Cuzco! May 25

After a slight "nap" of sorts since I was too excited to sleep, we woke up (later than expected since the alarms didn't go off but luckily a leader happened to wake up on her own in time) and after mad dashing around the retreat center we all clambered into the bus and made our way to Lima Airport! We were all super tired but the wait for the plane went by quickly and soon we were off! With a flight less than an hour long it was the quickest plane ride I had ever been on. Unfortunately I was on the wrong side of the plane though and missed seeing the Andes Mountains :( but it was alright since I was able to see them on the way back! You could feel the change in temperature and air quality when we arrived in Cuzco. It was super cold even with my layers on and I had to walk really slowly so not to get out of breath and avoid altitude sickness! Luckily, as we were boarding our bus to take us to the boarding school we would be staying in, a local came around selling coca leaves and I bought a pack! It sure was helpful and I would highly recommend chewing on those, you feel better instantly! Cuzco is such a cute place! I couldn't stop looking around on our bus ride, so picturesque.
 When we arrived at the boarding school we ate breakfast and partnered up for our new rooms. The lovely Kelly and I shared a room during our stay! Since we had barely slept and because our bodies needed time to adjust to the change in altitude, all of us went to our rooms for a four hour nap! It is chilly in Cuzco and even with wool blankets I still slept in pants and a sweater and socks! Feeling refreshed (though I found it hard to fall
asleep at first), we all descended the stairs for lunch and boarded the bus which took us to our first excursion, horse back riding in the Andes! We had so much fun horse back riding up and down the mountain (except my horse, Hurricane, caused a bit of
mischief and only a few horses wanted him to ride beside them, otherwise, for the majority of the time I was having to dodge the numerous horses that wanted to bite mine!) The best part was galloping, it was exhilarating but afterward I realized how sore my butt was! During our little break while we were horse back riding, the guides took us up to the caves and we got to explore and walk through one, what an adventure that was squeezing through tight spaces in the dark and having to rock climb to exit the cave!

We came back to Cuzco and during a bit of free time some of us went out to check out the markets which were awesome I want to go back and get more souvenirs! I bought a pair of alpaca wool socks that night, love them. They were perfect for those cold nights in Peru. Afterward we met in the city square to attend mass. Unfortunately, I started feeling a little sick and experienced an hour of altitude sickness :S but after munching on coca leaves I was feeling better when we left mass and sat down for dinner (especially after I finished an excellent bowl of chicken noodle soup!). I slept well that night needless to say when we came back from dinner!

Final Day of Teaching: May 24

This morning I was a little less stressed knowing I was not really teaching today, plus I also got to sleep in a little later :) We went to our first school, since we had been invited to see their 30th anniversary celebrations. The kids had been practicing their marching the week we were there so they were super excited to show us their skills. But not just show us, but also a judge who had come and would be evaluating their performance. For, the school that had the best march would get to perform on Peru's independence day in front of the president! What an honor. Some of our leaders sat at the judging booth, while the rest of us were given chairs (no one else had them but, though it is so weird to say, we were celebrities) at a prime location. Yet, before this happened we were brought to the backyard and watched as the grade twos danced for us :)
Afterward, we inaugurated the English classroom (previous students from Brock had donated money toward the construction of this building). A champagne bottle had been tied at the entrance and was used in this special ceremony: Nicole was to smash it and as the bottle spun in the bag, champagne would shower down and if you were sprayed with it it is considered good luck!  What deeply moved me was that during the introductions to the marching, we had stood for the national anthem of  Peru, but afterward, we were all surprised to hear the Canadian anthem as well (it brought tears to my eyes).

All the parents were standing as we sang our anthem with pride. Then the marching commenced (after a few speeches), starting with the youngest classes. Though most were dressed in their school uniform, some kids were dressed as soldiers and nurses and others were part of the band. They were very good! Though we wanted to stay to watch all the grades we had to go to the second school to say goodbye as well and did not have enough time to watch them all. So, we waved goodbye and snuck out as best as we could. On the bus ride to the second school Ashley was teaching us how to sing a toothbrushing/dental hygiene song for our skit. When we arrived we all snuck into a classroom so we could practice our dance moves that coordinated with the song and change into our white t-shirts (the good teeth) and grey t-shirts (for those with cavities). We then made our way outside to the primary kids (where I saw little Alexis once more and gave him a hug). We had toothbrushes and toothpaste handy to donate after the performance.
The kids loved our singing and dancing so much we had an encore performance! Afterward, the second school had a whole goodbye show planned for us which involved singing and traditional dancing (with costumes) and then we heard the story of a young girl who was deaf in one ear and she described that before her father could purchase a hearing aid for her he passed away. She asked if we could help her buy a hearing aid and we were all touched by this story :( We got many hugs and kisses and gave out a ton of high fives and then the kids were off to go home since classes had finished. After this, we were all invited to an upstairs classroom where we shared a meal the teachers had prepared for us (corn and potatoes with a special sauce). After speeches, videos, and gift giving we said our final goodbyes and made a spiral hug and many of us left teary eyed for the bus. We had free time to do some laundry, buy some snacks and facebook/email friends and family before dinner. We were all starting to become super excited about our trip to Cuzco the next morning ... yet that also meant we had to start packing .... unfortunately. After dinner, I had to unpack all of my school supplies we would be donating so I could use the suitcase to check in toiletries for the group. During this time I had one of the best experiences of the trip oddly enough. I needed to get back to put the supplies in, so I made my way over to the kitchen and attempted to ask the ladies in broken Spanish if I could have a bag. They gave me a few garbage bags and I was soon on my way back to the suitcase. Well, as I was placing supplies in the bag I noticed the women had followed me and were peaking around the door frame to see what I was up to. As I lifted the bag, because of the shape of the supplies, it ripped. So I found some canvas bag and to my surprise the ladies all joined in helping me pack the bags with my supplies. I thanked them so much for their help! :) it filled me with a sense of pride in humanity. After unpacking the supplies, I heard Raoul calling us to have our Spanish Lessons. Today, we learned how to barter ;) One line I used frequently was "lo siento solo tengo ..." I only have ... for example 15 soles ($). After our lessons we said goodbye to our amazing teacher and were feeling a lot better about tackling the markets. Then, we met up with Francisco and Viktor who taught us how to Salsa Dance. We were sweating it up for over an hour of dance and having a great time! What great exercise. Then, many of us jumped in the shower and continued packing our backpack (only!) for our three day trip to Cuzco (sweaters and sweatpants were a must Nicole said so that did not make for light packing ...) but I managed to fit everything in. Charissa and I finally got to bed around 12, and wake up time was 1:30. Oh boy! Onward to adventure!

The Private School: May 23

The next morning, we boarded the bus and took a new route to school. Since we were driving to the private school, you could tell we were in a different neighborhood. The private school was unbelievable! I would teach there in a second. The classrooms were so cute, and the school was located in the mountains surrounded by flowers and lush green grass.
On the bus ride there I learned that I would be in grade four, in the boys school, San Pedro (or Saint Peter). The school was divided according to gender, it was kind of neat. First though, the school did a little introduction and we had the cutest little girls recite poetry for us. Afterward we met with our principles and were given our schedules for the day. Since a few of us did not have first class, we decided to tour the school yard. Along the way, we met a few teachers and discovered that the kids here not only learn English (on top of Spanish) but once they reach the higher grades they pick a third language (French or German). After saying hello to some of the classes we made our way back.

  I was teaching my first lesson at 11. Wesley and I were sharing the same classroom, so after he finished, it was my turn to teach and I was lucky he stayed so he would work the slide show for me! I taught the kids about Maple Syrup, how it was made, the legend behind, and finished off the lesson showing pictures from the Cahill family album about their own sugar shack run by Grandma and Grandpa and their sons. The kids were really interested, but I believe their favorite part was testing maple syrup. One kid was super cute and came up to me as I was passing more cups of syrup around and said that this was the best honey he had ever tasted. I then informed him this was maple syrup it came from tree and not bees, this was tree food. Well the kids just loved the idea that they were eating tree food :) and they wanted more but I had to save some for my second class lol.
 After my lesson, we made our way to the Cafeteria for our lunch. The teachers sat on the stage while all the kids sat at tables on lower ground. The food was delicious!
After lunch, I had a lot of free time since I had the last teaching block, so a bunch of us made our way around to other classrooms and helped each other with our lessons (like handing out bookmarks or helping make snowflakes and milking) it was a lot of fun to see what others were teaching. Some of us even stopped and watched a soccer game which was pretty neat, those kids, though much younger than me, could definitely kick my butt in soccer! Then, the time had come for me to teach my final lesson. This class was definitely more lively than the first, which didn't help my voice lol, but I still had a great time with them and practiced disciplining! And a special thanks to Erin and Kelly helping me this time around. All in all it was a successful day! After, we joined up with the other half who stayed at the girls school and said our goodbyes. The school was so kind and gave us little gifts, cards and journals and offered us jobs ahaha much needed for future teachers today!
Since Guelph informed us that the renovations had been completed we made our way back to the retreat center after teaching and relaxed! After dinner and reflection, Raoul told us that tonight we would be visiting Lima University. When we arrived I was blown away by the beauty and decided I definitely wouldn't mind taking a few courses there. We stopped at the library which, of course, was exciting for me ... perhaps a future job there?
Our tour guides were students and they were super kind and welcoming and enjoyed practicing their English! We walked up the graduate tour, which was one of the neatest parts of the tour, since the stairs were see-through, and had a spectacular view of Lima from the top! (yes, I did not cheat and walked instead of taking the elevator). After we came back from the tour we were surprised to hear that we had our own private concert awaiting us! The band was great! I wish they had a CD so I could have purchased it and brought it back to Canada to remind me of Peru, but alas they were just working on their first one so I was out of luck :( Their harmonies and guitar and flute playing ... well I have a video here so you have listen and judge yourself :) (... if I can get it to work :S) After the concert we we crawled into bed. We had finished our teaching block, for though we were originally going to be teaching in the school for physical disabilities, we were unable to do so as much needed construction was going on this week :( I was a little upset since Erin and I had planned a cute music lesson based on Canadian artists, but instead, tomorrow would be our goodbye day at the two schools and we would still be teaching a lesson (on dental hygiene).

Day Three of Teaching: May 22

After getting a good night's rest, I was up and running for today's lessons. Except, I was a little nervous, I wasn't working with my three/fours today and I had gotten to know some of the little cuties. This time I was moving up to intermediate, grades 7 and 8. Ashley is fluent in Spanish, so it was super helpful when it came to teaching older grades. Our lesson was focusing on Canada and its provinces and territories. Ashley had this beautiful map that came with cut outs (such as pictures of the mounties and Canadian coins, not to mention the beaver). We started off the lesson by getting the kids to repeat how to properly pronounce each place. Afterward, we lead them in a song to help them remember the provinces and territories more. It was really fun, especially the one class that loved the song so much they kept wanting to sing it, but every time, sing it faster and faster than the time before!! After the song, we showed them pictures that corresponded to each province etc (for example, the red soil of PEI and the Calgary Stampede) the kids, of course, loved the snow pictures the best (the igloos and dog sledding). Afterward, we gave each kid a map and some pencil crayons to colour it. It was really sweet to see how one of the teachers was so excited he wanted to colour his own map. During the map colouring, we had a question answer period. During that time, we ended up singing O Canada once, and I showed how to line dance. The kids were super cute and wanted Ashley and I's signatures and wanted to add us on facebook.
As the day went by, we discovered some of our classes were missing, again lol, but that didn't stop us. In fact, Ashley and I with the help of others who were left groupless too, went to the high school grades and taught a grade 10 class. It was really neat, since I started to understand how the older grades would feel left out of this experience since all of us were volunteering in the primary/junior grades for the most part. The kids were attentive and really took the map colouring seriously (for the most part) one boy wanted us to sit with him lol ... and the teacher took about a million pictures of us with the class.
After teaching, though we were tired (as we did yesterday, I forgot to mention in my last blog ...) we helped renovate the second school (the one the Guelph students were teaching at). Yesterday, I spent the majority of the time sweeping off the pavement as we were helping to paint new white boundary lines to play different sports. Others were painting the staircase a lovely bright green and others were doing the landscaping at the front, fixing the flower beds at the front. We worked from 2-3:30ish each day. Today, I joined the landscaping team, digging up old grass, raking in manure and moving decorative stones. The principle and student designer for the garden were so thankful for our help, it was very touching. We went back to the retreat center early today, than yesterday, so I had time to make a trip to Wong's to get more snacks and chocolate of course :) and stop at Starbucks to use to internet (and send some emails to ensure those back home were worry free) and again, savor a warm drink, it was cooler today and my voice was still not 100%. After dinner and our reflection (how I will miss Raoul's philosophical discussions) we had another night excursion, this time to a beautiful water fountain park. There were two really neat fountains you could actually run through (one was a sort of bridge, the other was almost game like, you had to make your way to the center without getting sprayed by the water that would shoot up under your feet (of course everyone got wet since it was impossible to plan).

I decided, since I had a bit of a cold and because I didn't want to be sick for Machu Picchu, I wasn't going to run through it since it was a chillier night, but it was fun to watch the others screaming and running and getting soaking wet lol. After we walked the huge park, we made our way to the centre and watched a spectacular light show, shown to us on the actual fountains, as they danced and splashed about. What an experience! I was tired from such an eventful day, but I wanted to make sure my lesson for the private school was packed since we had to wake up earlier the next day and I would be teaching on my own so I was feeling a little jittery but in other ways less nervous since the kids I would be with tomorrow spoke English making teaching significantly easier. After triple checking everything was packed, I finally went to bed.

Day Two of Teaching: May 21

    The second day of teaching I began to loose my voice. The kids were so excited they were cheering and yelling for the majority of our lessons and I definitely had to say “silencio por favor” or silence please, more than once. Alexis and I had our Aboriginal people of Canada lesson all ready, we were teaching them about those who lived in British Columbia (who fished and built totem poles) and the Inuit in the Arctic, and the Plains people (with Tipis and who hunted Buffalo with bows and arrows). I had a lovely book from Chapters that had beautiful pictures of Canada's aboriginal people and their history. After that portion of the lesson, we then showed them dream catchers and finished off with braiding bracelets (each kid was given some cute beads as well to add to their bracelet). Unfortunately though, Alexis wasn’t feeling well so she left after the first lesson to go to the doctors and it turned out she had an ear infection :( poor thing. But luckily, because some of the classes were out doing sports, I had some of my fellow Brock teachers helping me out, which was awesome since Alexis and I did not realize how much time it would take to prep the bracelets the kids would be braiding. So, as I did the first part of the lesson, others helped cut the yarn and tied three strings together. The kids loved seeing pictures of Canada’s aboriginal people, but the one that shocked and amazed them the most was the picture of an Igloo. They could not believe people lived in an “casa hielo” or ice house, they couldn’t imagine how cold it would be. I had to laugh since they have never seen snow and they thought that it was amazing ... I don’t think I could say the same ... hahaha. Later on, Nicole told me how much they really liked the lesson and that warmed my heart, for Nicole said that after the lesson, kids were running up to her asking if she had any more books about Canada.
    It was also really cute to watch the kids trying to braid their bracelets. But what was really beautiful was how they helped each other. One little girl really understood the concept and quickly finished her braid. After, she went around and helped her classmates with theirs. Alexis then told me she saw the young girl collecting all the little ends of the bracelets we had had cut after we tied the finished product around their wrists, and after she had these little pieces, she began tying them together so that she could continue braiding. Alexis was so moved she prepped a few bracelets for the young girl and snuck them into her backpack.
    I was so glad to have such a helpful translator with me for this lesson since there was a lot to describe. For the first lesson, I was trying to explain how dreams catchers worked (since Alexis had gathered a whole bunch of them as donations for the trip and we were leaving eight dream catchers for each classroom). Yet, I was unable to explain what I wished to say with my limited Spanish. But, the next lesson, the translator was amazing and when she described how the dream catchers trap bad dreams so you can have good ones, their eyes lit up and they began hold the dream catchers above each others heads while the others pretended to sleep so they could catch all the bad dreams. It was adorable. After a few lesson, I had a group of kids from the previous class run up to me all upset, I wondered why and they explained that I had forgot my dream catchers in their classroom and they had brought them back to me. I smiled and carefully explained that they were for the class to keep forever and thanked them for being so helpful though. What cuties!
      My throat was feeling very sore that day after having to lead a lot of the lesson, so when we got back from teaching and had some free time, I went to Starbucks and nursed my Vanilla Latte while updating my travel notes. It was quite relaxing. I then showered and got ready for dinner.
Since many of us were tired and feeling a little groggy due to early mornings and climate changes, Raoul thought it we should have the night off. So, Ashley and I did a little bit of lesson planning. Afterward, we were going to watch a movie, Pay it Forward, but unfortunately the DVD wasn't working. But that did not stop us. We thought it was quite fitting to watch "The Emperor's New Groove". We popcorn and chocolate and definitely had a few laughs. Then it was bedtime, and boy was I glad lol.

My First Day Teaching: May 20

    I woke early, as usual, and  met up with Kaitlyn since we would be teaching together today. On the bus to the school we were excited but a little nervous. Would the kids like our lesson and how could we teach with such a language barrier? Well, it turned out a lot better than I thought :) The kids were so excited to see us that lessons really did not matter, the fact that we were there with them, happy and excited and sharing in this experience was enough.

     Our lesson started off with reading a story, Jack and the Beanstalk. It was a lot of fun and really cute since the book had the story in English and Spanish so as we read the English part, the kids took turns coming up in front of the class to read the Spanish. What really impressed me was the reaction of one child (we were teaching grade three and four). He raised his hand and asked me if the story went like this ... and began to recall all the events of Jack and Beanstalk. He was adorable and from the few words I could pick out, he seemed to know the story off by heart :) After we read the book together, we told the kids they would each get their own “frijoles magicos” or magic beans. They loved the entire process, getting stickers to design their cups and when we told them to line up to get their three beans it was impossible for them to remain in line since they all wanted desperately to get their beans first. Though we were supposed to teach five classes, we soon learned Peru does not really run on schedules. At one point all the boys in one grade had to leave to play games so for one class we taught the girls as the boys trickled out, and then the girls left so we went with the flow and soon the boys returned so they could hear the rest of their lesson. Phew!
 We came back from our lessons tired, but quite happy :) We had a little bit of free time before we ate dinner and had our reflection period. Therefore, Alexis, my teaching partner, and I decided to prep for our lesson the next day by counting out dream catchers and going over the Spanish words needed to ensure at least some of our lesson was understood (lol). After dinner, we all shared our experiences teaching. Then, Raoul told us he would be taking us to Branco, a beautiful town that mimicked Italian Villas. It was spectacular! You could see the ocean, a band was playing for us and we all joined in dancing and singing to La Bamba. We also walked along the "Bridge of Sighs" called that way since so many proposals have taken place there.
Raoul then told us a story of how he helped in a proposal on the bridge for two of his past volunteers how had taken part of a mission trip together and had fallen in love. Too cute :) Afterward, he brought us to a little restaurant where we enjoyed delicious kabobs (that is until we found out we were eating COW HEART!) but I will admit, it was very tasty ... ek! I also tried Peruvian Beer (very good too). We were all 'happy' when we returned back to our retreat centre and were ready for the next days adventures.

The Amusement Park: May 19

It was a trend to wake up early, this morning at 6:45 ... A few of us were going to Church in the shanty town with Raoul. It was overwhelming how welcoming the parishioners were. Everyone shook our hands as the early mass left and we made our way for the 9 o'clock one. The priest was a friend of Raoul's who originally was from the States. He was so excited to hear we were on a solidarity mission and showed us around the Church which had classrooms and a common room built by the help of donations. Mass in Peru was very energetic. People sang about the Holy Spirit with such joy and incorporated many actions and dance moves in their worshiping. The priest was very kind and translated his homily for us and spoke to the congregation about our group and the solidarity work we would be doing. After mass, yet again, everyone in the congregation shook our hands and welcomed us to Peru and thanked us for coming. Afterward, Raoul took us out for brunch and we ate great peruvian dishes. Our juice drinks were pure juice (trying mango and papaya) then we had a deep fried mushroom and steak pot pie of sorts along with a special ham sandwich with a special sauce and finally a special sandwich with tomato avocado and egg. Afterward, we made our way back to the retreat center with a little bit of time to rest before we had a second lunch of sorts (which I was way too full to actually enjoy it).

                                               

Afterward, it was time to pick up some students from our second school to bring to an amusement park. My cute little boy was Alexis, he was very quiet but was kind and a good drawer. I ended up pairing with Frank, since our kids were best friends. His two boys were around Alexis' age (8, and 9).

At the amusement park it was a fun kind of chaos as we chased our boys around the jungle gym so as to not lose them! Afterward, we went on a boat ride (which was very neat since the kids had never seen such a large body of water before) which toured around a little island of monkeys and through a cave. Then it was snack time and afterward free time. There, we could take our kids around the park and treat them to fun activities. The boys chose the haunted house and a jungle gym labyrinth. I had brought fuzzy peaches with me so it was fun to watch them snack on treats from Canada. Then it was time to head home. Along the way back I showed him pictures of my friends and family back home I had saved on my camera and he thought it was pretty neat. When we dropped the boys off mine gave me a hug and kiss, what a cutie :)

 
Tired from looking after three boys, supper really tasted delicious when I finally got to sit down and relax (it ended up being familiar food, spaghetti and chicken noodle soup). After dinner, since we were running behind that day, we had a debriefing and discussed the following week's activity: teaching!. Kaitlyn and I then started to plan and organize our lesson. With Sandra's help, we soaked our beans in towels and gathered soil from around the retreat centre (quite the events ahaha) and finally got to bed around midnight, excited but a little nervous about our first teaching experience in Peru.