
Posted some pictures from Christmas up to Brentt's visit (which will be in it's own album)...
The few pictures of Mancora that I got... including this beautiful sunset:
Some fotos of summer camp:
The makings of a poi workshop at our summer camp: Before After And the kids:
For summer camp we had these awesome attendance boards.. instead of doing attendance, we had the kids put their name on the board: We had 4 classes, so the other boards were butterflies/sky, apples/tree, and worms/earth...
Coordinating a summer camp is amazingly difficult, especially when yo'ure not a teacher nor have ever done anything like this before... fortunately I had the help of quite a few people--pretty much had someone as a co-coordinator majority of the time :) the camp was monday through friday, morning and afternoon for the primary school kids (elementary school).. more academic stuff in the mornings and fun workshops in the afternoon (such as cine club, poi, bracelet making, etc etc)... each week had a theme (ecology, animals, food, peru, the world, etc etc...) and its 7 weeks long... of our 400 primary age kids in SKIP, 90 signed up.. and about 70 show up... I have never worked so hard in my life!!! the camp required quite a bit of creativity considering the little resources we have and lack of actual teachers. but we managed and it was quite great!!
Haven't written anything in quite a while... had a really nice 3 weeks with Brentt. I'll write more later and post picture. It's been busy with summer camp and there hasn't been much time to breath (other than the 3 weeks with brentt).
Happy Valentine's day to everyone.
In Peru, it's more focused on a celebration of friendships and everyone sends each other text messages, phone calls, or emails to wish them "feliz dia de amistad" or something like that...
Yay! Was so happy to get a package in the mail from A... She hit it on the nail with all my favorites...
My favorite magazine: Seed
My favorite drinks: Chai tea and hot chocolate
My favorite chocolates: dark AND chocolate covered BLUEBERRIES! :)
My favorite crackers: Ok Mok
BTW folks... I now have chocolate to last me until July so no need to send that anymore :) hehe... I realllllly appreciate it all :)
Also fortunately got my mom's package in the mail that had a credit card included (WHEW!).. and a couple other books... and an xmas card :) Thanks!!!!!
So now, looking back at my "things i want list"... here it is updated:
1. Hat - Brentt has this hat and knows which one i want
2. Korean food... soon-du-bu packets... I can find firm tofu here
3. My fire stuff - poi primarily... thought it would be nice to have my little fire sticks so i dont forget how to eat fire (though i haven't found clean white gas)...
4. OK this sounds a bit weird and gross, but my mom knows what it is.. i want one of those toe/foot callous scrapers.. wearing flip flops is gross on your feet..
Not sure if anyone really wants to hear about a lice update.. but I'm officially lice free.. well, i was after the first week of treatment... also I must be quite allergic to them, because the massive rash i had going down my neck and shoulders also dissappeared when they did... don't think that that sort of thing is a normal reaction to just having lice, but i was glad it was gone with the bugs and not something additional i had to deal with...
Spent about 7 days in Mancora after Christmas through New Years... although initially i was thinking it wasn't that remarkable, i found that there's quite a bit of stuff i had to write about the town...
I'll start with the hostel (will not say which so none of my stories will connect back to anyone, heh)... The hostel had pretty much the feel of college spring break... lots of booze, hooking up, general partying and very, very early 20s sort of crowd... I enjoy going out to the desert with a huge sound system and dancing under the full moon to some great electronica, but the frat party scene is definintely not my thing... but despite what it was, i still had a great time. The food was awesome.. it was cooked by a very talented, toothless chef who was pretty much cracked out the entire time we were there.. at one point he was telling us how he wakes up every morning thinking that everyone in the hostel has just arrived that day (meaning, he does not remember one day to the next)... he was a mid-30 going on mid-60... despite all this, the meals were amazing... the hostel was right on the beach and you only had to walk like 20 steps to jump into the water... we were in "dorms" that were shared with 6 other people.. thankfully there was no craziness within the room (i've heard stories of people pissing on bed sheets!).... mostly everyone was running around speaking english (and lots barely knew any spanish at all).. it's one way to travel, but seems a bit strange to me to travel in a country by just going to party hostels and not learning the language.. (but oh well, to each their own)... however, there were a group of brazilian guys (!tan guapo!).. who were practicing their spanish (but it was a little weird because considering how close spanish and portuguese is, they didn't have a good grasp of spanish, seemed their english was better)... also the hostel had a cute little chanchito (baby pig) as a pet over on the corner of the property... the hostel was located in an interestingly isolated part of mancora way out of the way of the other hostels that were accessable via the main strip... to get to ours you had to take a mototaxi through the barrio (some parts looking sketchier than porvenir)...
oh, and one of my housemates won the pool competition :) booyah! (as she would say) hehe
the ocean was 20 steps outside the gate of the hostel... though we were way on the right side (sort of isolated) from where the rest of the beachgoers were and one morning a bunch of the brazilian guys got stung by sting rays (we were all goofing around on this fishing raft, libby and I sitting right next to the guys getting stung)... this is where things got lost in translation because they kept saying that a fish bit them and we're thinking "there arent paranas or anything... what are they talking about?" i kept asking them if it was stones they stepped on.. and split their feet on (they were bleeding quite a bit)... the ones stung got out of the water, but others stayed (furthering libby and my confusion that there was anything to worry about)... we continued to play on the raft and jump around in the waves till we got bored and came inside.. it wasn't till later that we found out they had to go the hospital, get an injection and antibiotics... apparently down on the far other side, one of the peace corp volunteers that we knew got stung by a jellyfish, though it wasn't as serious and she didn't seek any medical attention at all... i went swimming in the ocean every day and got pretty tan (despite my hat and 50 spf lotion)... my only gripe with the water was the tiny skinny fish that kept trying to get into my bathing suit.. it was quite unnerving... i learned how to body surf from a local which is a bit harder than it sounds and a bit scarier.. i'll stick with the board surfing... speaking of animals, there were sand flies that bit horrendously every morning and sunset... despite tons of repellant, i think i have like 20 bites on each foot/leg...
made it to some hot springs during my week at mancora.. actually it was ---A--- hot spring, the size of a small jacuzzi and there were algae things in that that really creeped me out (they would stick on your skin like little hairs that looked like worms.. again the whole parasite phobia reaction kicks in)....
I caught the first sunset of my first day in mancora as well as the first sun rise of 2009... the sunsets are beautiful in mancora.. just purple on a very long horizon and lasts for an hour it seems...
New years... oh I should mention, my camera for some reason would not function properly while i was in mancora (short of like 2-3 picture of the sunset and 2 others)... on new years my camera didn't work at all and i'm wondering if that was a good thing, hah!... we partied at the hostel and did the whole countdown thing there and then about 4:30am my housemate and i decided we wanted to go into town and experience the craziness there.. there was definintely alot of craziness, people sort of all over the places, lots of music, drinking and dancing... a nice Bolivian guy hung out with us as we were trying to find good music to dance to. (actually it would have been nice to get contact info since i plan to go to bolivia and it would be nice to have someone to show me around, but alas i forgot to and in my tiredness i later realized i totally ditched the guy after he walked way down to the other side of the playa to safetly walk us home...woops)...
i'm happy to be back home
countdown continues with 3 weeks till i get to see brentt (we're going to iquitos) :) called him from mancora to wish him happy bday and happy new year... also called home to wish happy new year to mom....
So in the town of El Porvenir... well to be honest, I haven't yet asked around so I really don't know, but it appears to me there is no sort of child protective services... of the stories of abused kids that i've heard of here, seems nothing is really done about the parents.. i'm guessing there are homes where kids may be taken away and placed into (though probably rarely and no doubt even worse living than the family home), but there's no such thing as a parenting class or anger management...
I've thought about the kids that i see working on the street selling necklaces or other products that their parents are selling at the stand... i wonder about what sort of things these kids are learning growing up this way versus others that are in day care or playing at their friend's houses... at times it may be fun to go person to person and talk to various people try and sell something almost like a game.. but maybe that's only for a minute and then when the child wants to go play or look at the bug on the tree, he can't because that means losing potential clients and money for the family....
there was one afternoon i spent walking through alto trujillo which is a bunch of little huts on sand dunes... and i see this boy all alone dragging his huge bucket (not sure what he was going to do with it)... he must have been about 5 years old... and way behind him was a little girl that turned out to be his sister.. she wasn't keeping up with him and at times would just sit down and play with the sand. no parents in sight, but it seemed the kids knew exactly where they were and where they were going, though they were in no way safe... no doubt that if there were any child predators around, they'd have a field day in alto trujillo ... then there's another kid i see on the bus every day by himself.. he must be not more than 8...
now that i've posted about some depressing stuff, i'll now post about my crazy new years week in Mancora (the post above this one)
did i already post on this? at the store you always have to request your water "sin gas" (by the way, all the corner markets are behind bars and everything you want you have to order at the gate and they bring it to you... my main guess is to prevent theft.. pretty much everywhere---foto copy, internet places too--- has a gated front door)...
not sure why there is so much sparkling water here... but if you don't specify that you want it with "sin gas" you are inevitably going to get a sparkling water...
The trip to the movie theatre was soooo successful!!! :) it was just about 400 more or less kids and parents bussed from Porvenir to the center of trujillo for the cinema... for many of the children it was their first time being in the movie theatre... we were quite organized and in turn rewarded with a smoothly run event, with no injuries or problems whatsoever! It was quite a beautiful thing to hear how excited the kids were during the movie (Madegascar 2)... and just how appreciative they were of the whole thing, it was quite amazing and (dare i get cheesy) practically brought tears to my eyes... it was just a really nice thing :)
The dinner we hosted for the SKIP families was quite successful!!!! there were about 600 people more or less... we hosted it at one of the nearby elementary schools. We had to move all the tables and chairs outside, the place was decorated, we had a number of dances and performances... including firespinning (me!!) leading out to a fireworks show... the preparing and serving of 600 plates of food (paneton, pork, potato salad, bread) and hot chocolate (which was also quite amazing to watch the mothers make the fire and prepare the hot chocolate)... was quite smoothly organized and just about perfect... hrm.. i dont think i'm giving enough justice to the amount of work we put into putting this together... it was ALOT.....
Now we're officially on vacation... i'm spending christmas with housemates, we've got a really cool crew right now (i think i've already mentioned that a number of times, but i'm quite happy with the folks i'm living with)... and then we're off to Mancora through the 3rd of January... I'm hearing it's quite crazy during the summer, and crazier during the holidays... so it'll be a nice break from reality (which of course isn't so bad), hehe :)
So i've just bought my major donation purchase for SKIP.. bought a MUCH needed file cabinet:
happy to contribute OUR FIRST FILE CABINET!!! :)
this isn't THE one, but pretty much looks like this one... don't have income and am living off of savings, so it will probably be my ONE major purchase for SKIP... we need one for the home office though... (this one went to the office at the SKIP location in Porvenir).
It was about S/.310... which comes out to $100...
we're getting ready for our 700 person dinner.. actually we're thinking of the people who show up, it should be a little less than 600.. which is crazy, but less than 700.. heh.. keep in mind we are an org of about 15 people more or less.. we have a few other people helping us, but we're preparing and serving all the food.. doing the setup, entertainment (I'm spinning fire), and cleaning ... EVERYTHING...
We've already wrapped 170 books for gifts for families (so you may be confused with all the numbers.. there are about 170 families more or less, but that comes out to like 500 children (more or less) and 200 parents...
tonight i'm cutting panetones into 8 pieces
we have been lucky to have donations, so fortunately it's not totally out of our pockets....
Did i mention about the security guy with the whistle outside our house? He walks up and down the avenue doing his whistle... seems like the purpose is to tell people that he's there it keeps robbers away??? ??? ???
and the other day there were gunshots.. lots of them.. and a housemate said it's the same guy.. but probably that he was drunk... he was shooting his gun like every 5 minutes or so ... up in the air maybe?? who knows...
not sure which way i feel safer..
either way, the noise (and other noise, like the windows rattling every time a truck goes by, honking, front door--everytime someone entered or came at all hours in the day/night, conversations in the house, etc etc etc) were keeping me awake..... but no longer!!! a room opened up and i have moved.. and i had my first realllllllll good sleep tonight :)
the room is really nice.. enough space (cozy, but i dont really want more room)... and most importantly enough internet signal to keep me skyping and happy :)
so.. just to make sure i wasn't feeling bad enough about the relationship situation, i get another kicker....in the head...
so most of you who know me, know about my one HUGE phobia... PARASITES!
well.. so my head had been itching for weeks now.. and being allergic to almost everything, i figured that it was maybe my shampoo or new laundry detergent... or just a couple days of dry scalp.. or the water from surfing.. it COULD NOT be lice... even though i work with children infested with them in a community that hasn't had the proper education about prevention of them... IT COULD NOT BE!! so i continued to wait.. waiting for the itching to subside.. but it didn't..
anyway, finally my housemate was convinced that she had them.. very matter-of-fact, without fear of them.. she was going to head off to the pharmacy to buy a comb, so i asked some housemates to check my hair "just in case"... but likely i don't have them, right??
nope...
apparently i was infested with them... 2+ weeks worth just about, maybe more????... and again, may i remind you of my phobia.. not just squeamish about parasites, but like panic attack sort of feelings... anyway, my housemates were awesome in helping me feel alot better and we spent the next 3 hours picking the buggers out and using the shampoo and comb...
can i just tell you I did not realize how freakin' big these bugs get??? I don't remember ever having this as a kid, so this was a first for me.. and it was sort of like the reality was almost worst than the fear.. as fearful as i was about having them, i thought they were maybe the size of tiny dots.. not like.. milimeters long... like the size of rice... :(
also i seem to have an allergy to them because i have a rash all down my neck to my shoulders (...please don't tell me it's somethign else altogether!!! let me believe its a result of the lice.....)
ugh i feel sick just recounting it..
felt just about as bad as when i found out my cat had tape worms... UGH
anyway, apparently this is just going to be a reality.. we're going to attempt to do some more education about lice during summer camp with the kids, but it's just gonna be something i'll have to deal with for the next 7 months....
AND LET ME JUST SAY!>...... that i shower on a regular basis and am very clean ..so it has nothing to do with my personal hygeine! :)
oh.. so for my future reference .. here is what i'm doing for removal.... so from talking to mates here, it looks like it's going to be an ongoing problem while i'm here, so rather than using pesticides (which is usually how parents go about delousing their kids...) what i did the first day we discovered the little buggers was to shampoo (actually the shampoo had the slightest bit of the pesticide), condition the hair (to make it easier to comb)... then you start the 3+ hour long process of combing the hair very carefully with this fine tooth comb specially made for lice to get each and every lice out and cover every strand of your hair... the 3 hour process also includes you sitting there with mates picking out the lice with their fingers like monkeys... the nits (eggs) are literally cemented to the shaft of your hair, so you have to carefullly pull very hard to get them off your hair.. the bugs are easier to pull off, but they do move around, so you have to catch them, heh..
this happened on wednesday, i'm doing it again today (friday) and every couple days or so for 14 days (the amount of days it takes for eggs to hatch).. the idea is to catch the baby ones before they become moms to lay eggs again...
Not sure if I should be posting this since it's a personal matter (though I've posted on other personal feelings)... but I figured it's all a part of my traveling experience, so maybe I'll just comment on it really quick...
It's an obvious statement to say that long distance relationships are hard.. and i think taking on the challenge of keeping one up for the amount of time that i'll be gone was a bit overconfident... going that long without that physical presence is not very natural and no matter how often you talk on the phone or skype, the emotional connection is impeded upon... you're definitely not getting your needs met on either level...
no matter how much you love each other, it's not fair to either to put through i think.... and the strain of all of this is a recipe for disaster I think... a potential disaster that could affect any sort of future at all in that relationship...
so that being said... brentt and I have broken up... before any disasters happening... things can be re-evaluated when I return to the states... though my travels plans continue for the next 2 years (with a few short term stays in the U.S.), so it'll be a long wait...
So, yesterday was one of my coolest evenings here because with the encouragement of a housemate, I cooked up a korean dinner... I was quite nervous about the whole thing because: 1. I dont cook often... if at all... (i can cook eggs and pasta)... 2. I have never cooked an entire korean meal by myself.. muchless the dishes i was about to do ..... (i have to admit, whenever meals were cooked at home it was either my mom, my sis, or my bro).... 3. Many of my housemates had not had korean food before... so lots of pressure to choose stuff that was tasty, and would make a good impression about korean food...
So, I cooked up some korean bbq, fried tofu, a bean sprout thing that is often served as "banchan", and a spinach thing often served as "banchan".. and rice... oh and i served kimchee with the meal...
Turned out great!!! People raved about the sauce... which was your sort of traditional korean flavor (soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, green onions, sugar)...
And i was sooooo excited to finally get some korean food in me.. yuuuuuuuuuummmmmmm
Got a package from my sis and Matt with christmas gifts!! :)
So I'm 3 for 3 with receiving mail from the states... my mom just sent me something again, so we'll see if it arrives... only thing is, it still is quite expensive to send stuff to me :(
I was careful not to look at the contents when the postal employee sorted through the package.. however, i unfortunately looked at the customs sheet on the outside of the package and saw one word! Sorry, Julienne!! I didn't mean to peek.. Anyway, only saw that one word, but it's actually somethign i was just about to go buy some of (and felt I was in "need" of)... so, looking forward to seeing what's actually in the package!!! :)
THANKS!!!!!!!
Looks like I'm spending the day after Christmas through New Years in Mancora.. a beautiful beach way north of Peru.. and then it'll only be a few more weeks after that that I get to see Brentt :)
Here's a picture of some of us volunteers doing some fundraising and volunteer recruiting... I seem to be not looking in the camera, but oh well :) I know we look a bit silly with our hats.. :)
Fundraising/recruiting for: 1. Christmas dinner we are hosting for 154 families and more than 400 children.... we still need some funds, sugar, and chocolate (they have something called a Chocolatada, where everyone gets hot chocolate or something....?) ... but we're giving them a full dinner with paneton and hot chocolate and books as presents... 2. Volunteer house needs a fridge.. right now we have 9 volunteers living in the "SKIP house".. and we have 1 (small!) fridge... not sure if you can imagine how jam packed that can get.. We are expecting several more volunteers in January... so ... we're in need... 3. We're recruiting for volunteers in the summer for our summer camp :)
Actually, in the spirit of the holidays.. if you feel like donating money to SKIP... you can do so here: 1. Donating or 2. Sponsor one of our kids
If you have questions about where the money goes to, you can email me... like for option #2 I personally know the kids in our program...
that most of the families in porvenir and many in trujillo are made of asbestos... they're almost exclusively used in the Porvenir's schools....
MISS YOU!!!!
