I have an hour before I head back to Cai Cay and wanted to throw out a few thoughts about what we´re doing with the kids. Over the last week I have been tossing around the question; am I really helping the kids?
It wasn´t until Thursday that I finally came to an answer that I agree with. At first the school and what we were doing seemed very unorganized. As I said before four of us patch together a class plan for the day which is translated through 3 languages before being presented to the children. If that doesn´t feed chaos, how about throwing in the 30 to 40 kids of different ages and different skill levels to teach in two rooms that are only divided by an open archway, creating even more distratction. Needless to say maybe they repeat, How are you or find the dog in the map of the city or can count to 10 in english or spanish for that matter with the younger kids. Is that really what they need?
As I walk down the cobblestone street dodging the cow pies and avoiding the squirely dogs, passing the similing villagers with loads of corn or potatoes on their backs larger and heavier than I am, I wonder is the bits of english or the reading and writing of any language helping these children. Do they even need help?
Jimme the guy from Holland whom I have been volunteering with dubbed us Volunteer Tourists... since we take photos of the children of the landscape of the village and have an out. We will be there for two weeks and we are gone. Just tourists passing through a village buried in poverty. We come in and feed our egos by helping out and resolving whatever guilt we have for living a life of excess with our cars, televisions, computers, and whatever luxury you can imagine. But does it really help? Are we making a difference? Would it be better if we werent there?
Here´s what I came to on Thursday... it´s not the language, it´s not the education although those things will make it easier for the children to step out of that village and opens how much choice they have in their lives. Our little school with 2 hrs to help them each day isn´t enough. It barely scratches the surface of educating the children properly. But it does give them something more and it does offer the world something more. You see, I can look back on each day and my mind is filled with smiles, laughter, and good times. The kids have fun with us... for example the last 3 days I took charge of the children washing their hands before coming into the school. ( they get really dirty in the dusty village and it ruins the books, and supplies if they get dirt on everything..)... so they wash in a large bucket and I towel dry their hands. To make this fun, I have been grabbing their hands with the towel and shaking them dry, sometimes with sound effects and sometimes with a dab on the nose or a wipe on the mouth. They laugh and laugh and one little boy has now made that his greating to me. He puts his hands out in front like in prayer fingers pointing out and slides his hands together with a shooting sound and a smile. I do it in return and we connect. A few of the other boys call me juan encino or something like that from a movie smackdown? I´m not really clear what they are saying but they claim I'm a movie star or something because they have seen an american movie in which I resemble one of the characters..again we connect. A final example or moment was when the kids were working on mother´s day presents... Mario the boy I mentioned who lives in the shed with the guinea pigs was having trouble. I was pulled to sit down with him and help him and the boys at his table. What came out of that time together was that his mom had died. I showed him my angel tattoo on my leg of my mom who had also died and we connected as did many other kids...
So before I babble on for pages... the key to what we are doing is in the moments that we share. The glimpses of connection... the space between the knowledge and teaching when all time stops and we see each other for people for human beings having a physical experience together. We aren´t there to teach english, we aren´t there to teach reading, writing, etc... that is an excuse to open our hearts to different cultures. To see beyond the boundaries of money, education, language, location and know we are changing the world... for every moment we connect with one and other we create a peace and understanding. If these moments were had by each person in the world every day.... I believe we would start to see a difference in our personal lives which would radiate into the world around us for we are all connected by far greater bonds they we chose to acknowledge in our day to day lives...
And finally the ability for me to share this in this blog I hope will inspire everyone who reads this to step through their day with a little more awareness, a little more gratitude and a little more acceptance of those around us... the choice of a better world is in our hands... and while I´m on the subject... check out this amazing organization I stumbled unto yesterday... this guy Yuri... is embodying what I¨m less than gracefully trying to illustrate in my writing... www.aldeayanapay.org
is his website that speaks about his amazing social projects... enjoy...
I´ll be adding more next weekend when I return form another week in Cai Cay...
Monday, May 14, 2007
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Cai Cay... week one the basics
I came back to Cuzco for the weekend with the other volunteers. The village of Cai Cay is a challenging place to live (at least for a Los Angelean)... It is a beautiful little village nestled in the mountains of Peru, however you feel as if you are cut off from all civilation. The village consists of one main street, cobblestone, and dirt paths branching off this main road. The homes are made of mud bricks with cermanic tiled roofs, some straw. The floors are either cement or dirt. Dogs, pigs, chickens, donkeys, llamas, alpaca and cows roam free around the streets and just outside the village. It has no place to eat and only four shops, which are basically rooms of peoples homes that are stocked with, water, beer, bread, vegetables, and a few basic necessities. Spanish is the second language, Quecha being the first. Walking down the street everyone greets you with a smile and a buenos dias (tarde, noche..etc.).
I have been staying at the school. Attached to the classroom is a kitchen, of which would flunk any american standard of cleanliness with one glance, a bathroom consisting of a shower head (it does have hot water which is accomplished through an electric coil in the shower head... the hose slips off.. but don´t try and put it back on while the water is running unless you want to be zapped awake.. yes I´ve done it... ), not enclosed, with a toilet, sink and steps leading up to one of the bedrooms for the volutneers. Beyond the bedroom with two small beds is another larger bed and now.. thanks to my education... a computer. Setting this up was my first task. The man who established the school, Ernesto, gave me the nickname Padrino de Computadora... The Godfather of the computer, and thought it was the funniest thing in the world. I think its funny how much it entertains him to call me that. Outside the main building for the school is a small manmade pond, courtyard and construction, since they are building a larger edition to the school which will house a downstairs classroom full of six computers and an upstairs dorm for volunteers. They are finishing the roof right now, which we are helping with by hauling the cermaic tiles via a wheelbarrel...(more on this later). Next to the new edition is a small barn/house where guinea pigs are kept and one of the neighbor kids Mario lives since his home is too small with all the brothers and sisters. He was taken in by the neighbors because both his parents died. I believe he has two brothers and the people who took him in have 3 or 4 kids. So Ernesto has taken Mario (13 years old) under his wing and allows him to stay at the school. From Mario´s room you descend a small incline where strawberries, pear trees, corn, and varous herbs are growing. At the bottom of the incline you find another small building that holds two twin beds and not much else... This is where I have been staying for the last week. The bed is sloped in the middle. I use the word slope because I swear by the amount the middle sags you require at least a tow rope to pull yourself out, a chairlift would be better. Needless to say the sleep has been less than sufficient. Perhaps this is part of the reason I now have a cold, the germs the kids haul in being the other part.
Okay enough about the conditions... what the hell have I been doing all week right?
Monday I arrived and set up the computer as I mentioned earlier. All morning I spent with Christina a German woman who speaks some Spanish and no English. It was very difficult to communicate. Then about 2pm Martje and Jimme arrived. They are from Holland and to my relief speak fluent English. Jimme speaks less Spanish than I do and Martje a bit more than I. They can also understand some German since it´s similar to Dutch. Between the four of us we manage to communicate and decipher the things Ernesto asks of us in Spanish. From 3pm to 5pm we teach the kids, about 35 of them depending on the day. The challenge has been how to keep it organized. The children range in age from 4 to 13 and are of various levels. Most speak Spanish, some can write and read spanish and some can speak english with very few writing and reading english. The four of us plan the classes and do the best we can. Christina is educated as a teacher so that helps. The rest of us wing it. Day one I taught the older kids how to say and answer "where is the blank" "can you find the blank" with a dozen things labeled on a drawing of the city. (streelights, benches, trees, dogs, cats, etc..) it went well they seemed to enjoy it. The second day we were able to split the groups more so we have the younger kids come at 3 for an hour and mostly do puzzles, games, learn the alphabet, etc... then the older kids come at 4pm til 5pm to do more advanced things in english. This was great since the first day the older kids were distracted by the younger kids playing. Again tuesday I taught more english and did a few puzzles with the younger kids. On Wednesday we had all the kids make cards, paint plastic vases ( cut from the bottom of water bottles), and make tissue paper flowers for their mothers, on mothers day. This was great and very easy to keep then entertained. Thursday was sports day.. so we walked to a soccer field used by the secondary school where the older kids go and played soccer, frisbe, caballo caballo burro.. (or duck duck goose as it is know in america) as well as twister. Let me just it was the longest most exhausting two hours of my life. 35 kids running around a field screaming Señor Señor and chucking balls, frisbees and whatever else at your head is enough to drive anyone crazy. I have found a greater respect for all the teachers in the world. This brings us to Friday in which we had a small presentation lead by Ernesto where the kids sang, and honored their moms and the mother of the school, Ernesto´s wife Dina. It was a great time and very touching. Plus this was the last day for Jimme he leaves for Boliva this weekend. The kids all ran up and gave him hugs and thanked him for the time he spent with them. It´s hard to believe in two weeks how attached you can get with the kids. Already after one week, I have my favorites and have little fun things I do with some of them to connect. Even though they are a challenge they are great kids and grow on you really fast.
So that´s two hours a day right... what the heck else do we do. Well the garden on the school grounds can be argued to be a small farm. There are chickens, bees for honey, guniea pigs, corn, stawberries, and other crops to be tended. Plus the building of the edition requires all the help we can give. We have been working hard in the morning before the kids come and when we don´t have chores to do we are off hiking the amazing trails around town. After the kids leave, we clean up and have dinner... it´s about 7pm and time for bed. However Martje, Jimme and I have entertained ourselves a couple nights with cards since we aren´t completely exhausted until about 9pm or 10...
That´s it in a nutshell. I´ll elborate more later... Right now I´m off to the market in search of a guitar so the kids can have sing alongs and fun musical activities when volunteers come who can play the guitar.
I have been staying at the school. Attached to the classroom is a kitchen, of which would flunk any american standard of cleanliness with one glance, a bathroom consisting of a shower head (it does have hot water which is accomplished through an electric coil in the shower head... the hose slips off.. but don´t try and put it back on while the water is running unless you want to be zapped awake.. yes I´ve done it... ), not enclosed, with a toilet, sink and steps leading up to one of the bedrooms for the volutneers. Beyond the bedroom with two small beds is another larger bed and now.. thanks to my education... a computer. Setting this up was my first task. The man who established the school, Ernesto, gave me the nickname Padrino de Computadora... The Godfather of the computer, and thought it was the funniest thing in the world. I think its funny how much it entertains him to call me that. Outside the main building for the school is a small manmade pond, courtyard and construction, since they are building a larger edition to the school which will house a downstairs classroom full of six computers and an upstairs dorm for volunteers. They are finishing the roof right now, which we are helping with by hauling the cermaic tiles via a wheelbarrel...(more on this later). Next to the new edition is a small barn/house where guinea pigs are kept and one of the neighbor kids Mario lives since his home is too small with all the brothers and sisters. He was taken in by the neighbors because both his parents died. I believe he has two brothers and the people who took him in have 3 or 4 kids. So Ernesto has taken Mario (13 years old) under his wing and allows him to stay at the school. From Mario´s room you descend a small incline where strawberries, pear trees, corn, and varous herbs are growing. At the bottom of the incline you find another small building that holds two twin beds and not much else... This is where I have been staying for the last week. The bed is sloped in the middle. I use the word slope because I swear by the amount the middle sags you require at least a tow rope to pull yourself out, a chairlift would be better. Needless to say the sleep has been less than sufficient. Perhaps this is part of the reason I now have a cold, the germs the kids haul in being the other part.
Okay enough about the conditions... what the hell have I been doing all week right?
Monday I arrived and set up the computer as I mentioned earlier. All morning I spent with Christina a German woman who speaks some Spanish and no English. It was very difficult to communicate. Then about 2pm Martje and Jimme arrived. They are from Holland and to my relief speak fluent English. Jimme speaks less Spanish than I do and Martje a bit more than I. They can also understand some German since it´s similar to Dutch. Between the four of us we manage to communicate and decipher the things Ernesto asks of us in Spanish. From 3pm to 5pm we teach the kids, about 35 of them depending on the day. The challenge has been how to keep it organized. The children range in age from 4 to 13 and are of various levels. Most speak Spanish, some can write and read spanish and some can speak english with very few writing and reading english. The four of us plan the classes and do the best we can. Christina is educated as a teacher so that helps. The rest of us wing it. Day one I taught the older kids how to say and answer "where is the blank" "can you find the blank" with a dozen things labeled on a drawing of the city. (streelights, benches, trees, dogs, cats, etc..) it went well they seemed to enjoy it. The second day we were able to split the groups more so we have the younger kids come at 3 for an hour and mostly do puzzles, games, learn the alphabet, etc... then the older kids come at 4pm til 5pm to do more advanced things in english. This was great since the first day the older kids were distracted by the younger kids playing. Again tuesday I taught more english and did a few puzzles with the younger kids. On Wednesday we had all the kids make cards, paint plastic vases ( cut from the bottom of water bottles), and make tissue paper flowers for their mothers, on mothers day. This was great and very easy to keep then entertained. Thursday was sports day.. so we walked to a soccer field used by the secondary school where the older kids go and played soccer, frisbe, caballo caballo burro.. (or duck duck goose as it is know in america) as well as twister. Let me just it was the longest most exhausting two hours of my life. 35 kids running around a field screaming Señor Señor and chucking balls, frisbees and whatever else at your head is enough to drive anyone crazy. I have found a greater respect for all the teachers in the world. This brings us to Friday in which we had a small presentation lead by Ernesto where the kids sang, and honored their moms and the mother of the school, Ernesto´s wife Dina. It was a great time and very touching. Plus this was the last day for Jimme he leaves for Boliva this weekend. The kids all ran up and gave him hugs and thanked him for the time he spent with them. It´s hard to believe in two weeks how attached you can get with the kids. Already after one week, I have my favorites and have little fun things I do with some of them to connect. Even though they are a challenge they are great kids and grow on you really fast.
So that´s two hours a day right... what the heck else do we do. Well the garden on the school grounds can be argued to be a small farm. There are chickens, bees for honey, guniea pigs, corn, stawberries, and other crops to be tended. Plus the building of the edition requires all the help we can give. We have been working hard in the morning before the kids come and when we don´t have chores to do we are off hiking the amazing trails around town. After the kids leave, we clean up and have dinner... it´s about 7pm and time for bed. However Martje, Jimme and I have entertained ourselves a couple nights with cards since we aren´t completely exhausted until about 9pm or 10...
That´s it in a nutshell. I´ll elborate more later... Right now I´m off to the market in search of a guitar so the kids can have sing alongs and fun musical activities when volunteers come who can play the guitar.
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Cuzco no bueno... por que un poco infermo
Well... I am sicko (altitude and pushed myself too hard)... the stress and pushing it the last week was too much... I passed out in the restroom on the plane... no bueno... it wasn´t bad just scarey... it took 24 hrs to get to Cuzco.. my plane had to turn around from mexico city to lima.... cost us about 5 hrs.... then I got right on a plane to cuzco from lima and at the school 24 hrs after I left LAX.... . the altitude is kicking my butt... I needed to get more sleep before throwing myself on this adventure.... well today I got to relax and play with Manfred´s two year old daughter Emmy... I am here until Monday when I go with two other volunteers to Cai Cay.... where there is only one phone in the whole village and no internet... I´m shaking already.... yikes... no technology... I´ll be there until the 18th working with the primary school kids.. they are laughing at me beacause most people spend 4 weeks learning spanish here at Manfreds school San Blas.. then go to Cai Cay... I packed everything into less than 3 weeks... and mi espanol is muy malo.. but I´m practicing .... don´t have much of a choice, for two weeks it´s either Spanish or Quecha... no ingles para mi...
I´ll write more later but have to meet the coordinator of the school in Cai cay tonight for a welcome/information dinner. I´ll update the blog and everything else later... don´t have much time now... might get one more entry before hitting Cai Cay... then 2 weeks and no computadora
I´ll write more later but have to meet the coordinator of the school in Cai cay tonight for a welcome/information dinner. I´ll update the blog and everything else later... don´t have much time now... might get one more entry before hitting Cai Cay... then 2 weeks and no computadora
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Ready, Set, Go
Six hours until I take off for Peru, the first leg of my journey. I will spend the next couple weeks working with a group of 45 orphans in Kindergarten and First Grade. After bouncing from LAX to Mexico City to Lima and to Cusco... I will journey an hour and half to Cai Cay. I'm not sure how much internet access I will have in this small village so this may be the last blog for awhile. I am completely exhausted and I haven't even left yet. It's amazing how quickly things pick up when the date of departure approaches. It was 8 months ago and each week was dreadfully long. Then I slid into two months before departure and things picked up. It was all about getting rid of my junk, saying good bye (which was much harder than expected), purchasing the necessary things for my trip and before I knew it one month, then two weeks, then three days then, what? 6 hours.. geez...
My entire life is now packed into 3 bags. This hit me last night when I opened the door to my apartment and the keys on my key chain were three keys lighter, since I had left work earlier that day and turned in the keys. Then this morning I moved out and bam another three keys lighter. I'm down to car keys which I just handed off to Tony who is watching my Jeep while I travel. So, no keys, no phone, and no place to call home. Yikes. I don't have the words. It's exciting, yet very uncomfortable to be sitting in the guest room of my friends house knowing that tomorrow I step into something I have never experienced before. I step into the unknown. I can't do anything else about it. It's coming and I have to enjoy the ride, which I voluntarily placed myself upon with a smile on my face. A long sigh and I feel my mind quiet and my feet touch the ground. I'm here right now. Please keep your hands inside the car at all times.. ready... set... go... and oh...Enjoy the ride.
My entire life is now packed into 3 bags. This hit me last night when I opened the door to my apartment and the keys on my key chain were three keys lighter, since I had left work earlier that day and turned in the keys. Then this morning I moved out and bam another three keys lighter. I'm down to car keys which I just handed off to Tony who is watching my Jeep while I travel. So, no keys, no phone, and no place to call home. Yikes. I don't have the words. It's exciting, yet very uncomfortable to be sitting in the guest room of my friends house knowing that tomorrow I step into something I have never experienced before. I step into the unknown. I can't do anything else about it. It's coming and I have to enjoy the ride, which I voluntarily placed myself upon with a smile on my face. A long sigh and I feel my mind quiet and my feet touch the ground. I'm here right now. Please keep your hands inside the car at all times.. ready... set... go... and oh...Enjoy the ride.
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