Field Trip!

My last day in Ayacucho was probably the best! This morning, we all went back to the prison and took some of the children out for a day of fun. These kids rarely see the world outside of their prison cell so everything was new and exciting. Each volunteer was in charge of one kid and I got the cutest little girl named Ruth. She’s 2 years old and is a little Dora the explorer! We piled in the van and headed to the zoo and it was really the best day ever! The kids were so pumped and everything they saw was so exciting for them. The zoo here is a little lacking but they had lions, lots of birds, monkeys, and the biggest hit of the day… squirrels. I’m not quite sure why the lions were looked over and the squirrels got so much love but apparently they are quite exciting. Ruth held my first finger with her little hand and looked up at me with the biggest smiles all morning. It just melted my heart. Of course, she crashed as soon as we got back in the car and I was reminded of how wonderful an adorable, sleeping child can be. Of course, I was also reminded that I am not in good enough shape for a toddler because my arms feel like Jell-o and I’m EXHAUSTED! The only part of the day that didn’t make me smile was taking her back to the prison. She’s such a vibrant little girl and she deserves a princess bedroom and stuffed animals and Disney movies. She should be learning the words for trees, and grass, and instead she rarely ever sees those things. I can only hope that she will go to a loving home and get the education she deserves. With any luck at all, the cycle will broken, and Ruth will grow up to be a wonderful woman.

Locked up abroad…

If anyone has seen the show “Locked up abroad” on TV, then you will have an idea of what the past couple of days have been like. Thursday, I went to the prison here in Ayacucho to spend time with the women that are locked up for drug trafficking. I can’t really explain what it’s like other than absolutely wretched. Most of the women who are imprisoned there were caught carrying cocaine. Typically, we think “how stupid do you have to be?” but these women are all victims of an impossible situation. They live in a country where the economy is kept afloat by the drug industry, they are, in most cases, very poor and have little to no way of supporting their children. In a desperate attempt to support their families they agree to carry cocaine from point A to point B for as little as S.100 (approx. $30). In most cases, they never make it to point B and instead find themselves facing a 15 year sentence. The prisons here work a little differently than those in the States in that the women still have to find a way to make money to support themselves while locked up. They are responsible for their own food, clothes, soap, etc. The worst part is that, if these women have children, they live in the prison with them until the age 4. Once the children turn 4 years old, the authorities come in and literally rip them from the mother’s arms. The kids will sometimes go live with family but are often sent to the orphanage as their fathers are likely locked up as well. So Thursday I woke up and found myself walking the halls of the prison having just gotten to second base with a female guard who was checking me for God knows what. I had to walk through the male section of the prison to get to my destination and you can only imagine what kind of comments a short, blond woman received walking through those halls. Luckily, it was all in Spanish so I don’t have to actually know what they were yelling. The day was as inspirational as it was sad. I met a woman names Roxanna who is locked up because her drug dealing husband left her in a house full of Cocaine. He, of course, ran off with her 3 older children when she got sent to prison in his stead. Along with her came her 3 year old son and to top things off, she’s pregnant. She is making as much money as she can knitting scarves and socks that are sold in town. However, as a new prisoner, she hasn’t really learned the tricks of the trade yet and is having some trouble making enough to support herself and her son. As I’m leaving tomorrow, I don’t have time to place an order with her but I am going to talk with the staff here at CCS and see if I can put in a mail order for a few scarves. They cost S.15 (about $5) each and I’m sure that an order of 3 or 4 scarves would keep her comfortable for at least a few weeks. In addition to Roxanna, I met Carmen. She’s 33 years old and has been in jail for almost 10 years. She has used her time in prison to really get her life together. Not only has she taught herself a good amount of English, but through correspondence courses, she has put herself through law school. All she needs to do is pass the Peruvian equivalent of the Bar exam when she gets out and she will be able to practice law and fight for women like herself who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s truly unbelievable what these women are going through and walking through their 15x15 ft. cells (which sleep up to 10), my eyes were really opened to an impossible situation. I wish I could stay on in Peru a while longer and work exclusively with the women. If I come back, I know exactly where I need to go.

Last day at Los Chiquitines…

This past Wednesday was my last day at the Kindergarten and we decided to go out with a bang! We had a couple of fellow CCS volunteers come in and do a presentation for the kids on hygiene. It was a really great presentation and the kids were hanging on every word. They started by teaching the kids how and when to wash their hands and then moved on to how and when to brush their teeth. They had an activity where the kids partnered up and put different color paint on their hands, they then switched partners and combined the different color paint. The paint, they explained, was like germs and could spread and make them sick. They totally loved it and loved watching the water turn different colors as they washed their hands. The teeth brushing experiment was also a crowd pleaser – one of the volunteers ate an Oreo and then showed all the kids how it was stuck in her teeth. She then brushed her teeth in front of them showing them how to do it. They got a huge kick out of it! After the presentation we had a little fiesta. Erika and I had bought a big chocolate cake which we brought in and all the kids got to have a piece. A few of them knew we were going to have a party and they wore their little party dresses. It was really cute. The teacher put on music and the kids all paired up and danced off their sugar rushes. It was a really wonderful last day with them. Since I didn’t get to spend more time with these kids, it’s only natural that we didn’t develop closer relationships. However, I really feel like I was able to teach them something and that is what I came down here to do! Also, we successfully convinced the teacher to move the “pee bucket” outside and if that’s the only thing that sticks, I will still feel like I accomplished something!

Llama face…

This weekend was spent hiking in the Andes Mountains. Sidenote – hiking at 14,000 = no breathing. I’ve been extremely light headed for two days! Other than not being able to breathe, the weekend was fantastic! Saturday we went out to a town about an hour away called Huanta. We hiked up into the mountains and saw a beautiful waterfall – it was really relaxing! On Sunday we did a Llama trek through the mountains. It was pretty incredible. First off, the llamas don’t really do anything, they are just sort of there but it definitely makes the hike a lot funnier! We hiked for over 2 hours and just when we thought we were about to arrive at Mordor, we stumbled on an adorable little town and A LOT of llamas. FYI… Holy Llama poop. It was everywhere! I’m fairly certain I’m going to have to boil my hiking shoes.

Kindergarten Update and a couple of challenges…

My second week at the kindergarten went well. The kids really seem to be learning the information we’re teaching which is always encouraging. They’ve learned to say and identify the parts of the body in English as well as numbers 1-10. It’s very interesting how different these kids are from the kids I taught in Tanzania. While I have definitely connected with them on some level, they seem more hesitant to trust me than I expected. In TZ, the kids immediately wanted to get to know me, play with me, and interact as much as possible. Here, the kids are much more aloof and with only one more week left with them, I really hope I can make a better connection. I’ve also noticed that the kids here are much more violent. I know boys will be boys, they’ll wrestle and play rough no matter what – but even the girls hit each other and have even tried to hit myself or Ericka when they don’t get their way (i.e. letting them run out into the street.) The last couple of days we have noticed that they try to push the envelope and think it’s funny to do things when we tell them not to. In turn, we’ve decided to just ignore them and they immediately stop having gotten no reaction out of us. Most of the problems we’re having would end up solving themselves if we were able to stay longer and I’m sad I won’t be able to see them grow and learn beyond next week. Another issue we have at the school is hygiene. It’s actually pretty heinous. The biggest problem is the “bathroom”/”toilet”, and by “bathroom” I mean the corner of the classroom and by “toilet” I mean a bucket. Luckily, a group of CCS volunteers that have been here for a while have put together a personal hygiene presentation for kids and we’ve asked them to come in this week and teach the kids how to wash their hands, brush their teeth, and with any luck we can get rid of this toilet/bucket situation!
On a happier note, they LOVE arts and crafts time. On Friday, we made sock puppets which were a huge hit! Ericka and I spent approx. 2 hours gluing tiny eyes onto socks that may or may not have been clean. The kids had a blast though!

Trip to the Coast…

This weekend, my fellow volunteers and I took a long weekend to the Peruvian coast! Since Monday was a national holiday and no one had to work we were able to leave Friday and return Monday night. It was a whirlwind of sightseeing, adventures and lots of riding in the van! It took 8 hours to get from our home in Ayacucho to Ica on the coast. Ica is most famously known for the HUGE sand dunes there and it did not disappoint! We spent Saturday morning riding dune buggies and sand boarding down the huge dunes – it was pretty badass. After the dunes we went to a pisco distillery. Pisco is a local liquor made from grapes… unfortunately it tastes like tequila so I stopped tasting after my first try. Ick! Saturday night we drove two hours to Nasca. Of course, it was Halloween and we had to do something “Halloween-ie”. On the way we stopped at a “Witches village” where we met with a witch doctor. It was definitely a fun Halloween activity; however, it would have been infinitely better had the “Witch doctor” not been wearing khakis and a button down and listening to the Spanish version of “Yankee Doodle” on the radio. He should have at least had a few shrunken heads or something! We spent Halloween night in Nasca (where we saw a number of Michael Jackson costumes) and woke up bright and early the next day to fly over the Nasca lines. No one really knows where the lines came from – there are rumors of everything from aliens to the ancient Nasca people putting them there themselves. It was an experience I definitely didn’t want to miss but I will NEVER do it again! Planes built for 10 people are no bueno! I get car sick riding the backseat so the small plane thing didn’t go over so well for my equilibrium! Monday morning we got up super early and drove to Paracas, a small town right on the beach. We took a boat out to a little island on the coast where we saw hundreds of sea lions, penguins, and pelicans. It was definitely one of the cooler experiences I’ve had here in Peru and makes me really want to go to the Galapagos islands! All in all it was a very cool weekend, full of very cool experiences. After the 8 hour drive back, I was very happy to be home and very excited to get back to work with my kindergarteners!