Friday, September 26, 2008

El Trecera semana a Pumamarca

Week three and we're finally getting into some sort of routine......

Lunes, 22 Septiembre
1st and 2nd graders english on the monday as usual. Our lesson plan for the day was numbers and colours. So we chanted the numbers from 1 to 10, ran around the classroom in a train and tagged colours and threw balls at each other in an attempt to teach the young ones their numbers. After doing the 1.5 hour walk up to the school that morning... it certainly was no easy feat. But its made it all worthwhile when I was walking across the field and one of the 6 year olds came running up to me yelling..."amiga amiga.... one two three four five".

Martes, 23 Septiembre
Another one of those days where we get nothing done. It was "Students day". We weren't scheduled to take any classes that day and the fencing was under control. Most of us spent an hour or so in the kindy class watching them dance, eat, sing and then dance around the piñada. At about noon, all the kids came out of class and set up their chairs around the field. The teachers of all the grades and the principal of the school put on a couple of dances of the children. But no, it didn't end there. All the vols were sitting around watching the show and we got dragged onto the field for a dance too. And then of course.. there was the piñadas for the rest of the grades. These were set up on the stage and somehow all 150 kids were able to squeeze onto the stage and under the piñadas ready to pounce on all the goodies. As is traditional, most of a kids had a go at hitting the piñada blindfolded. There were a few of the inevitable thuds as some of the others got hit instead of the piñada and of course all of us have the piñada song tune stuck in our heads as we very quickly realised that the whole piñada thing can be a very very very long affair.

Miercoles, 24 Septiembre
A productive day at school with english for the 5th and 6th graders. We started class with brainstorming words in english for animals, food and colours and then got each of the kids to stand up and frame sentences with "I like ... ". We took it a step further with the 6th graders and got them to make little booklets with things that they like which they will read out in class next week. After this, we had hygiene as usual and then more festivities as it was Mark's (volunteer manger) birthday and Beth's (volunteer who has been here for 3 months) last day. The kids again brought their chairs out to the field and then there were speeches and more speeches and flowers and more flowers and cake (1 cake was amazingly enough to feed all 150 students) and then both Mark and Beth stood and endured 150 snotty hugs and kisses from all of the children.

Jueves, 25 Septiembre
At home all day today..... only had cooking classes with the lovely Santusa and Spanish classes. The menu was Qinua soup, Aji chicken thingy and milo caramel cake. We all helped Santusa... peel the onions and potatos, shred the chicken, cut the cheese, skin the beans .... and 3 hours later we all had a feast. The Qinua soup was one of the best I've tasted so far... and the chicken.... to die for! The cake... even better.... we were practically licking the caramel off it.. I kid you not. And then I spent most of the afternoon and evening packing and stressing about tomorrow....

.... the 4 day Inca Trail ...
wish me luck!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Weekend Trip to the Sacred Valley of the Inkas

Sabado, 22 Septiembre
We started off about 9 in the morning.... 15 volunteers and 2 tour guides. The drive is about 40 minutes by bus out of Chuzco to our first stop Chinchero. Here was an Andean village rich with Inkan history. The Inkas used to call this village the "Birthplace of the rainbow" and you can tell why. The views from the top were absolutley spectacular. The valleys and the shadows cast over the mountains was just beautiful. It was hard to peel ones eyes away from the scenery. There was also the colonial church of St. Franics Xavier which was built over the Inka walls with an elaborately decorated interior and where they had a replica of the body like the one preserved in Goa.We also got to sit in the original chairs carved out of rocks for the Inkan Kings.

Leaving Chinchero, we were driven down in the Sacred Valley stopping at a few lookouts along the way. When we descended into the valley, we stopped for a buffet lunch at a restaurant overlooking a beautiful garden and river. The food as usual was fabulous and the dessert even better.

Once we finished lunch, we continued on to one of the largest Inka ruins, Ollantaytambo whichh is located on the banks of the Urubamba River. Legend states that this name was given to the site because of Cacique Ollanta who fell in love with Inka Pacahakutec's daughter, Kusi Qoyllur. It is also one of the only locations where the Inkas defeated the Spanish during the conquest, although their victory was only short lived. Ollantaytambo is the only Inkan site whose buildings are still used as homes by the locals today. The ruins are amazing. After a slow, long climb to the top of the ruins, we got to the Temple of the Sun which is built which HUGE rocks and hauled in from across the valley. We walked around the ruins for a good two hours and learnt much about the history of this advanced indigenous civilization and how they created such magnificient structures and how they preserved food. We then descending down to see the Intlwatana- bath of the princess with the fantastic 'magic' fountain system.

Leaving Ollantaytambo, we stopped at a local "Chicha" brewery. Chicha is a Inkan beer that is made from corn. I saw purple and red corn for the first time ever. We learnt about the brewery process and got an opportunity to taste the normal Chicha beer as well as Strawberry beer. It tasted a little strange.. like beer and wine mixed together. The locals apparently drink it by the bucket load.. literally. We also indulged in a traditional game of 'Sappo' (frog) .. which was basically us throwing gold coins into the mouth of a frog on a dressing table contraption. Apparently, the locals sit around in the brewery drinking beer and betting on games of 'Sappo'. I wasn't very good at it ... only got one coin in.


Rest of the photos from Chinchero and Ollantaytambo here
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040619&l=9954d&id=212900300

Domingo, 23 Septiembre
We had a late-ish start fortunately and also got a wonderful buffet breakfast at the hotel before heading up to the Pisaq ruins on the mountain-side, above the hotel and the town. We were driven to the very top where the ruins and terraces were. As we walked through the ruins, we were explained the cultivation purpose of the huge sytem of terraces... but I was concentrating on taking photos and not falling off the mountain so I don't really remember much. We also saw the unique burial system of the Inkas which was basically holes cut into the cliff face. We walked from one end of the terraces to the other.... up treacherous (by my standards) paths and into small dark passage ways. We finally got to the other ruins of Pisaq where we saw another Sun Temple and took lots more photos. The views were..yes, amazing. We were even able to see our hotel from the top. And then we had to endure the long long long long long walk down the mountain to the town. All in all, it took us about 3 hours of walking... but it was definitley worth it.

When we got down to the town, we all rejuvinated ourselves with some fresh orange juice from one of the local ladies before heading to lunch and then some shopping at the famous Pisaq artesian markets. The main square of Pisaq was jam packed with textiles, crafts, food, jewellery and much more. It was shoppers paradise. I spent about a half hour shopping before I had to help Charlotte with the shopping for "the Ball". Peru's Challenge is having a ball in Sydney on 15/11/2008 to raise money and awareness for the school and all the work we do. So Charlottes and my job for the day was to buy the bulls which are to be used as centre pieces on the tables and lots of Inkan table cloths. After about an hour of hunting and barganing, we managed to seal a deal. But, it did take a fair bit of effort on our part, because we asked for one size of the bulls... but when we did a random check, found that we had about 4 different sizes. So, we had to make the ladies unpack it all get us the right sizes.
After all that hard work, we decided to treat ourselves to some cheesecake and then made the journey back home with about 6 huge bags full of bulls and table cloths...


More photos of Pisaq and the ruins here....
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040620&l=18e06&id=212900300

El Segundo Semana al Pumamarca

... the second week at Pumamarca

Martes, 16 Septiembre
So after a long night on the bus and returning home from Lake Titicaca at 4am, all of us were up bright and early again to go up to the school.
On tuesdays, the volunteers do not have any classes with the kids.. so we just made ourselves busy. I helped Hannah, Jes and Cathy with painting the computer/ library room. This room was previously used as storage, but Peru's Challenge have been able to source about 11 computers which we will have by of the end of the year. So all of us set to work getting our hands dirty with different shades of green. It took us all morning to do and I've still got green fingernails from last week...

Miercoles, 17 Septiembre
Wednesdays is english class with the 5th and 6th graders. Cilla, Lyn (the other Lyn) and myself prepared a lesson plan of the "who, what, when, where" to go through with the kids. But we found out that this was actually too advanced for them. So we had to improvise and come decided to only go through the names and numbers of the kids. We broke up into smaller groups and spent the better part of the 45 minute lesson with the 5th graders going through "My name is xxx .. I am xx years old". Next we had the 6th graders, but they were busy dying wool and preparing for the "fiesta" on friday. So we had to can that lesson plan and find other ways to make ourselves useful.
I decided to help with the fencing as I hadn't helped with that before. We had to chip off the ends of the poles and then drill and nail them on to the poles that had been rooted into the ground. Wasn't easy with one drill, one hammer, one chipper thingy and about 8 volunteers.. but now, two weeks later.. the fence is almost finished. All that is left is to hang the gate. Yay for us!!

In the afternoon, I was rostered for house visits again. We visited the same family as last time who were meant to get the bamboo sticks for the walls. They hadn't done it yet as they did not have access to the stuff when Peru's Challenge were not around. So, we went up to the school, got all the bamboo out from the yard... and then proceeded to carry it across fields and down into a valley and out again to the family. It took us a good half hour of lugging around bamboo on our shoulders as we were following one of the young boys and suddenly lost him. So, we were following Mark (the volunteer Manager) who was following a puppy. And of course, we got to the edge of the hill and didn't know where to go. After some backtracking and shouting across the valley, we had the young boy come back to show us the way. I kept walking into the trees with the bamboos as there were twice as tall as I am. But we eventually made it and Syliva (not Jessica as I previously thought) and her family should have some walls pretty soon.
After all that manual labour, we only had one more stop and that was to drop off the hairdressing course completion certificate for one of the mums. She is part of the project for life programme and the money from her sponsors helped her to enrol in and complete a hair dressing course. She will be practicing next week on the kids up at school.

Jueves, 18 Septiembre
No classes up at the school... so I didn't do much for most of the morning. Just bummed around at home and then sat on the couch with Hannah and watched 6 hours of Srubs in the evening.

Viernes, 19 Septiembre
The day of the fiesta ....... as part of some festival, the kids were putting on a dress rehersal for all the volunteers on the dances they were doing. The actual day of the festivities was on saturday in the Plaza de Armas in Cuzco centre, but we were not going to be around.
When we got up to the school, we knew there wasn't even going to be the 1 hour of classes that we had planned for. The kids were running about everywhere in their colourful costumes and getting their hair braided and having their photos taken. So we sat around for a bit, took lots of photos and the show started at 11am. All the grades from 1st to 6th put on a different dance. They were absolutely adorable as usual and very entertaining.

A BIG thank you to all my Aussie friends who contributed money as some of this was used to rent costumes for the kids. While this may seem like a small thing, it actually means a lot to the children. As I understand it, some of them have costumes made by their parents, but those who are not living with their parents for whatever reason would have had to go without.
Thanks for your contributions....
Vikram
Frank Moore
Anh T.
Kim Trang
Bosco, Ginette, Nathan
Judy, Chris, Hayley
Siew Gin
There is lots of money leftover from the donations and we are still deciding what to put it to.

Rest of the photos from our second week at school can be found here...
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040457&l=e0365&id=212900300


...and photos from the fiesta are here...
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040618&l=f620f&id=212900300

Friday, September 19, 2008

Lake Titicaca

also known as Lago Titikaka or Lago Titiqaqa ...

Sabado, 13 Septiembre
We started our long journey to Puno (the town on the skirts of the Lake) in the wee hours of saturday morning. The journey to Puno was about 10 hours but we had a couple of touristy stops along the way that made it easier.

Our first stop was at the Church of St. Peter in Andahuaylillas. This church is considered as the "Sistine Chapel of the Americas". The church was built in the 1700s by the Jesuits. Inside the church there is a variety interesting murals dating from the XVIth and the XVIIth centuries. It was interesting to see the blend of religions that was incorportated in the church. Above the altar there is a the Inkan sun and the ceilings had a Muslim touch to them. Our next stop was at Raqchi which is a temple dedicated to Wiracocha, the supreme God of the Inkas. The temple is built of sundried mud-brick walls and stone and also contains remains of terraces, bridges, warehouses and cottages. Our next stop was to see a typical Peruvian kitchen and pet cute little llamas. We got to feed the llamas and take lots of photos. From there it was on to La Raya which is the highest phase on our journey to Puno. We were at about 4335 meters above sea level and here we were able to see snow capped mountians. This point is the conjunction of the cordilleras, an origin of the Vilcanotra Knot. Our last stop was at Pukara which is an archeaological complex consiting of pyramidals structures. It was here that the first signs of civilised culture in the Peruvian Alitplanos were found and these ruins date from about 4000 B.C.

More photos from the journey to Puno here....
www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040454&l=79c1d&id=212900300

Domingo, 14 Septiembre
Yet another early start and we were off to the Puno port to jump on our boat to the islands. Our first destinating was the fascinating floating reed islands. These islands are essentially that.. made of reed and float. When you walk on it, its squishy and feels a little strange. The average lifetime of the island is 15 years. We got to interact with the local inhabitants of the islands who took us into their homes (also made of reed) and even dressed up some of the girls in the traditional dresses. Everything on the island is made of reed. They even had reed boats to go from one island to another. We of course hopped into one of the floaty reed boats and were rowed over to another island where there was a local wedding going on. Unfortunately, we only got the tail end of the wedding and didn't get to see much.

Our next port of call was Amanti Island. It was a three hour trip and I of course promptly fell asleep on the journey there. Woke up and we were at Amanti Island. We got off the boat and were greeted by the locals. The group was then divided up and allocated host families. Our host was Norma who lived with her Mum and her son Willy. The house was humble and we were lucky coz we actually had running water and electricity. We later found out from some of the others that this was a luxury that not all the hosts had. So as we arrived at lunch time, Rhyll, Maggie, Michael and myself went into the kitchen to help with lunch. We were given a pot full of potatoes to peel with some lovely blunt knives. Lunch was Quinoa potato soup and a fresh salad with potatos and then some more potatos. After lunch we had a bit of a rest and then had a long hike up the mountain to watch the sunset. It took a fair bit of effort on my part to get to the top as the altitude doesn't make things any easier. But, it was definitley worth it!. at approx 5000 meters above sea level, the views from the top were absolutely amazing. We got lots of photos of the sunset and the lake... and then walked around the other side of the peak and even got photos of the moon. The walk down was easier, even though it was freezing and dark. Norma came and collected us and took us back to the house for dinner. Dinner was a potato soup and then rice with more potatos. I definitely had my fill of carbs for a while! After dinner, we were all made to dress up in the local costumes which was an absolute laugh and then we went up to the village hall for "la fiesta" where the locals put on a couple of dances for us and also danced with us. At about 10pm we called it quits and walked back down to the house for a good nights rest.

More Reed and Amanti Island photos here....
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040455&l=206c0&id=212900300


Lunes, 15 Septiembre
Our last destination was Taquille Island. The views from here were even better... we walked up the hill and took in the sights and surroundings. It was about a half an hour walk to the centre where we got to see the local handicrafts and take lots more photos. From there, we headed to lunch which was another 15 minute walk to the very top of the hill. Lunch was ... fantastic!!! We had outdoor seating and a breath taking view of the lake. The meal was even better... Quinoa soup (again) and the best grilled Trout ever! I'm still thinking about the trout.. it was that good! After lunch... we had to walk down 500 steps to get to the boat. Fortunately it was down the steps and not up. We had a 3 hour boat ride back to Puno and that was the end of our Island hopping on Lake Titicaca...

More Taquille Island photos here...

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Horse Riding and Saqsaywaman

Jueves, 11 Septiembre

We started off at about 9am to where we were picking up our horses. When we got there and everyone was mounted, we started off on the journey across some hills and fields. Of course, as luck would have it, I got the biggest horse and he had a mind of his own and kept wanting to wander off on his own or get to the head of the line. He was an impatient fella. After about 30 or 40 mins of riding, we got to the top where we met the bus to take us on the short trip to Tambomachay.

Tambomachay (from Quechua: tambo machay, resting place) is an archaeological site associated with the Inca Empire, located near Cusco, Peru. An alternate local name is the El Baño del Inca, "The Bath of the Inca". It consists of a series of aqueducts, canals and waterfalls that run through the terraced rocks. The function of the site is uncertain: it may have served as a military outpost guarding the approaches to Cusco, as a spa resort for the Incan political elite, or both (taken from Wiki). We wandered around for a little while and took lots of photos before heading to Pukapukara which is another archeaological site.

From there it was on to lunch at Los Perros which had the yummiest Tapas! Definitely making another trip back there to try out some of the other goodies on the menu. After lunch, we went back to the top to visit Saqsaywaman (pronounced as Sexy Woman!) where we spent the rest of the afternoon. We walked through the darkest passage I've ever been in. It was really dark inside and we had to hold on to the backs of each other so we didn't get lost. We also had a go on these slidey thingies.. not sure what they were. Also, the large field between the walls of the fortress is a major site of celebrations for the Peruvians for the Inti Raymi festival each year on June 24th.

Another little tid bit from Wiki...
Saqsaywaman
Some believe the walls were a form of fortification, while others believe it was only used to form the head of the Puma that Sacsayhuamán along with Cuzco form when seen from above. Like much Inca stonework, there is still mystery surrounding how they were constructed. The structure is built in such a way that a single piece of paper will not fit between many of the stones. This precision, combined with the rounded corners of the limestone blocks, the variety of their interlocking shapes, and the way the walls lean inward, is thought to have helped the ruins survive devastating earthquakes in Cuzco. The longest of three walls is about 400 meters. They are about 6 meters tall. Estimated volume of stone is over 6,000 cubic meters. The largest limestone block is estimated at 128 tonnes.

Rest of the photos are here...
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040196&l=844bb&id=212900300

Next stop.... Lake Titicaca !

Welcome dinner and House visits...

Martes, 9 Septiembre

Had a pretty relaxing day at home in the morning. Bummed around the house for a bit and did a few odds and ends. In the evening we had our welcome dinner for all the new volunteers. We went to this fantastic authentic Peruvian place- can't remember the name though (too many Pisco Sours have bamaged my drain). They had lots of yummy dishes including sushi and curried alpaca. And the desserts... wow! I had a miss piggy moment and decided I had to try a little bit of everything ......

Miercoles, 10 Septiembre
Our second day up at Pumamarca was just as rewarding as the first. We did Inglés class with the 5th and 6th graders and went through the "Who, what, when, where why" and "I like". Teaching the classes is quite challenging as the students vary in age in from 9 to 14 years in the same class and they all have different levels of comprehension. It was still fun though. Next on the time table was the hygenie and sport. Sport was with 1st and 2nd graders and was chaotic and fun as usual. We started off with a jog around the field and some stretches and then played tip. Tell you what... running about at 3200 meters asl is tiring!

In the afternoon, myself and 3 other volunteers had house visits with some of the families in the community. Our first visit was at La Casa de Jessica. Jessica has a family of 9 or 10 and they have a really small house. Peru's Challenege put in a few windows for them last month but they have makeshift bamboo walls. Its really awful that the whole family have to sleep huddled together upstairs when the weather sometimes goes down to about 2 or 3 degrees in the night. The wet season is also approaching and so Iris the social worker with Peru's Challenge had a talk to the Mum and asked them to get their act into gear and to come down to the school to get the cement for the walls. Next step after they get their walls will be to help the family get some beds.

Our next house visit was with to the house of Arturo and his mum Asunta. Arturo is the cutest little kid ever!! Asunta his mum helps out in the school and cooks meals for the kindy kids. She has had a hard life as a few years ago she left Cuzco to go to Lima to get a better life. When she got pregnant with Arturo, her husband left her and she had to come back to Cuzco. She is also estranged from her mother. She invited us into her humble home which was kept very neat and tidy and allowed us to take some photos. When asked if there was anything she could ask for, what would it be.. she said just food, education and clothes for Arturo. Asunta is a really strong lady and works really hard and it was sad to see her cry when we were told her story.

Our last visit was to the house of a man who had had something fall on his leg and has been in bed for the last week. Unfortunately, he also drinks and abuses the family. We walked into their house (I think it was the kitchen) and it was full of smoke from the wood fire used for cooking. There were 3 children.. the youngest one about 3 years old. They also has guinea pigs running all over the kitchen which I found rather amusing, but I guess is normal out here. Iris gave him a talking to and told him he had to go into town to get his leg x-rayed and also that if he did not stay off the alcohol Peru's Challenge would stop providing the family with support. Hopefully this will get him thinking and on our next house visit, he will be sober and the family a little happier.

It was an emotional day.. but a good one......

Rest of the photos are here....
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040195&l=68039&id=212900300

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

8th September- El día uno con los niños de Pumamarca

... and for those that don't know Español... that translates to- Day one with the kids of Pumamarca

What an absolutely amazing day!

We went up to the school and while the other volunteers got orientated, I got straight into the classes with Tracey and Julia. We were teaching Inglés to the 1st and 2nd graders. Tracey is quite fluent in Spanish and was able to communicate effectively with the kids and their usual teacher. Our lesson plan for the day was the Alphabet. We proceeded to go through the alphabet in english and get the kids to draw words that started with the corresponding letters. All the spanish that I learnt 5 years ago was slowly coming back to me.. and while they were learning English from me... I picked up a fair bit of Spanish from them too. I think we only got upto the letter 'E' though before class was adjourned for hygiene and the festivities of the community.

Because the sun is so harsh here, the children all have really sun burnt cheeks. And whilst this is really cute, as they grow up, this stays and marks them as having come from poverty. So one of the initiatives that Peru's Challenge has taken is to get their health and hygiene up. Beth, had done the round of the classes in the morning handing out vitamins to all. It is now routine that when the volunteers are up at the school, at about 11am all the kids line up to wash their hands. The next step is, we dish out some sorbelene cream. This is rather funny to watch though, as they quite happily take a lot and plaster it on to their faces and come out looking very white. After this, they are given a banana each. Some are even made to blow their noses as they are really snotty.

Next, it was on down to the local community church. This church was apparently built in about 1 week. As it is the Church of the Virgin Mary and 8th of September is the feast day, the community had rushed to have it ready in time so that the church could be inaugarated. We all walked down to the church which is about 10 mins from the school.. and I made a new friend along the way. One of the little girls from Kindie whos name is Ebony. Absolutely adorable! She held my hand and we walked down to the church. Of course as soon as we walked there, she proceeded to march me straight up past the other volunteers and I thought she was going to take me right up the front of the church. But no, she walked straight up to the ice cream lady and stopped there. And yes, me being the sucker that I am, I ended up buying her an ice-cream. So we hung around outside the church for a bit and heard some of the Spanish Sermon before returning back to the school.

Another initiative that Peru's Challenge have taken is to feed the children of the school one meal a day. As it happens, a lot of the childeren get little or close to no food at all at home. Initially, Peru's Challenge identified 60 kids who were most in need of the food but, yesterdays portions ended up being enough for all. I think there about 150 children in the school all up. So, yesterday was the first day of many as part of a long term plan to feed the children lunch. Once we got back to the school from the festivities, some of us stood around and watched one of the local ladies prepare the lunch over a wooden fire outside. It was Chifa (Chinese) meal of chicken fried rice and it looked and smelled very very yummy. After all the children were fed and washed, all the volunteers jumped back in the van and headed back to the share house for lunchies.

After lunch, some of the volunteers had spanish classes and the rest of us headed back up to the school for Talleres. Talleres is another initiative of Peru's Challenge where the mums of the community make hand made goods like scarves and bags and clothes and they are sold to tourists. Peregrin tours who are partnered with Peru's Challenge take tours up to the school once or twice a week and show them around.
So while some of the volunteers helped with getting the mums organised and doing the accounting, the rest of us kept the kids entertained. This is part of Camp Puma in the afternoons. We divided them into two groups and brushed up on their Inglés skills. Bec and myself went through their names, ages, counting, days of the week, months, seasons, parts of the body and pets. Again, I got a chance to brush up on my Spanish skills... while we were teaching them the English words, we were also learning the Spanish equivalent. After about a half hour of English lessons, we took them out for a play. Ana, Julia, Bec and Hannah played "Whats the time mister wolf" and soccer with them whilst I stood on the side and kept score and cheered (haha,.. catch me doing any form of physcial exersition). I was quite happy to stand in the cold and be the cheering squad and take photos.

The people of the community are so friendly, the kids are so loving and they appreciate every little thing that Perus's Challenge and the volunteers do for them.

All in all... a fantastic day which we ended with Pisco Sours (thanks Tracey!) which put me straight to bed... :o)

And the rest of the photos are here...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040103&l=63b1b&id=212900300

Monday, September 8, 2008

A day in Cuzco Centre...

Ah the joys of jet lag! ... waking up at 6am is so not me! I wonder how long it will take for me to be hitting the snooze button times. But, today was a good day... we started with our first Volunteer meeting with the Mark the volunteer manager who went through the routines and the dos and do nots.

So, we've got our timetables and I've got a busy week ahead. I am scheduled to teach my first ingles (english) class tomorrow with the 1st and 2nd graders. After that I've got hygenie with the kids and then physical education (which I think is going to be more of a physical education/ workout for me than for them). In the afternoon, I've got classes with the tallers (mums of the community) and more ingles classes with the 5th and 6th graders. The schedule for the rest of the week looks pretty similar but I will also have some spanish classes myself and will also go on a couple of house visits. I can't wait!!! I'm sooooo excited!

As we had the rest of the afternoon off, one of the other volunteers Beth, who has been here for 9 weeks already offered to take us in to the Centro. About 15 of us took her up on the offer and all jumped into the combi van which charged us a whopping 70 centimos (20 cents) each for the half hour trip to the centro.

Our first stop..... lunch. Beth steered us over to a nice little French cafe off the Plaza de Armas where we had really really yummy sangas and petite (or pequeno) cakes. Next, we walked back down to the Plaza de Armas where I got my photo taken with the little Peruivan chicas and their lamb (photos to come soon). Just as we were finshing that, a couple of parades came around the corner as it is the Festival of Saint Nicolas de Tolentino and the Virgin of the Nativity (http://www.peru.info/e_ftoculturaeng.asp?pdr=1502&jrq=5.2.9.3&ic=2&ids=4973#6). This of course got us all excited and we pulled out our camers and went off in snap happy frenzy. The dancers were fascinating to watch and the colours... well, colourfull. There were kids from about 4 or 5 years old in the parade to men and women in their 40s and 50s.

Next we walked up one of the side streets of the Plaza to check out some more shops and wares (and I spotted my first llama) before walking back down to the Arts and Crafts market. This place is shoppers heaven! They have the softest Alpaca teddies and the cutest little Alpaca baby booties. I had to restrain myself and try not to buy every second thing I set my eye on. We spent about half an hour in the crafts market... and I was good, I only came out with a coin purse.

And then we headed home......

I can't wait for tomorrow..... and my first class with the kiddies....

Till next time.. hasta luego....

Rest of the photos are here...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040102&l=6929d&id=212900300

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Lima, Peru!

Hola de Lima!

I flew into Lima with one of the volunteers and met up with the rest at our inn on thursday night. Friday morning, we all met up at breafast and since we had a couple of hours to kill before our first tour, we went for a wander around the town of Miraflores.

We looked up a map and thought we would go to ¨Plaza de Centro Americano¨ ... which after we walked a fair distance realised that it was just a round about and we´d already passed it.

The 6 of us ended up walking along the beach... and then somehow wound up in the Center of Miraflores where we had lunch and then walked back to the hotel. At ¨2;30 we started our city tour of Lima which started off at .. umm... I cant remember the name of the archealogical site... but it was pyramids of mud bricks... .... and then on to the Reserve Bank of Peru Museum where we found out about the history of Peru and the Incas... and saw all these aweseome gold artefacts..

I can´t figure out how to align the photos... so heres a bunch of them for now. Plaza De Armas, Church of Francis of Jesus, San Martinez Square, Dinner with the rest of theVolunteers and my first Pisco Sour (the local drink)

The rest of the photos are here...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040101&l=3f11b&id=212900300










Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Volunteering with Peru's Challenge

Finally... after 4 years of dreaming about it, I'm doing it!

I am going on a volunteering trip to Peru for 6 weeks with an Organisation called Peru's Challenge who are based in Cuzco (a few hours outside of Lima).

The not-for-profit organisation works with volunteer travellers like myself to improve education, health and hygiene standards in indigenous mountain villages.

I will be based in a community just outside of Cuzco and will mostly be working with under privileged children in a school helping with school work, home work, sports activities, construction, gardening and general health and hygenie of the kids.

Here is a link to some more detail and a video clip from the Getaway show who did a segment on Perus Challenge- http://getaway.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=253215&_cobr=optus

Next update.... from Peru... :o)