Yup, I am at it again to give everyone a little vacation update.
Today was a nice and relaxing day (instead of a community dinner, we had a brunch and then went over a halfway point in the year evaluation, and then I watched The Pianist - which was a lot better than Up. I saw that one last night and just thought it was real out there), and I am looking forward to vacation being along the same lines.
The big highlight of the two and a half weeks that I suddenly have will be the service trip I am going to help chaperone from the 24th until the first. My housemate and community mate (I decided to add community since it is much more than just living together down here - it is intentionally building community and supporting/challenging each other) Nate works at a much wealthier Jesuit school here in Tacna and is continuing with doing an alternative volunteer break trip with a select few of the fourth and fifth year of secondary students. This year, they are going to some small towns just south of Cusco for the week and I will be helping Nate in leading the trip. Though it is not a Macchu Picchu/sightseeing trip, it will be a great opportunity to get to see more of this wonderful (and at times confusing and frustrating) country, to continue to serve, and to bond with Nate some more. Should be a blast.
It also seems to be the vacation of birthdays as the older women who owns the store here in Habitat we always go to is celebrating her birthday tomorrow, my dads birthday is Friday, my host aunt is Saturday and my host mom is Monday. A funny side note on that is that all three of the women are named Carmen (in some form) because it is also the time of celebrations of the Virgen of Carmen. I find that very interesting for some reason.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Box of Chocolates - Peruvian Style
Wow, so life has definitely been a bit of a whirlwind down here lately. Though in retrospect, I feel like I am only fooling myself when I try to pretend that life could be normal and mundane here. With the cultural differences and challenges, every day offers its own little surprises and twists and turns. Because just like a box of chocolates that my family might send from the States (thanks for the packages - and I definitely do enjoy sharing American goodies with everyone down here) - you never know what you are going to get.
Ok, so whirlwind tour of whirlwind week:
- Last week, I was asked by my housemate Chelsea to accompany her on an errand that ended up being quite the experience. To put things as simply and straightforward as possible, a fifth grade girl marked that she had been sexually abused, which opened up into this whole realization that she was basically being treated like a slave by her father-in-law (who doesn{t like her to eat anything because they are poor and any food should be for his kids), has been left alone for long stretches of time, and has suffered some real serious physical abuse at times. Chelsea had the unenviable task of first getting a neighbor to take in the girl for the night and then going to tell the mother that the girl was not going home and that they were beginning procedures with the state for her to be taken away. I was the hired muscle to provide support. The meeting with the mother was overwhelming to me personally - at times, I wanted to believe and buy into her grief, at others I thought she was crazy, and in general, the gravity and the sadness of the whole situation just sort of seeped into me. Anyway, it turned out legally that the girl had to be at home to start legal proceedings against the family (go figure) and so she had to be taken back home the next day. At 3:30 that morning though, I was woken up when she came knocking to our door saying her mom had threatened to move with her and she was scared. Now, she was taken away by the state but is in an orphanage/foster home that is also for kids who have committed crimes and had serious behavior issues. Just a sad, sad story.
- Then, this past Friday, Alan Garcia - the president - decided suddenly that Swine Flu was such a concern here that vacations needed to be started early. But apparently it was not enough of a threat to actually shut down the schools right away (today was our last day). Basically though, it seems to be a political move. There have only been two deaths in all of Peru because of the flu and there have been a bunch of strong strikes lately since this month ends with the independence day celebrations and apparently everyone uses the flag for their own causes leading up to it. If you are curious and can read Spanish, here is a bit about it: http://www.perupuntocom.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=15357
Oh, and I will update what my plans are for this estended (though only by a few days) vacation when I firm things up.
- Lastly, our community went to the beach to a nuns house for a retreat this past weekend. There were about three dead seals on the beach (apparently they get killed by fishermen and just end up on the beach). It was real good because we had a chance to relax and work out some community things that had been causing tension lately. We also had a funny moment Saturday when we were playing a game called Phase ten and drinking a little bit of chilean wine. The five of us had forgotten to bring glasses with us, so our cups consisted of a bowl, a sport water bottle, an empty coke zero bottle and then the two halves of a plastic water bottle that I had cut in half with a knife (one side having the cap as the bottom). It was quite the little toast. The other neat part of the weekend was that our friend from habitat spent the night out on the sand fishing and camping out. We went to see his catch and him clean up in the morning and he was explaining to us all about fishing with nothing but a net and some string (he catches his own bait by grabbing little crabs at night). He clearly is the man to find in the case of the apocolypse, the collapse of the financial system, or a paralyzing strike (not so inconcievable here).
Ok, so whirlwind tour of whirlwind week:
- Last week, I was asked by my housemate Chelsea to accompany her on an errand that ended up being quite the experience. To put things as simply and straightforward as possible, a fifth grade girl marked that she had been sexually abused, which opened up into this whole realization that she was basically being treated like a slave by her father-in-law (who doesn{t like her to eat anything because they are poor and any food should be for his kids), has been left alone for long stretches of time, and has suffered some real serious physical abuse at times. Chelsea had the unenviable task of first getting a neighbor to take in the girl for the night and then going to tell the mother that the girl was not going home and that they were beginning procedures with the state for her to be taken away. I was the hired muscle to provide support. The meeting with the mother was overwhelming to me personally - at times, I wanted to believe and buy into her grief, at others I thought she was crazy, and in general, the gravity and the sadness of the whole situation just sort of seeped into me. Anyway, it turned out legally that the girl had to be at home to start legal proceedings against the family (go figure) and so she had to be taken back home the next day. At 3:30 that morning though, I was woken up when she came knocking to our door saying her mom had threatened to move with her and she was scared. Now, she was taken away by the state but is in an orphanage/foster home that is also for kids who have committed crimes and had serious behavior issues. Just a sad, sad story.
- Then, this past Friday, Alan Garcia - the president - decided suddenly that Swine Flu was such a concern here that vacations needed to be started early. But apparently it was not enough of a threat to actually shut down the schools right away (today was our last day). Basically though, it seems to be a political move. There have only been two deaths in all of Peru because of the flu and there have been a bunch of strong strikes lately since this month ends with the independence day celebrations and apparently everyone uses the flag for their own causes leading up to it. If you are curious and can read Spanish, here is a bit about it: http://www.perupuntocom.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=15357
Oh, and I will update what my plans are for this estended (though only by a few days) vacation when I firm things up.
- Lastly, our community went to the beach to a nuns house for a retreat this past weekend. There were about three dead seals on the beach (apparently they get killed by fishermen and just end up on the beach). It was real good because we had a chance to relax and work out some community things that had been causing tension lately. We also had a funny moment Saturday when we were playing a game called Phase ten and drinking a little bit of chilean wine. The five of us had forgotten to bring glasses with us, so our cups consisted of a bowl, a sport water bottle, an empty coke zero bottle and then the two halves of a plastic water bottle that I had cut in half with a knife (one side having the cap as the bottom). It was quite the little toast. The other neat part of the weekend was that our friend from habitat spent the night out on the sand fishing and camping out. We went to see his catch and him clean up in the morning and he was explaining to us all about fishing with nothing but a net and some string (he catches his own bait by grabbing little crabs at night). He clearly is the man to find in the case of the apocolypse, the collapse of the financial system, or a paralyzing strike (not so inconcievable here).
Monday, July 6, 2009
For You Dad
In talking with my father recently, I realized that there are at least some people out there who read these thoughts, musings, and stories, and so it is probably worth it to keep it high on my priority list. Plus, what excuse do I have not to post since it was a three day weekend for Day of the Teacher (though it seems mostly like an excuse for a day off and a lunch/dance party - which I took advantage of on Friday to integrate more into the community of teachers at Santa Cruz and to wave my American flag with pride) and there is a high likelihood of a strike tomorrow or Wednesday by the transportation workers here?
Anyway, the story I feel like relating would also be something I imagine my Dad appreciating, so I felt this post would be aptly dedicated to him.
The other day, I was putting up an exercise on the board to with my fourth grade of primary students. I wrote a number of sentences with a blank, alongside the instructions. The instructions were to ¨Put a number in the space¨(I use the word space instead of blank often because it looks exactly like the Spanish espacio and so I feel like it helps boost their understanding of cognates).
All of a sudden, I see this one little child, Ivan (who is quite sweet and good natured, though he gets distracted often), gasp and start to look around at his classmates. I quickly realize something is wrong (I have learned to read students faces and my own mistakes quite quickly) and take a second look at the instructions. With my slightly messy handwriting, I had almost united the first two words of the instructions so that they read ¨Puta¨ instead of ¨Put a.¨ Anyone who knows Spanish will immediately realize my error, and for those who don´t, let´s just leave it at the fact that I had pretty much written a serious bad word.
I quickly erased the a with my hand and went through the instructions one more time to try to focus the students. Though that saved the day, I couldn´t help but giggle to myself and make a mental note so save this story as a good one to relate about the pitfalls of teaching across languages.
Anyway, the story I feel like relating would also be something I imagine my Dad appreciating, so I felt this post would be aptly dedicated to him.
The other day, I was putting up an exercise on the board to with my fourth grade of primary students. I wrote a number of sentences with a blank, alongside the instructions. The instructions were to ¨Put a number in the space¨(I use the word space instead of blank often because it looks exactly like the Spanish espacio and so I feel like it helps boost their understanding of cognates).
All of a sudden, I see this one little child, Ivan (who is quite sweet and good natured, though he gets distracted often), gasp and start to look around at his classmates. I quickly realize something is wrong (I have learned to read students faces and my own mistakes quite quickly) and take a second look at the instructions. With my slightly messy handwriting, I had almost united the first two words of the instructions so that they read ¨Puta¨ instead of ¨Put a.¨ Anyone who knows Spanish will immediately realize my error, and for those who don´t, let´s just leave it at the fact that I had pretty much written a serious bad word.
I quickly erased the a with my hand and went through the instructions one more time to try to focus the students. Though that saved the day, I couldn´t help but giggle to myself and make a mental note so save this story as a good one to relate about the pitfalls of teaching across languages.
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