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China&Peru 2006
First week and a half in Chiclayo complete and I m having a great time!
The family that we are staying with are superb- they could not do anything more to make us more comfortable (I think that their son has changed and redecorated a room just for our stay!). The mother is lovely, havent really spoken that much with the dad though because he was at university for the 1st week. The son, Daniel, is a Uni student a yr older than us and they also have a 14 year old daughter, Marielle. The cute thing is that there two apartments that make up the house, the other one is owned by the Mothers sister and the gran lives upstairs too.
The orphanage turned out to be next door to the school where we are teaching, instead we are working with local and underpriveliged children between the ages of 3 and 5. 90 brats in total, divided into 4 classes and its our job to try and teach them a little english, practice some sport with them, but mainly to just play with and look after them during their break time (think they get more of that than they have lesson time!). So far this has involved almost exclusively lifting them up and throwing them around. Weve visited the gym here a few times, but I think that playing with the kids is actually more tiring.
The upside of it all is that on top of the breakfast and lunch that is cooked at home for us (we get back from "work" before half 2!), the school also provides breakfast and lunch and a mid- morning snack for all staff and pupils. Needless to say, its just as well that we are doing so much exercise with the kids because otherwise I think I might have been coming home with a little more excess weight than planned!
Last friday (21 de Julio) we took all of the kids to the airport, the firestation and the beach for a little outing, Matt and I had to lift all 90 of them up a ladder into a boat and then pass all 90 of them out of the boat onto the beach again.......Hard Work!
At the weekend we headed out for a couple of beers with Daniel and his cousin. After, we dropped Matt back home and put him to bed, went for a burger and then purchased the local venom which is a poor quality rum mixed with fruit juice- tasty stuff too.
This last week has been a bit of a doss because the entire school was preparing for Independence Day celebrations. As a result Matt and I did no teaching whatsoever and spent our mornings spending even more time playing with the kiddies (if anyone can think of a way that I can say this without sounding like a filthy paedo, please do let me know.....) and watching over them during class.
One of the 3 yr old boys, Marvin J (needless to say, we call him "Marvin Gay" referring to the well known singer as opposed to commenting on his sexuality of course, although some questions do need to be answered about his relationship with Matthew.......), has developed quite a flair for his extra curricular English; Matt has taught him several phrases including Joeys catch phrase "How u doing" plus "dont do drugs".
The kids put on a show about the independence story on Thurs for the parents. A little chaotic trying to arrange the kids (and parents were just as bad!). Afterwards, a bunch of parents basically queued up for a photo of their child with the "foreigners"- felt a little like a zoo attraction.
Friday the 18th was a national holiday because its their independence day and the new prime minister was sworn into power (same guy was voted in 20 years ago!). Went to the Señor de Sipan museum (tumbas reales) which turns out to be one of the top 10 museums world wide! All about stuff that was dug up locally from a pre inca civilisation. Some awesome metallic craftsmanship but there was far too much ceramic on display for my liking. All in all it was well worth the trip though.
Clubbing in the evening after a couple of beers in a local bar/ pub. Good night, not much to say about it except te latinos love to dance! Oh and there were some kool dancers that came on a few times during the evening to do some traditional peruvian dancing.
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