martes, 26 de julio de 2011

here comes the sun…

last sunday afternoon, my host mom told me it was FINALLY time to move to my new room upstairs (she’s been promising this to me since the end of last year)! as i was organizing my clothes, i tried on my jeans i brought with me from the states (as i do about once a month - just to see if i can zip them up) - and guess what?!?!? - another plus!!! - THEY FIT!!!!!! finally, i’ve lost my papas y arroz weight!!! double yippie!

i spent the whole rest of my day and night moving and organizing my new, beautiful, huge room up on the 4th floor! it has windows overlooking my breathtaking Catache mountains! air and light! my old room was so teeny and had no windows - it was basically a closet. but, now - for the last year of my service - i will live in such comfort and happiness!

walking into my room:

around the corner is where you enter my new room:

my bed:


my bookcase/clothing nook:

my windows:

sunset views:



however, through my windows the next morning, i discovered that the strong sun of Catache begins to rise over my beautiful mountains at around 7am. (i should get curtains, i thought.) so, i went downstairs super early for breakfast, thinking of some sort of solution for this. then it hit me! i ran upstairs, so excited! with all of my windows wide open, from exactly 7:30 - 8:30am, the sun perfectly hits my bed at an angle to where i can lay for an hour and soak up some rays! what a wonderful way to wake up in the morning!!! and being on the 4th floor, no one can see me! today, my english class was cancelled (no school for the rest of the week - for fiestas patrias - until after the anniversary of Catache - towards the end of august). so, i soaked up the sun again (trying to put some color on this pale skin of mine), and listened to some music…

“here comes the sun
here comes the sun
and i say,
it’s alright…”

good morning, world!

sunrise views:


video of my new room:

martes, 12 de julio de 2011

on a peruvian roller-coaster ride… with GRUPO 5.

on sunday, i came back to site after a brief trip to Chiclayo (for use of the internet), to find that - not only do we still not have internet (big surprise), but we are still out of electricity - and now, water too - and it’s been more than 6 days.

to say that i was depressed would have been an understatement. no, i was more than depressed. i was annoyed and down-right frustrated. i called michael jackson (who you should all know by now is jeff) while on the bus ride back home, just to cry and let out some of my frustrations - this was before i even knew the electricity and water was out in my town!

luckily, i had something to take my mind off of things the next morning. i woke up to sawing and pounding - they are re-doing our house and working on constructing a large bedroom right outside of my room.

after breakfast, i started cooking my famous spaghetti sauce. this was my birthday gift to my host mom… a beautiful italian lunch. bought all of the ingredients while i was in Chiclayo, and (thank goodness) they stayed fresh throughout the night without having to be put in the refrigerator. (no electricity, remember?) i let my sauce simmer for a few hours, while i prepared for my business class by candle light.

just thinking about how i’m supposed to complete the course in less than a month - and work on a typed business plan with my group, without having electricity - heightened my frustrations to my limit.

my monday classes are at 12:45pm. classes went well - as well as they could go, anyway.

after class, i came home to an empty house. just my host brother and i. i asked where my host mom was (who SAW me - and KNEW i was cooking HER birthday lunch ALL morning). apparently, she went to Santa Cruz for the rest of the day. WHAT?!?!?

ok, fine - i thought. i served up my beautiful italian lunch for my host brother and me. he asked, “what kind of meat is in your delicious sauce?”

“it’s chorizo - chancho (pig),” i said. well, come to find out, he can’t eat pig - he has diabetes. so, i ate my host mom’s beautiful, italian, birthday lunch all by myself. ugh.

my afternoon business class went okay. during class, it started raining. then, i walked back home - in the rain - and in the darkness of no-electricity-Catache. then - for hours - i tried to fall asleep without the use of my fan to block out the random noises of my town.

today was a brand new day. i woke up early, and hiked up to the primaria for my english class. those kids always bring a smile to my face. today, i taught quinto grado (5th graders) the body parts lesson. i even took a video of them singing head, shoulders, knees, and toes.

after lunch, i bought another pack of candles from our tienda (i go through them so quickly without having electricity). well, not more than 5 minutes later - the electricity came on!!! you could here the people of the town shouting with joy in the streets!

my afternoon business classes start at 3pm. i only meet with the 2 students im taking to Lima with me for the competition (cithia - the girl i run with - and a kid named victor), so we can get the business plan done in time.

victor was early, as usual. but, after 3:30pm, still no cinthia. this kind of surprised me. she finally came in about 45 minutes late. i asked her why the heck she was so late??? she said, “i was watching Grupo 5.” (Grupo 5 is an extraordinarily popular band out here. and i have grown to love their music.)

“i love Grupo 5, too - but come on, cinthia,” i said.

“no - no - no - they’re here in Catache! they’re just passing through and stopped here for lunch! everyone is just watching them eat, not saying anything to them.”

“WHAT!?!?!??! oh my goodness!!! we HAVE to go down there and get a picture with them!!! come on - come on - i have my camera!!!” i shouted. then i remembered, without water here, i hadn’t showered since Chiclayo - and i hadn’t so much as looked at myself in the mirror, because without electricity, i had to put on my daily mascara by candlelight… oh well, i thought.

so, the three of us ran out of the colegio, down the street, and there it was - right in front of my house - a tour bus with “Grupo 5” written on the side!!! they were all on the bus, just about to take off. cinthia was so embarrassed that she forced me to do all of the talking. so, i walked right up to the door, and said to the bus driver, “is it possible for us to get a quick picture????” before i could finish asking the question, one of the band members came out and said, “helllooooo! how are you?!?” (IN ENGLISH!) we chatted for a bit - me in spanish, and him in spanglish. then cinthia and i got our picture with him in front of their bus, and they took off. as the bus drove off, all of the other members stuck their heads out their windows, waving and saying, “bye, gringa!”

after we got back to the colegio, it took cinthia and i about a good 15-20 minutes to get our head back into the game. i mean, HOW EXCITING, right?!?

i got home at around 6pm and started typing into their business plan report what we finished writing up in class.

peru lost today (soccer), but i felt that i had won!

we are riding a freaking roller-coaster out here in no-man’s-land. the ups are really UP - but, man, the downs are really down. “somos peru...” we just have to sit back and try to enjoy the ride.

Cithia and I - with Grupo 5:

the tour bus driving off:

martes, 5 de julio de 2011

my little monsters.

i have come to love my once-dreaded english class at the primaria. today we did one of my favorite lessons - body parts.

after drawing my labeled stick figure on the board, doing a quick activity where the kids place labeled sticky notes on my body, and singing the infamous “head, shoulders, knees and toes” song - we did the monster drawing activity…

the kids always love this… i tell them that i had a scary dream last night about a monster!!! they immediately freak out! i give each student a sheet of paper and begin to describe the monster - one body part at a time - and the kids draw what they imagine my monster to look like. example: i say, “the monster in my dream had 1 big head” - “the monster had 3 eyes” - etc…

here are some photos of my students - my little monsters:






head, shoulders, knees, and toes with the kids from the primaria - 
quinto grado:

lunes, 4 de julio de 2011

my fourth of freakin’ july.

i woke up at around 8ish and stumbled down the stairs for breakfast… i had no energy. after 2 cups of joe, i started preparing for my business class at the colegio. i stopped by our internet cabina (with no internet, of course), to make copies of some forms for my SESP students and talked to william for a bit (one of the few friends i have here in Catache). he asked me to go to la misa (mass) with him at 6pm. “mass on a friday???” i asked… “yeah, its the anniversary of this old man who passed away a year ago.” (here in peru, they do this - every year - on the day of their death.) so i agreed - i’ve only been to misa in Catache once - for christmas.

before i knew it, it was time for my business class. what a disappointment. not many students came to class - i guess on every monday of this month, my students can either attend their last hour of class, or - if they play on one of the sports teams - they have practice. more than half of my students are on sports teams. they are preparing for a game in Santa Cruz this weekend - and for el día de deportes in Piccuy (which is the day after the fiesta de Piccuy, and is on the 10th).

i only have this month to prepare the kids for the competition and help them create business plans - and not a single student has a concrete idea on what business they want to do. so this crapola is weighing on me terribly, and i am pretty much freaking out.

after class, i had lunch - and i tried to cool myself down for a bit. i stopped by cinthia’s house to see if she wanted to run with me earlier than our 5pm daily runs. she said that’s perfect, because she needs to go to la misa, too. we all agreed (william, cinthia, and i) to meet at cinthia’s house, so we could all go together.

we ran for about an hour today - i had tons of energy, for some reason. it was then when i realized it was the fourth of july. it was nice to be running with cinthia, because i could explain to her about the fourth in america, and express to her how much i really miss the states. after running, we showered and met up with william.

mass was beautiful… the church was so full that some people had to stand at the back. and - as always - it made me miss my pops. el padre (the father) was the priest from Santa Cruz, who courtney and i have met a few times. so that added a special touch. after normal mass, the daughter of the deceased came up to the alter for a few words. i could hardly understand her through her tears (which made me cry too, of course).

when mass was over, i ended up talking in the street with cinthia, william, and his friends. one of his friends is in college in Lima (she’s in town only for the mass/celebration of her grandfather) - and she speaks perfect english. we talked for about a half an hour together (in english) - everyone was staring. before i left for dinner, she and i planned to meet tomorrow, after my english class at the primaria - - something to look forward to!

so, now im off to bed… after an awful morning - a mediocre afternoon - but a great evening…!