El Proyecto - The Project

So, what exactly am I doing here in Perú? Well, let me explain it to you the best I can. I'm working with an organization called Educa360 here in Chosica, Lima, Perú (Lima is a section of Perú as well as a city, and Chosica is in the region named Lima). There are two main projects in Chosica: The Change Agent Project and English Impact. Both projects work with children who attend El Colegio de San Carlos in Chosica. There are 4 trainees on the Change Agent Project, which focuses on teaching leadership skills and sustainability. They work mainly with older children. I am one of 5 trainees working on the English Impact project, which is brand new this year at the school. During the week, we work with children ages 10-16 (Secondary School) teaching English. But, it's not just any regular old class. Our job is to make it fun as well as giving the kids exposure to native English speakers to practice with. There are not many foreigners in Chosica, especially those who are from the States, England, or Australia, and it is our goal that interacting with us will help the children improve their English in a way they wouldn't be able to while in their regular classroom. 

But, there is also a part two to our project. On Saturdays, we teach four different classes solely to   the older children at the school. These classes focus on different themes taken from the YouthXChange project. The YouthXChange Project was created by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) in order to promote the "Culture of the Future" around the world. It promotes awareness of the environmental, psychological, and physiological problems in the world to the younger generation. This is in hope that they become ignited with a drive to make a difference and live a sustainable lifestyle. There are 9 different themes we are focusing on:

1. Respecting Our Bodies 

2. Packaging Yourself

3. Awakening Your Soul

4. Looking for a Place

5. Carrying the Torch

6. Clean Up Your Fun

7. Social Belonging

8. Pay The Right Price

9. Looking Ahead

I will continue to update y'all in greater detail as my team and I dive deeper into each theme. For now, we have explored the first two more carefully, and this is what we have come up with:

1. Respecting Our Bodies

Beauty is a feeling within us, and we need drift away from society's skewed definition of beauty and  recognize and practice the things that make us feel beautiful. This theme also includes proper diet and exercise. We should be aware of how we treat our bodies. After all, we only get one in this life, and it is important that we take care of it.

2. Packaging Yourself

Most of us don't think about were all of the material things in our lives actually come from. More particularly, our food and our clothes. For this theme, our goal is to get the students thinking about where things come from in the world. With that, problems with pollution, human rights, animal rights, and food sustainability arise. So, the question becomes, where do you want the things in your life to come from? And also, who is at fault for the mistreatment of humans, animals and the environment in our world? Us or the corporations? What effort can we make to fix these problems.

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Our goal is to educate the students of El Colegio de San Carlos about world issues, and encourage them to make a difference in their own lives, their community, and their country in order to keep the future as bright as it has the capability of being. In this short two months we have, I pray that we do make an impact on their lives and ignite a burning passion inside of them. 

If you have any questions or interest, feel free to ask me and/or visit the YouthXChange website: http://www.youthxchange.net/main/home.asp

And how did I get involved with this? Well, it's an organization named AIESEC, which is a non-profit student run organization found at many college campuses around the world. For anyone in college or heading to college, they are an awesome program to get involved with. Basically, it's a program that promotes global citizenship and sends students around the world to work and play. There is a ton of stuff they do, but that's a story for another time. 

A Quick Catch-Up

So sorry for the lack of updates. It's been quite a busy few days full of work. Basically, we've been planning classes the last few days at Dante's house. We break for lunch at our host homes, and then reconvene in the late afternoon until it's time for dinner. 

On Wednesday, we had a surprise midday - un terremoto!! Earthquake! It wasn't very big - nothing was damaged - but the house did shake a lot. 

I've tried many different Peruvian dishes in the past few days including "tuna," which is cactus fruit here. "Grenadilla" is an orange fruit that you don't chew. The inside is purely seeds and a gooey, tasty juice. You scoop it or slurp it out and simply swallow. Very delicious! For dinner one night, we ate "sopaipillas," which are essentially fried tortillas. Very bad for you, but so delicious. There has also been lots of rice eaten. Every meal, there is always rice and also usually some kind of potato. In Perú, there are thousands of different kinds of potatoes I swear. Before I came here, I didn't even know that many potatoes could even exist. 

My host mama's sister is visiting this week, and so the whole family has been over the past few days. It's awesome being a part of their quality time. All Peruvians, or at least all the ones I know, are so welcoming that way. When you stay in their house, they treat you like family. It's more than a host home; it's a host family. My mom, Olga, calls me her daughter and says she is going to kidnap me and never let me leave Chosica! :P Her sister lives in the United States, and she used to be a college professor at a university in Iowa, so it's very interesting to hear all of her stories. It's also nice to have someone around who speaks English! It seems like the longer I'm here, the thicker the language barrier is getting. All of the host families are awesome. 

Yesterday, Lemuel's family invited everyone to their house to hang out. It was great! We had a little jam session (Lemuel, Donovan, and a few of the host brothers can play guitar, Binita plays drums, and Ben plays piano). Lemuel's host family's house actually doubles as a Catholic church in Buenos Aires (an area of Chosica, not Argentina). It's outdoors and very beautiful. It's up in the hills, where you can see all of Chosica down below. It was an amazing site at night seeing all the lampposts and street lights lit up below. 

La Igelsia Católica

 Here's a link to one of our jamming videos: 

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151768465705005

I'm not sure how strong the privacy is, so I hope it works!
If you can see it, that song was written in 1995. Wow, I think that means I'm getting old.  

We are all hard at work planning our classes for next week, but it's the weekend, so we get a little break! Tomorrow, we are headed out super early to Lima in order to attend a Youth Global Change leadership event with our AIESEC friends. It will be all in Spanish, so I'm in for a tough day. But then, un tono! Hasta luego!

Side Note -- 

Congrats to all classes of 2012 who have graduated in the past few weeks from either college or high school. It's crazy how fast your life changes when you start a new chapter of your life. Best of luck to you all!

El Primer Día en trabajo

Today was our first official day of work at "Headquarters." This morning, we sat down to reviewethe orientation sessions from last week that me and a few other trainees missed, which basically were just an overview of good teaching strategies and lessons on the environment, history, and economy of Perú. Afterwards, we further discussed things with Dante and took a spice cake/Facebook picture tagging break. Bonding time. After break, Dante gave us a ton of information on our theme guidelines and what our goals for this project to be. After our work was done, we went to a delicious restaurant in Chosica where we ate "Pollo asado," a specialty of Perú. Even though I ate it on Saturday, it was still just as good three days later. But, instead of a side of "papas" (potatoes), us Americans had "ensalada" (salad). There is not many vegetables in the Peruvian diet, and the fruits are so sweet it's hard to adapt so quickly. We miss our fiber. 

Delicioso!

After lunch, we visited "supermercado" (supermarket) and then took our first ride in a "mototaxi." Those are those scary looking things that is essentially a box over a motorcycle. We survived, but it was like riding a roller coaster. Yeah, it was a little scary. 

Since we survived, most of the trainees chilled at Dantes house  until dinner time and watched "Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist" in Spanish, of course. It's a good thing I'd seen it before, or else I probably would have had absolutely no idea what was going on. My Spanish is still very bad, but it's beginning to feel weird writing in my journal and writing this blog in all English. I have come some distance since my arrival!

I realize that this "project" probably sounds very vague to those who don't know anything about the Educa360, English Impact, and YouthXChange programs, so I'm working on a writing a good explanation. I will post it soon, I promise. I just want to make sure I hit all the high points and that all the information is accurate. Coming soon this week!

El Primer Día en Chosica

Today was the first full day in Chosica for us trainees. This morning, I woke up unexpectedly at 6am to the family's dog, Orame. Apparently, he has taught himself how to open doors. So, he decided to come open my door at 6am.. ay. So, I woke up to Orame barking in my face. I have never seen a dog do this before..hmm. Anyways, I ate breakfast with the housekeeper, and then it was off to school!

"El Colegio de San Carlos" is the school me and the other interns will be teaching at for the winter. Today, we had a meeting with Dante, the principal (Dante's mother), and all of the teachers. We introduced ourselves and further discussed what our program does. Everyone was very welcoming, and after the meeting, we ate lunch together. It was more "Chifa" food (Peruvian-Chinese) - "arroz con pollo y verduras." It was very similar to chicken fried rice. 

After lunch, Dante took us on a walking tour of Chosica. It is a very beautiful city in a valley of the Andes Mountains. The mountains are huge and covered in dirt. I've never seen anything like it! There are many interesting buildings, old and new, and they all make the city very diverse and beautiful (as you can see in the pictures). But, there are also a ton of stray dogs. And today, we saw a dog fight - not a Michael Vick dog fight, a stray dog fight It was a little scary. We saw the river, which is very dangerous because of the rapids. By the river, we took a short Inca Cola break. Inca Cola is Peruvian soda, and like all drinks in Perú, it is very very sweet. It's like liquid bubble gum with carbonation, except it's yellow. After a delirious siting of Waffle House, we went to "el mercado," the market, which is the equivalent of a farmers market. It had many different Peruvian fruits, vegetables, grains, condiments, etc. Dante bought some coco leaves, which are obviously leaves from the coco plant. Cocaine comes from that plant, so all of us thought Dante was buying cocaine at first.. but no. The leaves are natural energy boosters! Chewing them is like having a cup of coffee or an energy drink. After we saw the market, we headed back to headquarters (Dante's house) for a meeting. He expanded on his teaching philosophy and told us the most important thing is having good relationships with the kids. Talking to them honestly and being very personal with them will make us good teachers. I agree very much with that philosophy, and am super excited to start planning classes tomorrow! Our first official day as teachers is Monday, and I know the other trainees are just as excited as I am. After lots of discussion and laughter, we played a few rounds of DDR and headed back to our host families for dinner. 

I had a nice, short dinner with part of my host family, and then I had my first failed attempt of Face-timing my family in Perú. There were lots of problems with the internet, and all I could really hear is my family telling me they missed me, and my brothers wanted to know where the first places I farted, pooped, and peed in Perú. No surprises there... jajaja. 


**The pictures are on my Facebook page! The internet is not great, and I am unable to upload them right now. I'll do it as soon as I can! Adios!

Lima a Chosica

On my second full day in Perú, Susy and her mother took me to "El Centro de Lima" or Historic Downtown. There was so much to see! The area is known for the preservation of it's beautiful balconies (see pictures). The district has many large, beautiful squares like the "Plaza Mayor," the "Plaza San Martín," and the "Plaza Dos de Mayo." En Español, plaza means square. There are many large, historic buildings as well such as "El Palacio Arzobispal" (The Archbishop's Palace), Basilica Cathedral (The Cathedral of Lima), the courthouse, many museums, and many churches and convents. There were many different music and dance groups performing in the plazas. They had very vibrant costumes, and the music they played and the dances they performed were typical Peruvian. In another part of el centro, they was a place where many different Peruvian chefs were displaying many different Peruvian specialty dishes. We were short on time, and Susy and her mother said they wanted to take me back next weekend so they could show me the museums and convents. 

We ate lunch at another seafood restaurant in a different district of Lima (I don't remember the name exactly). I tried many different Peruvian dishes like "papas rellenas," various types of chicharrones, and other dishes I cannot remember the name of at this time. I'm forgetting a lot today, maybe I should sleep more..haha. 

After lunch, I had to say goodbye to my buddy and her family :'(

I headed out to Chosica with the other trainees. There, we visited the school where we will be teaching this summer and met with Dante, our boss. We also were united with our host families! However, my host family had an emergency and could not meet me at the school, so I was dropped of at their house about 5 minutes away from the school. They have a beautiful house and are very friendly. They have two daughters who go to school in Lima and a huge dog.

Tomorrow, there are no classes, but me and the other trainees are going to meet the teachers and start planning our lessons for the week. Estoy cansada y quiero domir!

Miraflores y un Tono

On my first day in Perú, Susy and her mother took me to a delicious Peruvian, Chinese influenced seafood restaurant. Fue muy delicioso! They served us plantain chips for an appetizer, and they also gave me "chicha morada" to drink. "Chicha" is a Peruvian drink made from purple corn. It's very sweet, and reminded my a bit of Fanta without the carbonation. For my entree, I ordered "arroces tradicionales de mariscos," which is essentially yellow rice with a Chinese twist mixed with assorted shellfishes (oysters, squid, shrimp, etc.).  I am not a huge fish eater, and I did not know what to expect, but it was so good! It was like Chinese shrimp fried rice, except richer, tastier, and with fish other than shrimp. Later on, Susy's abuela made us a Peruvian dessert, "mazamorra," which is a pudding-type desert also made from purple corn. It also is mixed in with different types of fruit and topped with cinnamon. So far, I'm a fan of Peruvian food.  

After lunch, Susy and I walked around the district of Miraflores. Full of flowers, bushes, and trees, it was very beautiful. The district was very crowded today with everyone enjoying a nice, cool Saturday afternoon. A section Miraflores is also known for its incredible amount of cats. And there were a lot cats. 

There are many parks in the Miraflores district, which makes it a great hang out place for children. There is also a large amount of shopping. The biggest shopping center we went to was right on the edge of the coast. The beach was just down the mountain, but in Lima, nobody goes to the beach because the skies are constantly overcast. However, there are surfers from time to time. It was my first time seeing the Pacific Ocean!

There are two parks that run along the coast beside the shopping center. One is called "El Parque del Amor" because there is a large statue of a man and woman kissing in the middle. The statue is surrounded by a large collection of mosaics, which show various designs, names of people, and different quotes (in Español, of course). Right next to "el Parque del Amor" is another park, which Susy calls "El Parque de los niños" because it is always filled with children. There are many playgrounds, skateboarders, and also slack lining for everyone to enjoy. A few backpackers were also enjoying the ocean view. There is also a place to parasail along the coast. 

That night, we met a few other AIESECers and trainees for dinner at a chicken restaurant. The food was delicious and was quite similar to my father's favorite restaurant, El Pollo Rico. It was all roasted chicken, french fries, and salad. They also serve another Peruvian specialty: the heart of a cow roasted on a stick. 

After dinner, we went to a party with a lot of other AIESECers. They called it "un tono," which is Peruvian slang for party. There was a lot of dancing, a lot of food, and a lot of alcohol. And of course, it was very fun! I tried to learn how to dance, but I don't think I was very successful. In America, no one can really dance, but I wish that everyone knew how! They surprised Julio, the guy who hosted the party, with a cake for his birthday. And later in the night, the last trainee, LeMuel, arrived! Now, our team is complete. Since us trainees are not used to Peruvian parties, we got some "get-to-know-each-other" time  while taking a breath of fresh air between dances. At about 3am, Susy and I went home and went to bed. It was quite an eventful day, and it's crazy how much I had done within a short 24 hour period of arriving. 

I am not the greatest photographer in the world as I did not start taking pictures until the end of this journey...oops. I will try to get better.

Slack Lining: A little bit of UGA in Perú

"El Parque del Amor"