Ciao for now...

It's been a fabulous final week. Let me try to share with you the highlights while I fight back my tears and sit here in disbelief that my time here is over.

Monday:
Probably one of the craziest days yet at Maldonado. We arrived to find that some painters had come to paint all of the desks and chairs, but had only partially finished, so we had to teach grades 1-6 in one classroom WITHOUT TABLES AND CHAIRS. To add to the chaos, the town council was holding the inauguration of a new preschool building behind our school, and they were BLASTING music as part of the celebration. They then invited our first graders to the party, and we soon realized that they were just using our kids to pose in the photos to make it look like the preschool had more kids than they actually do! Well, at least we survived the day.

Tuesday:
We arrived at Triunfo to find that we were supposed to put on a parade about Tuberculosis awareness. The kids made posters and banged on instruments and shouted "NO A LA TBC" and we paraded around the school for a while and handed out some fliers. Still not really sure what the occasion was or why we chose to only parade AROUND the school and not into the community...

I don't really remember anything notable about Wednesday, so let's move on to Thursday:
My despedida, or going away party, at Triunfo. It was quite the production: the kids made cards all morning, picked me flowers from the garden, and then everyone brought their chairs into one classroom, and I was finally allowed in to take my seat of honor, where I was completely overwhelmed by seeing all of them together and knowing what was about to happen and lost it right then and there. Marisol, the director of the school, said some very kind words, and then they each came up, one at a time, to present me with my cards, hugs, and kisses. At the end, they all shouted together "Gracias, Senorita Mari!" at which point even the other volunteers and Carla were crying. I spent the rest of the day taking a million photos and spending my last moments playing with the kids. It was wonderful.

Friday:
Maldonado's despedida was quite different, in that it was awkward, chaotic, and hilarious. Another volunteer, Alfie, was also leaving, and we were sitting in the front of the room while Ruth barked orders at the children to stand in front of us, one grade at a time, to spontaneously perform a song and dance number! I was pretty much dying of laughter was she yelled out "MOVE YOURSELVES! DANCE!" to the poor shy children. The day ended at Maldonado with the volunteers and kids conspiring together on a massive water fight, where BUCKETS of water were thrown at me and Alfie until we eventually had to run away from the school to escape the chaos.

Last night was my going away night dinner with the volunteers, and now I just have a few hours left before starting the long, long journey home.

Words can't really express how much my time in Peru has meant to me, so I probably shouldn't even try. I'm so thankful to have been able to have come back, to have taken on this incredible amount of responsibility (and now SO relieved to give it up), to have spent more time with my host family, to have gotten to know people from all over the world, and more than anything, to have hopefully brought a bit of fun and laughter the kids' lives. Now I'm on to new adventures: a job search that could land me anywhere in the country and the birth of my baby niece next month who I am already head-over-heels in love with. I look forward to eating cookies and vegetables, going on walks, hanging out with my parents, and not working seven days a week nor waking up in the 5:00 am range. Thank you to all of you who read and followed my crazy adventures, and thank you for providing me with support when I needed it the most. And a very special thanks to my parents, without whose support I would not have been able to make this happen.

Much love,

Mari

Held back no longer

It was another crazy week in Peru. At Maldonado, one of the classrooms is still being repainted and re-tiled, so grades 1 and 2 continue to have class in the tiny new kitchen that has no windows and a tin roof, so is really more of an oven. Dom Williams, who founded this project and other similar ones throughout Latin America, was here visiting this week with some other people from the GVI head office, and it was fun to meet the man who made this all possible. He took me out to dinner and tried to convince to me to stay on longer as an intern, but I explained that I'm broke and need to be around for my new baby niece.

My big accomplishment of the week was moving Abraham up from second to third grade. He was in second grade last year and didn't do well on his end of the year exams (which are poorly written and too hard for some of my sixth graders). I've been insisting from the beginning of the year that he needs to be moved up and will get much more out of third grade, but the teachers weren't concerned enough to do anything about it. This week I hand-wrote another copy of the exam for him, proctored it, graded it, and then insisted once again that he be moved up. Finally the teachers agreed. He received many cheers from the class of 3 and 4 when we announced that he would be joining them this year, and he was clearly excited to be back with his classmates.

Just two more weeks of madness here. I'm just trying to enjoy all the time I have left with the kids at school, the vols, my host family, and my crazy Spanish teacher. I'm definitely feeling more ready this time to head back to the States, but I dread having to do another round of goodbyes.

First Week of School...For real this time

And so the craziest week there ever was has come to and end. My program director left to set up another project this week, so I held down the fort. Let me try to at least give you a glimpse of all that happened:

Monday:
Triunfo.
First official day of school, according to the teachers, even though it should have happened the week before. The teachers don't actually teach, because they have waited until today to figure out thigns like the daily schedule, and parents are coming in to register their children. A dog pees in the classroom of 1 and 2 and I get to clean it up. Milagros and Alonso are back, which makes me want to cry from happiness, as they were two of my favs from last time. Alonso was the pick-pocket from last year, and the teaches have decided to call him by his given name, Sebastian, to give him a fresh start (much like with Pabel). It is IMPOSSIBLE to remember to call him Sebastian. He's grown about a foot and is excited to be in first grade. Georgina-Milgros was asking about you and pointed to some photos of the two of us on the wall. At Maldonado, I'm told that a huge fight breaks out between two students who had previously been expelled and then let in again by Ruth. What a surprise that they're misbehaving! After school I run around like crazy getting various photocopies done, checking up on volunteers who weren't feeling well and on the new arrivals that are currently in Spanish class for the week.

Tuesday:
Maldonado.
Ruth doesn't show up, and Ediluz leaves early to bring Ruth the documents that she forgot. I force Ediluz to stay long enough to give us something to teach the children (mind you this is the second day for many of the volunteers at Maldonado, some of whom don't speak much Spanish). We have to call the police on a number of very drunk men outside the school. At Triundo Gilda is sick and the vols have to teach 3 and 4 with no preparation. After all this, have to drag myself to Spanish class.

Wednesday:
Triunfo.
We're still teaching 3 and 4 due to a sick teacher, and now Marisol (who teaches 5 and 6) has a very ill father, so she isn't coming in either. We teach on the fly. Thank goodness for the great new textbooks that we recently bought, so I ran up to a local copy shop to make some copies so that we could do some reading comprehension. After school, to the market.

Thursday:
Triunfo:
Still no teachers. I run back and forth between classrooms, teaching and reprimanding in various places.

Friday:
Maldonado:
First I have to go to the airport at 5 am to pick up a new vol.
Some workmen have come to paint the classroom, re-tile the floor, and put up a proper kitchen so the cook no longer has to cook INSIDE the classroom. The teachers try to convince us to take all the kids outside to do PE for 2-3 hours, to which I put down my foot. We help to clear an enourmous pile of rubble in the back of 5 and 6 that the men will use to put up the kitchen. Not a whole lot of learning happens. I spent all afternoon trying to decipher lists of school supplies that we are buying for all of our students in secondary school. The lists are ridiculous: One red notebook with 96 pages with squares. Etc.

Saturday: Early morning trip to the market and to buy a pane of glass for a broken window at one of the schools. Various logistical projects and applying for jobs for next year (will someone PLEASE ask me for an interview?)

Sunday:
Orientation, Spanish homework, job apps, and getting to bed early for another 5 am airport pickup before school on Monday.

Done.

PS I take no credit for the photos, a volunteer who actually knows something about photography took them. Look how gorgeous my kids are!

First Day of School

Today was probably the strangest back to school day I've ever experienced. I was at Triunfo, and a whopping total of nine students showed up out of a possible 70. The teachers were back, but lied to my face, saying that the first official day of school really isn't until a week from today, and that they will just be planning this week (meanwhile we're in charge of the kids that do show up, which should be more and more each day). Do they not know that we all live in Arequipa and that the city was bustling this morning with all children in uniforms and getting onto buses? At Maldonado, the teachers tried to lie and say that they had to be gone this entire week to attend a class with the Ministry of Education, and then today back-tracked and admitted that they would, indeed, be attending class this week. So essentially we all have to be very flexible and prepared to teach classes ranging from one student to twenty, because while the teachers will apparently show up, they're not planning on doing anything resembling teaching until next Monday!! Let the circus begin...

In other news, we had eight volunteers arrive over the weekend, and they will all be in Spanish this week. We lose six volunteers at the end of this week, so we will have a huge changeover in volunteers. I'm hoping that word will spread and we will have more than nine kids tomorrow (given that there were six volunteers), but there is no way to predict who will show up).

Last Week of Summer School

I finally have my energy back after three weeks! This week was our final week of summer school. Over the weekend was the holiday called Carnaval (it's similar to Mardi Gras) and the entire downtown area was filled with groups of teenagers throwing water balloons, spraying people with shaving cream, and throwing paint at innocent passersby. I got away with just a bit of shaving cream. We celebrated with the kids on Monday with a massive water/shaving cream/paint fight, and I think we held our own quite well against the kids.

Tuesday was a normal day at school, and then yesterday was our last official day, so we gave the kids the t-shirts that they had painted last week and made them model for photos and then also celebrated the months birthdays.

Now that I have more energy, I've been able to spend more time with my host sisters, Geraldine and Melanie, and yesterday when I got home at 6 Melanie informed me that I had one minute to eat before I had to go upstairs and play.

This week we have 8 volunteers arriving, which means a very busy rest of the week for me with airport pickups and orientation, and as well as a big trip to the market. I'm also putting together some curriculum resources for a new GVI project in Chivay, which is about 3 hours away from Arequipa. Carla, our project mamager, will spend a few days in Chivay each week for the month of March, which means a lot more responsibility for me. Let's all hope for no major disasters on my watch.

Official school starts on Monday, so the local teachers will come back and we will have more students. I hope you all have a good rest of the week!

The attached photos are of Ayde, a hilarious addition to preschool, and of grades 1 and 2 at Triunfo modeling the t-shirts we all made.

Recovering

Sorry I've been terrible about blogging. I've been fairly sick for the past two weeks, and after seeing multiple doctors, it appears that I both acquired a stomach fungus and got a virus that has taken all of my energy from me. I didn't go to school at all this week, and spent so much time in bed watching TV that one of the support beams under my butt actually broke the other day! It's been a bit discouraging to be this sick and not be able to do what I have come to do, but I'm slowing taking on my responsibilities again and hoping for the best. Today a volunteer arrives who is a current student at Colorado College and knows one of my family friends, James Hancock. I also just got an email from another childhood friend, Andrew Gross, who is in Arequipa and wants to get together! Random. Anyway, I clearly don't have much to report much since I haven't been at school, but hopefully will have more to report after next week, which is our last week of summer school!

Birthday Fun

I had an absolutely wonderful birthday yesterday. The day started off with gifts of jewelry and chocolates from my host family. I then received cards from all of the kids (over 70), many more hugs and kisses, and as per Peruvian tradition, had a cake shoved in my face (and up my nose) by the other volunteers after school. I like this series of photos as I gradually disappear into the mass of children.

I was dragging a bit this week after getting violently ill over the weekend, and am looking forward to some rest tonight, although I have a busy weekend of random logistical things for GVI ahead of me. I moved back in with my host family, who had been away at the beach, and it feels great to be back with them. They were all very concerned about me getting sick, and the other afternoon Geraldine (age 7) came into my room just to make sure that I had heard the thunder outside (even though it was deafening and there is no way that I wouldn't have heard it).

Right now the Peruvians are preparing for Carnaval, which I think is on the 25th, and the traditions are awful! They involve chucking water balloons and paint at random people, and trying to get the kids to behave when they are in constant battle is a bit of a nightmare. Next week we are going to have a massive water balloon and paint fight, volunteers versus kids. Should be crazy...

Next week is our last full week of summer school, followed by a week of birthday celebrations and a fashion show with the kids who will be sporting the t-shirts that they are currently painting in class (I keep suggesting that we use the song "I'm too sexy for my shirt" since it has all those lyrics about the catwalk, and I think it would be appropriate as long as the kids don't catch on to the sexy part).

My brain is too fried to write any more, but I hope to regain my energy over the weekend before heading into another crazy week. Thanks for reading!