Quinua and the Wari Ruins…

Yesterday afternoon my fellow volunteers and I went up to a local town outside of Ayacucho called Quinua. It was the most adorable little town I’ve ever seen – exactly what you would expect an old South American town to look like! Quinua is a pottery town so there was lots to see and a lot of opportunities to shop. Unfortunately, I already have enough to bring home and couldn’t forsee getting a small child-sized terrecota statue of Jesus back to the states, so I stuck with a small llama shaped candle holder. FYI – every time you read the word “llama” from here on out, it must be pronounced “yama”. Not only is it correct pronunciation, but it is infinitely more entertaining.
We got rained out of Quinua, and by rain I mean bullet size hail, so we made our way over to some local Wari ruins. The Wari date back to before the Inca’s and while the ruins are nothing compared to Machu Picchu, it was cool to see pieces of a little known civilization.
All in all, the highlights of the day were seeing a tarantula cross the street and finding real turquoise in the ground!

A new group of kids to love…

I’m very happy to have ended up teaching kindergarten here. While I would have loved helping at the Wawa Wasi, I wouldn’t have gotten to teach nearly as much and I, of course, wouldn’t have gotten to meet these adorable little nuggets! My kids in Tanzania, I’ve found out, were pretty advanced for their age. The kids here speak no English so I really get to start from scratch. Luckily, I’m teaching with another volunteer named Erika (who happens to be from Bethesda) and we are really working well together. So far, we’ve taught the kids the parts of the body, colors, and have started with numbers, the alphabet and fruit. Today, we made masks as a fun activity for learning the facial features. Afterwards, we put on music and had a parade around the school with them and they really got a kick out of it. “The itsy-bitsy spider” is also a HUGE hit. We’re practicing everyday and are almost performance ready. Look for us at Carnegie Hall pretty soon!

The soul’s home…

Ayacucho is a small city in the highlands of Peru; about 9, 500 ft above sea level in the Andes Mountains. The people here speak the local language called Quechua as well as Spanish. The name Ayacucho is Quechua for “The Soul’s Home”. I’ve only spent a few days here but I already feel like the name is appropriate.
Our first few days here have been a whirlwind! The people here are some of the friendliest I’ve come across and the other volunteers are all really great. The trip here was definitely a long one pacified by the man on our flight to Miami who serenaded us by playing “Oh Susannah” on his harmonica. No, seriously. We had an 8 hour layover in Lima during which we perfected the art of sleeping in the airport. By the time we got to Ayacucho it was about 7 AM and we were completely exhausted. Our program director, Rudy, lives on a farm outside of Ayacucho and kindly invited us to spend the day relaxing there. It was pretty wonderful, even after having to wade through a river to get there. We laid by the river, read, talked, got to know each other, and had a nice relaxing first day on a South American farm.
On Tuesday we started our volunteer work and for some reason when I went to the Wawa Wasi (Quechua for “Baby House”) no one was there. Instead, I joined another volunteer at a kindergarten and had a wonderful time. We work together really well and the teacher was so happy she asked me if I could stay. Of course, I was happy to help so the rest of my volunteer work will now be teaching English to 4 and 5 year olds. Even though they are the same age as my kids in Tanzania, they are much further behind so we definitely have our work cut out for us!
The language barrier here is very intimidating. I might be the only person in the world who never took Spanish in school and my Italian is only helping me to mispronounce everything. Luckily, a lot of the other volunteers speak very well and have been helping me out! I’m actually glad to have the experience teaching English to Spanish speaking children because I know that my future as an ESOL teacher will be filled with the same challenge. I’m really learning how to effectively communicate with the kids and they get a kick out of hearing me try to speak Spanish.
This weekend is the annual “Day of the Dead”, a holiday in which people honor their relatives and friends who have passed. Since all of our work sites are closed on Monday, we have all decided to take a long weekend and go to the coast for a little sand boarding, dune buggies, and a flight over the Nazca lines! We’re also going to take a boat out on the pacific to a little island to see penguins and sea lions!
More to come…

My Ayacucho volunteer placement...

With my trip only 10 days away, I finally received my volunteer placement! I'm very excited that on this trip I will have 3 volunteer placements! 3 days a week I will be working at a local Wawa Wasi (Quechua for "Baby House"). These government funded day care centers were created to give impoverished, working parents a safe place for their small children to spend the day. The children range in age from infancy to 4 years and will no doubt be totally stinking cute :) I'll be there to help with the babies, play games with the children and hopefully help develop some early English speaking skills. The other two days of the week, myself and another volunteer will visit Los Libertadores public school and Mercedes public school for girls. Los Libertadores is located about 15 minutes from where I'll be living and comes with an enormous challenge - there are 800 students for only 15 teachers. Mercedes is an all girl public school and is considered one of the largest in Ayacucho. With over 1,000 students, Mercedes is both a primary and secondary school and offers "workshops" for students in the areas of making clothing, arts and crafts, and other academic subjects.
I'm very excited to be able to lend a hand in what I'm sure will turn out to be an amazing community of people. I'm a little nervous about my lack of Spanish speaking skills (and by "lack of" I mean I speak NO SPANISH!) I'm hoping that my willingness to help and my enthusiasm for learning will overcompensate for the language barrier.
Here's to a new and exciting challenge! See you on the south side!

A long over-due reflection and a look forward...

Its been 2 months since I've returned from Tanzania and yet it feels like last week that I decided to go on the trip! I've almost been avoiding this blog post because I didn't want to really admit that the adventure was over but I owe it to myself to bring that chapter to a close and to start a new one. Thinking back on this summer, I can't believe it was really me that got to do all of these amazing things! I went on safari, I spent a weekend in Zanzibar, I hiked on Mt. Kilimanjaro, and took an entire summers worth of showers in cold water! Most importantly, I got to immerse myself in a culture completely different from my own and become a part of an amazing community of people. I was able to lend a helping hand and become a part of something much bigger than myself. I learned so much more about myself than I ever could have imagined - I am certain that the people of Tanzania taught me much more than I could have ever taught them.
I just re-read my blog entry entitled "My pre-departure thoughts and hopes..." and was very pleased to find that I achieved every goal I set for myself and then-some.
Going on that trip was the biggest risk I had ever taken and it ended up being the best decision I ever made.
Now it's time to remember the summer of '09 as the best I ever had and to move forward. I leave in 14 days for my second volunteer trip with CCS to Ayacucho, Peru. This time I have my best-friend Laura to share the experience with and I couldn't be more thrilled! I am hoping to use everything I have learned this summer and to open myself up for another incredible learning experience.
Thank you to everyone who has followed me through this journey - I hope you'll join me as I take on a new continent! Look out South America - Elyse and Laura are on their way!!!

P.S... Check out Laura's blog "Lost in Translation" - there is a link on the right of my page :)