It seems like ages since my last blog update - I think it’s only been about a week but a lot has happened.
I’ve taught more lessons, in a school in Rumira and in Tastayoc. Last week I felt like I wasn’t really getting anywhere with teaching English. The children in Tastayoc seemed reluctant to join in and in Rumira too they struggled with interactive methods, like partner work and question and answers and with the pronunciation of English words. So I approached this week’s classes expecting to need to do a lot of repetition. In Tastayoc they surprised me and they seemed to have got a better grasp of ‘What’s your name? My name is...’ and we were able to play a game in a circle with a football using the language.
I’d also bought some finger puppets at the weekend in Cusco to help with questions and answers in English. Henry, the cook who is staying with us at the moment, helped me name them, Tommy the tiger and Zuzu the Zebra.
The children in my classes yesterday loved them and they helped them to answer questions rather than repeat them (which is the problem I was having last week!).
School starts at 8.30am here and continues until about 1pm. I’m not sure how long breaktimes last for, but the structure doesn’t seem to be as rigid as in the UK, with our bell system! There seems to be a more relaxed attitude to school.
Although there are public schools that are available for children to go to there don´t seem to be Education Welfare officers here to ensure children are in school. We have a little girl who lives next door to us, Libertad, who has still not been in school for a few months, something to do with her father being an alcoholic. Leander is trying to find a school which will take her.
Almost more shocking was being introduced today to a little girl of 9 years old in Rumira who is from Tastayoc. She goes to school in Rumira with her little sister because her mother doesn’t want them to go to the school in Tastayoc, which is a tiny school with only one class. Instead her mother prefers to send them to live alone in Rumira during the week and to visit Tastoyoc at the weekends. To give you an idea of the distance, Rumira is at 2640m and Tastayoc 3953m, it takes about 45minutes by car. When I asked who does the cooking for them both, I was told that the 9 year old sister does.
On a more positive note, Lurdes, the girl who can’t walk due to brittle bone disease, is now being home schooled by one of the teachers from Rumira. The teacher goes up to see her about 3 times a week and spends an hour or two teaching her to read, write etc. She seems to be doing well so far.
We also went to see another project on based in Ollantaytambo called Living Heart on Thursday. They take food up to schools in more remote areas to help provide a balanced nutritious diet for the children. We went with Rita who works on the project to two schools, both were very impressive.
The food market at Urubamba where we helped to buy the food for the schools; Sillacancha school with children working in the field at breaktime – they are hoping to be able to grow guinea pig food and sell it.
This is the other school, Ccotataqui which was high up in the mountains, along a stony path that I really didn´t think the car could drive up!! It was a really clean, beautifully painted school. Here´s the headteacher playing some music for the children and the cook in the kitchen.
On Friday I went to Cusco and had a lovely weekend going to see the ruins. They have a system here where you can buy a tourist ticket which includes entrance to 16 separate sites and museums in Cusco and the Sacred Valley. They are good value if you can see everything but the ticket it only valid for 10 days. I went on a city tour on Friday which allowed me to see 4 different sites. They were incredible, especially Saqsayhuaman, where you can see close up these incredibly big stones and how they have been fitted together by the Incans.
I forgot to mention going out dancing in Cusco on Friday night with some of Leander´s friends. Cusco is a party town and I had my first experience of Latin dancing, with Vincente and Cesar, two of Leander´s friends or snake hips as I now think of them! This was the band we saw singing about the ´selva´or jungle!
Today, the plan was for me to start teaching in another school, Paucarbamba down by the river, where the floods happened but yesterday, a ‘paro’ was announced - which is a strike on the roads. Not only does this mean that I can‘t get down to the school but the guinea pig training that was scheduled for today has had to be cancelled, luckily Leander has managed to re-schedule a meeting for the community involved in the knitting project and Nelly managed to get here from Cusco yesterday to do the training today. Things can change rapidly here so it’s important to be flexible!
Vicky Armstrong
Paskay (Mysmallhelp Peru)
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