I'm back in Cusco Coffee drinking a caramel frap!
Colca Canyon... a couple of weeks back a group of us went to Colca Canyon..Sarah, Me, Lucy & Mary.. our journey started at the Casa where we were picked up at 3.30am Friday.. the 4 of us got into our mini bus wrapped in warm clothes, wooly hats, gloves and scarfs.. We had been told by friends the journey to Colca was a cold one as it takes you up to 4800mtrs and in the early hours morning it gets freezing.. our pals were right, I was sitting by the window and before long the right side of my body was very cold.. when the sun came out though the bus started to warm up so it wasn't all that bad..
We drove through some beautiful mountain sections, one of which I was lucky enough to see a stag. He was magnificent, he powered himself up and over the brow of a hill and was gone within 5 seconds of me spotting him. Apparently I was lucky to see him as there aren't many living in mountains and they are very rarely seen.
We had a couple of stops on the way to Colca, one to get some tickets that we needed and one for breakfast. Breakfast was much needed by the time we stopped as we were all very hungry.. After breakfast we got back in the bus and carried on our journey. The next stop was a viewing point where you can see condors flying below you, f you're lucky one or more might get closer and fly over your head.. we stopped and spotted about 10 condors, they were pretty far away but all the same it was amazing to see as you're looking down into a deep canyon with these huge birds soaring below you. I found out on that stop that my camera was very low on battery (school boy error not charging it up before I left)
Back in the bus we headed to a small village where we were to have lunch and met our tour guide.. lunch was good, soup, then rice, veg and meat.. we left the village around 2pm with our guide, walked out of the village and towards the edge of the canyon. It was beautiful, peaceful and the sun shone down of us as it always does here in Peru. When we reached the edge of the canyon, Eddie (our Peruvian guide) stopped to give us the lowdown on what we were to expect over the next couple of days. The first day we were to walk down into the canyon for about 3 1/2hrs (approximately 1.5km down) before reaching our hostel where we were to have dinner and sleep for the night. He also told us that the condors we had just seen were some of only 45 / 50 living in the canyon.. It's forbidden to fly over colca canyon or do any activities there other than walking the paths so they don't get disturbed which is one of the reason they stay there. With that said, 45/50 is a very low number and because of this they're in fear of extinction in these parts. Condors only eat dead animals as they're not hungers. Unfortunately food is scarce for them. They can go without food for around 5 days but as dead animals are hard to come by in the canyon it's not a great time for them. A condor preservation society do drop meat into the canyon one of twice a month to ensure they do feed but this only happens once of maybe twice a month as it's important the birds stayed wild and do not become domesticated.
After our short break we set off again and headed in to the canyon. Unless you experience this for yourself it's a little difficult to imagine I guess but picture narrow steep pathways that hug the mountain, all kinds of wild plants and cactuses around you, rocks the size of houses and views that span for miles, both across and down (incidentally CC is the second largest canyon in the world) as with many of the places I visited whilst in Peru, it was breath taking. I kept my eye out for more animals, Eddie had said that there were wild cats living in the canyon but they were extremely hard to spot and he had only ever seen one (about 5 mtrs from him) in the 4 years he had been touring the canyon. Due to my keen saucer like mince pies and the fact I had seen a stag earlier that morning, I felt a touch doctor dolittle that day so decided to keep my kisser shut and eyes open in the hope of seeing more wild animals, no such luck however the views were tremendous so I certainly wasn't disappointed.
In places the path was very steep, loose with rocks and dust so with a heavy backpack on my pack I had to keep concentration and navigate my way down the path with care. My merrell walking trainers that I bought just before I came away have be absolutely amazing and they didn't let me down on this trip either. I walked the paths with my trainers gripping even the loosest terrain.. Sorry to get excited about my trainers but letmetellya these bads boys are the shiznit.. all three of the girls slipped and fell on there arses that afternoon, no real damage done, just a few bruised bums, I did offer to apply witch hazzel when we reached our hostel in the canyon but for some reason all three declined my kind offer ;0)
After a few hours walking we reached a bridge that crossed the canyons river, we had to climb 300mtrs back up the other side to our hostel, it was basic but bloody lovely.. mud huts with straw roofs, perfectly cut lawns, a bar! an area to eat and drink and a kitchen where the staff prepared our food in a clay oven heated by logs.. I loved it there and was in high spirits looking forward to a couple of beers and food that evening. We ate and drank for a couple of hours and headed to bed around 9ish, we were all pretty whacked because of the walking and the early start we had had that morning.. the four of us shared what I think use to be a cow shed turned in to a bedroom and slept soundly until we got up at 7am the next morning.
That morning it was a breakfast of pancake and jam and coffee and tea. A great way to start the day. Eddie told us it was an easy day ahead starting with a 300 mtr climb, a few kms flat, where we would walk through a small village, see a church, visit a tiny museum ran by an old Peruvian lady, then a 400 mtr downhill section leading us to an Oasis where we were to stay that night. The overnight stay was a place called Paradise, due to my love of being extremely self indulgent, pampering myself and lazying in hammocks at any given opportunity, I was looking forward to getting there very much!
On our walk Eddie told us about the various wild plants and cactuses that we were encountering which was interesting. There were hallucinogenic cactuses that could give you the trip of your life and poisionous plants that could kill you in 24hrs. Unfortunately the hallucinogenic cactuses needed to have there juices extracted, boiled and treated before they could be sampled otherwise that night could have been very interesting indeed.. he also told us about the village we were passing through and the fact that not many people lived there anymore due to there not being work for them.
The small museum we dropped into (one room the size of a double bedroom) exhibited the tools the local farmers used to tend the land and the crops they grow. It also had a number of dead stuffed animals that could be found in and around the canyon, nice eh.. We carried on walking and before long we spotted the Oasis about 1/2 km away from us.. green lawns, palm trees, swimming pools, all of which were incased in the high mountains around them. It certainly was a sight for sore eyes.
We walked the path, getting closer to Paradise with every step. A natural spring waterfall flowed out of a huge crack in a rock, around it grew lush green grass, plant and trees. We stopped here for a few minutes to take in it's beauty. Another 30minutes or so we crossed a bridge and entered the Oasis, the signs were made of old drift wood that had the names of the hostels burnt into them.. As you might expect it was all very natural and easy on the eye.. when we reached paradise it didn't disappoint, it had a swimming pool, hammocks, mud huts, a huge fire pit that had stools and chairs surrounding it carved out of tree trunks.. it was great and the perfect place to rest for the night.
I swam, had a game of football with the guides and other trekkers that had arrived that day, lazed in the hammocks with a beer in hand, read a bit of my book and ate some great food later that evening. Within the grounds there was a giant rock that could be climbed, the four of us climbed it after dinner and sat on the top chatting and watching the moon show its face as it came up behind the mountains. It was a full moon that night so lucky for us it lit up paradise and the mountains around us. After a while the girls went to bed but I stayed up a little later putting the world to rights in my head. I thought about many things, my Mum and Dad, my great friends and wonderful sister that were all at the secret garden party festival that weekend, my best pal Jonny and how I missed not being able to just pop by and say hello to him and what an amazing weekend I had had a year ago to that day when I met my ex girlfriend Karen. All these people are in my thoughts on a daily basis but I guess when you're sitting on a giant rock in the middle of paradise with a full moon and thousands of stars looking down on you, you start think about them even more..
Anyway, that night I had decided to take a mule back up the mountain the next day! it was a 1200mtr climb and although I knew I could have done it, 1) I'm a lazy bastard, 2) one of the other girls Mary was taking a mule as she had unfortunately become ill late Saturday afternoon and 3) a couple of days after Colca I was heading to Machu Picchu and wanted to be 100% fit for that as there was going to be much walking and climbing then... So, excuses over for now anyway... I lazed in the hammock under the stars a bit longer, finished my beer and went to bed.
Mary bless her had a rough night and was in and out of bed due to being sick and feeling very poorly but luckily all of us managed a good few hours sleep before getting up at 4.30am the following morning.. we ate breakfast, Sarah and Lucy headed off up the mountain and Mary and I waited for our Mules to arrive.. haha.. still makes me laugh now that I took a mule whilst all the other poor folks painfully climbed the 1200mtrs that day.. As I passed 10's of hikers early that morning sweating there bits off, I was on the back of a mule doing all the hard work... I decided the best thing to do was pass the hikers with a smile on my face and a "Morning!" "Good Morning!" " "Morninnnn!" whilst I hide behind my sunglasses... I passed Sarah, Lucy & Eddie after about an hour, they were doing amazing.. both Sarah and Lucy are fit young things and even Eddie said that they were killing him as I passed him.. I reached the top, dismounted gave the guy with the mules 50soles (about 15quid) and sun bathed for a while before the girls and Eddie arrived at the top. Even on my Mule it was still a great experience, I watched the sun rise and burn away the clouds that were beside me, looked down in the canyon and said go bye to Paradise, it was a great morning for all of us.
After the hike/mule ride we had an hour to chill before getting back on the bus and heading back to Arequipa. On the way back we stopped again at the condor stop and this time we were very lucky indeed, the condors were flying that close to us you could see there claws.. one landed about 10mtrs away from me, I would say it was a metre tall, it's feathers brown and white with a long sharp hooked beak, he chilled for maybe a minute before flying off again, it was a great site to see.
Back on the bus we stopped an hour or so later at some hot springs, a quick change and a dip for an hour.. it was heaven, there were 5 hot spring, the 5th of which was the hottest, me and the girls went to the first pool which was pretty hot anyway, soaked it up for about 10minutes before going straight to number 5.. I've no idea what the temp was but it was like a hot bath, a bit to hot to swim in although I did manage a few breast strokes before retiring to the side again! the hot springs were a lovely way to relax and top our short stay at Colca... back on the bus we stopped for a fantastic buffet style all you can eat lunch. I managed about 3 full plates and a bottle of beer before getting back on the bus for a journey home...
We got back around 6pm Sunday evening, just enough time to relax for a bit before heading to bed for a good night sleep..
So, I better get out of here otherwise Cusco Coffee are going to want me to buy another frap no doubt! I've been here about 3 hours I reckon...
Thanks again for dropping by, take it easy
Dx
Monday, 2 August 2010
Sunday, 1 August 2010
August 01st 2010
OMG.. this is terrible, it's been 2 months since my last blog update. The grey matter at the back of my bird size brain is going to have to work overtime to remember what I've been up too.. however, I will try folks...
I think one of the first trips I went on was mountain biking down Chachani ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chachani ) one of the mountains we have here in Arequipa. it was an early start for a Sunday, about 7am.. 6 of us piled into a bus that picked us up at the casa where we hang out from time to time.. the bus took 3 hours to reach the top of the mountain, we jumped out, donned our protective clothing, helmet, gloves, knee and elbow pads and mounted our bikes to start our decent.. it was beautiful at the top of the mountain, apart from the cold wind that blew around us that was the only sound you could hear.
One of the guys I was biking with was Chris, a giant of a lad at 6'6'... he is one of the interns with GVI and is now going to be staying in Arequipa until next April. Chris use to run a bike shop back in the day so is an experienced mountain biker and not one to go slow even on the toughest of terrains.
Chris headed off with me right behind him, the ground was a mixture of holes, bumps, sand, dust and rocks. It wasn't long before I was picking up some pretty serious speed so going into corners were a lot of fun, however the drop of hundreds of metres over the edge wasn't quite as much fun so I did my best to keep a metre of two from the edge where possible. It was very cold coming down the mountain as we were so high, around 4500 mtrs. Before long my fingers hand locked up as I was gripping the handle bars so tight, there were constant rows of bumps which I can only describe as speed bumps, one linking to another which made my whole body shake and thus left my hands were in tatters! it was great fun though, after a while we came to the first of a number of shortcuts our instructed had told us about.. It was a much steeper downhill and the ground was sandier than before, Chris bombed down first with me behind him. Riding on sand is a nightmare, you pick up speed then hit a soft loose bit which slows your bike right down very nearly sending you over your handle bars. I reached the bottom of the short cut without too much bother though but it certainly took more concentration than the safer route.
We carried on tearing down the mountain stopping every now and then to let the others catch us up (our instructor had told us we needed to stick together within reason and not go too far ahead) one of the girls had came off her bike pretty bad near the beginning of the ride and was back in the van taking a breather until she felt confident to get back on her bike again.
The next shortcut was a very steep rocky terrain with huge holes from top to bottom, I was really getting into the biking by then so took it with ease and only had one of two tricky moments. After the second shortcut there was flat section of sandy ground for about 4 km, I hated that section, every time I got on my bike and tried to peddle I went no where.. the sand was so deep and soft I wasn't going anywhere so I decided to get off and push my bike rather than attempting to ride. I've been OK with the altitude overall but when I'm really high in the mountains I do get short of breath so though it best to take this section a bit steadier.
Once I was through the flat sandy section (where I incidentally cursed like a child with turrets for a good hour) I was back on my bike and tear assing down the hill again.. the last shortcut was amazing, sand, rocks, holes and very steep all together. I took it quickly right from the top swerving from side to side to dodge holes and rocks as they appeared, I was going pretty quick when I hit a soft sandy section which this time, did send me over the handle bars and onto the ground in front of me, it happened so fast I didn't really no about it so lucky for me when I got up I wasn't in any pain. A few minutes before I had seen a cloud of dust come up from the ground so when I got to the bottom I asked Chris how he got on down the SC.. he had pretty much done the same as me, hit a soft section which sent him over his handle bars, now as Chris is as tall as a door frame he somersaulted in the air and landed on his feet! I think I landed pretty flat on my back.. Chris has seen my tumble and told me it was pretty spectacular so that was good, if you're going to do something may as well do it properly eh.. After that it was more down hill sections, a really beautiful mountain road section for 7 kms before we got to our meeting point at the foot of the mountain. We got back to the Casa around 3pm, full of adrenaline and chat about our encounters down the mountain. That's what I remember of that day a couple of months back, a few weeks ago I went and did it again. That time I again raced down as if I was delivering a much needed kidney to family member but due to my now experienced mountain biking skills I managed to stay on my bike without too many close shaves..
My next trip was white water rafting, that was so much fun. Me, Becca and Steph (some pals I've met here) went rafting for the morning. The 3 of us were in a boat with an instructed on the back. We had a few basic commands to adhere to.. start paddling, stop padding and get the fuk in the boat your going to fall out you twit! after a brief induction, paddles in hand.. we got in the boat and headed down the river.. it was so much fun. The 3 of us get on really well and I can honestly say we laughed our heads off all the way down the river which was a 7km stretch. I was paddling like mad but the girls barely got there paddles wet.. they were too bothered about laughing and making sure there hair didn't get wet.. hahahah.. just kidding girls... we crashed into rocks, I very nearly went over the side on a number of occasions and at one stage we were going so slow we got stuck on the edge of a drop and had to have our instructor climb over us to stamp on the front section to get us moving again! right at the end of the rafting Steph lost concentration (after looking at Bec's hair.. what did I say, hmmm..) and fell in, the instructor had to pull her out much to the amusement to Bec and I) the sun shone as it always does here and we had a great day..
Santa Catalina Monastery ( http://gosouthamerica.about.com/od/arequipa/a/SantaCatalina.htm. ) Me, Bec, Kathleen and Lucy decided to take at look at the Monastery here in Arequipa, apologies as i don't know all the ins and outs about the history of the place apart from the fact it was built in the early 16th century, house about 80 nuns who lived there worshipping the good lord, wore chastity belts and did lots of cleaning. The 4 of us had had a drink and bite to eat before we arrived there so when we did arrive we were in high spirits and looking forward to walking round the candle lit rooms in an attempt to scare ourselves stupid.. that we did, Lucy at one stage peered through a barred window, shouted boo which very nearly had me changing the colour of my shorts within seconds.. Lucky for me I got her back a touch later which made her screen louder than a female opera singer could hope for.... It certainly made me laugh, another fun evening and one to remember.
Right I've just been told Cusco Coffee where I'm writing this is closing and I've got to get the flock out of here so I'll be back in a day or two.. thanks for dropping by.. x
I think one of the first trips I went on was mountain biking down Chachani ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chachani ) one of the mountains we have here in Arequipa. it was an early start for a Sunday, about 7am.. 6 of us piled into a bus that picked us up at the casa where we hang out from time to time.. the bus took 3 hours to reach the top of the mountain, we jumped out, donned our protective clothing, helmet, gloves, knee and elbow pads and mounted our bikes to start our decent.. it was beautiful at the top of the mountain, apart from the cold wind that blew around us that was the only sound you could hear.
One of the guys I was biking with was Chris, a giant of a lad at 6'6'... he is one of the interns with GVI and is now going to be staying in Arequipa until next April. Chris use to run a bike shop back in the day so is an experienced mountain biker and not one to go slow even on the toughest of terrains.
Chris headed off with me right behind him, the ground was a mixture of holes, bumps, sand, dust and rocks. It wasn't long before I was picking up some pretty serious speed so going into corners were a lot of fun, however the drop of hundreds of metres over the edge wasn't quite as much fun so I did my best to keep a metre of two from the edge where possible. It was very cold coming down the mountain as we were so high, around 4500 mtrs. Before long my fingers hand locked up as I was gripping the handle bars so tight, there were constant rows of bumps which I can only describe as speed bumps, one linking to another which made my whole body shake and thus left my hands were in tatters! it was great fun though, after a while we came to the first of a number of shortcuts our instructed had told us about.. It was a much steeper downhill and the ground was sandier than before, Chris bombed down first with me behind him. Riding on sand is a nightmare, you pick up speed then hit a soft loose bit which slows your bike right down very nearly sending you over your handle bars. I reached the bottom of the short cut without too much bother though but it certainly took more concentration than the safer route.
We carried on tearing down the mountain stopping every now and then to let the others catch us up (our instructor had told us we needed to stick together within reason and not go too far ahead) one of the girls had came off her bike pretty bad near the beginning of the ride and was back in the van taking a breather until she felt confident to get back on her bike again.
The next shortcut was a very steep rocky terrain with huge holes from top to bottom, I was really getting into the biking by then so took it with ease and only had one of two tricky moments. After the second shortcut there was flat section of sandy ground for about 4 km, I hated that section, every time I got on my bike and tried to peddle I went no where.. the sand was so deep and soft I wasn't going anywhere so I decided to get off and push my bike rather than attempting to ride. I've been OK with the altitude overall but when I'm really high in the mountains I do get short of breath so though it best to take this section a bit steadier.
Once I was through the flat sandy section (where I incidentally cursed like a child with turrets for a good hour) I was back on my bike and tear assing down the hill again.. the last shortcut was amazing, sand, rocks, holes and very steep all together. I took it quickly right from the top swerving from side to side to dodge holes and rocks as they appeared, I was going pretty quick when I hit a soft sandy section which this time, did send me over the handle bars and onto the ground in front of me, it happened so fast I didn't really no about it so lucky for me when I got up I wasn't in any pain. A few minutes before I had seen a cloud of dust come up from the ground so when I got to the bottom I asked Chris how he got on down the SC.. he had pretty much done the same as me, hit a soft section which sent him over his handle bars, now as Chris is as tall as a door frame he somersaulted in the air and landed on his feet! I think I landed pretty flat on my back.. Chris has seen my tumble and told me it was pretty spectacular so that was good, if you're going to do something may as well do it properly eh.. After that it was more down hill sections, a really beautiful mountain road section for 7 kms before we got to our meeting point at the foot of the mountain. We got back to the Casa around 3pm, full of adrenaline and chat about our encounters down the mountain. That's what I remember of that day a couple of months back, a few weeks ago I went and did it again. That time I again raced down as if I was delivering a much needed kidney to family member but due to my now experienced mountain biking skills I managed to stay on my bike without too many close shaves..
My next trip was white water rafting, that was so much fun. Me, Becca and Steph (some pals I've met here) went rafting for the morning. The 3 of us were in a boat with an instructed on the back. We had a few basic commands to adhere to.. start paddling, stop padding and get the fuk in the boat your going to fall out you twit! after a brief induction, paddles in hand.. we got in the boat and headed down the river.. it was so much fun. The 3 of us get on really well and I can honestly say we laughed our heads off all the way down the river which was a 7km stretch. I was paddling like mad but the girls barely got there paddles wet.. they were too bothered about laughing and making sure there hair didn't get wet.. hahahah.. just kidding girls... we crashed into rocks, I very nearly went over the side on a number of occasions and at one stage we were going so slow we got stuck on the edge of a drop and had to have our instructor climb over us to stamp on the front section to get us moving again! right at the end of the rafting Steph lost concentration (after looking at Bec's hair.. what did I say, hmmm..) and fell in, the instructor had to pull her out much to the amusement to Bec and I) the sun shone as it always does here and we had a great day..
Santa Catalina Monastery ( http://gosouthamerica.about.com/od/arequipa/a/SantaCatalina.htm. ) Me, Bec, Kathleen and Lucy decided to take at look at the Monastery here in Arequipa, apologies as i don't know all the ins and outs about the history of the place apart from the fact it was built in the early 16th century, house about 80 nuns who lived there worshipping the good lord, wore chastity belts and did lots of cleaning. The 4 of us had had a drink and bite to eat before we arrived there so when we did arrive we were in high spirits and looking forward to walking round the candle lit rooms in an attempt to scare ourselves stupid.. that we did, Lucy at one stage peered through a barred window, shouted boo which very nearly had me changing the colour of my shorts within seconds.. Lucky for me I got her back a touch later which made her screen louder than a female opera singer could hope for.... It certainly made me laugh, another fun evening and one to remember.
Right I've just been told Cusco Coffee where I'm writing this is closing and I've got to get the flock out of here so I'll be back in a day or two.. thanks for dropping by.. x
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Tuesday 02nd May
Hey folks, how you doing..
I've just finished my second day at school. It's great but at the same time it's pretty dam terrifying. The kids are sweet but most of them are also tough little bruts, every day you're pulling kids apart, telling them to stop fighting and to play nice or get on with there work.
The school I'm teaching at is going to be closed next week so rather than having a week in the sunshine (how nice would that have been) I've decided to be a good lad and go work in one of the other schools. By doing this I'll stay in the flow of things and hopefully by the end of next week, I'll feel a bit more confident in the classroom.
To say I'm nervous about teaching would be an understatement. At the moment I'm kind of watching from the sidelines however I'm still very much involved in the lessons, break times and generally keeping an eye on the kids. Forgive me if I've gone over this in previously blogs but when you think I've only been here just over a couple of weeks my spanish isn't that great, certainly not to answer questions or hold a conversation anyway. When you have 8 kids asking you questions looking for the right answer it's pretty dam scary, I feel a right twit when I can't answer what is probably a simple question. Also as you might expect the kids have a radar that says, hey! here comes another one of those english guys that can't speak spanish! lets take the pi55 he'll never know!.. lords knows what it'll be like when I'm standing in front of the black board attempting to teach maths, science, art and personal studies... my only saving grace is that I'll be teaching alongside Jen who is both very lovely and a great teacher. I'm sure we'll be fine and that this is just pre match nerves.
So apart from all the teaching I played football the other night for the first time in about 10 years. A group of us played for about 1hr 15mins, we lost 10-8 against a bunch of guys we didn't know. They were pretty good so we did well to get 8 goals past them. We had gone out to go go carting but when we were told the carting was closed we opted for a game of football instead.. as we HAD planned to go carting, I decided a bottle of beer, some cream cheese on bread and 2 chocolate bars would be a good idea just before we headed out so after 5 minutes of football I very nearly brought the lot up.. lucky for me and the others I didn't. Since playing football I've been walking like John Wayne and my shoulder has been pretty painful again so I obviously still need to take it a bit steady.
We had another great BBQ on friday, we then went out for a few drinks, I got back home at 4am and the next morning woke with a headache but I took it pretty steady all in all so I was able to shake it off by 2ish.. me and a couple of friends, phoebe and kathleen went to a museum, ate ice cream then went out for a meal together on Saturday.. it was a really lovely day .
Right thats about it for now, not a great deal to report on that I can remember over this past week apart from to say although school is scary, i do love it and Arequipa is still great. I'm off home now to no doubt watch a re run of an old Friends episode and to have a ricey/potatoy/chickeny dinner..
take it steady folks.. x
I've just finished my second day at school. It's great but at the same time it's pretty dam terrifying. The kids are sweet but most of them are also tough little bruts, every day you're pulling kids apart, telling them to stop fighting and to play nice or get on with there work.
The school I'm teaching at is going to be closed next week so rather than having a week in the sunshine (how nice would that have been) I've decided to be a good lad and go work in one of the other schools. By doing this I'll stay in the flow of things and hopefully by the end of next week, I'll feel a bit more confident in the classroom.
To say I'm nervous about teaching would be an understatement. At the moment I'm kind of watching from the sidelines however I'm still very much involved in the lessons, break times and generally keeping an eye on the kids. Forgive me if I've gone over this in previously blogs but when you think I've only been here just over a couple of weeks my spanish isn't that great, certainly not to answer questions or hold a conversation anyway. When you have 8 kids asking you questions looking for the right answer it's pretty dam scary, I feel a right twit when I can't answer what is probably a simple question. Also as you might expect the kids have a radar that says, hey! here comes another one of those english guys that can't speak spanish! lets take the pi55 he'll never know!.. lords knows what it'll be like when I'm standing in front of the black board attempting to teach maths, science, art and personal studies... my only saving grace is that I'll be teaching alongside Jen who is both very lovely and a great teacher. I'm sure we'll be fine and that this is just pre match nerves.
So apart from all the teaching I played football the other night for the first time in about 10 years. A group of us played for about 1hr 15mins, we lost 10-8 against a bunch of guys we didn't know. They were pretty good so we did well to get 8 goals past them. We had gone out to go go carting but when we were told the carting was closed we opted for a game of football instead.. as we HAD planned to go carting, I decided a bottle of beer, some cream cheese on bread and 2 chocolate bars would be a good idea just before we headed out so after 5 minutes of football I very nearly brought the lot up.. lucky for me and the others I didn't. Since playing football I've been walking like John Wayne and my shoulder has been pretty painful again so I obviously still need to take it a bit steady.
We had another great BBQ on friday, we then went out for a few drinks, I got back home at 4am and the next morning woke with a headache but I took it pretty steady all in all so I was able to shake it off by 2ish.. me and a couple of friends, phoebe and kathleen went to a museum, ate ice cream then went out for a meal together on Saturday.. it was a really lovely day .
Right thats about it for now, not a great deal to report on that I can remember over this past week apart from to say although school is scary, i do love it and Arequipa is still great. I'm off home now to no doubt watch a re run of an old Friends episode and to have a ricey/potatoy/chickeny dinner..
take it steady folks.. x
Saturday, 22 May 2010
Saturday 22nd May
Hello folks,
Well it's been a week since I was last here so I'll give you an update on what I've been doing over the last week. I had my orientation/induction on Sunday with Patrick and two other volunteers that had arrived at the same time as me. Phoebe, a girl from Cambridge and a New Zealander called Lucy. Both are in there early 20's, very lovely and good fun so as we're the new kids in town we've been hanging out a fair bit checking out the town and finding our feet here.
In our orientation we went through all the do's and don'ts and risks associated with being in the schools and Arequipa itself. You have to keep your wits about you here and stay on your toes. It's normally pretty ok for guys but girls do have to be extra careful especially after dark as there have been quite a few incidents where girls have been followed or felt intimerdated when out on there own.
Patrick went in to a little more detail in regards to the school I'll be teaching in. It's around 2500metres above sea level high in the mountains, to give you an idea ben nevis is 1200metres high. Myself and an Australian girl called Jen that has been here for a month will be teaching a class of 8 children between the ages of 8 & 10 (levels 4 & 5) The children come from very poor deprived backgrounds and leave in shanty towns with there families, not in the centre where I leave, here it's a little safer. Many of the children are extremely vunerable as have experienced some form of abuse at home by either there family members or the people that live around them. The police don't police the shanty towns therefore these area are left to run themselves, crime is high and money is scarce. For these reason amongst other we have to be careful how we teach the kids, no raised voices when they're naughty, no promises of sweets or gifts for there families, ensuring we treat all the kids equally, no favourites or problematic ones avoided. Most of the children's parents have alcohol related issues which means drinking in the week is out as hangovers are a big no no.
I'll be leaving my host family at 7.30am walking to the Casa del Avila arriving here around 7.50am. All volunteers are picked up at 8am by bus and driven to our schools. There are three schools in total, we teach maths, english, spanish, art, history and sports to children ages between 4 and 12. The children are nowhere near as advanced as western children of the same age, some may have only started school recently however all are fluent in there language but may not be able to read or write very well.
Levels 4 & 5 are taught by the volunteers only (meaning no actual teachers are present as such) lucky for me Patrick, a guy called Gidian and Jen have worked with levels 4 & 5 for sometime so when I join them the week after next, I'll be able to see how they handle and teach them attempting to follow in there footsteps. The downside is that both Patrick and Gid leave the project in a month from now meaning it will be just Jen and I taking the classes. I'm sure we'll be fine, the word on the streets is that it's tough for the first few weeks but once the kids have accepted and gotten use to your ways it's good fun and very rewarding. Pat, Gid and Jen talk about the kids lots, Lennon is the class alpha male, he runs the show, has mad crazy eyes and although can be a handful he's a good kid at heart, they all are I'm told. The fact that they are actually in school is amazing in itself, most of the kids there age up in the mountains are out with there parents trying to make a few sols anyway they can. These kids have been reached and school for them is both exciting and interesting, far better than the towns they live in. The promise of a sticker at the end of the lesson will keep them working for a hour, if students have a particular good day or make a significant improvement with there homework for example they may get a couple of coloured pencils from us. If problematic kids fight or cause disruptions improve over a week they could get a magazine to read or colour in. I'm looking forward to getting into the school and up in the mountains, it'll be quite amazing I'm sure.
So, now on to my Spanish lessons.... in short it's bloody difficult learning a new language!! I started on Monday at 9am. My first teacher is a peruvian lady called Beatrice, she's alright but also very strict. She's known for being strict and many of the students have told me how difficult is can be working with her. She's the kind of teacher than if she could hit you on the back of the hand with a ruler I'm sure she would!
In Spanish there's masculine and feminine words and hence ways of talking and writing, each verb have 5 conjucations to it, for example, if you say "I work" ou would say, yo trabajo, if you say, "you work" it's tu trabajas, if you say, "we work" it's nosotros trajamos, basically the work "work" changes depending on the personal pronoun.. I, you, he/she, we or they.. in short, it's a bloody nightmare and that's just the beginning. At the moment it's a bit like 1 step forwards and 2 steps back... Monday and tuesday I just didn't get it, or basically made very slow progress. I don't think I've ever really know what a verb is, or an adjective, or a personal pronoun for that matter, it's just not been my thing therefore I'm not only learning a new language but I've also had to learn what all the words mean and where they are to go in a sentence.
I really felt like I'd made a break through on Wednesday morning, I had done about 5 hours homework the night before, therefore I'd really put the effort in and worked my soaks off. I was pretty sure somethings were wrong and would need correcting but I had done my best and after just three days of Spanish I felt OK however on Thursday morning Beatrice was critical of the work I had done, impatient with me and acted like a first class bitch. She kept saying it's easy and not difficult, just look at it like this, or this, now in my opinion if someone is struggling with learning something the worst a teacher can do is tell her student that it's easy and not difficult. I swear to god I wanted to stab her in the friggin eye (sorry folks) anyway, after the first hour of my lesson I felt awful, all the hard work I had done felt like I'd done it for nothing. If it wasn't for being here to teach for GVI and maybe paying for the project I'd have told her to piss off and walked out. However, the good news is I didn't, she told me she wasn't trying to be mean or critical and that I shouldn't be so hard on myself. It was quite normal to be going forwards one minute and back the next. She also said that maybe the problem was with her, well amongst other things maybe it was... After my first 2 hour lesson with Beatrice I switch tables and work with Alan. Alan is 25, born and raised in Peru, a really nice bloke and we get on great. He has a completely different style of teaching to Beatrice, he's far more laid back, makes you feel comfortable and praises you for the correct answers you give. He's lessons are more language driven as his job is to get you speaking (Beatrice is more written as you might have gathered) Alan speaks mainly in Spanish throughout the lesson then if the student is unsure of what he is saying, he will repeat in English then normally again in Spanish. Now although the bitch is a bit of bitch, I think I'm going to stick with her, for all the crap she dishes out she really is an excellent teacher and I'm pleased to say my lesson with her on Friday was a good one. I had done another 5 or 6 hours study on the Thursday afternoon/evening and was determined to get it and go back to my lesson in a more positive frame of mind. With a little help from a friend but mainly my own new found understanding of Spanish! I was pretty sure my homework was better than OK for the first time. I got maybe 25 out of 30 phrases correct and was able to read back to her what I had written pretty well. Beatrice gave me great praise and said that in 5 days of learning a new language I really had done well. I was made up but obviously kept a lid on it... She now knows to put her broomstick and hard ruler away when she's with me and the fact that I have made progress is down to her strictness, the homework I've had the fact that I really do want to learn. She is known for being a difficult (but still a good) teacher so I guess there are pro's and con's to her style... Anyway enough of Spanish for a bit..
Right, what else, my host family... I'm staying with a Spanish lady and her husband, both are in there 60's and retired. They speak no English whatsoever so I really do have to put my limited Spanish into play as often as possible... my bedroom is hilarious, it's like your Nan's would have been in the 70's (if she liked a bit of sun and sangria in spain from time to time that is) it's full of 1960's spanish ornaments, silly little pictures and ornaments that have thick layers of dust on.. my clothes go in a glass fronted cabinet that I presume use to be in the dining room and home to glasses and more ornaments.. I have a bedside light that flickers from time to time and curtains that draw on an old pull chord that I think is going to snap any day now, the curtains close to within an inch of each other but no closer therefore letting in the bright sunshine at 6am every morning. The first night I stayed there I got into the room, Edith was the only one in the house at that time therefore I thought it was going to be just her and I for 3 months! that could have been a bit awkward at times! anyway, I unpack my bag drag my finger of the dusty doll house size shelves that are screwed in the wall, open a huge double fronted dark brown wooden wardrobe and I'm faced with an old doll, about 3ft tall, she's been propped up in the corner and her head tilted to one side.. she's dusty and a bit tatty and looks like she's been living in the wardrobe for some years... I slid the screaching wardrobe doors close as the words... nice doll, nice doll, nice doll quietly exit from my mouth... I've decided to put all my clothes in my glass fronted dining room cabinet/wardrobe now :)
My bed is harder than the Kray twins ever were and bumpier than the bubble man that was one that weird document a while back.. the first night I decided to drag the mattress onto the floor to see if it was the bed base or the mattress itself, sounds odd I know but the mattress looks quite new. Anyway, didn't help much so it's back on the bed frame again.
I have my own bathroom... it's about 3ft square, has a loo, sink and shower.. If I'm lucky I have warm water for about 4 minutes in the evening, that's if Edith hasn't used it all up in the day washing tea towels and dollies... We don't have hot water in the morning as the sun needs to heat the water for the house during the day...
Edith potters round the house singing and chatting to herself in Spanish, she laughs lots and has made me feel really welcome, even if we have no idea what we're saying to each other the language of smiles and laughs are getting us through just fine! it'll be so nice when I can start putting a few sentences together so we can have a conversation even if some pretty basic ones to start with..
Every night this past week I've had my dinner, got into my room, studied for a few hours then drifted off to the sound of dogs barking and beeping horns in the distance...
Last night about 15 of us had a bbq in the garden at the Casa... we made lovely salads (not quite as good as Jo & Ben's but still nice all the same :) we cooked more meat than we needed to and sat in the garden until about 9ish eating, drinking, chatting and telling stories, I told them the story about my horse riding nightmare when me, annice, jo, lou, gareth, emma c, shep and a few others went pony trekking for the day which ended up being like a a cross between the grand national and a horror movie... I also told them of the time I had ghostly experiences in my mates 700 year old cottage in Ashow when I experienced muchos paranormal activity in the early hours of the morning on night.. the pony trekking story had everyone in bits and the ghostly story as the night grow darker went down a treat... it set us all up for a great night ahead...
So that's for now, it's Saturday afternoon about 5ish, there's a few peeps knocking about here so we'll no doubt watch the sun go down in about an hour so then have a quiet one somewhere.. I never thought I'd say it but I'm actually looking forward to doing a bit more homework later, then more tomorrow.. mad eh..
To whoever is reading this, I hope that this finds you well and that all is good with you. Thanks for dropping by :)
xx
Well it's been a week since I was last here so I'll give you an update on what I've been doing over the last week. I had my orientation/induction on Sunday with Patrick and two other volunteers that had arrived at the same time as me. Phoebe, a girl from Cambridge and a New Zealander called Lucy. Both are in there early 20's, very lovely and good fun so as we're the new kids in town we've been hanging out a fair bit checking out the town and finding our feet here.
In our orientation we went through all the do's and don'ts and risks associated with being in the schools and Arequipa itself. You have to keep your wits about you here and stay on your toes. It's normally pretty ok for guys but girls do have to be extra careful especially after dark as there have been quite a few incidents where girls have been followed or felt intimerdated when out on there own.
Patrick went in to a little more detail in regards to the school I'll be teaching in. It's around 2500metres above sea level high in the mountains, to give you an idea ben nevis is 1200metres high. Myself and an Australian girl called Jen that has been here for a month will be teaching a class of 8 children between the ages of 8 & 10 (levels 4 & 5) The children come from very poor deprived backgrounds and leave in shanty towns with there families, not in the centre where I leave, here it's a little safer. Many of the children are extremely vunerable as have experienced some form of abuse at home by either there family members or the people that live around them. The police don't police the shanty towns therefore these area are left to run themselves, crime is high and money is scarce. For these reason amongst other we have to be careful how we teach the kids, no raised voices when they're naughty, no promises of sweets or gifts for there families, ensuring we treat all the kids equally, no favourites or problematic ones avoided. Most of the children's parents have alcohol related issues which means drinking in the week is out as hangovers are a big no no.
I'll be leaving my host family at 7.30am walking to the Casa del Avila arriving here around 7.50am. All volunteers are picked up at 8am by bus and driven to our schools. There are three schools in total, we teach maths, english, spanish, art, history and sports to children ages between 4 and 12. The children are nowhere near as advanced as western children of the same age, some may have only started school recently however all are fluent in there language but may not be able to read or write very well.
Levels 4 & 5 are taught by the volunteers only (meaning no actual teachers are present as such) lucky for me Patrick, a guy called Gidian and Jen have worked with levels 4 & 5 for sometime so when I join them the week after next, I'll be able to see how they handle and teach them attempting to follow in there footsteps. The downside is that both Patrick and Gid leave the project in a month from now meaning it will be just Jen and I taking the classes. I'm sure we'll be fine, the word on the streets is that it's tough for the first few weeks but once the kids have accepted and gotten use to your ways it's good fun and very rewarding. Pat, Gid and Jen talk about the kids lots, Lennon is the class alpha male, he runs the show, has mad crazy eyes and although can be a handful he's a good kid at heart, they all are I'm told. The fact that they are actually in school is amazing in itself, most of the kids there age up in the mountains are out with there parents trying to make a few sols anyway they can. These kids have been reached and school for them is both exciting and interesting, far better than the towns they live in. The promise of a sticker at the end of the lesson will keep them working for a hour, if students have a particular good day or make a significant improvement with there homework for example they may get a couple of coloured pencils from us. If problematic kids fight or cause disruptions improve over a week they could get a magazine to read or colour in. I'm looking forward to getting into the school and up in the mountains, it'll be quite amazing I'm sure.
So, now on to my Spanish lessons.... in short it's bloody difficult learning a new language!! I started on Monday at 9am. My first teacher is a peruvian lady called Beatrice, she's alright but also very strict. She's known for being strict and many of the students have told me how difficult is can be working with her. She's the kind of teacher than if she could hit you on the back of the hand with a ruler I'm sure she would!
In Spanish there's masculine and feminine words and hence ways of talking and writing, each verb have 5 conjucations to it, for example, if you say "I work" ou would say, yo trabajo, if you say, "you work" it's tu trabajas, if you say, "we work" it's nosotros trajamos, basically the work "work" changes depending on the personal pronoun.. I, you, he/she, we or they.. in short, it's a bloody nightmare and that's just the beginning. At the moment it's a bit like 1 step forwards and 2 steps back... Monday and tuesday I just didn't get it, or basically made very slow progress. I don't think I've ever really know what a verb is, or an adjective, or a personal pronoun for that matter, it's just not been my thing therefore I'm not only learning a new language but I've also had to learn what all the words mean and where they are to go in a sentence.
I really felt like I'd made a break through on Wednesday morning, I had done about 5 hours homework the night before, therefore I'd really put the effort in and worked my soaks off. I was pretty sure somethings were wrong and would need correcting but I had done my best and after just three days of Spanish I felt OK however on Thursday morning Beatrice was critical of the work I had done, impatient with me and acted like a first class bitch. She kept saying it's easy and not difficult, just look at it like this, or this, now in my opinion if someone is struggling with learning something the worst a teacher can do is tell her student that it's easy and not difficult. I swear to god I wanted to stab her in the friggin eye (sorry folks) anyway, after the first hour of my lesson I felt awful, all the hard work I had done felt like I'd done it for nothing. If it wasn't for being here to teach for GVI and maybe paying for the project I'd have told her to piss off and walked out. However, the good news is I didn't, she told me she wasn't trying to be mean or critical and that I shouldn't be so hard on myself. It was quite normal to be going forwards one minute and back the next. She also said that maybe the problem was with her, well amongst other things maybe it was... After my first 2 hour lesson with Beatrice I switch tables and work with Alan. Alan is 25, born and raised in Peru, a really nice bloke and we get on great. He has a completely different style of teaching to Beatrice, he's far more laid back, makes you feel comfortable and praises you for the correct answers you give. He's lessons are more language driven as his job is to get you speaking (Beatrice is more written as you might have gathered) Alan speaks mainly in Spanish throughout the lesson then if the student is unsure of what he is saying, he will repeat in English then normally again in Spanish. Now although the bitch is a bit of bitch, I think I'm going to stick with her, for all the crap she dishes out she really is an excellent teacher and I'm pleased to say my lesson with her on Friday was a good one. I had done another 5 or 6 hours study on the Thursday afternoon/evening and was determined to get it and go back to my lesson in a more positive frame of mind. With a little help from a friend but mainly my own new found understanding of Spanish! I was pretty sure my homework was better than OK for the first time. I got maybe 25 out of 30 phrases correct and was able to read back to her what I had written pretty well. Beatrice gave me great praise and said that in 5 days of learning a new language I really had done well. I was made up but obviously kept a lid on it... She now knows to put her broomstick and hard ruler away when she's with me and the fact that I have made progress is down to her strictness, the homework I've had the fact that I really do want to learn. She is known for being a difficult (but still a good) teacher so I guess there are pro's and con's to her style... Anyway enough of Spanish for a bit..
Right, what else, my host family... I'm staying with a Spanish lady and her husband, both are in there 60's and retired. They speak no English whatsoever so I really do have to put my limited Spanish into play as often as possible... my bedroom is hilarious, it's like your Nan's would have been in the 70's (if she liked a bit of sun and sangria in spain from time to time that is) it's full of 1960's spanish ornaments, silly little pictures and ornaments that have thick layers of dust on.. my clothes go in a glass fronted cabinet that I presume use to be in the dining room and home to glasses and more ornaments.. I have a bedside light that flickers from time to time and curtains that draw on an old pull chord that I think is going to snap any day now, the curtains close to within an inch of each other but no closer therefore letting in the bright sunshine at 6am every morning. The first night I stayed there I got into the room, Edith was the only one in the house at that time therefore I thought it was going to be just her and I for 3 months! that could have been a bit awkward at times! anyway, I unpack my bag drag my finger of the dusty doll house size shelves that are screwed in the wall, open a huge double fronted dark brown wooden wardrobe and I'm faced with an old doll, about 3ft tall, she's been propped up in the corner and her head tilted to one side.. she's dusty and a bit tatty and looks like she's been living in the wardrobe for some years... I slid the screaching wardrobe doors close as the words... nice doll, nice doll, nice doll quietly exit from my mouth... I've decided to put all my clothes in my glass fronted dining room cabinet/wardrobe now :)
My bed is harder than the Kray twins ever were and bumpier than the bubble man that was one that weird document a while back.. the first night I decided to drag the mattress onto the floor to see if it was the bed base or the mattress itself, sounds odd I know but the mattress looks quite new. Anyway, didn't help much so it's back on the bed frame again.
I have my own bathroom... it's about 3ft square, has a loo, sink and shower.. If I'm lucky I have warm water for about 4 minutes in the evening, that's if Edith hasn't used it all up in the day washing tea towels and dollies... We don't have hot water in the morning as the sun needs to heat the water for the house during the day...
Edith potters round the house singing and chatting to herself in Spanish, she laughs lots and has made me feel really welcome, even if we have no idea what we're saying to each other the language of smiles and laughs are getting us through just fine! it'll be so nice when I can start putting a few sentences together so we can have a conversation even if some pretty basic ones to start with..
Every night this past week I've had my dinner, got into my room, studied for a few hours then drifted off to the sound of dogs barking and beeping horns in the distance...
Last night about 15 of us had a bbq in the garden at the Casa... we made lovely salads (not quite as good as Jo & Ben's but still nice all the same :) we cooked more meat than we needed to and sat in the garden until about 9ish eating, drinking, chatting and telling stories, I told them the story about my horse riding nightmare when me, annice, jo, lou, gareth, emma c, shep and a few others went pony trekking for the day which ended up being like a a cross between the grand national and a horror movie... I also told them of the time I had ghostly experiences in my mates 700 year old cottage in Ashow when I experienced muchos paranormal activity in the early hours of the morning on night.. the pony trekking story had everyone in bits and the ghostly story as the night grow darker went down a treat... it set us all up for a great night ahead...
So that's for now, it's Saturday afternoon about 5ish, there's a few peeps knocking about here so we'll no doubt watch the sun go down in about an hour so then have a quiet one somewhere.. I never thought I'd say it but I'm actually looking forward to doing a bit more homework later, then more tomorrow.. mad eh..
To whoever is reading this, I hope that this finds you well and that all is good with you. Thanks for dropping by :)
xx
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Saturday 15th May
Well my evening out with the GVI team was a success! I made my way over to Casa de avilla to meet up with the team to head out for the evening. We walked to the main square through dusty roads and dimly lite alleyways. It was far busier round here than where I was on the first day. Again the people are friendly and although you have to keep on your toes you don't get the impression that you're going to get ripped off whicb is a relief.
After 15 minutes or so of walking we arrived at the restaurant where we were to eat. There was about 15 of us in total, myself and a south african girl named Lucy were the new kids in town. We were treated nicely and everyone made the effort to say hello and have a conversation with us. Patrick the team leader for GVI had already phoned ahead and told the restaurant that we were coming therefore the meals had already been choose and prepared for us, rice dices, lasagne, loads of cheese and potato based dishes! bread, cheese sticks, the food just kept on coming. I filled my face as usual and washed it down with a bottle of red wine that I shared with one of the other guys. It wasn't long before we were laughing, aminly at me asking loads of questions as you might expect! It was one of girls last day on the project so it was kind of a leaving do for her as much as a welcoming one for us as well. Madaline the girl that was leaving had been working at the school where I'll be going so I was able to quiz her a bit on what the school and kids were like. She told me the school has 70 children in it aged between 4 and 10. The kids are lovely as you might expect however they are kids so they will try there luck and of course be a bit cheeky i'm told. For the first two weeks I'll be working along side Patrick as his assistant getting settled in and learning the ropes. After that I'm on my own. I'll be teaching a class of 8 children aged between 8 & 9. I'll start in the morning at 08.30am, work through until 1pm, take an hour for lunch then in the afternoon from 2pm, the kids that want/need extra help stay behind until 3.30pm for extra tuition/help with there homework. It's daunting for me as you might expect but I'm here for a challenge and really can't wait to get going. Hopefully I'll be writing up my blog over the next couple of weeks saying that my spanish is coming along nicely and with a little help from the other volunteers my lesson planning will be OK as well. Anyway, back to the night out!
We left the restaurant after a couple of hours and went to a couple of bars, most are playing music and have a lively atmosphere. You can buy 4 rum and cokes for 12 sols which works out to be about £3 total. At these prices it's wasn't long before I was grinning like a cheshire cat and telling the other volunteers about the things I like doing, festivals, singing, the odd moonwalk when I feel very happy and hanging out with my pals back home.
We ended up in a bar/club towards the end of the evening, it had a couple of large bars, a dance floor and a kareoke room which had a large screen on the wall and around 80 seats/tables. The room was packed, mainly with Peruvians and the odd western scattered around. I can assure you I didn't know this place had a kareoke bar I promise... however! old habits die hard so I stuck my name down and sang the kinks you really got me going, it was about the only one I recognized on the sheet! for a moment I was a bit nervous that the words were going to come up on the screen in Spanish as all the other songs sang were! Lucky for me it didn't, it was in english however I had to wait for about 12 songs to be sang before mine came up and even then I had asked the guy if he had forgotten about me, in truth I don't think the peruvians were too keen having people from the UK sing, I don't blame them to be fair, get a bunch of wronguns in there from the UK and it really does change the atmosphere.. as it was I snag my song and made a few peruvian fans while I was at it :) a group of us after the song went next door and danced for an hour or so before heading home. I had to get a taxi back to my hotel and to be fair I had no idea where it was, lucky for me some of the guys were able to explain where it was from the limited information I could give them. It was around 4am by the time I got back to my hotel... I woke the next day with a stinking hangover, just about made breakfast before getting back to my room and crashing out until around 2pm... the hotel was having some work done on it so between 9am and 2pm there was banging, drilling, talking, dogs barking and doors banging, not the best sounds to try and sooth my head to but at least I was able to lie down drink water and attempt to rid myself of my rum and coke hangover..
So it's Sunday morning now and I'm just about to start my orientation/induction so time I got a move on..
Later folks xx
After 15 minutes or so of walking we arrived at the restaurant where we were to eat. There was about 15 of us in total, myself and a south african girl named Lucy were the new kids in town. We were treated nicely and everyone made the effort to say hello and have a conversation with us. Patrick the team leader for GVI had already phoned ahead and told the restaurant that we were coming therefore the meals had already been choose and prepared for us, rice dices, lasagne, loads of cheese and potato based dishes! bread, cheese sticks, the food just kept on coming. I filled my face as usual and washed it down with a bottle of red wine that I shared with one of the other guys. It wasn't long before we were laughing, aminly at me asking loads of questions as you might expect! It was one of girls last day on the project so it was kind of a leaving do for her as much as a welcoming one for us as well. Madaline the girl that was leaving had been working at the school where I'll be going so I was able to quiz her a bit on what the school and kids were like. She told me the school has 70 children in it aged between 4 and 10. The kids are lovely as you might expect however they are kids so they will try there luck and of course be a bit cheeky i'm told. For the first two weeks I'll be working along side Patrick as his assistant getting settled in and learning the ropes. After that I'm on my own. I'll be teaching a class of 8 children aged between 8 & 9. I'll start in the morning at 08.30am, work through until 1pm, take an hour for lunch then in the afternoon from 2pm, the kids that want/need extra help stay behind until 3.30pm for extra tuition/help with there homework. It's daunting for me as you might expect but I'm here for a challenge and really can't wait to get going. Hopefully I'll be writing up my blog over the next couple of weeks saying that my spanish is coming along nicely and with a little help from the other volunteers my lesson planning will be OK as well. Anyway, back to the night out!
We left the restaurant after a couple of hours and went to a couple of bars, most are playing music and have a lively atmosphere. You can buy 4 rum and cokes for 12 sols which works out to be about £3 total. At these prices it's wasn't long before I was grinning like a cheshire cat and telling the other volunteers about the things I like doing, festivals, singing, the odd moonwalk when I feel very happy and hanging out with my pals back home.
We ended up in a bar/club towards the end of the evening, it had a couple of large bars, a dance floor and a kareoke room which had a large screen on the wall and around 80 seats/tables. The room was packed, mainly with Peruvians and the odd western scattered around. I can assure you I didn't know this place had a kareoke bar I promise... however! old habits die hard so I stuck my name down and sang the kinks you really got me going, it was about the only one I recognized on the sheet! for a moment I was a bit nervous that the words were going to come up on the screen in Spanish as all the other songs sang were! Lucky for me it didn't, it was in english however I had to wait for about 12 songs to be sang before mine came up and even then I had asked the guy if he had forgotten about me, in truth I don't think the peruvians were too keen having people from the UK sing, I don't blame them to be fair, get a bunch of wronguns in there from the UK and it really does change the atmosphere.. as it was I snag my song and made a few peruvian fans while I was at it :) a group of us after the song went next door and danced for an hour or so before heading home. I had to get a taxi back to my hotel and to be fair I had no idea where it was, lucky for me some of the guys were able to explain where it was from the limited information I could give them. It was around 4am by the time I got back to my hotel... I woke the next day with a stinking hangover, just about made breakfast before getting back to my room and crashing out until around 2pm... the hotel was having some work done on it so between 9am and 2pm there was banging, drilling, talking, dogs barking and doors banging, not the best sounds to try and sooth my head to but at least I was able to lie down drink water and attempt to rid myself of my rum and coke hangover..
So it's Sunday morning now and I'm just about to start my orientation/induction so time I got a move on..
Later folks xx
Friday, 14 May 2010
Friday 14th May, 2010
My first day in Peru!
I got up around 8.30am and went downstairs for breakfast, scrambled eggs and ham with warm homemade bread. A coffee that would wake up sleeping beauty and an orange juice that would make Edwin Collins happy.
After breakfast I came back to my room, checked and sent a few messages and headed out for my first look at Arequipa. I left the hotel and walked towards the main road, the streets are clean but are a wash with cracks and missing slabs, your up there own ass heath and safety officer would went there knickers round here. The cars, taxi's and vans communicate by beeping horns at each other and the drivers and people shout to each other as go by. To say I feel like a tourist would be an understating, but with my shoulders back and my head held high I didn't feel to intimerdated by it all.
Turning onto the main road I was faced with a enormous snow capped volcano and although miles away (around 25miles to the top from where I was standing) it's extremely imposing and keeps a watchful eye over the city of Arequipa. I walked up the road with the volcano directly in front of my me, my thought was to get to the bottom of it ideally.
Because Arequipa is so high a short walk leaves you out of breath, I stopped at a shop, not like the one you get at the end of your road in the UK, but a dusty dark one that accomodates the locals not the traveller, but all the same with a smile or two and some basic one word Spanish I came out with a cornetto that I think was about 12 months out of date and a bottle of water that although hadn't had it's seal broke tasted like it came out of the comfort Inn's bathroom at room 422 in Dudley. The cornetto was pretty rank as well, the wafer was that chewy it was if I was chewing a wet plaster that had been scooped up from the bottom of a childrens paddling pool... tasty eh..
I carried on walking up the long road towards the volcano, small shops spradically pop out either side of you almost when you're on top of them, women and men work along with roadside going about there everyday business. One women was gutting fish, men sweep the streets and many sit in the shade talking a rest from the midday sun.
As I reached the top of the road, a dead end that lead to a sheer drop meaning I could no more, a front of me was a shanty town, make shift houses made up of metals, woods and stones. No two windows were the same, all odd shapes and sizes that wold have been salvaged and made the most of. Dogs ran around, more than likely strays but some just kicked out for the day whilst there owners were out working. I sat on a rock and took out my spanish phrase book, A4 pages of Spanish to english translation and started to work my way through what was my first lesson of the day! the dogs were barking and small groups of people sat on the floor in the shade from the sun. Down to my right was a group of men, maybe 6. I could hear them shouting at each other and to the passers by but didn't think too much of them. After a few minutes I heard a whack, looked to my right and one of them had been punched and had hit the ground. I think I stared for about 5 seconds in there direction before I thought it best I look back at my papers and give the impression that, it wasn't my business, I'm just going about my business like they were theres. The guy that had presumably whacked the other walked away casually, the other just stood around as if nothing had happened.
My spanish papers are pretty easy, Sientate - sit down, Levantate, stand up, Escucha, listen! I'm getting ther with it, the daunting thing is actually putting it into practice. It's one thing memorising the words and phrases, but when you attempt them in public you get a familiar Spanish response that throws you out a you end looking slightly puzzled and go back to broken one word english.
I stayed on the rock learning my Spanish for a couple of hours. Dogs run around barking at each other and hanging out in little packs, they run up to each other, bark a bit more, then run away. There don't cross there boundaries as such, I watched the same group of dogs do this 2 or 3 times today. A pack of 2 run up barking to a pack of 3 on the other side of the road. Neither pack will go that extra step and cross the line, that I've seen yet anyway.
I walked back down the road eventually as had started to feel a bit peckish. I walked passed a couple of, what I would call rooms with just a few small tables in side. I'd gone passed a couple before I went into one of them, Puedo Sientate por favor? (can i sit down please?) Si was the reply, the lady spoke to me in spanish, I have no idea what she said. No entieno, I don't understand. I gesticulated that I was wanted to eat and sat down. I didn't get asked what I wanted but in maybe a minute I had a cold flat glass of coke put in front of me and a bowl of soup. it's lucky I'm not a fussy eater so I whacked it down with no questions asked, it had veg, potatoes and chicken in it, very tasty. Just before I'd finished the soup the lady put another dish in front of me, a piece of steak, rice and salad. The steak certainly wasn't rib eye judging by the bits of bone I had to take out of my mouth as I ate it but it was good food and I certainly didn't complain. My bill was 3.45 sols, when you think 20sols is around £4 it's pretty dam cheap. I paid for my meal and carried on my journey back to the La Gruta Hotel where I'm staying.
It was a good day. I'm now in my hotel room, typing this up. It's 4pm here and around 10pm in the UK. Now I've got to get ready, head off in a cab to meet the GVI team and I've been told were off out for the evening, drinks and meal. The guy who picked me up from the airport yesterday said to come and meet us and that it was likely I wouldn't remember much about friday night on the Saturday morning therefore I'm thinking I might just fit in after all... fingers crossed ;0)
Catch you soon folks - hasta luego xx
I got up around 8.30am and went downstairs for breakfast, scrambled eggs and ham with warm homemade bread. A coffee that would wake up sleeping beauty and an orange juice that would make Edwin Collins happy.
After breakfast I came back to my room, checked and sent a few messages and headed out for my first look at Arequipa. I left the hotel and walked towards the main road, the streets are clean but are a wash with cracks and missing slabs, your up there own ass heath and safety officer would went there knickers round here. The cars, taxi's and vans communicate by beeping horns at each other and the drivers and people shout to each other as go by. To say I feel like a tourist would be an understating, but with my shoulders back and my head held high I didn't feel to intimerdated by it all.
Turning onto the main road I was faced with a enormous snow capped volcano and although miles away (around 25miles to the top from where I was standing) it's extremely imposing and keeps a watchful eye over the city of Arequipa. I walked up the road with the volcano directly in front of my me, my thought was to get to the bottom of it ideally.
Because Arequipa is so high a short walk leaves you out of breath, I stopped at a shop, not like the one you get at the end of your road in the UK, but a dusty dark one that accomodates the locals not the traveller, but all the same with a smile or two and some basic one word Spanish I came out with a cornetto that I think was about 12 months out of date and a bottle of water that although hadn't had it's seal broke tasted like it came out of the comfort Inn's bathroom at room 422 in Dudley. The cornetto was pretty rank as well, the wafer was that chewy it was if I was chewing a wet plaster that had been scooped up from the bottom of a childrens paddling pool... tasty eh..
I carried on walking up the long road towards the volcano, small shops spradically pop out either side of you almost when you're on top of them, women and men work along with roadside going about there everyday business. One women was gutting fish, men sweep the streets and many sit in the shade talking a rest from the midday sun.
As I reached the top of the road, a dead end that lead to a sheer drop meaning I could no more, a front of me was a shanty town, make shift houses made up of metals, woods and stones. No two windows were the same, all odd shapes and sizes that wold have been salvaged and made the most of. Dogs ran around, more than likely strays but some just kicked out for the day whilst there owners were out working. I sat on a rock and took out my spanish phrase book, A4 pages of Spanish to english translation and started to work my way through what was my first lesson of the day! the dogs were barking and small groups of people sat on the floor in the shade from the sun. Down to my right was a group of men, maybe 6. I could hear them shouting at each other and to the passers by but didn't think too much of them. After a few minutes I heard a whack, looked to my right and one of them had been punched and had hit the ground. I think I stared for about 5 seconds in there direction before I thought it best I look back at my papers and give the impression that, it wasn't my business, I'm just going about my business like they were theres. The guy that had presumably whacked the other walked away casually, the other just stood around as if nothing had happened.
My spanish papers are pretty easy, Sientate - sit down, Levantate, stand up, Escucha, listen! I'm getting ther with it, the daunting thing is actually putting it into practice. It's one thing memorising the words and phrases, but when you attempt them in public you get a familiar Spanish response that throws you out a you end looking slightly puzzled and go back to broken one word english.
I stayed on the rock learning my Spanish for a couple of hours. Dogs run around barking at each other and hanging out in little packs, they run up to each other, bark a bit more, then run away. There don't cross there boundaries as such, I watched the same group of dogs do this 2 or 3 times today. A pack of 2 run up barking to a pack of 3 on the other side of the road. Neither pack will go that extra step and cross the line, that I've seen yet anyway.
I walked back down the road eventually as had started to feel a bit peckish. I walked passed a couple of, what I would call rooms with just a few small tables in side. I'd gone passed a couple before I went into one of them, Puedo Sientate por favor? (can i sit down please?) Si was the reply, the lady spoke to me in spanish, I have no idea what she said. No entieno, I don't understand. I gesticulated that I was wanted to eat and sat down. I didn't get asked what I wanted but in maybe a minute I had a cold flat glass of coke put in front of me and a bowl of soup. it's lucky I'm not a fussy eater so I whacked it down with no questions asked, it had veg, potatoes and chicken in it, very tasty. Just before I'd finished the soup the lady put another dish in front of me, a piece of steak, rice and salad. The steak certainly wasn't rib eye judging by the bits of bone I had to take out of my mouth as I ate it but it was good food and I certainly didn't complain. My bill was 3.45 sols, when you think 20sols is around £4 it's pretty dam cheap. I paid for my meal and carried on my journey back to the La Gruta Hotel where I'm staying.
It was a good day. I'm now in my hotel room, typing this up. It's 4pm here and around 10pm in the UK. Now I've got to get ready, head off in a cab to meet the GVI team and I've been told were off out for the evening, drinks and meal. The guy who picked me up from the airport yesterday said to come and meet us and that it was likely I wouldn't remember much about friday night on the Saturday morning therefore I'm thinking I might just fit in after all... fingers crossed ;0)
Catch you soon folks - hasta luego xx
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)