Settling In

Wow I have a lot to report from the last few days. Hopefully I'll remember it all...

Saturday was my very extensive orientation. I will be working in one of two schools that GVI works with, called Triunfo. The school has a preschool, called Inicial, and then grades 1-6, with one teacher for two grades. I'll be with the 1's and 2's (ages 5-7, I think). GVI's aims are to encourage the kids to attend school, even though the teachers tend to be crappy, and reinforce the lessons that the teachers are teaching (because they don't do a great job the first time around). We do the lesson planning and teaching for art, gym, and English, and then hold our own study hall after the school day to help with homework. We also provide lunch and a piece of fruit, celebrate birthdays at the end of the month, and bring in dentists and doctors for health problems(although this part can be very difficult). The moms in the community tend to work in fields, and the dads tend to...drink all day. For this reason, we were explicitly told never to come to work in the morning hungover, because they associate blood shot eyes and the smell of alcohol with violence. Many of the kids are beaten by their drunk fathers, and there is literally nothing that we are legally able to do about it in Peru. The communities that they live in aren't recognized by the government, because they built them themselves, and their human rights organizations aren't strong enough to deal with issues of child abuse. The teachers tend to be very strict, so the volunteers are supposed to be very patient and show lots of affection.

After orientation, the GVI group (about 15 right now) all went out to dinner and dancing to celebrate our awesome program manager's birthday (Carla). We had quite a hilarious time at the club, including a gross Peruvian man who asked me if I was Asian due to my "large forehead and slanty eyes." I felt right at home in the club when the DJ started playing "Sexbomb," a Connors family favorite.

Yesterday we had a BBQ (or barbie, as the British call it) to celebrate Carla's bday and to watch the "football" game between Germany and Spain. We also went to some local markets to pick up art supplies for this week's projects and were wrapping sweaters for all of the students that were generously donated by friends of a GVI volunteer (it gets REALLY cold here at night and I don't think the kids have sweaters).

Then at 5pm I was told that my host family arrived, which over the course of the day I had gotten a little nervous about. Well there was no need to worry. My host mom is WONDERFUL. Her name is Martha (Marta). She's probably in her sixties and lives with her daughter and two granddaughters, who I have yet to meet but are in elementary school. She is so sweet and I can't even count the number of hugs she has already given me. She lives in a gated community, has a maid, and I have my own floor of the house to myself! It is about a thirty minute walk from where I need to be each day, but it'll probably be my only exercise, so I suppose that's okay. Marta is really sweet and has traveled a lot. Last night she told me to travel the world before getting married. Ha.

This morning I made my way from the house back to Casa de Avila, the place where I've been staying and GVI's headquarters. I made it, following the map, with only a slight detour! I clearly stand out here (it probably didn't help that I was wearing my orange pants), but on the walk this morning I got at least two honks, a police siren, and an "I love you" from a random guy in a car. Lovely.

Just got back from my first morning of Spanish classes. It's funny how even though I supposedly majored in Spanish, during the last four years, grammar is something that I have neglected to review very often, so there are a lot of things I need to brush up on. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback on my Spanish, but I still don't know that I'll ever be at a level where I can teach bilinugally or to native speakers. Boo.

Now I'm off to lunch and then I'll come back for a GVI workshop given by one of the teachers in a school we work in. Her name is Ediluz, but apparently she has such big boobs that people actually call her Eddy Boobs, I think to her face. I will probably stare at her boobs throughout the workshop since that is all that I know about her at this point.

I think that's all I have time for for now, although I'm sure I'm forgetting something. I'm really enjoying Arequipa and am so excited to meet the kids on Wednesday!

Arequipa!

I officially made it to Arequipa last night, but without luggage! I assumed that it had been lost in the connection, but when they located it, I found out that it had never even left the original airport. Luckily it was delivered late last night. After I arrived, I met up with Patrick, GVI's intern. He's from England and he brought me to the Casa de Avila, where GVI is based out of and where I will stay until Sunday. It is quite an upgrade from my sketchy hostel in Cusco. Then we went out to dinner and to a bar with some of the other volunteers, who are all very nice. There are about twelve of us right now, divided into two different schools, and there is only one other American, which is great. From the people I have met so far, the others are from Canada, England, Australia, France, and Germany. I also met the program coordinator here, Carla, and she seems awesome. Much of the conversation last night revolved around their favorite kids and if they got to pick one to take home, who it would be, so I think I will fit right into the "I want to take home a brown child with me" mentality. Everyone has said that the time goes by way too quickly and that they wish they could stay longer...also a good sign.

Patrick is going to give me my orientation today, and there is a group dinner tonight. Tomorrow afternoon there is a "barbie." A barbeque, I guess? That's all for now...

A Change in the Itinerary...

Today I was supposed to go on a tour of the Sacred Valley, but after three days of organized tours, I just couldn't take it anymore. I still went to the Sacred Valley...it's just that I was paragliding over it.

I suppose this takes some explaining, since I get motion sick easily and hate flying in airplanes. I had seen signs in the hostel for paragliding and tentatively signed up for it, not really knowing what to expect, but it appealed to me a lot more than rafting or doing psychadelic drugs for the day, which seemed to be my other day-long options. Then last night, I ended up going to the restaurant of the CC alum´s husband's family (I had met them on the plane to Cusco). Their names are Teddi and Dario. I went to the restaurant, not necessarily expecting to see them there, but just wanting to check it out. I ran into Dario and he found Teddi, and Teddi and I chatted for a long time. She and Dario have quite the amazing love story. They met in 2001 when she was on vacation in Peru, and she liked the restaurant that his family owned and went there every day. When they met, she didn´t speak much Spanish and Dario didn´t speak much English, but they ended up talking for an hour that day and spent the rest of her vacation together. The next few years were a lot of back and forths between Colorado and NY (where he got a job) and then Colorado and Peru. They were married in 2004, and the legal battles for Dario´s status in the US just stopped one month ago. Anyway, Teddi and I talked for a long time and I mentioned that I was planning on paragliding the next day, and she said it was something that she had always wanted to do, so she said that she would come with!

I left my hostel this morning and met the 7 others (including Teddi) and the pilot, Leo. When we asked Leo how long he had been paragliding, he said "Oh yesterday was my first day." Really, he's been flying for 23 years. The day involved a LOT of waiting, because the wind conditions were less than ideal. We waited and waited, and eventually had lunch, which was roasted potatoes made by a woman who lived on the land that we were jumping from. Immediately after lunch, the wind changed, and it was time to go. I was up first. I got all harnessed up and connected to Leo, and then we ran to the edge of a cliff overlooking the Andes and jumped! The initial takoff was the coolest...you are immediately lifted up into the sky with quite a strong force. After a few seconds, we both sat back into a chair-like contraption and flew around (I´m not sure exactly how high up we were, but I think somewhere in the 14,000 ft range). It only took me a few minutes of flying before my potato lunch returned with a vengeance, and I almost passed out from losing sight of up from down. Leo was prepared and said a lot of people got sick, so we started our descent into a field, where we were picked up and taken back up the valley to the starting point. It was unfortunate that I got sick, and it happened to one other person in my group, but it was still a pretty neat experience. The picture I posted is actually one that I took of Teddi after her takeoff, and once she sends the pictures of me, I´ll put those up.

The rest of the day was spent hanging out in the sunshine and enjoying the amazing view of the Andes while waiting for the rest of the group to jump, which we eventually all did. As it got darker, the family that works the land came out to work in their potato field, which was quite a sight.

Now Ì'm exhausted and hoping that my stomach will settle soon. I just had dinner with Teddi and Dario, and now I will head back to my hostel to repack (for the last time in a while!) before heading to Arequipa tomorrow (which I've heard is an amazing place from everyone who has gone there). I'll play around a bit Saturday and meet some other volunteers, have an official orientation on Sunday, and then move in with my host family!

Beginnings

I arrived in Cusco on Sunday, after having happened to have met a CC alum on my flight to Cusco and a nice girl named Kat, who is about my age, from North Carolina. Kat and I navigated a bit around Cusco that night, although the high altitude here made it a little difficult to walk up the steps. The streets are very narrow in Cusco, so much so that the small taxis can't fit through all of them, or they are convinced that they can fit so the pedestrians have to squish themselves up against storefronts so as to not get hit. We found a funny, hippy vegetarian restaurant and I downed some Coca Tea (yes, made with the same plant as cocaine). Note: Always check to see if there is an infusion cup inside of your mug so that you avoid dumping tea all over yourself and the table and wondering why you can't get your mug to work.



Yesterday morning I woke up (or stopped tossing and turning) at 5 am to catch a 6 am train to Machu Picchu. I was picked up on time by my travel agency, dropped off at the train, and had a funny (and four hour) train ride to Aguas Calientes, from where there is a short bus ride to Machu Picchu. The "train attendants" were very nice and covered us up with blankets, gave us breakfast, and tried to sell us bizzare trinkets. Of course, the person sitting next to me had lived for 20 years in Boulder and had done her student teaching in Jamestown!! That's where my internship is in the fall.

The tour finally began, and I opted for the Spanish speaking tour, after having learned my lesson in Mexico with guides who only claim to speak English. Eddy, the tour guide, was very nice, and very patient with the idiots on my tour. I honestly can't believe the maturity level of people who have saved their money and planned international vacations, only to misplace their entrance tickets, ask to go to the bathroom when we have been warned that there are no bathrooms, talk while the guides are talking, and ask questions that have already been answered. I strive so hard not to be this sort of tourist, and it's hard to be around people like that all day. The tour started with a very short but steep hike up to the path, where, I am proud to say, I kicked everyone in my group's butts! However, many of the women were wearing heels or cowboy boots (again, who are these people?) The first view of Machu Picchu was absolutely stunning. While the ruins themselves look EXACTLY like every photo I have ever seen, seeing it with the lush, beautiful valley was pretty awesome. Unfortunately, and oddly enough, one of my biggest weaknesses in Spanish are my numbers, so any time the guide said any sort of number (population, percentages, years) I got distracted and missed out. So I can't tell you anything impressive that has to do with numbers, but the bottom line is that the Incans were quite amazing and the arrival of the Spanish was quite unfortunate.

On the train ride back, I was seated with a group of people from England, all in their fifties and sixties, and their hilarious Peruvian tour guide who reminded me a lot of my kindergarten teacher. I talked with one particular couple a lot. They don't have any kids, so they have decided to spend their money on "exotic travel." They basically just save up their money and then do something cool, like an African safari or an Indian safari where they look for tigers. They got me really psyched about the idea of going to Botswana... Also on the train ride was a fashion show! All of the staff are required to be models, down the aisle of the train, when the Peruvian clothing company Alpaca has new designs. They did the catwalk thing down the aisle to...ABBA´s ¨Dancing Queen.¨

When I got back to the hostel, I was a little nervous about the safety of my room and was convinced that all of my stuff would be gone. When I arrived, all of my stuff was, indeed gone. Luckily, there was a good explanation, and there had been a room mix up that is now sorted out and I am sharing a room with Kat, a room that is much safer and actually has a roof, so I won't be freezing my ass off. Kat had just moved my stuff to the new room.

Today was Inti Raymi, the Incan festival of the sun. I didn´t really know what to expect, and also didn´t realize that this festival is such an international spectacle: it attracts about 100,000 people from all over the world (and the population of Cusco is only 300,000). It was a ZOO! Quite overwhelming, actually. There was a lot of standing around in the streets, waiting for stuff to happen and trying not to get pick-pocketed (I hid my valuables in my underwear, which seemed to work). The main ceremony was in an outdoor ampitheater outside of Cusco. The tickets have gotten so expensive since the ceremony has gotten more popular, so none of the locals, whom the ceremony is actually for, were able to get any of the seats within the ampitheater. Instead, they had to stake out seats on the surrounding hills. At one point, many of the Cusco natives made a run for it, and ran to a much closer hill from which to watch the ceremony (they weren´t supposed to be there). They outnumbered the police by so much that they got their way, and it was quite exciting: lots of shouting, screaming, running.

I am definitely confused about why this event attracts to much attention. It was kind of cool to see all of the costumes, dances, and hear the music, but it was by no means something that I would have based my trip around, I just sort of happened to be here, which is sort of unfortunate, because that means that the city is absolutely packed right now with tourists. In the last couple of days, I have felt so weird about being a tourist myself. I´ve been thinking a lot about what it means to really travel and why it is that I have to do it. A lot of people seem to be here for the cultural attractions, and have a fascination with the Incans. Some are more adventure travelers. Some have done volunteer work. A huge part of me just feels really weird about coming to a place that so many people in the world come to each year, a place that used to be (and still is) quite remarkable, but whose complete basis is the tourist industry. I am really excited to get to Arequipa , meet my host family, and meet the brown kids. Even going abroad to volunteer is a bit strange, I guess. I get to leave after my five weeks and return to the US, where my life will always be so much more comfortable and I will never be selling crafts on the street with the possibility of feeding my family at night. Undoubtedly, I will get so much more from the experience than anyone I work with. Boo.

On a completely different note, I am currently reading Jonathan Kozol´s new book, Shame of the Nation, which talks about schools where almost all or all of the students are minorities. In it, it talks about this terrible curriculum that is being put into schools for minority students called Success for All, which is the same curriculum that the really weird school I interviewed for used! Good thing they had terrible HR that made me not want to work there.

Tomorrow my day is a bit more relaxed. I tour Cusco and see some of the important monuments and buildings. The city is so full of people that my hostal has run out of hot water (and sometimes water altogether), and my sunscreeny face and matted hair are really looking forward to a shower sometime in the near future.

Note to self: Learn how to use a camera. Why do I know nothing about photography? I took about 30 terrible photos at the festival today. Shoot.