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