Day 6

We went straight to work today.... haha well that is a lie, things don't really start here until around 9 or 10 in the morning. But at about 9:30 we got right to work. We started by going out to the school, and got a tour of the buildings and met the kids. When Peru's Challenge first came into the community 2 years ago there was only one teacher and 12 students, now there are 7 teachers, grades Kinder-6th and about 150 students. The school has a kitchen, and tool shed along with the classrooms, and more classrooms are being built now. There is also a soccer field and sports area, a drama and theatre stage, and a garden including a small greenhouse. Just last year a company called “guide” donated 8 computers to the school so now the kids have computer classes once a week. At around 11:30 it was time for the kids to wash up for lunch, all of us volunteers are trying to get the kids to learn how to use soap and clean the hands and face before eating, so all the kids get in a line to wash up and if they do what they are told then they get an extra piece of fruit. For most of the kids at the school lunch is the only meal they will get all day. It was so funny watching the kids clean up, a few of them started talking to me, and now they call me “Amigo Chase” haha. And one of the older boys thinks I look like Peter Parker from Spiderman haha. After lunch we had a volunteer meeting to set up the schedule for the following week. I am the new garden leader, so I will be working in the garden and teaching the kids how to grow fruits and veges. I am also the new leader of the computer classes. I'm a little nervous about this because my Spanish isn't so good. But Ivan is going to be in the class with me and he speaks it pretty well. He just doesn't know a lot about computers, so between the two of us I think we will be ok haha. Around 12:30 to 1 we went back down into the city where I went to the bank and took care of all the financial stuff for my stay here, and after that we went back up to the village “Pumamarcus” (I think, don't quote me yet I'll check the spelling tomorrow haha) and we did house visits. Tonight we visited this small two story house in the village that we just installed a toilet outside last week. Apparently the local government has been taking credit for our work over the last few months so we decided to paint all of the toilets light and dark blue which is Peru's Challenges logo colors haha. It was so funny the little girl that lives there kept trying to eat the paint, we spent half our time moving her out of the way and away from the apparently yummy looking paint haha. After house visits we went back into the main part of the city for our welcome dinner at a very nice restaurant called Tunuras. There was a fantastic show put on by a local band featuring local music and some classic Peruvian folk dances. There were quite interesting. And the food was superb. Well that is about it for today.