Claire takes on the world….

After this summer I believe Michael and I will be the best charade-players Ireland has ever produced. Unfortunately that game doesn’t seem to have reached Peru yet. We both got knocked over by the language barrier today, the first day of our volunteer placement. I was told no one in Peru would speak English, but I was told that about Brazil too and I met loads of English speakers there. But they weren’t kidding about Peru!
I got up early this morning to meet Michael who was moving into our new apartment from the house he had been staying in. He was just as impressed as I was with the three bed top floor penthouse. We ventured downstairs and met some of the women working here in what I think is called something like Casa Del Gomos, I’ll have to check that. We live in a home with 7 children, who for one reason or another had to be placed in care (not going to go into their personal business online, suffice to say they’re cute as hell). There’s usually more here but lots have left and new ones haven’t arrived yet. But at the time we decided to go meet some people, only Anelle, who’s too small to go to school, was there. We chatted with the cooks for a while. It was funny at first how they couldn’t understand us and vice versa. But once we stopped laughing, we realised we were going to have a problem. Michael impressed them with his domestic Godliness. They unfortunately gave me an orange which completely distracted me and I didn’t even notice he was cleaning until it was all over.
The children came back from school at one. In Peru small people go to school in the morning and teenagers take their lessons after lunch. So we had our first meal with the children. I think the food was called something ‘del Gomos’. I really don’t know why I think everything is called Gomos, this blog isn’t exactly going to be filled with factual information but I’ll look that up too. I, however, renamed the food Spaghetti Tuna-nase, because that’s what it was, spaghetti bolognaise with tuna instead of meat. It was….. interesting! One of these things that’s nice when you first eat it, but after a few mouthfuls you’re not quite sure. Peruvians don’t eat and drink at the same time, so after dinner we had something whose name I will have to check. These names are really hard! It’s a drink made of seeds, sugar and hot water. Kind of like a hot honey drink. The kids talked and talked and we nodded and nodded. I was grand for the first three sentences. I knew they wanted to know my name and age and where I come from. I also would have been fine had they wanted to book a room, ask directions or talk about their brothers and sisters! None of these topics, which I had prepared, came up and I sat there, being about as talkative as the chair.
After lunch we headed to the special-needs school. The students here have to pass one year before going onto the next, it’s not like in Ireland where a semi-trained monkey could make it through primary education. So students who repeatedly fail a year generally start hating school and stop going. So this school gives the kids a year where they work mainly on their weaknesses. They’ve done everything to try and make it the opposite to school; no rows of desks, circular buildings instead of square and if a child doesn’t want to go into the classroom they don’t have to. In the yard they have cows, sheep, hens, baby chicks, turtles with wrinkly feet, a peacock and a few others I’ve forgotten. I got a dodgy look from one of the women there when I pointed at a turkey and said ‘Cena’ (dinner). I just wanted to show off my Spanish word, I wasn’t going to eat her pet or anything!
The school only opened in the last few months but it looks like it’s going to be a great place. Their next project is to get trades started for the students who aren’t academically inclined. Michael and I will be working there a few days a week for the next two months.
After we’d introduced ourselves and kissed a lot of people in that school we headed to the Casa Del Ninos, the place I mistakenly told people in Ireland I would be staying in. In Peru, life would be hell for anyone who dislikes their co-workers. Because no matter how you get on, you can be sure you´ll be kissing them twice a day. Casa Del Ninos is like the greatest after school hangout place ever! It’s a massive (4 or 5 story) building in which the students can do their homework; many of them wouldn’t have space at home to do it. It also gives them a safe place to play and most importantly lets them be children. A lot of them have work and responsibilities and home but in Casa Del Ninos no one ever tells them to do anything, they are free to jump and shout and take part in the many educational activities.
The teenagers go there in the morning, mostly to do their homework but also to do some hanging out, and there are music classes. Michael’s going to be playing some music with them. If only I had my trumpet with me, I could show them a thing or two….
In the afternoons, hundreds of younger children go there. Around 500/600 children go there every day. Here there is just about everything to do. There’s drama, painting, homework places, reading room, psychologists, speech therapists, behavioral therapists, games up on the roof, playroom for the really small ones and a woodwork studio. They make some amazing things with that wood.
We only walked around for an hour or so today and met all the people. I’ll write more when I know more about this fascinating place.
Back in Casa Del Gomos (if that is what it’s called) we played some games with the kids that I’m pretty sure should be illegal. One called San Miguel was particularly violent. The aim of it is to grab a child who is sitting on the ground and being clung on to by other children and you just have to grab the thing and pull. I swallowed a stone during one of these games (maybe it was a pebble I dunno) and I can tell you it hurt.
During all this time we couldn’t really communicate with everyone. It didn’t seem to bother anyone really. They talked, we listened. Maybe they think we’re great listeners or something. At dinner I finally had a bit of a breakthrough. The little one Lecitha (spellings will more than likely change when I figure out how to spell the names) was talking away to me non-stop for a good 40 minutes. At one stage she asked me something to which I answered ‘Sí’. I knew it was a question from the way she put it. This ‘Sí’ got me a cheer from the other kids. I still haven’t a clue what I said yes to.
But that’s not the breakthrough. She then said
“Como se dice naranja en Ingles?”
I thought long and hard about this one. I knew from my Linguaphone CD that “Como se dice” means “how do you say”. The end of it is pretty self-explanatory so I only had to figure out the naranja part. I then remembered the Coke machine in the restaurant and the orange was called naranja. Finally I understood an entire sentence. I think I said “Orange” so loud I startled the other children a bit.
The nurse then burst the kid’s bubble (and mine) by informing her that I hadn’t a clue what she was saying. This earned me one of those big brown eyes-looks, like I’d been lying to her all day. I felt bad and thought I should say something to explain but alas I didn’t know how. After maybe a minute or so she seemed to forget this information and we were back having a full blown one way conversation.
A few minutes later I had to double cross the child by insisting she finished her dinner while at the same time swapping mine for some cake. I had had enough Spaghetti Tuna-nase for one day. And these people make damn good cake. I’m surprised these children sleep at all with the amount of sugar in everything!

It is now 11.30, I’m really sleepy but I can’t nod off until I learn a bit more Spanish. Can’t have an-other day like today where I’m constantly apologizing for my ignorance. We have 4 textbooks, 3 CD language courses, 3 computer programmes and 2 phrasebooks between us. Hopefully we’ll be chatting like locals in no time.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 17th, 2007 at 4:21 am and is filed under 2 - Peru. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.