Vacaciones Utiles

The main reason Natalya and Liaia have come out now is because January and February are the school holidays and so allows volunteers more of a chance to get to know the kids and their parents. As I mentioned in a previous blog I had been thinking of giving the kids some English classes, perhaps on the weekend with the help of my friend at the English school. I was a little surprised then to turn up at the kitchen one day and find a full rota of English classes for the next week stuck on the outside of the building!

Not that I’m particularly averse to teaching English (although it wasn’t the reason I came here) it was a little surprising to see that I was supposedly teaching the next day and didn’t have anything prepared. I’ve never taught young kids before and hardly had any idea where to start. Fortunately I was able to call in a few favours.


When I started teaching at the school in the centre I thought that it might give me somewhere to get help and resources from if I ever was called in to teaching at La Mansion. My friend Samantha who had offered to help previously unfortunately was unable to help me teach classes in the week but had a few materials such as books and flash cards that I have been able to use.

Also, although I didn’t have any personal experience of teaching English to primary aged kids I had some friends who had. When I taught in Japan several of my friends taught kids of a similar age and so I sent out a facebook spam asking for ideas and several people wrote back sending links and ideas which I’ve somehow managed to fashion crudely into the semblance of a class.

The lessons have been going well. The kids love the games (or at least the sweets i had out if they win) and seem to be increasing their vocabulary. Some of the kids are really bright but unfortunately many (especially the boys) find it difficult to focus. Still, the games bring attention and enjoyment to the kids, something that sadly they often lack, and so I am glad that I can have some positive impact here. Even if I didn’t come here to teach...

Teaching the Queens

In my previous entry I mentioned how I'd some how managed to get talked into teaching English classes. This actually worked out quite well for me as it added a bit of structure to my day (even if it did mean i had to get up at 6am!)

For 18 days throughout December I caught the morning bus to work. I didn't realises that busses could be any more cramped but somehow they managed it! The only small blessing was that as I lived so far out I was normally able to get a seat. However given the crammed convi is I often had to move towards the door a good minute before I wanted to get off as to negotiate a path through the jigsaw of bodies swelling in the vehicles central aisle.

After teaching two classes I finished at 11 and so had time to go into the centre and get some food. This was a really blessing as I've been struggling with food in Peru so being able to choose what I feel like was really great. I would also have a coffee or maybe an ice cream (as it's pretty hot here all year around) and plan my classes for the next day before catching a bus to the office.

Given the lack of structure to my position things can get a bit tedious and sitting in the office for 7 hours would not have been much fun. However as I was only there for 4 hours or so I felt I could be allot more focused on translating the website which was my main job.

You can see the progress at www.ciescu.org. Most of the principle pages are now available in English. I managed to get them to clear the structure up a little but but I still find it's a maze to find what you're looking for. I've been trying to get through a page a day though which I feel is pretty good going given the amount of information that's been crammed on the page. I did try and get things simplified but i think Jose has alot of information he wants to get across.

The other positive thing about teaching is it's given me some links which could be useful for the work. Many of the kids in the Mansion have been asking me to teach them English and to be honest I don't really know where to start! I figured if I taught in the school I'd get some more experience and access to materials which I could use.

I have also mentioned to Samantha (the Sarah Palin look-a-like) about the project and CIESCU and she's interested in helping me set up an English class at the weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to get it up and running and get other foreign visitors who are teaching at the school to help out on the project. The only thing holding it back is that nothing is that easy in Peru!

I asked Jose when a good time to start would be and he suggested the second week of January which didn't give me a lot of time to plan. I contacted Samantha who said that she wanted to visit the area and start to plan. I tried to find out if it was possible to visit in the next day or when would be a good time but it seems the project is struggling and stopped for Christmas/new year/indefinite future or something. so i'm caught between a rock and a hard place. I'm trying to get more involved and set something up which would help the project and the organisation but there isn't actually anything concrete to work around! Ah Peru!