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.