Respect and Reward

So this idea's been rattling in my head for a while (to all the teachers reading my blog, this goes out to you).

Respect in the classroom.

Now that we're coming to the end of our time in Peru, I feel like I can talk on the difficulties of teaching in Peru, and teaching in general.  In Peru, the children love: being competitive, and hitting each other.  With being competitive (in activities), we've just told them to calm down, and tried to be just.  With hitting each other, we tell them sternly to not do it, and tell their teacher if things get worse than a little hit.  From what I can tell, that's the only difference from American children. (oh, and they really love copying things from the board for some reason).  Now on teaching, sixth graders are sixth graders.  They're loud, don't want to pay attention sometimes, and can be difficult to teach sometimes.

Onto respect.  I feel like despite us spending so much time with them, we have yet to gain their full respect as teachers.  That feeling, my friends, is not a good one.  For example, we can't get the class to a full silence without the teacher there (attempts elicit laughter/mockery).  Maybe it's because we're too nice, or we're just too gringo for them to take us seriously.  While I feel like we succeeded in teaching them the material we wanted them to learn, which is great (some of them spontaneously broke out in "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes" Tuesday!!), I still kinda regret not fully gaining their respect like their teachers have.  Again, maybe it is because we don't yell enough (Peruvian teachers yell a lot), or because we can't really do much to punish them.  (the Spanish component might have something to do with it as well)  Either way, for all student teachers I've ever had, for all teachers that have had a difficult class/student, I completely understand, and am sorry.

The beautiful part of this, however, is that we can see how far they've progressed.  I think some of you know how good it feels to see when a lesson has gotten through. That's where reward comes in, and makes my qualms about respect irrelevant!  See, the best part about teaching (and volunteering), is getting something back in return for all the sweat and tears you put in.  I think in the end, that's what I'm going to let define my time here.  Because honestly, seeing my kids sing in English was pretty awesome.


#totheteachers #6daystillthestates #notsickanymore #whenisitgoingtostopraining

¡Festival for Sr. de Torrechayoc!

Wiped.

There's been 2 days of festival for Señor de Torrechayoc (who is more or less Jesus).  There's so much that just happened, but let me see if I can't break it down in a list.

• Bands like practicing at 4 in the morning
• Fireworks go off every 5 minutes or so
• Urubamba is packed
• Sr. de Torrechayoc's face is plastered everywhere
• 42 groups are dancing throughout the streets
• Colors and costumes galore! (lots with masks)
• Start from 7 am to late night
• Everyone's getting drunk
• Apparently people save up $ all year for this one festival
• Can someone say religiously themed?

There's so much that went on, I think I'll just go ahead and do narrating through pictures.  (Currently uploading some 350 pictures, but some 350 pictures from the weekend can be found here starting around #630)

#allfestivaledout #somanycolors #wow #peruvianscanthrowdown

vamos al mercado, a mi me gusta comprar

lots of stuff to buy

Yeah, the inside market's huge

but outside, there's lots of vendors for blocks around

A moto-taxi

like this alll over Urubamba - Ollanta's the governor of the region down South

So a few things:

• I finally snagged pics of the market: some are above and some are on the Picasa site
• Finally took a pic of a mototaxi - the main form of paid transportation in Urubamaba
• Election Day is soon (June 5th), and they're banning alcohol sales beginning Friday. Wise?

#thisweekendwillbeinteresting #itsreallycoldherenow

La Salle

The environmental education volunteers teach at 711 on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. On Wednesdays and Fridays (market days in Urubamba), we work with La Salle, an organization that cultivates and sells organic fruits and vegetables (to Urubamba and some restaurants in Cuzco). Two of us work in the market in Urubamba, selling the fruits and veggies, while the other two work in the greenhouse, taking care of the plants (then we switch).

The market in Urubamba (on market days), is ginormous! It covers at least a block-wide radius, if not more, including a 3-story warehouse full with vendors. Apparently all the vendors come from the communities around Urubamba, to sell their products. All types of trinkets, grains, bread, fresh fruit/veggie/meat, etc. can be found here, and it's an experience to just walk around and see what everyone has. La Salle has a little space outside of the warehouse, and there, we sell what's ripe and ready. People come to the market at 7 for the freshest items, and the produce generally runs out by noon. Yesterday, Emily and I sold tomatoes ("¡uno cincuenta por kilo!" - 1.50 soles per kilo of tomatoes), and it was pretty cool. The gente would come, ask about the price, ask for a set price/weight, and we would help them. A custom here, is that if they're exactly at, say one kilo, then they want to "aumentame", or add some more (for free). This happens especially with the older women of Urubamba, and if they ask for it, you just give them a smaller, slightly damaged tomato for free. That's the market!

In the greenhouse, we do weeding around the plants and generally prepare the ground to grow really, really good organic fruits + veggies.  (organic strawberries are Ah-mazing!) There are baby pigs, baby cows, regular/gigantic sized cows (only females to produce milk, they sell the males).  La Salle produces organic: tomatoes, strawberries, lettuce, beets, peppers, milk, yogurt, etc. It's pretty cool!

#organicwin #babycowsarecute #markettime

711

So after teaching all three classes, I think I can comment on how things are / are going to be. All the students have a uniform, which consists of tan button down shirts with epaulets and matching tan pants (sometimes with a hat), and then a sweater if they're cold. All the students are super cute - upon walking into the school, we're immediately surrounded by students excited to see us (calling out "¡Profe!", short for profesor), and in some cases, I'm called "ProfeDavid." It's adorable :)

Emily and I are teaching 3 different 6th grade classes, the oldest in 711. What's interesting is how each of the 3 classes differ (mostly) based on the teacher. In 6A, the profesora is really strict, and the class is super quiet as a result. In 6B, the teacher is pretty chill and nice, and the class is really energetic and fun to teach. In 6C, the teacher seems good…but today when Emily and I taught his class for the first time, he kinda dipped out on us for all of the class, except for the first ten minutes. Read: Emily and I had to control one of the more inherently rowdy classes by ourselves (not that bad but still). Regardless of the class dynamic, I love teaching these kids, and I think that the next 7 weeks are going to be excellent. (this week we focused on icebreakers, trying and failing to remember names, and gauging their level of knowledge of the environment and english). After I work in the greenhouse tomorrow, I'll post about that aspect of my project work.


#socute #imateacherquestionmark #myspanishisbetterthanithought

Project Time (here we go)

So, for those who aren't exactly sure on what I'm doing in Peru, I'm teaching the environment to 6th graders in Urubamba for most of the time. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, I get to go to the 711 school, which is so exciting! The kids are really cute - we met them today, and they just congregated around us (due to us sticking out like a sore thumb). We were there for recess, and we got to play volleyball with them (super fun). I think this will be pretty challenging, considering that we have to make lesson plans and make sure our spanish is up to par for actually teaching for an hour and a half at a time (~1 hr for environment, ~30 min for English teaching). On the days that we don't teach at 711, we get to either work in a greenhouse cultivating plants, or selling those plants at a market! There'll be more on all of this later, but that's the basic rundown.

#socool #excited #littlenervous

Heyyyyyy Urubamba!

The Urubamba group arrived into the pueblo around 8 at night. It's much smaller than Cuzco, and you can traverse the length of the city in about 30 minutes, if not less. It's more rural than Cuzco - it's smaller, but still urban. The closest analog in my mind is Kaoshiung, Taiwan. The best part however, is being surrounded by mountains. Anywhere you go, you'll get a spectacular view, and the mountains are so close, it's gorgeous. Since light pollution is way less than in the cities, the stars are super clear, and la luna is bright as can be. The weather is warmer in my opinion - We're about 1000-2000 feet less than Cuzco, and maybe that accounts for the difference. I can enjoy this weather a lot - it's like San Francisco weather with hot & sunny in the daytime, and cool and crisp at night, but comfortable at all times.

Chris and I met our host family yesterday. There's Ana, la madre, who teaches 4-6 year olds at a school near urubamba, and there's Agosto, el padre, who teaches literature in secondary school (think high school, but 11-17 year olds). They're great to talk to, and I think we talked about just about everything from politics, to music, films, and our lives. They don't speak much English, but I'm finding that my Spanish is better than I thought, and for the most part, I can understand what they're saying pretty well. They're so nice, and so great (they told us that we're a part of their familia now) and I think that the next two months will be amazing. Ana y Agosto's son, Andre (5 years old), is just about the cutest thing ever. While writing this post, he tried to take my computer and write "porque puedo escribe mayor." He's adorable, and will probably be one of the highlights here. Overall, I love my host family, and I love Urubamba.

#megusta #excited #sosowonderful