FridayFriday was a long-awaited dead day, where I did very little except plan from my laptop, make new music playlists and eat. And drink Milo. They have Milo here and while my host lady Koral says it's for kids, we all know it's the most adult drink out there. In the evening I went to meet up with Canadian families generally but only managed to find one. The others had bus problems. I plied my tale of Machu Picchu failure over a beer and food, then it was time to say goodbye until I head north. SaturdayYesterday (Saturday) Koral, Morgan and I went on an adventure. We took a taxi to a bus station, then a bus to Place A and walked up to the main square. On the walk, Koral got us some rice and honey treats. Morgan didn't really like hers and didn't finish it. I didn't really like mine and did finish it. They were like the most basic LCM bar you can imagine. It wasn't even Tasmanian honey. The main square provided welcome shade as the sun had just started to pummel us with it's fury. There were the same markets that I'd seen everywhere on this continent and bought nothing from. I bought two pairs of socks. I've been travelling with only one pair of socks. I think it's too many pairs, some would say it's not enough. On our outing today, there would be three churches to see. In the first one, there was a wedding. We watched for a bit. We wandered down the streets back to the main road. On the way, I poked my zoom through a woodworker's doorway. We stopped by Roger and Chuck at 520 C. San Martin. The had little to say. I witnessed and photographed some factory farming. Guinea pig is Peruvian delicacy. Tommy the Tenderiser was sleeping. We caught a bus to the next town. The church had some nice floor out the front. We found some treats growing wild. I picked some for Frank and Charlie. We walked along the side of the road to the next village. Everyone was growing corn. We slipped and slid down a path to the lake. We trundled past some blue gums. We saw Justin exposing himself. Naughty Justin. We had some absolutely delightful street treats for lunch at the square. Pastry encasing mixed vegetables and spices. Sounded like ricotta something. There was no cheese involved. We passed The House Of The Curious. It's so GoT. We went to the cemetery to visit Koral's aunt, grandfather and grandmother. Then to the lake for a nap. Then to the bus for another nap. Then we moved house. Then we played some stupid German card game which made fewer than no sense. Then dark. Then nothing. SundayMorgan went to a religious gathering on Sunday morning. I unknowingly awaited the arrival of "The Canadians", consisting of one Canadian and one French Person. Brent is taller than me. The Canadians had just flown in and were tired. They left before returning to nap. While they were absent, we ourselves departed for what I thought would be a two hour walk. We were off to visit El Blanco Christ. We had to pay the Troll Toll to get in to the puppy's soul. This puppy's name is Troll. He's not nearly as fierce as he looks. The stairs however, were. There was so much walking up. We were all out of breath. I think Koral slept for a bit here. But the rains were a'coming. Panoramic view, we can make it all manageable. I am finding it difficult to write something that isn't offensively sarcastic regarding the wonder of God and all his creation and how even in his infinite humility and goodness he still requires people to build statues in his name. Oops, there I go. What a dick. After a brief pause to talk rubbish, we increased our velocity in the direction of the Saqsaywaman ruins. It cost S/.70 to get in so we just peeked in from the outside and Koral told us some things. Fact or fiction, who cares, it was interesting. I posed on the way back down. Limby AF. The Gang Moves Next To A Church. MondayMonday was a planning day. Morgan and I went to The Meeting Place in Plaza San Blas which is a volunteer run cafe. It does not have the ambiance of a place local to Cusco, but that's exactly what I needed. I booked a flight from Santiago to Punta Areanas in Patagonia for the 28th of November.. Later, we booked a bus from Arica to Santiago for Wednesday night until Friday morning. I'm doing Workaway near there until the flight. Morgan left to Puno in the evening. It was the first of four nights sleeping on a bus. Also, when I was at The Meeting Place I started reading the Wait But Why post on AI. I'm still freaking out. TuesdayI have a bus booked for tonight to Arequipa (10 hours), then I'll try to get to Arica (5 hours plus 1 hour) tomorrow to catch the bus to Santiago. That's a 28 hour bus.
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Getting there 06/11 – Cusco Day 6 It is a Friday. By Tuesday afternoon, Morgan and I were ruined after basically two days of shopping around for Machu Picchu (MP) tours and treks. We ended up settling on a small tour which included a round bus trip from Cusco (C) to Hidroelectrica (H) (which is 2.5hrs walk along train tracks to Aguas Calientes (AC) which is the place everyone stays near Machu Picchu), three meals, one night at a hostel in AC, MP ticket, MP mountain ticket and MP tour. To ensure we had enough time to climb the mountain and still get back to H before the bus left, we also got a train ticket from AC to H at 1.35pm. We were picked up from our place at 7.30am, then we tooled around C, picking up other people on the tour. The bus ride to Ollantaytambo (O) wasn't too bad, but we were suspiciously close to AC despite apparently having five hours of bus to go. Queue mayhem. Between O and AC, the road is rough and the driving is rougher. I didn't think it was stupid dangerous, but most other people seemed to. I'll admit it wasn't 100% safe. So for five hours we were thrown around the back of a van with no possibility of sleep or rest, before pulling in to Santa Teresa for an absolutely rubbish lunch. I had been warned that if food was included on a tour, it was going to be average. Eventually we made it to H and expelled ourselves from the bus worse for wear. The two and a half hour walk to AC along the train tracks was actually really pleasant. By the time we got to AC, Morgan, two Brazilians we had befriended and I had decided to get the train all the way back to C, because eff that bus ride again and we wanted to have more time up the mountain. So we went to the station. I can't remember how many times we were told different numbers of seat remaining on different trains as different prices and different times, but it was a lot. So we made a decision which wasn't ideal because there weren't many seats left (which is obviously our fault), but we were at least set. Then we went back to the Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) and despite no customers arriving, everything seemed to have changed. So we made a new decision and the same thing happened when returning to the CSRs. Finally we determined that we could get three tickets for one train and one ticket for another at a similar time, but all were only to O, so we needed to book a taxi back to C. Needless to say, we were all pretty over everything by this stage in the day. I was remaining a little upbeat because we would still all get to see Machu Picchu for the day tomorrow, it was just going to end up costing a little bit more (or so I thought). The Brazilians went back to the group meeting place to make sure the others wouldn't leave to the hostel (at a location which was apparently secret) without us while we bought our tickets. By the time we got to the square, there was no sight of anyone familiar, so we bought some beers and tried to relax. Eventually a little man walked in to the square calling “Morgan, Morgan”, rolling his r's hard. He took us up to the hostel. We'd negotiated a private three person room with an Irish girl who Morgan had met the week before, but by the time we got there, the Irish lass had negotiated us out of that deal. Morgan put her foot down in an American I'm-not-taking-your-bullshit way which I immediately resolved to do more often myself. We got our private room. I had the warmest shower I've had in the world in a month, in the southern hemisphere in six months and in South America ever. And I didn't even get electrocuted. At 8pm we went to meet the tour guide at the square so he could give us cash to buy our own tickets, even though we had paid him to do that. We were incredulous. We were whisked away to a poor dinner. We mentioned that we no longer needed our train tickets from AC to H on the following day because we were getting the train back. Despite previously having wads of cash, he suddenly had no money and would leave the money at the restaurant the following afternoon. We returned to the hostel to find that the lights switch in our room was broken in a sense. Sort of. Flicking on and off did nothing because it was midday Uluru bright the entire time. Thanks amazing curtains and brilliant window positioning. You made my day. The Wondrous DayWe awoke early and had a tiny bit to eat (mistake one). Then we walked to the gate to cross the river to climb up to Machu Picchu. I hadn't had much to drink (mistake two). Once we got across, I decided I felt good climbing and push on quite quickly (mistake three). I was one of the first at the gates and won the honour of waiting fifteen minutes for an American tour group to push their way up and proclaim loudly in to their iPhones that they were at the front of the line, whaddya know. Morgan wasn't far behind and also got to spend time having people push past her. A Chinese group pushed past everyone, even the guys on the gate and got in ten minutes before anyone else. Eventually we were in. It was very foggy. We walked up a bit and had a some trail mix nibbles (food technically isn't allowed in). I had a little bit of water. We worked out what path we wanted to take amongst the fog and took a few photos along the way. I started to feel faint and my vision wasn't doing too well. I asked for a little rest for a bit. I tried to push on. I couldn't see clearly and was starting to behave as one behaves when they have seventeen beers and just look at their feet to make sure they stay upright and moving. I called it and Morgan led me down to the entrance. I sat on a bench. Head between knees. A strange lady had some liquid in a vial. She put some in my water bottle and told me to drink. I drank. I was being led away by a man with a cardboard box I knew I could trust. The cardboard box took me to a room and lay me on a bed. Morgan was there. A needle was in my arm. Pills in my mouth. Liquids at my lips. I slept. Though various stages of the day, people were checking I was OK and asking if I felt better. My mouth was working in the same way as Big Jim's when he's had too much to drink. There were words, but they weren't human. After a while I started to regain sense of my surroundings. Morgan returned with the Brazilians, one of whom (Luciana) was a doctor. She assessed the situation and told me to drink more. I drank more. They left for one last look around and returned at around 3.40pm. I heard them talking before they entered the room, preparing to insist I catch the bus down. Not likely. We left the medical room. S/. 216 which Morgan covered for me. She was an angel the entire day. I convinced the others that I didn't need a bus and we returned to the valley on foot. I spent the descent being regaled of the wonders of the ancient ruins that I missed. Lessons?We saw the initial Canadian family as we re-entered AC, and we met them for pizza dinner before heading to the station. The train back was lush. Number one piece of advice for MP: if you aren't doing a cool trek (Lares, Salcantay, Inca), just get the bloody train. It's worth the money.
From O back to C we had a crazy taxi driver, but nobody gave a shit at that point. What a day! Oh and we never did go back and get our refund money. But hey, it was a lesson and I've now made two friends who live in Salvador who I will probably actually visit after Rio. My chin is so far up. Final Week of Workaway25/10 – Trujillo Day 17 It is a Sunday. Leslie's bus was two hours late, but I bought a kilo of vanilla yoghurt to sustain me so it was fine. We walked home then headed to Huacas del Sol y Lunar with the new Canadians. It was significantly better than Chan Chan in my opinion and having an English guide helped. After that we headed to the beach despite the average weather and got tipsy on top notch conversation and rum. I tried my first and probably only pisco sours. It was nice, but 13 soles is more than I want to pay for a drink seeing as I would probably rather have had a beer anyway. 26/10 – Trujillo Day 18 It is a Monday. We then came back to base and I was pretty drunk, then I did a bunch more drinking with a bunch more people and eventually went out with Lindsey and Nicola. We went to a few different places before we found the place we actually wanted to go, taking a taxi each time. It was confusing and I wasn't a fan, but I was hammered which is probably why. The place we ended up offered a bottle of liquor for 100 soles with coke which is what we got. Most people were drinking beer and standing around the beer box. Also, literally everyone was more than half a foot shorter than me, so in a wide open room packed with tiny people, I looked like a behemoth and it was not great at all. After we finished our bottle (maybe, I don't really remember) we cabbed home. As I was climbing in to bed, I discovered that I was out of water. To remedy this, I walked over towards the other house with my bottle. In my single minded haste, I neglected to adorn myself with a top of any kind. As I reached the other house, I noticed that I had forgotten my key for it and that Lindsey and Nicola were at a party nearby. I walked in to get the key and everyone immediately decided that my attire was inappropriate and that I should be made to leave. They also simultaneously and in my opinion independently decided that Nicola had overstayed his welcome too. On a good day I'll take some blame for that. After maybe four hours of rest I awoke and we went for breakfast then a walk in to town with the new Canadians and Lara (Esp/De/Be) who is new and speaks a bajillion (five) languages. We wandered around town then headed north for food and to buy supplies for dinner. I felt horrible and went through the regular stages of verbal diarrhoea and my brain switching off completely. Many of the questions I asked Lara were things we had discussed in depth the night before. We made burgers for dinner. They were amazing. Today we went to school, Pepe was a bit tired but made it through the day. He keeps collecting and making present for Anna. He has the biggest crush on her. Leslie spent a bit of time with the general kids but most of the time with Pepe. She's a lot of fun so they got on well. I think she had a great time and as a lot of people do would like to be able to stay much longer. 27/10 – Trujillo Day 19 It is a Tuesday. Fairly normal morning, though I didn't exercise because I felt a bit sick and sore. Pepe kept wanting to write people's names on his paper and give them to people. He insisted I ask the people what colour they like and it seemed to be some big joke to him, but I can't work out why. He glued various fruits and vegetables to the back of them once they were cut out. 28/10 – Trujillo Day 20 It is a Wednesday. Today there were more Pepe presents and the beach. He brought to school yesterday a 2009 diary/planner thing which maybe he found. Today he gave it to Anna with a present. Lara got a branch from a tree which he had me fetch. He was tired, it was hot. He's likely going to the pool tomorrow. Fun times. Various people were going to come to the beach but in the end only Marie (Brazilian) and I went, but we found Arnau (Spanish) while we were there. I've booked all my things for getting to Cusco to meet Morgan. She found a place we can stay for free, so all I need to do is organise which trek to do. I had a bunch of beers and now I'm tired so I can't really be bothered writing. 29/10 – Trujillo Day 21 It is a Thursday. Today we went to the pool. Pepe was a bit late, but we jumped in a collectivo and headed to the other side of town for a swim. He was wearing crocs and they kept either falling off or being kicked off. He kept tapping shoulders and pulling leg hair on the trip. Weirdly he sometimes seemed to deliberately slip over on the seat. He insisted on showering before getting in the pool because that's what his mother said should be done. There was no running water in the whole facility so that wasn't possible. It wasn't sunny or warm, which is something he was worried about before we got there, but once we were in the water the tables turned and it was us that was cold and he was fine, apparently because he has big muscles and is too strong. He absolutely loved splashing people, but the rules were that he was allowed to splash others anywhere, but he wasn't allowed to be splashed in the face. He slipped over a bit once, but we had him up and about in a jiffy. He was at first a bit hesitant about walking around in the water, but after a while he walked along the edge a bit to nip height. Where he was normally was belly button height on him. I think it was safer for him to be in the deeper water because the buoyant force became more relevant. He looked happy pretty much the entire day. Even in the taxi on the way back (we couldn't find the right collectivo) he was bopping along to the music and singing. He insisted on being in the front. Apparently his name is Spencer. Right now I'm supposed to be writing about him and his habits and translations, but it's difficult. In the moment I realise how many things I understand that others don't, but trying to think of them now is difficult. There are samba lessons tonight. I should attend because I'm deep in Carnaval plans and that's samba central. 02/11 – Cusco Day 2 It is a Monday. I went to the beach the other day but skipped the samba lessons. Friday was my last day at school. I took some photos finally. There was a going away type situation for the Canadian family and I. Pepe seemed less sad than normal on Fridays, knowing that people were leaving. I got two drawings from kids. Then we had a parade around the street near the school in the morning because that's what everyone else was doing. It was OK. Pepe took a lot of photos for me. After that was the Olympics. It was well organised and turned out better than I thought it would. Canadian Chris is amazing at organising children. Pepe won the tyre throw. Then it was time to say goodbye. I'm sure Pepe knew that I was leaving but he mostly seemed like he didn't. Anyway. I'll miss him. After school there was a meeting which was fairly productive. We started the construction of a welcome pack for volunteers and Canadian Chris gave some really great tips on getting the kids to behave well and listen to you. Then I got in to a flurry because I wanted to cook dinner, but I also didn't want to miss my bus. Leaving Trujillo03/11 – Cusco Day 3 It is a Tuesday. Things from the other day. I didn't miss my bus, I did cook dinner. I did get to Lima. I was in Lima for 5 hours. In that time I: - Waited for malls to open. - Ate a kilo of yoghurt. - Nearly got robbed by a man in the park. Another man helped me and afterwards he told me where to get headphones. - Bought rubbish headphones (S/. 21) from a place not close to where the man said. - Went in to an underground place with lots of dodgy looking shops. Got my headphones fixed (S/. 20). They are so much better than the ones I bought. - Had delicious street lunch, including the rice pudding dessert thing that I have been seeing everywhere. The bus from Lima to Cusco was 22 hours. The road was windy. The altitude increased. I woke in the night and thought I would throw up. I got to Cusco. I got a taxi to near where I thought the place Morgan was staying was (S/. 8). I walked up a huge hill only to I discover that it wasn't the right place. I got another taxi to Morgan's place (S/. 5) which was only a short walk from the bus station. This was on Sunday. Monday saw us do a lot of walking trying to find out the haps for MP. We also encountered some familiar Canadians. This morning we also spent a lot of time working out the best MP plan for us. It was a nightmare. I hate touristy places. I hate trying to get deals on stuff like this. By the time we bought something, it was time to go on the city tour of some nearby ruins. We were exhausted and bailed. If tomorrow and the next day work out and we actually get to MP and get to walk up the mountain and get back on time, AND all the buses/trains/food/accommodation that we've paid for are at least amicable, then I think I might be happy, but still probably not. There were just too many options. I'm looking forward to actual hiking in Patagonia. Though today I looked up getting there and it seems like a nightmare. The Next PostComing up next is my experience of Machu Picchu. Bet you can't wait! Here's a sneak peak...
Arrival in South AmericaThis is a lot to chew through. I've copied the first two weeks of my journal type thing. Sorry for not summarising. 9/10 – Trujillo Day 1 It is a Friday. Travelled from Lima to Trujillo. The bus was actually really comfortable. I met a guy in the bus terminal before we left who spoke good English. We chatted for most of the bus ride. He told me a whole bunch about extorting businessman, dangerous parts of town and corruption/jealousy at his university. Arrived at Trujillo and was met by two people from the place I was staying. We got a cheap little cab to the house where I met all the people and ate some of the food. Earlier I met a lady on the plane from Madrid who was helpful in teaching me little bits and pieces of local lingo, most of which I forgot. 10/10 – Trujillo Day 2 It is a Saturday. Everything in the area I'm in is under development. Apparently it's dangerous here. Sounds shit. We have red vests which we wear when we're going to the part of town where the school is because it's a pretty rough place to be. They have “Hilo Rojo” on them which is the name of the school. It's better to be a volunteer gringo than a regular gringo. Crime sucks. I don't want to get my stuff stolen. Today we walked up the mountain. This consisted of catching a cheap bus in to the bad part of the 'burbs then meeting up with one of the boys who attends the school name Anthony, who was our guide for the morning. At some point we met up with his cousin Andreas, who had made the decision to go bare feet. Anthony was wearing nice leather shoes. The walk was pretty good, great views of the city giving a decent layout and nice exercise to stop me getting fat. The kids found two snakes on the way which they mercilessly killed and put in a bottle. One was black with red and yellow bands which were quite pretty. There was a bit of rock hopping, loose gravel underfoot and some sandy parts. There was no view from the very top because it was cloudy. On the way down we found some dunes to run down. We then went back for lunch. The food generally seems plentiful but a bit bland. I would dig a curry. I'm reconsidering how much time I'll be spending hanging out compared with doing my own thing. If I do hang out with people, it'll probably be the people in the room I'm in. We are away from the main house. At the moment it's Morgan (Chicago), Rosa (north of London), Lucy (north of Auckland) and myself (Beaconsfield). It is generally seen to be better to be living in the main bit, but I'm not convinced that's the case. They all share a shower between about 13 people, whereas we have one for four. There is no WiFi here, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm going to start working out in the mornings. I'm in pretty rubbish shape at the moment. Maybe I'll find a working out partner, but I think that's ambitious. Trujillo Living11/10 – Trujillo Day 3 It is a Sunday. I've generally felt fine about walking around the place in terms of safety. Navigation, much less so. It's one sole to take a bus and there are some standard routes and regular buses. Working out where each bus goes is a job for the people who actually speak Spanish so I wouldn't be confident doing it by myself. I'm wondering if the bus system here is actually more efficient that in Aus/UK. A guy on the door doing the money thing and rushing people on and off as fast as possible works pretty well. Most of the other people here seem like better travellers than me, even the younger ones. I think this might be because I haven't really done much backpacking. Plus they all speak better Spanish than I do. I found a fair few new fruits and vegetables at the market with Morgan in the morning. I had a passion-fruit type thing and also bought some black corn. After breakfast we went to the Chan Chan ruins which were built by the Chumi people who were the ones before the Incas. There was a tour guide for the nine of us but it was all in Spanish so I didn't understand a lot of it. Then we went to the museum which had translations. I realised I really don't know much about South American history. After that we went to the beach to had lunch. I had cebiche and it was pretty gross if I'm being honest. The fish was tasteless and was smothered in lemon and salt which is all I could taste. Then we walked along a bit and I got a shitty ice-cream before we watched some kids playing football for about an hour. Kalle the 35yo Finnish guy who looks about 25 cooked for everyone which is a thing he does on Sunday seeing as food isn't provided then and he was a chef I think. It was a collection of dips and stuff, really nutritious and flavoursome which is needed seeing as the normal food is bland. I feel like my Spanish isn't really getting any better. Maybe that will change tomorrow when I'm at the school and all the kids speak only Spanish. Regardless I want to get a SIM card asap so I can do duolingo more often. Speaking of school tomorrow, I'm pretty nervous about how it's going to go. I think the main reason is the language thing and I know that I'll want to be critiquing and consequently making a difference, but I won't necessarily have the ability to do either of those things. Also, I'm not super confident working with kids because it's not something I've done a lot of in the past. It's definitely more out of my comfort zone than climbing and mountain. I was randomly playing a cricket shot today when I thought that I'd probably be better off working in India where everyone loves cricket. Football is the jam here and it just doesn't suit me. The language thing is going to be a problem everywhere so what's the difference really? I think I would feel less out of place there. I have been allocated Pepe who is half paralysed or something and needs full time care. As I'm a dream big and make the most difference kind of chap, I don't think I'm going to love this. I'd rather be helping with a larger group of kids, but at the end of the day, if I'm not as good as the others at that kind of thing then maybe it's best I'm with Pepe. The most help I can be is probably to do with the organisational side of things, so being with Pepe will allow me to watch all the stuff without having to directly focus on it. Anyway, I think the key is to just have a go and see what happens. It would be good to stick it out for the four to five weeks even if I don't love it because worst case it'll still be good experience with kids which I don't have and I'll know a bit more Spanish but the end of things. Also, if I can stick to some sort of exercise regime I'll be in good shape. The way things are set up is that we are allocated classes/Pepe for the morning (8am-noon) then we come back for lunch. After lunch there are classes Monday to Thursday (English, Science, English, Games) for the kids who have been through Hilo Rojo and are now maybe at a real school or just to keep them off the streets. I think I'll try to go to as many of these as I can because why not. There is a Canadian family who is somehow associated with things and are living kinda with us. There are three kids (two girls and a boy) and this is the first actual school they've been to as they were previously home-schooled. They are ridiculously confident talking to strangers and they're really nice. I spent half an hour playing with a little ball puzzle where you have to get it to follow the 3D maze inside a perspex sphere. First Day of School12/10 – Trujillo Day 4 It is a Monday. Alright, alright, alright, alright. Today was the first day of school. Things were learnt. It started out with the kids slowly rolling in to school between 8 and 8.30. Pepe didn't turn up today so I was in with the five and six year olds. I found out that Pepe is actually 22 years old which is a bit of a game-changer. There were about thirteen in the class I was in. They were little rats in the main. The boys were the most troublesome because their attention span was so short and the things they were distracted by were more destructive. Generally they really loved attention, especially a few in the lunch break who just wanted to be picked up and hugged the whole time. It's great exercise as long as I don't do myself an injury. I'll do little bios on some of them, then go through the day in general. Camillo: had a spiderman jumper on. He was sometimes unruly, but he also was brushing the dust off my shorts at some point which was a nice gesture. Icker: He was sitting next to me at the start and was trying to run all over the place. I've decided I can't be bothered thinking long enough or questioning people to find out the names of the other kids. There was one that I was carrying for an hour during the break. She wasn't too heavy but an hour is a long time to be throwing a kid around. Some of the play equipment was broken but the kids didn't mind. I feel like my mind has already lost all of the information of the day. During the morning class we sang some songs, learnt some numbers, coloured some print outs of the human body. The left was red and the right was blue. Painted dots. Then they got some work books to continue with. I helped just one little guy the entire time because if I left him for a second he was out doing something else. Essentially my time didn't seem to be worth much from my point of view, but I guess it was a help for the teacher to have someone else there. At the end of the day, I think the net effect will be that maybe some kid will potentially decide that they should send their kids to school, but it feels like I'm basically doing nothing. I don't mind this so much, because I'm getting a whole bunch of experience with children which I didn't have before. Today I actually questioned whether or not I want kids, considering what kids are like. Home school for at least a bit is a requirement for sure. The afternoon session was an English class which was run by Rosa and had only three kids in it. It was pretty educational for me because I learnt some basic Spanish. The kids (Dante, Miley, something else starting with M) were fun and seemed to be there because they wanted to be. I've not really written much background on the school. It's called Hilo Rojo and was started about three years ago by a woman called Rosemary who works a normal job six days a week to keep it going. The public schools here are free to attend, but there are a whole bunch of other costs associated with them which make them unaffordable for the families who live in the slums near the mountain. Hilo Rojo is for those families. The kids enjoy the social activity and having people care about them. A lot of them have bruises and scratches, most of which probably just came from rough play. Attendance is sporadic, especially in the afternoon classes, but the philosophy of any difference is a difference still rings true here. The kids that turn up get benefit. 13/10 – Trujillo Day 5 It is a Tuesday. Exercise routine established. I'm thinking every second day I'll do actual working out type stuff and every day I'll do stretches for at least 20 minutes. I'm spending most of the days picking up kids which I'm sure isn't great for my body but if I can keep my form then maybe it'll be a good extra workout. This morning I discovered that my headphones are playing up which is infinitely annoying. I don't want sound coming in to one ear, I want it coming in to both. Today I should actually meet Pepe, and in the afternoon there is a science class for the older kids. I wouldn't mind going in to town to get a sim, but if there aren't enough people doing the science thing then maybe I should just go. Considering I can't do a class by myself in Spanish and I don't even help much when I'm an extra, maybe it's better to get a sim so I can practice duolingo. So it turns out that Lucy was alone in her travels to the actual school to give English lessons, so I went with her and Ward (Belgian) and Anna (Poland) looked after Pepe. Ward leaves tomorrow afternoon so I'll need to ill with Pepe and him so I can learn his signals. The first class consisted of 14 eleven year olds, most of which were sassy or disobedient. It was generally difficult to keep their attention, but they were infinitely better than the small kids at Hilo Rojo. Then we had a break during which time there was what seemed to be an evacuation and first aid drill type situation where all the students came outside in their class groups and each class had someone who was pretending to be injured and two first aiders. Once the kids were bandaged up they had recess and we were inundated in questions in both English and Spanish. Once the onslaught subsided and recess was finished we taught some well behaved nine and ten year olds who seemed to actually want to learn. It was interesting that one class really didn't care for school and the other was interested in everything. In the first class people could sit where they wanted, so the boys were on one side and the girls on the other. When we played a game where they had to get in to groups of whatever number was written on the board in English, some boys would willingly lose the game instead of going in a group with girls. The other class seemed to have allocated seats so there were roughly an even number of girls and boys on each table and they seemed to disregard gender almost entirely. Their concentration and eagerness was better and they didn't cause any trouble when they had finished copying what was on the board and had a bit of spare time. Nothing interesting happened at lunch, except that I decided to go to the afternoon class. I had hoped to skip it as the teacher to student ratio was basically one to one the day before, but nobody really wanted to help with science and Ward would have been on his own otherwise so I went to help. Lucy decided to come too and it was good to have two people to keep the non-interested people calm while Ward taught the interested kids. I would like to take up teaching the science class, but I just don't have enough Spanish at this point. The way Ward has been teaching is great because he keeps in relevant to their lives with things like the atmosphere leading in to pollution and the effect that has on the environment. I think from now on I'll go in the afternoons on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, depending on need. I still really need to get a sim, so I'm going to try hard to refrain from being roped in to going tomorrow afternoon. It's English again so there should be enough. Rosa gave me a friendship bracelet which I didn't know was a friendship bracelet until after she gave it to me. 14/10 – Trujillo Day 6 It is a Wednesday. Today was the first day with Pepe. I wish I was Ward with his general people skills. Mine are terrible. Pepe is around maybe 19 years old, though nobody knows his true age except maybe his mother. On the way to and from school he walks with his nephew who comes to the school. When he gets to the school he needs to have someone constantly nearly touching him so that he doesn't fall over. This doesn't seem to add up, but because there are a lot more stimuli at school, he can get excited and lose balance or move to fast and fall over. At the very start Ward and Pepe cut and glued pictures of certain foods into Pepe's book in the categories of either healthy or unhealthy. Pepe finds it difficult to use his left hand at all so Ward had to hold the paper while Pepe cut it with scissors in his right hand. Next we went through the numbers up to ten (in Spanish), then the letter “b”. Pepe concentrates and tries hard to get things right, but his motor skills aren't great and neither is his concentration. By the end of all that it was ten o'clock which is food time, then we went up to the park to play basketball. Pepe gets tired easily. At eleven we went back to school and all he could manage was some colouring in. He was getting distracted really easily, but the fish he coloured was beautiful. The main problem is that I don't get him. Not only can I not communicate with him because I don't speak Spanish too well, but I just don't seem to get his vibe. He sometimes plays tricks on people or fingerbangs them and you have to pretend to be shot, so he does have a sense of humour, but I just don't know when to let him do what he wants and when to tell him no, you need to do this. He can get frustrated easily and I don't want him to not like me and therefore decide school is rubbish and a waste of time. If I can keep him attending then I'm winning. I think I'll talk to Anna (Poland) who kind of organises things and make sure that someone else is the person in charge, and I'd be happy to be the helper. The problem is that there are fewer volunteers now because Ward, Chloe (France), Magdelena (Austria) and Clementine (France) are leaving and only one new girl, Hannah (Germany) has arrived to take their places. This numbers problems meant that I needed to go in the afternoon to help with the English class. I'm kind of the crowd control guy and feedback guy because I'm totally useless at actually taking the classes. Tomorrow we are all (The Away Team which is what I call those who are not staying in the main building) going in to town in the afternoon, assuming that someone else will go to teach. 16/10 – Trujillo Day 8 It is a Friday. Let's start with yesterday. Yesterday I was with Pepe by myself for the first time. It went a whole lot better than I thought it would, but still not that great. It takes a while to get used to what he wants, and it's even harder for me because I can't rattle things off in Spanish and he can say yes or no, I have to actually do the things for him to tell me that I've done the wrong thing. Anyway, I got him to rub his hands together and make little crepe paper balls to stick on his book in the shape of the letter “b”. We did some number stuff then went to the park to play basketball. After lunch was colouring. Today we did the letter “c”, a few numbers and cards, then the park for basketball and football, then colouring. After that everyone got together to celebrate the leaving of three volunteers, Morgan, Rosa and Kalle (Finland). This involved people speaking in Spanish, some kids doing songs and lots of dancing. At some point Pepe got up and danced and seemed to really enjoy it. Normally he gets super sad on Fridays because he loves school, and because people usually leave on Fridays. He seemed ok today. Pepe like to play tricks on people. It gets really old, really fast. Sometimes he just taps me when I'm not looking and pretends it's someone else, and other times he pulls my leg hairs and pretends it's a mosquito. As in every five seconds when I don't have an activity for him to do. I'm told Pepe needs someone constantly within reach of him to look out for him, yet he makes it to and from school with his five year old nephew who attends the school. There are times while he's at school that he does need someone to slow him down because he gets too excited about stuff, but that may just be a product of him having someone there to help him all the time. Either way, at the park today I felt comfortable leaving his side if I needed to and he was totally fine to hang out on his own for a minute or so. I think my plan of attack with Pepe in the future is for me to be less involved with his movement so he takes on more responsibility himself and to get him doing activities which engaged his left hand. At the moment it seems to receive identical instructions to his right hand, but it's kinda messed up so it's functionally nearly totally useless. He can use it for rolling paper balls, but that all at the moment. I think that even though I don't love my role being to look after Pepe, I've accepted that it's probably the best place for me while I'm here. It's good for him to have the same person with him, instead of having a bunch of new people who need to learn his cues anew each time. Also, I don't have the Spanish to teach a normal class, and helping out with the little kids isn't something I love either, just because the actions of the teachers and students is so illogical. Sure they're only three to six years old, but surely there are some rules which govern their behaviour? Anyway, I expect to be with Pepe for the future if he'll have me. Weekend Recovery18/10 – Trujillo Day 10 Yesterday was a Saturday. We went to the beach in the afternoon and Morgan and I went surfing. 21/10 – Trujillo Day 13 It is a Wednesday. Where were we? Surfing was loads of fun even though I was totally rubbish at it. I had the largest board and still the most I managed was to make it to my knees. I only caught a small number of waves and that was the major problem. I found it difficult to determine which waves were catchable and which weren't. The people who got lessons had someone giving them a boost as the waves came which meant they could catch nearly every one. They all stood up. I would like to have another go because it was really fun, but maybe somewhere with better waves, more of which are catchable. On Sunday I lazed about a bit. I had sore ribs and arms from surfing so I planned to go for a massage for 30 soles, but the place was closed. Nothing else really significant happened on Sunday. Carbonara made by Kalle was delightful. Rosa left. Morgan had left the night before. Lucy moved to the main house so I'm on my own in the away apartment. Monday morning, went to school, hung out with Pepe, his mum was sick on the weekend. He imitated a seizure so maybe that's what happened. I think she went to hospital and had her hand cannulated which was the only bandage Pepe could see so he thought that was the thing which was wrong. He was pretty quick to get back in to playing tricks on people and he maintained good application with his school work. I went to the afternoon English class and there was a meeting back at base about the school involving all the volunteers, teachers, owner and maybe the director. All I wanted to say was that I didn't like always being the one to go in the afternoon and that other people who never do it should help out, but the meeting was in Spanish and it seemed like nobody really cared about that. I'm happy to do more than my share of afternoons because I don't have lesson plans to do, but for people to use that as an excuse for never going is bullshit. It doesn't take three hours to plan for a three hour class every day. Anyway, Tuesday was a normal morning with Pepe then Nicola (German) and I planned the afternoon Science lesson. It was about pollution with regard to the ozone layer and global warming. Only one kid seemed really interested, but it think it was good for everyone to at least be exposed to the idea. Most of them are only very young. I think I forget that sometimes. I think I'll have to go to the afternoon class again today because otherwise it'll be only Lucy. We really need more than two people, especially since my Spanish isn't good enough to teach them. I get pretty exhausted doing full days every day. It's 7.40 am until 6.20 pm, including travelling to and from the school twice, and the kids are generally a handful. 23/10 – Trujillo Day 15 It is a Friday. Yesterday was a pretty normal morning at school, then in the afternoon I watched the Canadian kids while Joseph and Carlee had an afternoon to themselves. We each had a piece of A4 paper and made part of a board game, then stuck them all together at the end so we could play. Yesterday there was another Canadian family who arrived (Chris the father, Sarah the mother, Abby and Jake the kids). Abby and Jake also helped make the board game. They are slightly less erratic than Holly, Reid and Avery, but everyone was pretty well behaved. We needed more chance squares. I'm trying to sort out what to do on this trip. I was going to stay here for four weeks, but I heard Lindsey (U.S.) talking about how nice it is to trek in Panagonia and I decided that I want to go there to do some walking. If I do go south first, then I'm definitely not coming back past Cusco, so I probably need to do all the nice things around there on the way. Morgan is doing that at the end of next week, so I'm going to meet up with her in Arequipa and do Macchu Pichu, Puno Lakes, Bolivian salt flats then head down towards Santiago, then on towards Patagonia. This change of plans will cut in to my savings significantly more, but I think after that I'll find a workaway in either Argentina or Brazil before meeting Corin and Youngy in Rio for Carnival at the start of February. After that, who knows. I feel bad for not staying as long as I said I would, and it might be interpreted that I haven't enjoyed it as much as I thought I would. While technically this is true, I am still really enjoying myself and the real reason I'm leaving early is just that it works out better for me to do it this way. Today is Valentin's last day. Pepe will be really sad because he likes Valentin a lot. Hopefully he has a dance and remains upbeat like last week. I hope it's not too hot today, because that always tires Pepe out. 24/10 – Trujillo Day 16 It is a Saturday. Pepe got pretty sad at the sayings of goodbye yesterday. He's so sweet. He traced “VALENTIN Y PEPE” and cut it out for Valentin who has been here for I think two months and gets along with Pepe really well. He also cut out various things for Carlee, Joseph and the kids. He asked about it himself. On the Canadian front, they decided that after four weeks of wanting to throw all their energy in to building the bathroom and not being able to, that it is time to move on with their travels. They have raised enough money for them to help build a bathroom, but if they leave it to the school, it's hard to know if is will still be sufficient. There have been five “maestros” now who are kind of the equivalent of a journeyman. The first four either didn't turn up or weren't very good. I also wish that I would have been able to help out in the afternoon, but I doubt enough will get done in the next week to enable that. Yesterday afternoon I went for a massage at the place Carlee and Joseph went to on Thursday. It wasn't super awesome, but it cost 30 soles (about 15 AUD) for two and a half hours and I'm definitely going back next week some time. Maybe on Friday again before my bus trip. After that everyone was having beers, so for the first time, I hung out with people kind of. I mostly was with the parents. I'm planning on getting at least a bit shitters tonight for the first time in quite a while. Old Leslie Smith will be here for a few days, and an afternoon in the sun at the beach with one, two or seventeen beers will be delightful. I initially planned on not drinking much so I would keep a clear head, allowing for better acquisition of the Spanish language, but that's been failing pretty hard on account of I'm lazy, so I might as well have a few tonight. The Future is The PastI have written more since this point, but it's already way too much so I'll put up a bit more at the end of the week or summin'.
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Chris JonesJust a guy going for a bit of a documented ride. Archives
May 2018
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