Education and Bees

It is now June and my classes are up and running. The schedule is pretty much set and the kids go full day (at least until October when it might start to rain again). Of course now that it's summer time, the fiestas have started. There are always teachers or students missing school for a fiesta or to go play volleyball or soccer in the anniversary of some far away school. However, I do that best i can and I am pretty busy teaching during the weekdays. I'm teaching a bunch of different classes in the escuela, two of them being english to the 6th graders, aka 11 year olds. This is the first time I've really attempted to teach English since arriving in Cochán. I've helped out with a bunch of different classes, but I had never before taught from the beginning. These kids didn't know anything so it's hard to figure out where to begin, especially when it's only 1.5 hours a week. Here in Cochán, the teachers teach the same class from 1st grade until 6th grade. One their class graduates, the teachers then return to the 1st grade and follow the new group of students around until they graduate. I can definitely see the benefits of this because the kids don't have to get used to a new teacher, and the teacher can see their progress. You also don't have to worry about lack of information because each teacher knows what they've taught. However, after teaching English classes to both 6th grade sections, I'm starting to think that this system might not be the best idea. For example, after I gave the first English exam, one section had an average of 12 (out of 20), while the other class averaged 6 (out of 20). Since then, the other class has studied more, but one section consistently outscores the other section. I'm sure there are many factors for this, one being that the kids in the higher scoring section are mostly girls that know me better and therefore are more motivated to study. However, that section also always turns their homework in on time, whereas the other section frequently turns it in late. I'm not saying that one teacher is better than the other, but 6 years with the same teacher is a lot. I think one of the teachers is stricter so the kids know that it's important to turn their homework in on time and study for the exams. So maybe these kids are more used to my style of teaching and that is why they score better on their exams. I think that could be another reason why so many kids struggle once they reach the colegio. They learn how to read and write from the same teacher and only have one teacher up until high school. Then when they reach high school they are suddenly in classes that two or three times the size, and on top of that, they have to deal with several different teachers and teaching styles. I might have mentioned this before, but last year 18 kids repeated the first grade of the colegio. So this year in the first grade of the colegio there are 18 kids who are in the first grade for the second time, and 17 kids who are new. Well I think that ends my thoughts on education here in Peru. Please remember that these are just my thoughts and opinions, I have a lot of free time to think about this kind of stuff!! And now onto the pictures...

One of the things that I love about the Peace Corps is that every day is different. Even when I'm teaching, I have several different kind of classes that I teach, so I don't get bored with teaching the same things. Now that I have switched host families, I am finding that there are more things to do on the weekends. My old host family was very busy working the store, so they hardly ever left. My new host family has older kids, and are teachers so they are free on the weekends. Last weekend their uncle asked if we wanted to go to his house to get honey. I of course, jumped at the opportunity. His house is in one of the caserios about an hour's walk away, and I love to get out of town and walk when it's possible. This was my third time going to this caserio, but the first time without boots. It's amazing how much easier and shorter the walk can seem without boots. Once we got to his house we pretty much just spent the day chewing on honeycombs and viruses.

What' this you ask? VIRUS of course. It's the best thing about choclo season. All around town everyone, young and old, can be seen munching on virus. It kind of has the same flavor as watermelon, it's the cheap Peruvian candy.

Preparing the honey.

Yummy Honey

More honey

One of my favorite meals here. I love that everything is so natural. The corn and potatoes they just picked from the fields, and the quesillo, something in between milk and cheese, they made from the cows that they just milked that day.

Doing my best to keep the bees away. I've also decided that after almost two years here it's about time to invest in a sombrero. Now I just need to find one that fits my enormous head.

Camp ALMA

Last weekend was Camp ALMA in Cajamarca. Last year we had a VALOR camp which was a leadership camp for boys, and this year it was ALMA, the leadership camp for girls.

Last year when it came time to pick the boys from my site, I didn't even know where to begin. The school year had just begun and while I knew a bunch of girls in the school, I hardly knew ANY of the boys. I ended up doing a survey without names to pick people fairly. Once I found out who won, the names didn't mean anything to me because I didn't know who they were. This time around it was a lot tougher. I've been here a year longer so naturally I know a lot more people. But what was even harder is that I know ALL of the girls in the 4th and 5th grade, especially the 5th grade. Everyone was begging to go, so I knew the only way to choose people was through a survey without reading the names. In a town this small it would be easy for people to accuse me of just picking my "friends." In the end two of the girls that ended up winning I know extremely well, one of them is actually my new host sister. Three of the girls that ended up going are in the 5th grade of the colegio, and then one girl ended up going from the 4th grade. The three girls in the 5th grade have not only been to Cajamarca before, but they all have houses there and spend their vacations there. The girl in the 4th grade is extremely poor, lives with her grandmother, has an identical twin, but was one of m top students in computer classes during both vacations. This camp is a once in a lifetime opportunity for most girls in general, but this one girl had never been to Cajamarca before, or even left Cochán. I can't imagine what was going through her head. Unfortunately we didn't have much time before or after the camp to explore Cajamarca, but I tried to squeeze in some time so that she could see the Plaza de Armas and the mall. The other girls all wanted to make sure that she could go to the mall so that she could ride the escalator and the elevator, the biggest attractions in Cajamarca, didn't you know?

Going back to the actual camp, I think it turned out to be a success. I had a bigger role this time in the planning and I, along with a fellow Peru 9er was basically in charge of the whole thing. It was a little stressful and unfortunately that meant that I couldn't interact with the girls much because we constantly had to be making sure that everything was going as planned. The camp was basically like any other camp and there were games, crafts, yoga, dancing, and small group discussions. We also had an obstetriz come talk about sexuality and I think that was one of the best parts of the camp. It usually tends to be because sexuality isn't something that is taught in schools, and kids aren't usually given the opportunity to ask many questions. Going along with that whole theme, we also gave the kids eggs that they had to carry around all weekend as if they were their children. They got pretty into it and I was very impressed at how well they were able to decorate their eggs. Because this is Peru, there were definitily some things that didn't go as planned, including the unforseen wedding that was booked where we were staying that resulted in music blasting until 4 in the morning. However, like I said before, and especially after talking to the girls that I brought to the camp, I think the camp turned out very well.

Tye-dying the tshirts

The girls learning yoga

The girls and the Volunteers

Their baby eggs

The 4 girls I brought from Cochán at the mall were we rode the escalator ate indulged in a lot of ice cream.

Bowdoin 5 Year Reunion

So right after my COS conference, I went to the states for 5 days. This was my second trip back to the states, but both trips were less than a week. This trip was completely different than my first trip back. My first trip was home for Christmas and I didn't see any friends, and mostly just hung out with my family and played games. It felt like any other holiday back at home for the past 8 years or so, when I went away to college. However, this trip was very different because I was going to my 5 year college reunion at Bowdoin. It's weird enough to pretend you are back in college again, but the added factor of living in the middle of nowhere in Peru makes it a little odder. Nevertheless it was great to go back and see all my friends. Most of my friends from college are all spread out so I haven't seen a lot of them in a long time. Unfortunately I didn't win the award for coming the farthest, that would have to go to my friend Jen who came from Hong Kong. Being back at college was great. I forgot how beautiful Maine is when it's sunny. The food was wonderful as usual, and it was hard deciding what to eat! I hit up the outlet stores, and bought way too many smart wool socks and fleeces, but I don't know when I'll be back! After the reunion ended, I headed to Boston and got to see a few more friends and spent the next day running around doing some last minute shopping before heading back on a plane to Peru. Once back in Peru I got to spend the entire next day at the dentist's office getting 8 cavities filled. My poor poor teeth!

Hanging out at the beach

I heart Maine

GO U BEARS!!

Eating CANADIAN lobster, yeah, I know.

Sand and COS

A few weeks ago I finally moved host families. So far everything is great, and I even have a stove so I can cook omelettes, because that is pretty much all I know how to make. I'll try to take a picture and post it when I get back from my trip. Speaking of trip, I am currently in Lima. We had our Close of Service (COS) conference this week because my group officially ends their service this August. It's the last time that everyone from Peru 9 was together as a group. Before the COS conference started, 10 of us went down to Huacachina in Ica, a 5 hour bus ride south of Lima. Huacachina was a natural oasis in the desert but now all of the wells have depleted their natural water so they have to pump the lake with water. It is basically gringo land but it was nice to spend a day in the sun and by the pool. The main attraction there is to go out on dunebuggys and go sandboarding. Sandboarding is the same concept as snowboarding but we all heard it was quite hard and dangerous, so almost all of us just went down headfirst on our belly, which was a lot of fun! The COS conference was spent about half an hour south of Lima and it addressed the logistics of the process of finishing our service. After the conference ended we all get to spend one last night in Lima together. I am still in Lima because tomorrow I will be spending 3 days working on editing the Peace Corps Peru magazine, Pasa La Voz, and then I will hop on a plane to the US to go to my college reunion!

The dunebuggy

I love sand

It's like sledding!

Sanboarding

The oasis of Huacachina

After our guide took 3 failed jumping attempts, I took over the camera.

The entire Peru 9 group

The rest of April

After Semana Santa, my APCD came for her second site visit. It was pretty much a disaster due to my host family telling lies. I was already thinking of moving, but that pretty much gave me no choice. I still like my host family most of the time, but it's just frustrating how much they try to take advantage of me, especially when my bosses come. The move is slowly happening because the room I was going to move into was occupied and we had to wait for the man to come back from Cajamarca to move his stuff into the downstairs room. I am going to miss my old room though just because I've been there for over a year and a half. My new room is bigger so I can cook in it, but it doesn't have a window or balcony facing the street. I'm very nosy and I love to stare out my window onto the street, so I'm going to miss that! I'm currently in Cajamarca buying stuff for my new room. It seems kind of silly to buy stuff when I have so little time left, but I need to be able to cook and have a place to put my clothes. I went to the grocery store today with the intention of buying food to cook. I forgot that I don't really know how to cook and I came back with marshmallows, chocolate milk, pam spray, nesquick, sillao (I don't even know what that is!), and clavo del olor (I don't know what this is either, all I know is that you use it to make dulce de berenjena). I also bought some avocados and onions to make guacamole. The only thing I can think of cooking are eggs and desserts. Hopefully I'll be inspired once back at site.

Besides waiting to move, things at site are finally starting to pick up. The escuela started going full day so I marched over there and made my schedule with the teachers. Of course it rained the next day so they decided to only go half day the rest of the week and the next week, but luckily all of my classes are in the morning. For now I'm doing a self-esteem taller to both 5th grades, and I gave in and agreed to teach English to both of the 6th grades. I am probably going to work with a few other grades but I need to figure out my schedule in the colegio first. The colegio was still only going half day until this week!

Another birthday passed, my golden birthday in fact so now I am 27. I never understood why people didn't like to say how old they were, but the older I get the more I understand. I wasn't expecting much yet even with low expectations you can still be disappointed. In the morning one of the families invited me over for a surprise breakfast of cake and empanadas, my favorite! That was really nice and unexpected. Another lady invited me to my favorite dessert of dulce de berenjena. I didn't tell my host family this year because last year they knew and didn't even wish me a happy birthday. They found out though and my host mom did wish me a happy birthday, but I still went to bed hungry because they didn't make an egg for dinner, just rice. Let's just say I'm glad this was my last birthday in Peru.

I haven't taken too many pictures lately because I haven't been entering the colegio. I don't want to get bombarded like last year, with everyone posing for pictures! The other day I was finally able to check something off my list of things I wanted to do. I finally saw a cow give birth. I was really lucky because this cow lives super close, gave birth in the afternoon, and it wasn't raining! I was a little camera happy.

Cutting the sac with scissors to get the process going. Those are the little legs sticking out.

The cow was like this for a good half hour. We finally had to go hide until she started pushing some more. Apparently cows get embrassed too.

It's head emerged.

Coaxing the cow to push.

Just hanging.

One last push and it came flying out.

It's a girl!

Ayacucho - Semana Santa capital of Peru

This year for Semana Santa I made the trek to the central Andes to the city of Ayacucho. Ayacucho is one of the top destinations for Semana Santa and they are known for their religious activities leading up to Easter. Because Ayacucho is so popular it was a little hard to plan this trip. We arrived in Lima after 17 hours on the bus and then we rushed over to the Ayacucho bus station to catch our bus that left in 15 minutes. Luckily the bus was late so we made it on time and got to enjoy another 9-10 hours on a bus. We arrived in Ayacucho at 11 at night with no place to stay. We headed over to the corner of the plaza and proceeded to call hotel after hotel hoping that one had a vacancy. After a few minutes of awkwardly standing there with our backpacks, a lady came by with a sheet of paper offering rooms in her house. She had a room for tonight and the price was way cheaper than any of the hotels. The house was only a few blocks from the plaza but when we got there they had to kick a sleeping little girl out of the bed that would be our room. Other than that, the room worked out perfectly. It was very comfortable and the family was nice. But after all, we are Peace Corps Volunteers so we are used to roughing it and living with families, so this was no big deal. The rest of the weekend went by smoothly and below you can read about the different events with pictures.

Peru is home to more than 3,000 different varieties of potatoes. All of these plates contain different kinds of potatoes.

I used to despise potatoes. They are now growing on me. There is really no escaping them here in the sierra.

Everyone wanted a picture with the vicuña. The lady wasn't very pleased and told me "no touching!"

One day we went to a feria and proceeded to gorge ourselves on cheese samples, choclo con queso, and look at all the different kinds of food. Here is the smallest variety of avocado next to one of the biggest varieties. I was in palta (avocado) heaven. Who knew there were so many varieties?

Ayacucho is famous for it's religious celebrations. On Friday they reinacted the crucification. It was pretty realistic but I didn't follow the crowd of Romans to actually see the crucification.

We tried to eat Pachamanca whenever we could. They cook everything in a hole in the ground. I really wish they had these in Cajamarca.

They also make these really elaborate rugs on the streets made out of flower and other organic materials.

The artwork and detail is incredible. This is all made out of powder. Too bad it is walked all over and swept up a few hours later.

Plaza de Armas in Ayacucho. Ayacucho is very similar to Cajamarca in terms of size and altitude.

Decked out and waiting for the bulls with other PCVs. This picture also serves a reminder that I'm not the giant that everyone in my town thinks I am.

So we waited all morning to watch the bulls run. Nobody told us that the bulls were on a leash though. Not quite as exciting.

After the bull run everyone piled into the plaza. Saturday is named the day of sin because they believe that it's the one day that Jesus can't judge them.

The arrival of Internet!

Cochán has finally reached the 21st century. (Somewhat reliable) internet has finally arrived! The other day I was sitting outside when my host cousin came by and wanted to know if he could borrow my computer to test out internet. Immediately I was interested. Internet? What do you mean? Apparently an engineer had come into town and was installing internet and wanted to see if it worked. After questioning him to death, I gave him money for the equipment and he told me he would be back next week to install internet in my room. Unfortunately it rained harder than normal so he wasn't able to come for a few more days. When he finally did come it was still raining so he wasn't able to install the proper antennae on the roof to put internet in my room. He did say that I could connect my computer at the internet cabina until he comes back, which should hopefully be tomorrow. The internet is from 8am to 10pm because it is solar powered, but that is fine with me because it will keep me from staying up too late. Meanwhile, I have a feeling that I am going to become the internet expert in town. Almost nobody has an email address so I have already created a ton of them for them. They don't really know how to use the internet and when I tried to video skype my parents I had a crowd of 10 kids around me trying to watch. This is one of the reasons why it will be nice to have it in my own room. I did show the kids Cochán on google earth and then I showed them where I lived in the U.S. Maybe know they will finally understand that it's very different!

Meanwhile, I've been busy exploring the campo of Cochán. While it does rain every day, sometimes it doesn't start until about 11 or 12. Here are some photos from my latest excursion.

Synchonrized jumping is hard to do, but made possible thanks to my remote and tripod!

Final destination, Ventanillas. These are some sort of Inca burial system. They are all over the place.

The shoe of choice here in Cochán. Boots, you can't leave home without them. There isn't much variety if you couldn't already tell.

Our picnic of empanadas and masamora