This weekend was Father’s Day. My
family celebrated by eating breakfast with Rebecca’s dad and eating a huge
lunch with all of Carlos’ family. On Saturday Rebeca, Carlos, Yerlin, Gianella,
and I worked together to make a cake for the occasion. Once it was in the oven,
us girls kicked Carlos out of the house so that Gianela could finish making her
gifts for all the papas in the family. We all worked together to make these
little yellow car picture frames made out of cardboard and fuzzy cloth. Also, Yerlin painted my fingernails. All the girls at training are jealous.
Soooooooo…(I know you liked that
opening, Grace Kelly) it is only Week #2, and we are going to go to a school to
give our first “charla” (session, lecture) on Thursday. We are having language
class in my casa this week, so I am not waking up til 7:00! Super late! Major
sleeping in happening! We are mainly focusing on prep for our charlas. All of
us in my language class are pretty nervous. We found out on Tuesday who we will
be teamed up with and our topic. We were given a brief outline of a game we
will play with the kids and how our lecture should proceed, but that was about
it. We had no time in class for discussion. I pegged down my team members after
classes to choose which part I would discuss. Pablo helped me work on it
Wednesday morning and then we had two hours Wednesday afternoon to plan the
details. I have to explain to the kiddies the difference between high
self-esteem and low self-esteem and then how a person can improve his/her
self-esteem. I am going to have the kids get into groups and write out these
three categories on a piece of butcher paper. (Side note to all my fellow psych
grads – It’s like I’m in the counseling dept all over again! They use butcher
paper more than a… butcher down here!) I wrote out my script and feel pretty
good about it. Rebeca helped me tweek it and make it a little more personal on
Wednesday night. I basically memorized it, but I am still nervous that the kids
are going to ask me questions that I won’t be able to interpret, so I don’t
sleep.
The schools here are divided into
primary and secondary schools. There are five grades in each school. My group
will be presenting our charla to first, third, and fourth grade classes in a
secondary school. Of course the most advanced speaker in my group is really,
really late, so I am starting to panic a wee bit. She shows up and we get
started. We play a game outside where all the kids have to tie a balloon around
their ankles and try to pop everyone else’s balloons while protecting their
own. The balloons represent self-esteem. It is hard to protect when everyone is
attacking it. (Yeah, total stretch, but the game was so much fun.) I got to play
because one girl had an injured ankle, but already had a balloon blown up. I
had a blast! The poor guy in my group who had to explain the game was having
hell. It was so incredibly loud outside on the patio and the kids were not
wanting to listen when they have balloons and strings in their hands. The game
was pretty rowdy, but it was my favorite part of the charla. My part was so
much smaller than I had planned. I had prepared for giving extremely detailed
instructions, but I had to say two sentences in each class, and the kids just
took off. Of course, there were some kids that asked me questions, but I only
had to get my more advanced teammate to answer them twice. Overall, it went way
better than I thought it would and the smiles on the kids’ faces makes my
looking ridiculous totally worth it J.
The kids here are very friendly and
treat us like celebrities. They were lined up after we were all finished asking
us for our autographs and email addresses. One girl asked me if I knew Justin
Bieber. Her face lighted up when I said “yes.” When she was about to faint, I
realized that she thought I meant that I knew him personally. It was really
difficult to refrain from pretending like me and the Biebs don’t hang out every
day, but I still lack the conversational skills in Spanish to attempt that.
Everything is still going well. I
thought I would provide yall with some interesting differences that I have
noticed between U.S. and Peruvian culture so far:
·
Peruvians drink very little, and when they do,
it is hot/room temp beverages. At this point I am not sure if it is because it
is winter here, ice is hard to come by, or if it is a regional thing (rather
than a Peruvian thing). I do know that if someone is sick, some believe that
drinking cold beverages will worsen the sickness.
·
Since I mentioned it above, I have noticed how relative
heat and cold are. It is consistently in the 60’s here. (No, I don’t know the
degrees in Centigrade yet!) I am in capri pants and my host mom is in long
pants, a heavy coat, a scarf, and repeating “Hace frio, no?” (It’s cold). I
know my real mom would be in shorts and a t-shirt in this weather.
o
Side note: I’m sure that packing til midnight
the night before I left has nothing to do with this, but I ended up with one
pair of jeans and one pair of denim capris. The main “jefe” (boss) of my youth
development program strongly encourages business attire every work day, even in
training. Any other current trainees reading this, I would like to note that I
dress in business attire every day because of necessity, not cuz I want to impress
the boss J.
Every American that I have asked about buying some jeans says that Peruvian
jeans fit really weird (too short, excess room in the hienee), so I am looking
forward to that. Since I make S./10 a day, I probably won’t be able to afford a
pair for a while anyway.
·
Being cold at night will make you sick. My host mom
frowns upon me bathing at night. For those of you who may have forgot, since I
have barely mentioned it in previously blogs, I take COLD SHOWERS. lol. I have
Zumba class three nights a week and I hate waking up any earlier than I have
to, so I prefer to take my showers at night. After a little talk about how it
is almost as cold in the morning at 6am as it is at 7pm (remember, we are talking
about 60 degrees), I probably won’t get sick, my host mom relented.
·
Did you know that eating too much salt will make
you cry? This one I left alone.
Please keep the comments coming!
Miss you all.