Kitaiteri maarioni! Buenas dias a todos! Or good day to you all!
Yes, I´m actually here at La Aldea in Mazamari, a boarding school for Asháninka children.
First I couldn't get to Satipo from Lima because of the bad roads, which meant that I spent a month in Lima studying Spanish. When I finally got to Satipo the 1st March I knew right away that from now on my journey would really begin. Esperanza and her friends (all in their twenties) greeted me warmly and lovingly and apart from a bad stomach that lasted about 4 days I felt great in my new surroundings. I visited La Aldea in Mazamari and slightly disappointed by the news, they told me school starts the 14th, not the 7th as I had previously been informed.
As AJEDMA hasn´t started it´s projects yet, I didn´t really know what I would be doing for two weeks! However, in the company of my kind Peruvian friends those two weeks seemed to fly by faster than I could have imagined. I had time to get accustomed to my new surroundings, new people, new food, new culture and new climate all once again. Already the first day I knew I was in a good place with good people. The heavy rains this year have caused more than 5000 people, who live along the River Ene, to lose their homes, clothes and food. About 50 volunteers, including me and Esperanza, spent a day walking from shop to shop and house to house in search of donations, food or clothes. At the end of the day three big tents lined up in front of the city hall were full with these donations. It was very inspiring seeing people who obviously don´t have very much give away a bag of clothes or a kilo of carrots. At the end of the day I thought to myself, that I may be worried and having a hard time getting accustomed to living in Peru, but I am learning to give, be thankful for everything I have and see the good in everyone around me. Unfortunately we also had to conclude that:
La gente que mas tiene, menos da. The people who have more, give less. Nevertheless it was a big experience for me and I have since heard that the donations have been flown to the River Ene and progress is being made.

Other than that I spent my days having breakfast with Esperanza´s dad (Esperanza goes off to work early). We talked about some of the problems the natives are experiencing in the jungle (deforestation, terrorism and river contamination) and also, he was very glad to talk about religion (all in Spanish if I may add!) J. After a nice and quiet morning I visited Asháninka communities, learned how to ride a scooter, learned how to dance salsa (more or less), taught English to some friends and talked to the locals. I have about 10 pages written in my diary about these two weeks so it´s a bit difficult for me to sum it all up in a blog! But I´ve had a great time learning new people and learning a lot about myself too.

Anyway, that was Satipo! I have now been at the school in Mazamari for 4 days, teaching, eating, sleeping and playing with the kids. It is a big and beautiful catholic boarding school (some 200 children who don´t live here also attend classes) - complete with a small hospital, bakery, computer room, library, canteen, common rooms and more! The 170 kids who live here are orphaned Ashaninka natives, who come from communities deep in the jungle. They have suffered from terrorism; terrorists stealing their land and cutting down their land to grow coca for cocaine production. They are all happy and healthy children, but they have to deal with a lot of traumatic experiences, which naturally means that some of them are quite sad. They are all very interested in me and I look forward to getting to know them and their stories better.
This week I´ve had 2-4 hours of teaching in secondary school with the only English teacher at the school, Elizabeth. The first few days were a bit difficult because she didn´t include me in her teaching, and quite frankly I couldn´t see how I was helping in any way. Luckily I managed to convince her that I really am interested in teaching, and she was very glad to hear about and use my ideas of games to play and songs to sing in class. So the teaching is getting better every day as we learn how to work together. In the afternoons the children have a few hours where they have to do their homework in a big common room. I help them with their homework and teach the younger ones English songs and chants. I eat with the kids and the madres and I sleep in the teacher´s dormitories. The water is brown and sometimes there isn´t any, but other than that I´ve got just about everything I need!
I am off to Satipo now to spend the weekend with my friends and will come back to the school on Sunday to continue teaching and learning from the beautiful children in Mazamari.