poco a poco

School band

I MADE IT! I survived my 2 weeks of solo teaching! Boy do I now have so much more respect for all teachers, as well as a need to sleep for the next week I'm so exhausted! My first week included a lot of yelling, like a lot, a lot of frustration and a fun new adventure! Remember when you were in elementary school and had a substitute teacher for a day? Remember how mean kids were to the poor subs? Imagine that times three, plus there being double the amount of students in one room, it all being in Spanish, and when kids feel like you are ignoring them they just get out of their desks and poke you until you acknowledge them. But, on the other hand it was super fun to actually be able to do what I wanted to do with my classes. I didn't make them copy everything from the really not helpful text book, I didn't care what their notebooks looked like and what they wrote down verse didn't, I worked on reexplaining things to get them to understand better, played vocab and verb practice games, didn't kick kids out of class for not having their books, and tried to make full use of the time we had together.

My second week was way better, I somehow did something right the first week, because they respected me 10 times more. I actually didn't lose my voice from yelling nor did I think a vain was gonna pop out of my head. A few kids even came up to me after classes and told me I was a really good teacher or they liked my class that day! So, that was pretty awesome. But, non the less still exhausting due to late nights preparing for the next day, grading tests and billions of notebooks.

Bonfire in the yard

Other fun things: Learned how to drive a motorcycle! Our friend Javier taught us a couple weeks ago. I was a natural of course, Lacie and Chantelle were a little bit more freaked out by the idea so he sat on the back praying for his life the whole time with them! But, now we're all quite good, especially Chantelle, she's had lots of practice! Also, learned out to ride side sandal on a motorcycle, kind of scary the first 30 seconds.

Santisimo had a march for education. Every class choose different costumes to represent different ages in Peru history. My class were Incas!

May is the month of the Virgin Mary. At school, everyday a different class brings flowers to present to Mary and prays the rosary in honor of her and the holy family. Each neighborhood also has a statue of the Virgin, our neighborhood Mary came to visit us this week. Monday night the community was invited to our house to pray the rosary, a woman and her granddaughter showed up to lead us in prayer.

We've gotten real tight with the priests of San Jose Obrero, the Augustinian parish here. Yesterday we went to lunch with a couple of them, where we drank wheat beer, yes WHEAT, we were excited and ate delicious spicy ceviche (raw fish cooked from the acidity of limes), arroz con mariscos (like spanish paella, seafood and rice), seco de chavelo (fried mashed plantains with dried meat and veggies), and cachema (a type of fish grilled and served with onions and tomatoes) ALL amazing!! Then last night after mass we went out with them to a bar for pisco sours, they paid!

Mother's Day is also a huge deal here in Peru! On Wednesday they had a special mass for all the Mother's of Santisimo. On Friday, they held a specially lunch for the teachers and gave the mothers presents. Also on Friday, there was a huge party in the school. The mothers were greeted by the senior boys in suits with roses ready to escort the mothers into the party. Then each grade level choose students to sing a song, read a poem or do a dance in between raffling off baskets of random foods: pasta, milk, yogurt, crackers, etc. Today, I went to my host families for a special lunch of baby goat and rice.

Todo lo puedo en Cristo que me fortalece (Flp 4:13)

The things that frustrate me! Oh where do I even start? The fact that I have yet to cry from students not listening to me causing me to lose my voice from yelling all time? The lack of respect people give one another, the lack of their ability to communicate, or the lack of efficiency in the school system??

Respect: A word I hear probably about ten times a day. Yet, the teachers don't show the students respect! Students are yelled at all day everyday. There is no sense of disciplinary system in place besides yelling at them. Students are expected to respect the teachers time but yet the teachers are always late, leave the class to talk on the phone, and lesson plan in the middle of class. Students are all expected to respect each other, yet students are afraid to talk in class because they are afraid of being made fun of or they are afraid of just being talked over by the annoying boy that sits in the front. Students are suppose to respect eachother's property as well as the school property, then they throw eachother's stuff on the ground where they also throw their trash. Not to mention, when we have teacher/parent meetings to talk about respect, and the moms just talk over one another the entire time.

Lack of communication: Communication in my mind is a very important part of life, it's what enables any of us to get anything done! Peruvians would disagree. Chantelle works at Central Pastoral, The Center of the Diocese for all of the Chulucanas area, in the health office under two sisters. It is a rarity that Chantelle doesn't come home completely frustrated solely due to the fact that they don't communicate something with her then yell at her when it hasn't been done. Two weeks ago, Lacie and I ended up spending all of our free time helping Chantelle get a project done that her bosses just didn't tell her to do, until it was past due. In school I'm often not given directions then have to regrade papers, rewrite the tests, or reexplain a chapter because I wasn't told how to do it in the first place. One of these days I guess I'll just learn to start reading their minds to know when we are going to have a meeting after school, what days we get out early, and when people are expecting me to do something.

Walking bridge over the river in Piura

The inefficiency in the school system: This week, we gave our first set of midterms out to two of our classes. Of the 72 students that took the test, 15 of them got a C or D, 9 got above a 50%, and everyone else was lucky to get 20% right. Why is this? Yes, the students don't study, EVER. But, we also have such a limited amount of time with the students each week (1.5 hours, not including wasted time. I take away kids homework on a daily basis for coping someone else's homework right there in the front row in front of me. They don't have computers, projectors, or any sort of media to assist in teaching, kids are constantly talking and therefore constantly getting yelled at. To add to it, they take their tests outside to try to spread the kids out to avoid cheating. But, taking them out of their normal learning environment makes for a lot of distractions especially when other teachers are interrupting them, Yenny is talking on the phone, and kids are throwing white out around like dodge-balls because they are more concerned with not scratching stuff out than their answers. Also, there is no sort of reward system. Their reward is often not being embarrassed in front of the rest of their peers. After the test, Yenny went through and called out every student that got a 20% for the rest of the students to 'ohh' at!

EARTHQUAKE DRILL!

Kids playing injured during the earthquake drill...other students play doctor. Normal? Always prepared for the worst?

All things considering, we didn't come here to have an easy year, to recreate the United States, or let our frustrating take away from the experience. Especially when we don't know what's going on in these kids homes, we don't know how many parents are around, if they have food on the table, if their parents encourage them to do well in school, or if they have to work every afternoon to help provide for their families. Doesn't make it any less challenging and make me question if what I'm doing has any purpose but, if I can impact even a handful of them, this year will be worth it! 

Anyway, other events of the last two weeks: we had an infestation of flees so got the house fumigated, the termites in my room are here to stay though. Lacie spent a day in the hospital due to an extreme stomach infection. The dog the bit me, he lives, I don't have rabies. Our director, Pat, came to visit, brought Christmas with him (goldfish, granola, cereal, cliff bars, chocolate, etc). Done some awesome Piura exploring, including walked into the perfect mass at a beautiful Church. And just busy living, cooking, cleaning, hand washing clothes, spending time with friends, and running on Saturday mornings with students.

Viviendo en el presente

Just doesn't do it justice

So, not sure if you heard, but I moved here, I moved to Peru. I'm not here for a week service trip to get this awesome spiritual, do good, save the world high...I'm here to live with the people of Chulucanas. I'm here to experience how the third world lives, here to live their everyday struggles, face my own struggles, and learn more everyday. Because of this, I have good days and I have bad days. I have strong feelings of frustrating and belly aching fits of laughter. We have concern for our safety and amazing friends that are protective, welcoming and generous. The school system drives me nuts, in the fact that my students will have learned hardly anything by the time this year is over, but my students constantly make me smile.

Everyday is a new adventure full of awkward, funny, and sometimes surprisingly deep conversations. Every chance I get to look out at the landscape is a blessing. Never have a seen such open lushious green land leading up to beautiful big pointy blue mountains that look so close you can touch them. Never have I been stopped in the street by a stranger wanting to thank me for being there. Nor have I met someone that 10 minutes later is inviting me over to their house to feed me, or wanting to take me to see their favorite place in the Chulucanas area. Chulucanians are so proud of their city, their culture, and of course their food, so much so they can't wait to share anything they have with us. But, yet never have I felt so much like I am constantly in need of a shower, my stomach is constantly in a state of discomfort, bugs are constantly crawling on me not to mention biting me, and I'm still constantly sweating. I joke by the time I get back literally nothing will phase me, I'll think all things are just well, normal! Last night, for example, we were coming back from a city 20 minutes away on moto with two new friends when we broke down. It was so dark you could literally see nothing but billions of stars, with not a person in sight, we didn't feel scared but yet, just kind of, un phased, naturally this would happen, we're in Peru.

The mural is made of dyed wood chips made only for the evening procession

Anyway, Holy Week was spent much differently this year. We didn't have work or school Thursday or Friday because they are days meant to be spent with family, at church, in community, and/or traveling. Never have I gone to more hours of church in 5 days, especially where I only understand about 50% of what is being said. The most significant mass was Friday morning's Stations of the Cross. Beginning at 5 am, was a three hour procession through the streets while fifty 15 to 17 year old parish kids acted out the stations. By the end of the procession probably close to 5,000 people were walking with us as they physically wipped the boy playing Jesus and hung him on a cross bleeding for all the crowd to see.

Fabiana and I riding on the back of the moto

Catacoas llama, carnival and beautiful cathedral.

After the procession our friend Italo accompained us to a small city, Catacoas, for their Semana Santa activities. It was pretty much a giant street carvinal with millions of people and tons of good food!

Trip to the water falls with new friends

Prefe Briana!

Top of Chulucanas! I'm a giant!

 Wow! Where do I begin with my last couple of weeks...?? Guess life finally got busy, maybe even too busy!! I'm finally in a full on day to day routine, causing time to just fly bye! My weekly schedule looks about like this:

Back half of our house, my room is on the left!

Monday: Wake up at 5:30 to work out and have 2 hours to myself before I have to be at school at 7:30. I have three 1.5 hour classes (2C, 2A, 4B) with an hour and half break between my 2nd and 3rd period classes. Most of my teaching time is spent pronouncing words over and over again, stating significance, writing examples on the board and attempting to make students actually listen to me. I get home to Lacie and Chantelle where we make lunch together. Most of which consists of a lot of vegetables, chicken, and rice all mixed up in a pan with really good unknown spices. Siesta time is often spent with random visitors (mainly friends, yes we have friends, TONS actually, most of which guys and non of which call ahead of time nor understand what overstaying their welcome means) or university students needing things translated for them including their physics or statistics books (why the teacher just doesn't use a book in SPANISH is beyond us!).

Looking out towards the street of our house!

Tuesday: 5:30 wake up, 2B class, then off to the University for my 45 minute English class to a group of Argrodustrial students. My university classes are spent speaking more English, but also spent repeating myself over and over again, working on pronunciation, and doing listening activities. Then I am off to the Seminarian to teach 10 Seminaristas an hour and a half of the most basic English you can imagine. I walked in the first class and asked how much English they knew, got a blank stare so asked in Spanish and was given the answer of "Hello," that was all they knew. So we started with the ABC's! The sad part is all of them took 5 years of English in Secondario school, similar to what I do everyday. The problem is with their school system, after all is said and done they get about 45 minutes of English class a week (after teachers are 15 minutes late, take 10 minutes to plan what they are going to teach that day, 15 minutes to lecture about who knows what, and the last 5 minutes to chill), often times by a teacher that himself doesn't speak English, no wonder they learn nothing! Tuesday afternoon is spent similar to Monday with dinner at the Bishops house!

View from the Obispado of the street, plaza, and Cathedral

Wednesday: Can't get up at 5:30, too tired, get up at 6:30. Have my 5A, 3A, 5B classes, back to back, home by 1:00. Normally go out to lunch Wednesdays, for 5 soles ($2) a person, why not occasionally splurge! Have I told you how amazing food is in this country?? Wednesday night, often times we find someone that wants to feed us, yes people here love to cook for us, it's amazing! Then before bed we have our weekly community meeting and prayer.

Thursday: 5:30 wake up, breakfast normally consists of a banana with peanut butter (we have a PB obsession here), yogurt that you drink, the 18 sole ($7) box of cereal we bought in Piura with milk you buy warm, or a hard boiled egg. Head to school for my 4A, 4B tutoria class, then 1B, done by 11:50 :). Thursday's we go to Chantelle's host families restaurant for free lunch, so good! Then I have 4 classes that afternoon in the University!

Sunset over Chulu!

Friday: Attempt to wake up at 5:30, my walk to school takes me about 12 minutes, consists of saying "buenos dias" to every person I pass and every moto driver asking if I would like a ride. I have my 4B PFRH (persona, familia, relationes humanas) class, 3B, free block, 1A. The afternoon is spent like Monday and Tuesday.

Weekends here for most don't begin till Saturday night, so that is the night to go out, and we've sure done a good job and making sure that happens every week. But, Friday we often spend drinking on streets with friends, having friends over, going to watch Peru play Chile in the most popular club in Chulucanas with the owner, who we've made friends with. or staying in to watch a movie with a bottle of wine! Saturday day lately has been spent exploring Puira (where there is a Starbucks, Chile's and Pizza Hut), other small pueblos, the country side, the rivers, or cooking with friends. Sunday is spent recovering from not getting home till 6 am, church, and drinking more. But, unlike most Peruvians we do have to work on Monday's and don't believe in just not going due to drinking too much all day Sunday.

Drinking green mango juice for St Patty's Day!

Other fun facts of the past couple of weeks...I got bit by a dog, we lost electricity for a few days so had to cook with headlamps, we still lose running water often, our roof leaks waterfalls, we have a river in our street 4 feet deep when it rains that we have to swim through to get to our house, I have an infected bug bite on my arm that required a trip to the hospital, our internet goes out, the list continues but so does life here! It's all just part of the adventure, right?

El Fin de Verano!

After 9 months of permanent "Summer Vacation" I have finally officially began my first real life job!  My day begins at 7:30 AM with an all school assumbly of presenting the Peruvian flag (duck walk style), the Peruvian national anthum, Santisimo Cruz Colegio anthum, and of course prayer! Following the 20 to 30 minute assumbly students and professors are dismissed to our aulas!

My first week as an official teacher was spent often confused due to the lack of information given to me, the constant schedule changes due to early dismissal at the end of the day due to the first day of school, la dia de la mujer, and the heat of the afternoon, and lack of lesson planning! Not to mention the amount of time I'm left alone in my class with not a clue what to do next, but I guess they trust me?

Teachers are often late to class, or they leave the room to talk to another professor, or they just want to go talk on the phone outside the room. All of which is very normal! However, they are very strict with the kids, the students all stand when you enter the room, ask permission for everything, are not allowed to be late, talk when others are talking, and are yelled at often for bad work or lack of studying.

My favorite part is when we have breaks in the day and I can just sit and talk with the students! They love asking me hundreds of questions! They ask me what my state is like, if I have siblings, if I have a boyfriend and how much I miss him, how long is of a journey was it to get to Peru, what the food is like in the US, etc! Highlight of my Friday was in my last class, a boy at the end of our convo told me I was cool and gave me a kiss on the check! Then all the other students wanted a kiss goodbye too!

ohh Este Pais!

Well, our life just went from the slow lane to the fast lane real quick! Last week, my week was full of "training" to become a profesora of  11 to 17 year old kids! In reality this training was more so a really unnecessary bad RA training for 4 hours everyday where:
      -Everything moves very slow
      -Everything is a discussion
      -Everything is a process
      -Everyone has an opinion
      -Everything gets repeated 10 times
      -No one respects the other person talking, even when talking about respect
      -Nothing gets resolved
      -Snack time = best time

Other fun observations of the week:
     -Calling every Asian person Chino or Chinita (little china) is normal
     -Bring toilet paper with me EVERYWHERE
     -Think I'll get toned arms from fanning myself all day?
     -The teachers switch classrooms not the students
     -Lots of students repeat grades due to failing
     -Obama is on the news everyday
     -The Harlem Shake Colorado College Plane Dance on Youtube made news here
     -Instead of all students paying the same amount for school activities they all pay random amounts
     -It's rude for a guy not to pour a women's drink
     -Always kiss on the check with hello's and goodbye's even if it's only a 30 second conversation
    -Flowers are only given at the cemetery
    -Santisimo Cruz Colegio (the school I teach at) is the only Catholic School in Chulu
    -The more their voice cracks, they change their tone or fluctuation in their voice the better
    -Many people are very lazy, working 6 days a week, but often take 3 hour siesta, close shops early especially if raining, and watch tons of TV. Teachers mad about some working 22 hours a week when others have to work 26 hours a week

How they dress:
    -Like they are in the 90's
    -Jean dresses
    -Wedges, heels, or platform flip flops all day everyday
    -Really tight clothes even when really isn't flattering
    -SKINNY jeans
    -Colored leggings
    -Clunky jewelry
    -English T-Shirts, often don't even make sense
    -Guys wear leather sandals, cargo pants, and Holister T-Shirts
    -Wear tomorrow's clothes today after shower in the afternoon

Other fun events of the week:

Traveling on motorcycles with new friends, good thing max you can go in this city is around 15 mph before you hit a speed bump, intersection without stop signs, or something/ someone in your way

Got a tour of the city from the famous Bishop, learned where is dangerous, where is okay, and how we're suppose to avoid all dirt roads, go no where alone after 5 and there's a 1/4 mile road strip that is safe to run.

Learned how much we are really looked at as rich with lots of money to give out. We are often asked for money by kids and elders.



Getting to know my new co-teacher has been awesome! Yenny is  31 years od and has been teaching for 8 years. She is pumped to be my friend and teach me everything she knows! She is full of life, dresses adorably, everyone loves her, and wants to be my "sister!"

They don't understand why I only have one last name, they all take on their father's and mother's last name! oh p.s. my first name is Briana here!


We have this new awesome friend named Richard, who just finished serving in the US Army but is originally from Chulucanas. Richard has been a great person to show us around, protect us, and just having a friend is really nice!

Diabetes and Heart Problems have become a lot more common in Chulu with the amount of rice and sugar people eat everyday. Richard said in the last 5 years everyone has gotten fatter, women still try to look nice, but men just look fat.

Got fitted for my flight attendant looking uniform like I was being fitted for a wedding dress.

My students have 11 different subjects a week including home ec, psychology, work trades, and the usual science, math, communication, and English.

We went to Lacie's host sister's Quinceanera where they killed and cooked 10 ducks, we had cake, and met tons of family and neighbors! Her parent's were happy to welcome everyone into their little home in hopes of making it the best party they could afford to have for their daughter.

This week we moved into our new house and I've started teaching and 26 students from Villanova are here for the week! Stories to come!

Una Utra Semana

Well, somehow I've officially survived another week of extreme heat! Thank goodness for the invention of a freezer and Rosa's ability to make Helado de Mango (ice cream)! Rosa in general is a really amazing cook! Food here consists of an entire plate of rice, some type of carne, and some kind of vegetable (mainly potatoes) or a side of some sort! Peruvians really like their food fried, Rosa goes through a huge thing of vegetable oil every week. However, this does make for a lot of really good flavor especially in all their sauses. Generally the carne consists of chicken, duck, or really chewy beef. Oh they also are strick followers of Fish Fridays during lent. Meals are generally eaten around the same time as we eat in the U.S. except that lunch is the bigger, most important meal of the day.

This week we had dinner and danced Gangdom Style with the San Augustin priests in Chulucanas. I pierced Gianelle's (15 year old host sister) ear, and yes only one, had to pierce the first one twice so didn't really wanna try the other one. But, apparently they don't have places here that can do that for them. Good thing I've seen The Parent Trap? Cut Irma's (7 year old host sister) hair. Once again, apparently they don't have many places that do this for them. Good thing I pay attention when I get my hair cut? Got in several water fights with Othmar (13 year old host brother)! Made lots new friends! Played street games, like kick the can and hop scotch, with the neighborhood kids! Removed paint at the Hogar de los Abuelitos (Home of little Grandparents). And taught more classes at the university!

Lastly, this week has been full of  little things that break my heart:

• Rosa asked me if in the U.S. we can just turn on a facet and have clean drinkable water come out. 

• Rosa's mom's house was made out of sticks, cardboard boxes, tarps, and blankets hung on clothes lines for the past two years. This week Haynes built them exteral walls out of thick wood and cement.

• My family asked me about how big and what my house looks like in the U.S.

• Rosa can't afford nice knives, so hers are constantly breaking, causing her to have to cut with just the blade part. 

• They told Gianelle and I to stay out of the sun because we are getting tanner. To them whiter skin is looked at as more beautiful.

• Watching Rosa have the same day everyday, of cooking, cleaning the dirt floors, and listening to her children yell, fight, and misbehave all day.

Overall another good week here in Chulucanas! Tomorrow I start training to become a Secondario Teacher! School starts a week from Monday!