Weekend in Lima

A view of the ocean from Miraflores. The road running along the coast is the Pan-American highway. (You can click on the photo to see it bigger.)


Watching the sun set over La Rosa Nautica, one of the best restaurants in Lima.

Last Wednesday and Thursday, we took a vacation to Lima. Normally when we visit, we don't get to spend much time there because of the 3 hour combi ride each way. So this time, we decided to stay overnight in a hostel.

We left after lunch on Wednesday and got to Miraflores (a really nice part of Lima where some friends live) by about 3:30. After finding a hostel (only 20 soles per person) and dropping off our stuff, we walked over to the ocean. It was one of the volunteer's first time seeing the Pacific Ocean! We then found a really beautiful restaurant overlooking the water, got seats on the patio outside, and watched the sun set over the ocean. After that we went for Greek food and hung out with friends from Miraflores.

The next day was pretty relaxed. In the morning, we got Starbucks, since coffee shops don't exist in Huaycan, and Indian food. Then, around 3, most of the other volunteers decided to head back to Huaycan, while another person and I stayed in Miraflores. She had lived in Miraflores before, so she caught up with old friends, while I went on a search for English books. I've been out of reading material for a while, so I was really excited to find two really good books, both by Latin American authors.

I bought Blindness by Jose Saramago (a Portuguese author who won the Nobel Prize in Literature), and The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa (a famous Peruvian author and now politician). I'm now reading Blindness, which is really good so far. But I want to read it in Spanish in the future, because I can tell that it would be absolutely beautiful. And I can't wait to start on The War of the End of the World because I've already read and loved one of Vargas Llosa's books, and this is known as his literary masterpiece.

And that was about it. After that, I just met with the other volunteer, hung out with her friends for a while, then headed back with her. The weekend might sound pretty boring, but it was really a welcome change. After staying in Huaycan for a while - where there aren't bookstores, coffee shops, nice restaurants, or any food other than Peruvian food or chifa - it felt really nice to take a "vacation" and be able to relax, watch the sunset, and do things we normally can't.

Election Day

This Sunday, Peruvians voted for the mayors of their districts and regions. Since it's mandatory to vote in Peru, today was absolutely crazy. It seems like all of Huaycan (and Lima!) was out on the streets. The volunteers who commute from Lima to Huaycan every Sunday couldn't get here today because the traffic was at a standstill. And the main intersection of Huaycan was completely clogged up. There were so many cars in it that none of them could move. When I had to cross the street there, I couldn't even go between some cars because they were stopped so close together. Getting to classes today was quite interesting. We left 45 minutes to an hour early for each class. And then we quickly realized that finding combis was impossible and just used motos all day.

Mandatory voting isn't the only way the government reacts to election day. There's also a law in Peru called La Ley Seca, or the Dry Law. It says that alcohol is illegal in Peru 48 hours before the election and 24 hours after. In other words, no alcohol can be served on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and maybe even Monday. And all discotecas and clubs are closed those days too. The objective is for people to be sober and ready to vote on Sunday. However, I think it's a fairly ridiculous law, since people respond to it by stocking up on alcohol on Thursday and partying throughout the weekend. In fact, it seems like people almost drink more than they normally would just because they're not allowed.

Museo de la Nacion

Outside of Museo de la Nacion


Inside of Museo de la Nacion


View of Lima from the 6th story


Exhibit on Peruvian art through the years


A message to visitors to begin the Shining Path exhibit. I really recommend reading it (or translating it first, if necessary).


More of the Shining Path exhibit


Part of the Shining Path exhibit


More of the Shining Path exhibit. Plaques to the left are passages from the Truth and Reconciliation Committee that investigated human rights abuses during the 1980s and 1990s


Huaycan room


Plaque in the Huaycan room

Two weeks ago, we went to the Museo de la Nacion (National Museum) for our volunteer trip. The museum is being renovated, so they only have three exhibits open right now. However, two of them were the best and most important exhibits in the museum, so I don't think I missed out on anything at all. Plus, admission was free because of the construction!

The first exhibit showed Peruvian art through the years, beginning with the very first indigenous art in the country and ending with very current pieces. I really enjoyed this exhibit because it showed so much about Peruvian history. The art progressed chronologically, so we could easily see some of Peru's most important historical events, like the arrival of the Spaniards.

The second exhibit was fairly small. It was a small room with examples of indigenous art from the last century. The art was great, especially this huge colorful mural on one wall. But it didn't show as much about Peru as the other exhibits. All in all, it was a good exhibit.

The third exhibit was my favorite by far, though it definitely wasn't cheerful like the others. It was about the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) terrorism in the 1980s and 1990s. This exhibit was really different from the others. Where the others had brightly painted walls, this featured stark concrete walls and no decorations, only the photographs and plaques with historical information. There were 23 rooms, each focusing on a different aspect of the terrorism. (Note that there were 24 large historical plaques entirely in Spanish. I read them all!)

A quick history lesson: Shining Path, less commonly known as the Communist Party of Peru, is a terrorist organization in Peru. It began as a small revolutionary group led by philosophy professor Abimael Guzman. In 1980, it began acts of terrorism, with the aim of using violence to bring down the government, disrupt the economy, and ruin the state's reputation to create a communist government. It initially targeted low level political figures and upper class people, but eventually started killing anyone and everyone. The state's counter-terrorism campaign was equally brutal, since they killed anyone they suspected of having ties to the Shining Path. There was also a Marxist terrorist group at the time called Tupac Amaru (MRTA) that joined in the violence, but it was much less popular and effective and was more short lived. The violence continued from 1980 until about 2000. It's estimated that 70,000 people were killed between the Shining Path and government terrorism. This time was one of the most important events that defined Peru.

Something that seemed so foreign to me at the beginning really resonated with me by the end. Part way through the exhibit, I realized that even though the terrorism happened in the past, anyone close to my age would have lived through and been affected by it. For example, one of my students from conversation club is named Jason and is 23 years old. He had previously said he moved to Huaycan from Ayacucho before, but we then realized that he moved because of the violence since Ayacucho was the beginning and epicenter of the Shining Path terrorism. And Huaycan was actually created during the 1980s because so many people fled to Lima from the inside of Peru, and Lima didn't have the space to accommodate them. In fact, there was an entire room devoted to the creation of and consecutive violence in Huaycan. That was a complete shock to me, since the places in the photographs were ones I probably see every day, and had no idea about the history behind them. And the vast majority of the people in Huaycan are living there because of the terrorism. Though Huaycan is very safe for us now, ten years ago it would have been completely unthinkable to create an NGO in Huaycan because of safety.

I don't mean to make this a sad post. It really isn't. The museum was a great experience for me, and I now understand a lot more about Peru than before. Yes, it was solemn, but in a good way if that's possible.

Mistura

Halfway through the line for tickets


Inside the festival


Bread area




Tent with food for sale (and free samples!)






Chef cooking paella


Spicy octopus with potato


Spinach risotto


Ceviche sushi


Aji de gallina ravioli


Dim sum


Seafood and vegetable dish served with cancha (roasted corn)

This Wednesday and Thursday, we went into Miraflores and stayed overnight. I'll talk in detail about my adventures later, of course, but it was a lot of fun. My cough disappeared before I left (woohoo!), so I typed up this post then, but I didn't have enough time to upload all the pictures before I left. (They ended up taking 3 to 4 hours to upload, so everyone better appreciate them.) Then halfway through Thursday, I ate something that made me very sick to my stomach. I got home at about 8 pm and was camped out by the bathroom the whole night. Point is, I thought it was a good time to update this.

I just looked back at my blog and realized that I'm several weeks behind in recounting the volunteer excursions. I thought I had already written to explain those events, but apparently I forgot. I'll start with what happened longest ago, then work my way until the most recent events. So here goes.

Three weeks ago, on Wednesday September 9th, we went into downtown Lima for the Mistura food festival. Peru is known for having some of the best food in Latin America, so the Mistura food festival is a world-renowned event. The first day it opened, which I think was a Monday, there were 17,000 people there.

We went into Lima early Wednesday morning to buy tickets. All of the online tickets were sold out, but there was still a limited number available starting at 10 am each morning. By the time we got into Lima at 9:30 (2 hours by combi) and found the Plaza Vea where tickets were sold, there was a huge unmoving line of people. The line wrapped all the way around a plaza, then doubled back on itself. When I saw the line, I suggested that we do something else because I thought there was no way we'd get through the line before they ran out of tickets. Luckily, we decided to wait. They finally started selling tickets at 10 am, and the line had already increased by 50% by that time.

We finally got through the line and bought our tickets at 11:30, with plenty of drama over people cutting in line, trying to get us to buy tickets for them, and a lady who kept leaving the line and returning every 20 minutes with more people. And the ticket was only 20 soles ($7)!

The festival itself was incredible. It was a huge open area surrounded by hundreds of the best restaurants in Peru. To try the food, you bought either a half or full plate ticket, and then used the ticket at whatever restaurant you wanted. Two other volunteers and I each bought 3 tickets for half plates of food, and then shared them among ourselves, so I got to try 9 different dishes. Most of them were classical Peruvian dishes, but with a twist. It was all really good, but the best was probably a spinach and cilantro risotto with chicken, spicy octopus with potato, and aceviche (Peruvian/Japanese fusion sushi made with ceviche). Other dishes I tried were aji de gallina (traditional Peruvian sauce) ravioli, dim sum, and Spanish paella.

We also found a huge area of vendors giving free samples of their food. I got to try so many different candies, cheeses, drinks, and more. I bought a box of organic Peruvian tea and an alfajor there, which wasn't as good as the homemade ones I get in Huaycan. And there was also a huge area featuring pisco (a type of Peruvian liquor), so I got to try about 8 different free samples of pisco, plus one person gave us pisco sours.

It was another activity centered around food, but I really enjoyed the trip. The food was phenomenal, and the festival was an awesome opportunity. I doubt I'll be able to go to another world-renowned food festival for only $7.

Teaching

When I first read LLI's website, I saw that its programs included adult classes, community development, women's programs, and children's education. So when I signed up for this internship, I expected to be learning about and helping with all of those areas, as well as teaching English as is expected of long-term volunteers.

Yet when I first arrived and was given my schedule, I saw that it was completely full of English classes, with two slots for starting math and chess classes. And most of these classes were with kids ranging from 6-13 years old. I was really unsure of this. After all, I've never been a natural teacher. While I've done plenty of one-on-one tutoring, it's always been with people close to my age, and I've never even thought about how I would control and engage a class full of 6-9 year olds.

So from the start, I wasn't sure how good I'd be as a teacher here. But I definitely feel like it's getting better with time. Each of my classes poses completely different challenges, but I feel like I'm finally beginning to figure it all out.

Here's my schedule as it stands now is below. In general, classes run from 10-12 am, 2-5 pm, and then 6-8 pm each day. I don't really have many morning classes, but I have evening classes instead. I used to have evening classes every single night, but I just gave my Sunday conversation club to someone else. The Saturday art/dance class is one that I recently haven't been going to because I have so many other classes that day. But I think I'll start going to it again in the future.

Friday
3-5: English and sports for 6-9 year olds (Zone Z 232)
5-6:30: Women's English (Zone Z 232)

Saturday
10-12: English and sports for 10-13 year olds (Zone D)
2-4: Art and Dance (Zone D)
4-6: Chess (Zone D)
6-8: Women's English (Zone D)
8-9: Private Tutoring

Sunday
10-11: Math for 6-9 year olds (Zone D)
3-5: Chess (Zone Z 231)

Monday
3-5: English and sports for 6-9 year olds (Zone Z 232)
6-7:30: Advanced English (Zone D)

Tuesday
2-3:30: English for 6-9 year olds (Zone I)
3:30-5: English for 10-13 year olds (Zone I)
6-7:30: Intermediate English (Zone D)

When I first started teaching my Zone Z 232 6-9 year old class, the kids were absolutely crazy. I couldn't even get them to be quiet or do any work, and I spent most classes trying to keep them from leaving the classroom or climbing on the tables. I actually considered it a personal victory if I had a class where no one climbed out the windows. But I've been trying out lots of different types of lessons and incentives (stickers!), and it's been getting much better. I actually had a couple of classes where the kids were so perfectly behaved that the other teacher was afraid to enter the class for fear of disrupting it.

My intermediate class has completely changed from when I first got here, but all for the better. When I arrived, there was a basic and intermediate class on Tuesday nights for teens/young adults. (The students are between 16 and 20 years old.) But we realized that in the basic class, there were two levels of students: absolute beginners, and high beginner/low intermediate students. And in my intermediate class were two girls who are currently attending an English college, so their English is amazing, and a boy who is also pretty advanced. So we decided to break up the basic class. The absolute beginners stayed in the basic class, the more advanced people from the basic class formed the intermediate class, and we created an advanced class for the people from the previous intermediate class. And there was one boy who didn't fit perfectly into one level (too advanced for intermediate, not as advanced as the advanced class), so he's currently attending both classes. It's been working great so far. Both classes are so much fun to teach since the students are so interested and smart. We actually got through an entire chapter in the curriculum last night in my advanced class, including a 40 minute conversation, page-long reading activity, two grammar lessons, and more.

My women's class in Zone D is a really great class. I have 10-15 students ranging from 18 to 40 years old, including the lady who cooks for us. At first, the students were pretty afraid to speak, since they didn't want to pronounce it wrong. But then I told them that their pronunciation in English couldn't be much worse than mine in Spanish. And since then, they've been talking a lot! I'm glad my horrible accent is good for something.

What else can I talk about? My Zone I class is funny, since the kids are really smart, but sometimes unmotivated. And they're at the age where the girls and boys give each other a lot of crap during class. My math class is interesting, since I've never had to think about how to teach math in Spanish. And one of my students is a genius. He already knew everything, but when I asked it he had learned it in school, he said that he just knew it. I think I'm going to start private tutoring him, because he's way too advanced for the class. And my Zone D Saturday English class is full of adorable kids.

So the point of this massive post is that I'm really having fun teaching. I never thought of myself as a teacher, and I'm now sure if I still do entirely. After 7 weeks, I still keep trying out new types of worksheets and new activities to figure out how to best teach my students. But I'm liking this far more than I expected.

Why I haven't called or blogged in a while

After a perfectly healthy month here, my body decided to crash and burn. First my digestive system suddenly realized that I'm in Peru and went on strike for an entire week. It was annoying, but easy enough to ignore.

Then a couple of days after I started feeling better, my immune system decided to follow the trend and go on strike as well. I think I caught a cold from a volunteer who only stayed here for a week. Colds aren't a big deal, so I pretty much ignored it.

But my immune system apparently isn't fighting back, since this cold started morphing into something even lovelier, even after two full days of rest. What started out as a runny nose changed into sinus pressure and a sore throat, which led to a cough. I went to a pharmacy and got medicine to deal with the sinus pressure, so that went away completely, and also antibiotics. (I got the medicine checked out by our resident doctor, who said that it's what she would have prescribed.) But then the cough moved from my throat down into my chest, where it's wreaking havoc right now.

So if I promised to call and/or write and haven't, this is why. In theory, the antibiotics will clear this thing up soon, even though they've been ineffective for the last 3 days. And if that doesn't work, two Peruvian women keep giving me herbal remedies that should clear it up. The first attempt worked, but only temporarily, so now they're trying something different, which is doing well so far.

As soon as I feel better, I promise that I'll catch up on the blogging and calls I was supposed to do. It'll just take some time, but it'll definitely happen soon. It's way overdue.

Water Inequality

This is a good article about Peru having the highest inequality for water access in Latin America. Shantytowns like Huaycan are most affected by this, so it's really important to the people I live and work with. Read it.