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!

Another week gone by!

It's been a really great week--the new volunteers stepped up and quickly took over classes, which has been a huge relief for me, and I've gotten the chance to spend some time in grade levels other than 1 and 2, which is a nice break. I didn't realize that one of the coolest parts of this job would be watching the volunteers come into their own while they're here. Most are quite nervous when they arrive and aren't sure what to expect in the schools, but to see them jump right in to lesson planning, teaching, and laughing with the kids is a really neat thing to be a part of.

I have been working with a new girl at Maldonado, Virginia, who will be entering 6th grade in a few weeks. She recently moved here and is at about the same level as my second graders in math and reading, which I discovered while the rest of the class was doing a simple exercise and it became apparent that she didn't know the difference between addition and subtraction. She's somewhat grudgingly worked with me over the last few days, and I hope that she'll catch on a bit before the school year starts.

Some people have been asking about this week's 6.0 earthquake in Southern Peru, but it was in Pisco, no one was killed, and we just felt a little tremor that night, so I am still very much alive at this point and hoping for no more seismic action for the next eight weeks!

Last night we went out to a very interesting restaurant, Zig Zag, as a goodbye to one of our fabulous volunteers from Scotland, Jennie. This restaurant is not for vegetarians: you order big slabs of meat that come out still sizzling on a hot stone, and I was told that I absolutely had to try the trilogy, which is ostrich, alpaca, and beef, and it was quite delicious. I've been a bit food-deprived while I've been here, so it was nice to have some actual protein and feel full after a meal! Jennie and I shared a special bond, and we couldn't decide if it was because we share the same birthday or if we bonded over almost being run over by rogue ice cream bicyclists multiple times on the way in between Triunfo and Maldonado (Some people sell ice cream in carts attached to a bike. They don't have brakes and they FLY down the sandy hills that we walk on). Anyway, she's in her fifties, has raised two children and had a handful of different careers, has an intense travel bug and loves to scuba dive. I know I've said this before, but one of the coolest parts about this job is meeting people from all over the world, in different phases of life, all coming to try to make the world a bit more bearable for others. Jennie came to have an adventure all on her own, having married young and not had a lot of completely independent experiences.She was absolutely marvelous with the kids and will be missed by all.

I make a few cameos in the GVI Phoenix Project blog. It's not the first entry, but it's called Back to Basics in Peru, and talks about summer school thus far. The link is:
http://www.gviphoenix.blogspot.com/

Today I get to lay low a bit, and then I have a 4:45 am wake-up call tomorrow to pick up on new volunteer, followed by orientation, a barbeque, and moving in with my host family! Have a good weekend, everyone!