Hi Everyone!!
So it has been a little while, as it has been quite a busy few weeks. I figured I´d share some highlights from what I´ve been up to. In the orphanage, a lot of the girls are learning how to read, so I spend a few hours in the library each day practicing with them, and it´s exciting to see their reading skills take shape. I also spent 2 hours the other day trying to teach Sylvia, an adorable 7 year old, how to multiply. Math doesn´t come easily to her. It took the help of 2 other volunteers, a lot of cut up paper, and the promise of some cookies to drill into her head the idea of multiplication, but eventually she got it, and I must say we all felt quite accomplished. It was my friend Laura´s last day, so Yohannah, Laura, and I baked cookies to bring to the girls. We forgot to follow the instructions for high altitudes baking, so they ended up being paper thing, but quite delicious. Seemed people were extra friendly that day. Hm.
English lessons each day are also a highlight, as the receptionist and house keeping people went from knowing absolutely nothing about three weeks ago, and can now all tell you how much it cost to stay per night, where laundry can be done, how to get to different tourist attractions, and a lot more, all in English. My family is hopefully going to stay at this hotel when they come visit!
Being at the kindergarden 4 hours a day is definitely teaching me to have patience, but it is rewarding. Right now we are preparing for next week´s dance festival, and also making lots of Christmas decorations in class. My name in class varies from ¨English Professor,¨ ¨Abra¨, ¨Teacher,¨ and, my personal favorite, ¨Avrita.¨
I have also been having some fun with my host family. The other night we played a game called ¨Tuti Fruti,¨ which involves writing down different categories at the top of the page, such as first name, last night, fruit, color, object, profession, etc. One person picks out from a bowl a letter from the alphabet, and everyone has to write something from each category that starts with the letter, as fast as they can, and as soon as one person finishes, everyone has to stop, and then the points are added up. Elke, a Belgium woman who is also another volunteer living in my house, and I were on a team, and were able to bring in some major points with our Jewish and Belgium names. We came in 3rd. This game is really funny because all of the calm and kind people become aggressively into the game, and debates come up often. There was a major debate on whether ¨prostitute¨ was a legitimate profession. It passed.
In terms of my weekend adventures, 2 weeks ago, I went with 3 volunteers way south to the desert of Peru to a place called Ica. We stayed at a hostel at the one oasis in the desert. We went dune buggy riding, and the way our driver drove probably wouldn´t be legal in the U.S. The best part was sandboarding. Basically, you get this piece of wood with two pieces of velcro on it for your feet, and you go down these HUGE mountains of sand. You can either go on your stomach, or do it like a snowboard. I did it with my feet, like a snowboarder, and it was SO exhilirating. I can´t wait to try snowboarding! You go down sooo fast down this tall mountain of sand, and then when you wipe out, you just go spinning and sand is flying everywhere.
Last weekend, I decided to stay in Cusco for a ¨calm and quiet¨ weekend. I figured it would be nice to relax for a little. Nope, hehe. I ended up going to my teacher´s house (from the kindergarden) for lunch and singing Michael Jackson karaoke with her and her husband. Then, I went straight to a birthday party. Dani, the receptionist I teach English too, has an adorable boy, Fabian, who was turning 3. The party involved a clown, a pinata, five cakes, and lots of kids dancing. The girls from the orphanage were also at the party and it was fun to see them in a different setting. Straight from there, I went to a special dinner that Colette, a friend of mine from Holland, made. Last weekend was a special day in Holland, known as Sinter Klass, and she cooked traditional Dutch food and handed out presents and we listened to traditional Dutch music. I also met up with a nice Jewish lady named Jo from England. She got my email from the Chabad (I told them they could give it out to people if they are looking for fellow Jews since the Rabbi and Rebinson are in Israel until February). We went shopping for toys and games for the kids at our orphanages. There´s talk of making latkes next week!
I also took some time to check out a center for kids who are deaf and blind, and got to go into the classroom and communicate with the kids. I even learned a little sign language. The kids come from all over Peru and live at the school during the year, and go home for the summer holidays. I met a volunteer there from Spain who is studying special education and is here for the year through a University program, and we met up for dinner and I got to speak a lot of Spanish with her and her friends who are also here. Their accents are quite different from here, but are actually easier for me to understand.
I hope everyone is doing well, don´t hesitate to send me a message! There are also a few pictures up on facebook taken by some friends of mine. I´ll write again soon!
Love,
Avra
Friday, December 11, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
Mi Clase de Ninos
Hi everyone!
This has been such a great past few weeks. Now that I´m done with Spanish in the morning, I volunteer from 9-1 at a Kindergarden. I´m a teacher´s aid in a class of 10 five year olds, and they call me the English Professor. We´ve recently been working on counting to 50, and also I´m in the process of teaching them the song ¨Head, shoulders, knees and toes...¨. It´s quite a different experience than the girls I am with in the afternoon because when 7 out of the students 10 are boys, it can get pretty crazy, hehe. Today we practiced a Peruvian dance. I can pretty much say with certainty that each of the 5 year olds was a better dancer than I. Oh well.
I absolutely love walking into the orphanage every afternoon. I´m really feeling like it is becoming a home to me. Everyone is so nice and it´s so comfortable. Today another volunteer and I brought construction paper and glue and scissors to make Christmas decorations, which they absolutely loved. I am constantly amazed by the sense of family that these 40 girls have created for one another. The older girls look out for the little ones, there are 3 older girls living in the house with the little ones, and these girls are each others´ best friends and sisters. Many of them are incredibly mature for their age. When they tell me they are 15, I am utterly amazed because really, they act much much older. These girls don´t have much, but they truly appreciate what they do have and their capacity of selflessness is unbelievable.
After spending time in the orphanage, I have begun teaching English. The orphanage is connected to a hotel, and many of the girls who used to live in the orphanage but are now too old have jobs there as receptionists or maids and need help with their English. It´s one hour everyday and I do it with another volunteer. The class started out with 1 person, and now it´s grown to almost 10 some days, with new people joining. We talk about all sorts of hotel topics, and write down what we say, and then one of the receptionist makes copies for everyone. The copies are becoming packets that grow each day, and they really are learning a lot. It is gratifiying to practice something, and then when English speaking hotel guests walk in, to see the receptionists use their English.
Over this past weekend I flew to Lima with some other volunteers to see the Killers concert. It was fantastic! We also went paragliding, which is something everyone should try. We also saw the musical ¨Cabaret¨. It was in Spanish of course, and lots of fun to see, especially because we did that play at Camp Ramah 2 years ago. I was the pineapple lady, and I was singing along in Hebrew as she was singing in Spanish. Lima was a great place to vacation for a little, but it was nice to return to safe and small city of Cusco Sunday night.
I hope everyone is doing well! I´ll post again soon!
Love,
Avra
This has been such a great past few weeks. Now that I´m done with Spanish in the morning, I volunteer from 9-1 at a Kindergarden. I´m a teacher´s aid in a class of 10 five year olds, and they call me the English Professor. We´ve recently been working on counting to 50, and also I´m in the process of teaching them the song ¨Head, shoulders, knees and toes...¨. It´s quite a different experience than the girls I am with in the afternoon because when 7 out of the students 10 are boys, it can get pretty crazy, hehe. Today we practiced a Peruvian dance. I can pretty much say with certainty that each of the 5 year olds was a better dancer than I. Oh well.
I absolutely love walking into the orphanage every afternoon. I´m really feeling like it is becoming a home to me. Everyone is so nice and it´s so comfortable. Today another volunteer and I brought construction paper and glue and scissors to make Christmas decorations, which they absolutely loved. I am constantly amazed by the sense of family that these 40 girls have created for one another. The older girls look out for the little ones, there are 3 older girls living in the house with the little ones, and these girls are each others´ best friends and sisters. Many of them are incredibly mature for their age. When they tell me they are 15, I am utterly amazed because really, they act much much older. These girls don´t have much, but they truly appreciate what they do have and their capacity of selflessness is unbelievable.
After spending time in the orphanage, I have begun teaching English. The orphanage is connected to a hotel, and many of the girls who used to live in the orphanage but are now too old have jobs there as receptionists or maids and need help with their English. It´s one hour everyday and I do it with another volunteer. The class started out with 1 person, and now it´s grown to almost 10 some days, with new people joining. We talk about all sorts of hotel topics, and write down what we say, and then one of the receptionist makes copies for everyone. The copies are becoming packets that grow each day, and they really are learning a lot. It is gratifiying to practice something, and then when English speaking hotel guests walk in, to see the receptionists use their English.
Over this past weekend I flew to Lima with some other volunteers to see the Killers concert. It was fantastic! We also went paragliding, which is something everyone should try. We also saw the musical ¨Cabaret¨. It was in Spanish of course, and lots of fun to see, especially because we did that play at Camp Ramah 2 years ago. I was the pineapple lady, and I was singing along in Hebrew as she was singing in Spanish. Lima was a great place to vacation for a little, but it was nice to return to safe and small city of Cusco Sunday night.
I hope everyone is doing well! I´ll post again soon!
Love,
Avra
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Mi Primer Mes (My first month=
Hi Everyone!
So I have officially been in Cusco for one month. So much has changed since the first week. I switched host families, mainly because I realized that I wasn´t feeling surrounded by people, and one of the main reasons I wanted to live in a host family in the first place was to try to connect with the Peruvian people and their way of life. I am in a new home, and if any of you want to write me, just facebook me and I´ll give you the address. They are lovely people. My mama is Gretta, my papa is Oscar, and then they have 5 kids, one of which is named Oscar, and then they have several grand kids, one of which is named, well, Oscar.
My typical day is pretty much wake up at around 7:30, walk 45 minutes to Spanish lessons, which I have for 4 hours with my teacher Alfredo. I have a book, but lessons are pretty much what I make of them, for example, sometimes we just talk in Spanish using rules I learned, sometimes we listen to Spanish music and then talk about that, go over vocab, work in the book, the usual. The neat thing is that I am excited for class and enjoy sitting in a classroom and often times I even ask for homework. Pretty much a big change to the senioritis felt last year. Spanish goes from 9 untill 11, with a half hour break in between which consists of walking around the mini square or sitting. Last week my friend from Norway, Yohannah, was also in my Spanish class, and during our break, we would sit on the steps of the Catedral and just relax... or so we tried. It was very difficult to have an actual conversations with all the Cusquenean sales people coming up to us trying to sell stuff to the Gringos. So, one day we decided to make a sign that says "No Gracias" (No Thank You) and we just sat in the steps holding it up. People thought it was very funny, we even got our picture taken a few times. The next day, a kid came to us with a sign that said "Why not?" Naturally, we had to buy some finger puppets from him for his wit.
Then, I come home for lunch and me, Oscar, Gretta, and often times some of their kids and grandkids join us. We eat and I try to follow their conversations. They often respond to my blank look by explaining to me, slowly, what they are talking about. Then, I had to the orphanage and am there from 3 until later in the evening, depending on when they eat dinner and such. It is such a great place to me. I work in the smallest "casita", which consists of 7 girls ages 5 through 7. They are absolutely adorable and so happy to see us. We pretty much help them with their homework, read books, run around and play, art projects. I also spend time with some of the older girls, and often we all end up playing hand games and such outside together. The orphanage is relatively well funded because it is connected to a Church, and also gets proceeds from a nearby hostel. There are 40 girls in total. They call Yohannah Yohannah Montana, and they call me Avra Cadavra, and then go into this whole magic spell thing that I´m trying to learn. For one week these 2 volunteers were here form Colorado, and brought with them a lot of tiles to make a big mural with all of the girls. It was a big success. After the orphanage, I head home for dinner with the family or spend some time exploring the Plaza. A few weekends ago I took a trip with some other volunteers to a nearby town called Pisac where there are a lot of Incan ruins. This past weekend I went horseback riding to Pukapukara and other nearby towns, and also saw the Temple of the Moon, which was a really holy place to the Incans. Halloween was crazy here and a ton of fun.
Missin´ everyone,
avra
So I have officially been in Cusco for one month. So much has changed since the first week. I switched host families, mainly because I realized that I wasn´t feeling surrounded by people, and one of the main reasons I wanted to live in a host family in the first place was to try to connect with the Peruvian people and their way of life. I am in a new home, and if any of you want to write me, just facebook me and I´ll give you the address. They are lovely people. My mama is Gretta, my papa is Oscar, and then they have 5 kids, one of which is named Oscar, and then they have several grand kids, one of which is named, well, Oscar.
My typical day is pretty much wake up at around 7:30, walk 45 minutes to Spanish lessons, which I have for 4 hours with my teacher Alfredo. I have a book, but lessons are pretty much what I make of them, for example, sometimes we just talk in Spanish using rules I learned, sometimes we listen to Spanish music and then talk about that, go over vocab, work in the book, the usual. The neat thing is that I am excited for class and enjoy sitting in a classroom and often times I even ask for homework. Pretty much a big change to the senioritis felt last year. Spanish goes from 9 untill 11, with a half hour break in between which consists of walking around the mini square or sitting. Last week my friend from Norway, Yohannah, was also in my Spanish class, and during our break, we would sit on the steps of the Catedral and just relax... or so we tried. It was very difficult to have an actual conversations with all the Cusquenean sales people coming up to us trying to sell stuff to the Gringos. So, one day we decided to make a sign that says "No Gracias" (No Thank You) and we just sat in the steps holding it up. People thought it was very funny, we even got our picture taken a few times. The next day, a kid came to us with a sign that said "Why not?" Naturally, we had to buy some finger puppets from him for his wit.
Then, I come home for lunch and me, Oscar, Gretta, and often times some of their kids and grandkids join us. We eat and I try to follow their conversations. They often respond to my blank look by explaining to me, slowly, what they are talking about. Then, I had to the orphanage and am there from 3 until later in the evening, depending on when they eat dinner and such. It is such a great place to me. I work in the smallest "casita", which consists of 7 girls ages 5 through 7. They are absolutely adorable and so happy to see us. We pretty much help them with their homework, read books, run around and play, art projects. I also spend time with some of the older girls, and often we all end up playing hand games and such outside together. The orphanage is relatively well funded because it is connected to a Church, and also gets proceeds from a nearby hostel. There are 40 girls in total. They call Yohannah Yohannah Montana, and they call me Avra Cadavra, and then go into this whole magic spell thing that I´m trying to learn. For one week these 2 volunteers were here form Colorado, and brought with them a lot of tiles to make a big mural with all of the girls. It was a big success. After the orphanage, I head home for dinner with the family or spend some time exploring the Plaza. A few weekends ago I took a trip with some other volunteers to a nearby town called Pisac where there are a lot of Incan ruins. This past weekend I went horseback riding to Pukapukara and other nearby towns, and also saw the Temple of the Moon, which was a really holy place to the Incans. Halloween was crazy here and a ton of fun.
Missin´ everyone,
avra
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Figured out pictures!
Waiting in the terminal in the airport in Lima about to go to Cusco.
Thanks, airport!
This is from the Museum of Natural History that I wrote about in my last post.
In the Plaza de Armas. Cute kids.
This is the kitchen. Mmmm... Andean cheese.
Thanks, airport!
This is from the Museum of Natural History that I wrote about in my last post. In the Plaza de Armas. Cute kids. This is the kitchen. Mmmm... Andean cheese.This is the dining room. Every meal here is taken very seriously with the entire family sitting around the table. No runnin´out the door with Ego waffles here...
The hang out area.
My room, where I keep my stuff.
This is the view from my room. People are always playing soccer.
Mis Primeros Momentos (My First Moments)
Hi everyone,
So I got to Peru Wednesday morning... They weren´t kidding about this altitude sickness business, even with popping Western pills and drinking large amounts of the native solution: coca leaves, which is this tea that helps settle your headache. After informing my parents that I was drinking it in massive consumption, my mother wrote back expressing her concern that coca leaves is connected to cocaine, and that I should be careful because she doesn´t want me coming home addicted to anything. Hehe. Don´t worry, I don´t need it anymore as the sickness is pretty much waring off.
Anyway, my host family consists of 4 women. There´s Ruby, 13, Dagny, 26, and Karem, the one who works for A Broader View (the organization I´m going through), and is somewhere in her 30´s, and they´re all sisters. Their mother is Glenis. She has immense Jewish mother tendencies, and they are all warm and welcoming. I spent my first day laying down and getting acclimated, unpacking, and eating with the family. They can´t get over that I only eat certain types of meat, and they couldn´t believe that I don´t eat gelatin, this being discovered after Karem offered me some jello.
This morning, my second day, I got up and Glenis made me a wonderful smoothie consisting of papaya, apples, milk, and honey, and then I decided to explore the Plaza de Armas, basically the center and hot spot of Cusco. Trying not to look too touristy, I used my map and asked to help me get around. First I went to see the Catedral, which is basically one of Peru´s most famous buildings.
It was built in 1550 and shows how the Catholics pretty much imposed on the Incans. I also saw the Museo de Historia Natural, the Museum of Natural Art, which holds a bunch of plants, bugs, and rocks from Cusco, and models (and jars of dead) animals. I also made my way to the Museo de Arte Religioso, the Museum of Religious Art. It used to be this Incan palace, and then became the house of the archbishop. At the Plaza de Armas, the people were very friendly, and it was neat to use my Spanish to help me get around.
It was built in 1550 and shows how the Catholics pretty much imposed on the Incans. I also saw the Museo de Historia Natural, the Museum of Natural Art, which holds a bunch of plants, bugs, and rocks from Cusco, and models (and jars of dead) animals. I also made my way to the Museo de Arte Religioso, the Museum of Religious Art. It used to be this Incan palace, and then became the house of the archbishop. At the Plaza de Armas, the people were very friendly, and it was neat to use my Spanish to help me get around.On Monday, I start Spanish lessons and my work in the orphanage. Until then I´m just resting up and hopefully I´ll be meeting with the other volunteers, several girls from all over the world.
I have a ton more pictures to put up of my host home and the Plaza de Armas, but for some reason it won´t let me load anymore. Advice appreciated, just post a comment.
I forgot to mention, no one in this house speaks English, except Karem speaks a limited amount. So, I need to constantly speak Spanish, which is a really good thing. I´ve made some hilarious, as according to this household, mistakes, including talking about my pet hair, Pumba, who is very big and is from Belgium. They got a kick out of that one.
Missin´everyone,
Avra
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Leaving on Monday
Hi Everyone!
I leave for Cusco, Peru on Monday to begin my six month experience there. I finally finished packing, with two bags each weighing a small 41 lbs, thank you very much (the max is 50). Probably 10 lbs are for all the medicine I'm taking, be it Tamaflu, Malarone, altitude sickness, the works. I am eager to dive into experiencing a new culture, meeting new people, helping out in a way I've never gotten to before, bumping up my Spanish, but most of all, just having a completely new experience. I'll keep you all updated with this blog. B'shavua Haba'ah... b'Cusco!
I leave for Cusco, Peru on Monday to begin my six month experience there. I finally finished packing, with two bags each weighing a small 41 lbs, thank you very much (the max is 50). Probably 10 lbs are for all the medicine I'm taking, be it Tamaflu, Malarone, altitude sickness, the works. I am eager to dive into experiencing a new culture, meeting new people, helping out in a way I've never gotten to before, bumping up my Spanish, but most of all, just having a completely new experience. I'll keep you all updated with this blog. B'shavua Haba'ah... b'Cusco!
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