Fun Fridays
It seems every Friday is a fun Friday here! Well the two I can remember have been anyway. Last Friday was our trip to the countryside. After the initial disappointment of finding out campo means countryside and not camping, the day turned out to be just super. This Friday, July 6th, we went along on a school tour with the scolita, the school we work in. I finally found out the name of that school is St. Bernadette’s School, with no signs up it took me ages to figure that out.
We headed into the centre of Lima after dangerously filling the school bus once again. Pedro was at the helm and I got the co-pilot seat. I did offer it to a few of the teachers who had to stand but they said they had keep hold of the kids.
We started our tour at the Museo de la Inquisitión y del Congresso. From that name and the tiny bit of the guide speaches I could understand, I gathered that it was about the Congress and the Inquisition. There was what looked like a courtroom with fake people at the top deciding something. I had to be nudged at one stage when the guide must have asked where their visitors are from. Once Consuelo, one of the teachers, got my attention she kept repeating, “Which country, which country??” I eventually figured out what was going on and informed them that I am from Ireland. Yet again the person I told this to thought I was from Orlando, must be the way I say Irlanda.
We carried on into the museum and we saw some things I didn’t think these kiddies would be seeing. It was like a torture museum. There was a guy being beheaded who had massive cuts on his back, a guy on a table; it looked like he was being stretched, and another who seemed to be in an electric chair – if they had electricity back then!
After leaving the museum of doom we headed to one of the squares that calls itself the cultural centre of Lima. It looks like the place all the pigeons of South America congregate. I might put a video up here to show you just how many there were. They’re so incredibly loud when they all take off together; made me yelp more than once. After some Japanese guy was finished taking photos of our students we headed into the Catacombs. I’m still not too sure what that place was.
It seemed like a church. But down in a cellar part of it were hundreds and hundreds of bones. Real ones. Just the thing you want to show our young students! Nothing like a few nightmares to get the imagination going. It was like a shop the way they were alll neatly arranged according to type of bone. One part even had a design made out of skulls and straight bones together. I broke the rules for a second by taking a sneaky photo. Could have gotten thrown out for that so hope you appreciate it when I get it up. I saw some Americans taking photos too, so if anyone caught me my plan was to blame them.
We had a really great day with the kids in Lima and I was once again reminded why working in a country kicks the metaphorical butt of visiting a country. It was one of the only places we’d been in the last month with other tourists and it saddened me a bit to think that that’s the only side of Lima some of them will see. I got lots of strange looks from people. Guess they were wondering how a gringa ended up walking along hand in hand with a Peruvian kid!
I’m writing this on my 25th night in Peru. I can’t believe how much I have fallen for this place in such a small time. I think I’ve been writing too many good things lately, here’s some things that have gone wrong for me lately:
Last Sunday we were invited to breakfast by Ana, a woman who works in our house. I didn’t understand that she was inviting us to her place, I thought she was saying something about dinner. So I slept in that day and woke up to find a letter from Michael saying he’d gone with Ana’s son, who she’d sent to pick us up and would see me later. Myself and Ana have now put that incident behind us…
A little later on that day I had a (little) conversation with Maria, another woman who works here, while we both washing some clothes. She was telling me about her family and I asked her how old her grandchildren were. She very sheepishly told me her age. I had to quickly jump in and apologise and tried to explain that I was not asking her her age. I said I had to go clean my room and her answer was something like ‘Yes, ok I will do it now’. I don’t know how I had accidentally told her to clean my room but I made a point of doing it myself that day. I must get her some chocolates before I leave.
My latest ‘screw-up’ came about due to a moisturiser mix-up. My skin has been incredibly dry in this desert place so I headed off for a stroll in search of a pharmacy. The pharmacist was a lovely man who asked about Ireland and my work here and what I thought of his country. I was so busy trying to get my words right that I didn’t read the tub before I bought it. It was white (and Ponds!) and I knew they did moisturiser. The cream stung a bit and made my face really shiny and wet looking. I got some odd looks from people when we went for our daily cheek kissing. But my skin was in bad shape so I lathered it on for two days ignoring the looks. It was only on the evening of the third day that I bothered to read the tub, and then it was only because Michael told me to. It said ‘Crema de Limpieza – remueve maquillaje y impurezas’. I knew from cleaning the Casa Del Niños twice a day that liempieza means ‘cleaning’ and [I made out] removes impurities from the rest. For two days I’d been smothering myself in a cream that you are only supposed to put on your face for two minutes or so before you wash it off!
I was saved public humiliation by the fact that Wednesday was the only sunny day we’ve had in weeks, so people think it’s sun burn that has me looking like I do! All day people have been telling me I need sun block, not moisturiser, which I finally bought. But I’m still layering on the moisturiser. Michael even suggested I go to the medical clinic to sort my face out, that’s how good I look!
On Saturday I got threatened with legal action for ‘stealing’ a child’s jumper. I was playing chase for an hour and a half. Well not constantly. Every now and then the five of us would collapse in a heap and half heartedly slap the person next to us and say the Spanish version of ‘You’re it’. Sounds like Jipatti. Afterwards, one of the guys I thought was now my buddy, took a nap under the skipping rope that was being used by a gang of girls. The only way to remove him was by lifting him. Long story (slightly) shorter he wiggled out of the jumper to get away from me, I put it on and jokingly wouldn’t give it back. Next thing I hear the words ‘Mama’ and ‘Policia’ and he quickly got his jumper back. Two minutes later we were making a jigsaw together.
I’ve been ‘screwing up’ in the school a bit when I’m supposed to be helping kids with their spelling! I’ve learnt my lesson that I cannot spell Spanish words and should have the words written in front of me when testing kids. Also they couldn’t understand why I wasn’t able to help them with their Peruvian history homework. Guess I’ll have to start studying before I can handle that. I’m sticking to maths and English for now.
Not much else to report around here. Kevin has finally shed the name ‘New Boy’ and is being called his actual name. Last week he was a little wild, had a bit of trouble settling into our way of life. For days I never saw him without his Spiderman toy. He’s been with us 11 days now and already he seems to be settling in. Haven’t seen Spiderman in days, hope he wasn’t taken away or anything. I think I saw 7 year old Liselith trying to set him up with 6 year old Cielo the other day. There was a lot of pointing and eyebrow raising. But Kevin looked disgusted and Cielo quickly skipped down the stairs and away from them. I’m not sure how old he is but judging by his bedtime he must be over 7. Cielo probably went to write about it in her journal. Discovered that all those times during playtime when she goes missing, she’s in the library. How cool is that?
I have already written too much, so I’ll go now.
Chau!
Tags: 2 - Peru
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