24 Page Packet

I was starting to get antsy and nervous because I had not received any information on the specifics of my arrival or information about what I'd be doing as a volunteer in the school. Until this Wednesday, I only had the description of my volunteership (not sure that's a word) from the snippet on the GVI website to go on. I emailed a guy who is at the site in Arequipa, and asked him to send me some specifics...he emailed me a 24 page packet...yikes. I'm a week out until I leave and I'm just now reading about my volunteership...I think, maybe I should have checked in sooner...nah, last minute information for international travel is always optimal...geez Hillary...ha.

The 24 page packet consists of teaching strategies and such...I come to find that I will be teaching kindergarten age children in a village about 20 miles outside of Arequipa. The first thought I had was, 'thank god...me and the kids will be on the same language level...'! I, like most people, took multiple years of a foreign language (Spanish) throughout high school and college...did I retain any of the said Spanish...NO...so, the first two weeks of my trip involve 1 on 1 Spanish tutoring (thank goodness), and then on the third week I'll be integrated into the school...and let's face it, these kindergarteners will be running circles around me when it comes to speaking Spanish no matter how much tutoring I have. Some of my work will involve lesson planning, craft ideas, creating teaching tools, etc. So then my second thought was, 'um, what?'...I thought I was going to be playing with them, not molding their minds! Mind molding is a large responsibility, especially when my Spanish speaking level will be not so good...for all I know I could think I'm teaching them 'the sky is blue' and really be saying 'my face is blue'. Nonetheless, after digesting all of the information, I was even more excited for my trip...I mean, how cute will Peruvian kindergarteners be?!?! And we'll get to learn the language together...ha!

Another portion of the packet discusses do's, don'ts, and be carefuls, of being a foreigner in Peru. Most of them were common sense things like, 'don't go down back alleys', 'do only drink bottled water or alcohol' (b/c they're bacteria free...I can deal with that), 'be respectful and non-judgmental of cultural differences', etc. One item that stuck out to me was...'be careful of visible tattoos', again, my thought was, 'um, what?' (for those of you who haven't seen me in a while, I have a visible tattoo...it's small, but visible)...evidently, visible tattoos are something only gang members sport in Arequipa...tremendous...I'll be drinking my bottled water, not in a back alley, and get jumped for having a tattoo...ha...not to make a joke out of gang member relations, but it made me laugh...this trip is going to be such an eye opener!

Just from what I've read in the packet, you guys should be in store for some pretty ridiculous 'Hillary' stories...it will be a new adventure everyday and I'm getting really excited!