Tomar vs. Tocar

Hello! Sorry I haven´t been posting...so, the first week is down and I just finished my first day at the school. I settled into the program and in with my family lsat week...and then this past weekend we went to Colca Canyon (above). Colca Canyon is in Chivay, Peru...it was incredibly beautiful!

Last week consisted of Spanish tuturing, chilling with the other volunteers, and heading home. All of the volunteers are amazing...so far we have the UK, Australia, Norway, the Netherlands, Ireland, and USA represented...there are 23 volunteers which is almost five times as many as they´re used to...it´s a really diverse and fun crowd. Most of the volunteers are here to learn and become fluent in Spanish...not one of my motives, but I can already tell that my Spanish has gotten so much better in one week.

Arequipa is a really nice town...I can especially appreciate it more after visiting other parts of Peru. Chivay is a small town about 3 hours away from Arequipa and it´s smaller and more traditional than Arequipa, so it was cool to see people dressed in traditional clothes and doing traditional dances, etc. The weekend consisted of hiking around the Colca Canyone (the deepest canyon in the world) and visiting natural hot springs...it was an awesome way to spend my first weekend. I also made some friends, so that was a comfort!

After being to different hostels, hotels, houses, etc, my host family definitely has one of the nicest houses...the mom has a 40¨TV...she´s ballin´! My room is comfortable and every morning and night consists of awkward conversation...awkward b/c they speak no english and I speak very little Spanish. For example, all last week I would say, ¨Toco un duchar¨ which means I want to touch the shower...I couldnt figure out why she´d nod and look at me wierd...until I learned the verb ¨to take¨ which is tomar in my Spanish lesson...ha...oops! On a side note, Jesus is everywhere! To some of you, this may be true on a religious level, for me, it´s very literal...Jesus is literally everywhere...there´s a huge Jesus poster in my room, so I wake up and go to be bed to Jesus, then he´s also on all of the walls, the clocks, the dish towels etc...there´s even a baby Jesus doll that my house grandmother makes dresses for...hmmm...I´m not hear to question different cultures...it´s very interesting though. Obviously Peru is a Catholic country for the most part, so it makes sense, it´s just intersting where all JC will pop up.

First day of class was good...I´m with the Kindergarten kids...and yes, I have no idea what they´re saying. One girl keeps leaving the room and coming back with her pants down...I didn´t sign up for that so I let the teacher handle that...then there´s one girl who doesn´t speak ever...then the rest are pretty cute. We learned absolutely nothing today though...it´s so surreal the level that the teachers and students are at. Essentially, as a volunteer, your job is to be a friendly encouraging face because actual learing is very difficult...for example, there´s a 13 year old girl in 4th grade and they can´t keep her back any longer. Most kids in 1st or 2nd don´t know how to write their names still. It´s a great program b/c it provides sturcture where there wouldn´t be any, but it´s still very unrealistic to make any real changes...we also provide the kids with a meal (probably their only for the day). I work at Triunfo, and it´s surrounded by a town that looks like the towns you see on the ¨sponsor a child in Africa¨commercial...dirt houses the size of garages (maybe) and most of them house 6-8 people per family. Most of these children will be made to pick fruits and vegetables and help on farms, but for now, we´re trying to ensure that at least a handful move on and have a chance of a better life.

I´ve also changed my plans a little bit...everyone was right, as soon as those twins were born, I was hooked...I can´t stay away =) It´s not just that...3 months just became a little too long for me...when I booked the trip, 3 months was realistic, but now I just don´t want to be gone for that long, so I´ll be in Arequipa for 3 more weeks, then Cusco (to hopefully hike Machu Picchu) for a week and Lima for a week and then I´m heading back, so 6 weeks total. I´ve cut my trip in half, and I´m cool with that...sorry if anyone is disappointed, but it´s what feels right and realistic for me. I hope everyone has been well! I´ve attached a picture of the Colca Canyon...I took lots of pictures, but not this one...bringing my camera to the school (to later upload pictures) isn´t such a good idea, so I´ll email those out later.

My song dujuour for the first week is Iron and Wine´s ¨Freedom Hangs Like Heaven¨...check it out!