I may be a gringa, but at least I'm a gringa that knows a fair amount of Spanish... and thank God for having me change my mind from taking French in high school. There are some FIMRCers that don't know very much Spanish, and I'm honestly so humbled by them. The notion of going to a country for a month and not being able to converse simply with the people would be a NO GO for me. Don't get me wrong, my Spanish is far from perfect, but it's sufficient to get me places and then some. And believe me, I've had plenty of time to practice it here!
On Thursday afternoon we all went to the HIV shelter, and it was such an experience. Most of the girls (including me) did a presentation about nutrition to the moms, and it went surprising well. They loved our "Jeopardy" inspired game and a lot of great questions. Afterwards we hung out with the kids. It was so much fun to read with/to them (I even got complemented on my pronunciation by a 7 year old, and I'm going to take any compliment about my Spanish I can get), color and teach them how to make cootie-catchers circa the 2nd grade. The kids were so smart, courteous and hilarious and we all decided we can't wait to go back!
Friday morning instead of going to the hospital we went to a school outside of Huancayo in the city of Simcaya. When we arrived they were practicing a festival dance for next week and we joined in. Let me tell you, gringos are NOT great Peruvian festival dancers... or at least the 9 of us gringos. We were practically a comedy act for the kids and the PE instructor. Afterwards we did a presentation about the importance of hand washing and brushing your teeth to a variety of preschoolers, elementary schoolers and middle schoolers. I'm not going to lie, our presentation was pretty awesome. We wore our volunteer smocks for the insurance hospital inside out so we looked like teeth, gave a volunteer a giant toothbrush and had them demonstrate proper tooth-brushing technique (I don't think that's actually a verb/word, but I'm going to run with it). Then we gave all the kids flouride treatments to prevent tooth decay. I was one of the three that got to apply the flouride and I really loved it, and no bite marks, SCORE! After the flouride treatments for the middle schoolers we got to help them with their english homework. It was actually more like a two-way tutoring session since they helped me with my Spanish at the same time. Once they were summoned to lunch we had to analyze the cleanliness of the school. Some classrooms had everything (trash cans, first aide, hand washing, and tooth-brushing stations) while others had nothing, and the bathrooms were apparently "Spartan" at best. Our evaluations apparently go to some administration official who will then provide the school with the items they need to be up to code. We finished our time at the school playing a little volleyball, a great way to end the morning.
In the afternoon we went to the insurance hospital to teach some volunteers about first aide. The insurance hospital is so incredibly different from the public hospital that we volunteer at. This hospital is rather similar to those in the US, as opposed to the crumbling and overflowing Carrión Hospital. The volunteers at the hospital were similar in age to us and they were so fun to talk to! They had so many questions and I really can't wait to talk to them more.
We were pretty exhausted by 5pm, but we weren't done yet. We then went to the medical school and were taught a lesson on the Peruvian health care system. To be generous, the lesson was partially in broken Spanglish and a ton of academic Spanish. Being on the otherside of a presentation in a broken foreign language was really interesting. Unfortunately it frustrated a lot of the other participants in the program since they don't understand a ton of Spanish. I really think that the reason why I'm getting so much out of this program is because I am conversational and am getting to the point where I have no problem looking like a gringa idiot.
This weekend we are heading to THE JUNGLE!! WOOOOO!!! The nine of us and our Huancayo driver who is very familiar with the area (and properly vetted, don't worry Dad) are going to El Merced, a jungle to the north of us, to see waterfalls and go to multiple zoos apparently. More details to come! Ciao!
My favorite line... "No bite marks. SCORE!"
ReplyDeleteTalk about the sign of a good day! Love you to pieces!! :)
You're in my prayers as you navigate through your jungle adventures. And remember, un monton de imagenes. (aka lots of pictures, since I probably butchered that terribly...)