What a few weeks we have had! Peru just keeps throwing amazing opportunities at us. Since my last blog we have started teaching at the school in Ccorao. On our first day we were met with at least a hundred smiling faces who couldn´t stop calling us ´amigos!´ We were showered in confetti (a special Peru challenge.. often done on important occasions such as weddings...)and we played for what felt like hours with the children on their only just stable play equipment. Our arms were sore from lifting amigo after amigo onto the monkey bars and us girl´s hair was exhausted from the little girls plaiting our hair.. I think even Harry´s hair managed to squeeze into a little one. No-one has dared test their Spanish to try and get a haircut. The drive to school is through the beautiful Sacred Valley and often we see llamas roaming the grass verge beside the road... truly Peru!
Each day the children greet us just as excitedly as they did on that first day and the teachers also appreciate us being there. In the class room we all realise how important our extra Spanish lessons are. ´Silencio!´- is now starting to loose it´s original effect. We are teaching our way through the colours, numbers and greetings and now are working on making sure that they actually remember it... This as we have all found out is a little more difficult. Each day at school is different, today for example classes were cancelled and the children put on a special Mother´s Day concert.
Each grade did a performance of some sort such as a song or some traditional dancing. Apple bobbing even featured on the program as did ´a performance by the Australian Amigos.´ Luckily for us we were able to rustle up a medley of Waltzing Matilda, Home Among the Gum Trees and some juggling by the boys with only a very very very small amount of preparation time. Once again another example of typical Peruvian style.
Our construction project of building a 2nd green house to allow the school to grow more fresh produce throughout the year and support itself is coming along mighty fine if I may say so myself. We have all learnt very quickly to dig and pick and hopefully are ready to start on making cement for the foundations. Unfortunately though we need to get out all the rocks of the soil. For this part of the process we are trying to convince our ´pupils´ that if they do not listen to our Spanish disciplinary threats that this will be their detention. It´s not going well so far....
We have all settled into our families and the awkward meal time conversations are improving as Liliana our Spanish teacher equips us with more phrases. However I also believe that this improvement is combined by the fact that we are all learning more hand gestures then we ever thought were possible. Our Saturday night pre´s were spent at Liv´s and Louisa´s house where we experienced a Peruvian birthday party. Their host dad enjoying a few special dances with some Australians. Later that night the boys made very close friends with an incredibly nice and generous guy named Ronald McDonald whilst us girls were left to fight the wildness at Mama Africa... All by ourselves. This all followed an amazing Friday night when most of us went camping and pitched our tents in some Inca ruins. We gathered as much of the little firewood available to create some warmth and make us feel a little at home. We spent one of the most incredible nights gazing up at the millions of stars (including our favourite Southern Cross) and again in the morning we opened our tent zip to stare across at the mighty landscape. Some mountains with snow others without. Then some had a lazy morning exploring the ruins and playing cards atop this mountain (which had been a 3hr solid walk uphill) whilst Charlie, Harry and I went exploring and swam under the coldest waterfall ever!
Looking forward to what the next week will bring!
Emma
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