As previously mentioned, all of the problems that I had had with the school director have recently dissipated due to the support of my community. With the help and support of my community members, I was given the key to one of the classrooms of the school, and since then I have been teaching everyday (except Sundays) for about 3 hours each day.
Everyday I have been teaching English and environmental science to a group of about 20 children between the ages of 6-14. Most of the time, the kids refer to me as profesora, which means teacher. They have a ton of trouble pronouncing my name, which is consistently changing from Yessica, Joshica, or Yessie. I have realized that most women in the community at my age have multiple children and husbands. I became aware of this fact when I
was teaching, and in midst of a lecture, one of the 10 year old girls called me over to her desk. Naturally, I walked over thinking that she had a question, but to my dismay, she wanted to know why I did not have any children yet. This has happened multiple times in class, and its awkwardness never ceases to be. The girls make up for it by drawing me pictures on the board, and bringing me 4 leaf clovers. Actually, 5 of the girls brought me about 30 four leaf clovers at the beginning of one of our sessions, and then helped me place them between the pages of my books to dry. As in any classroom anywhere on the planet, some days are good days to teach, where the kids are quiet, respectful and attentive. The other days are like any normal school, with the paper airplanes, soccer balls bouncing, and endless requests for recess. I am not a huge fan of teaching English, but I understand the benefits of speaking English in my community.
This area is a popular tourist destination, and many English speaking tourists pass through my community to head to Laguna Llanganuco, start the Santa Cruz trek, or summit some of the many glistening peaks of the Cordillera Blanca. My real joy and happiness comes from teaching environmental science, and the true bio nerd in me finds it way out into the classroom as I passionately deliver lectures on endangered species, Peruvian mammals, erosion prevention and reforestation. Ahhhh science, you truly are my heart.
Alot of my time here is spent in my community, but a good chunk of it I spend working with the park guards from Huascaran National Park. As a side project to work on with my class, I am soliciting the park to receive 30 trees to plant at the school. I have been teaching a unit on reforestation, and I am planting trees with the children to show them the benefits of growing trees in your community. Later on, I will be working with the community to build tree nurseries for native tree species. Firstly, I am starting with the children.....
Speaking of trees, I recently worked on a project with Huascaran National Park to build a tree nursery for a widespread reforestation project of Quenual trees, a native species here in Peru. After a day of digging the beds for the trees, we planted over 3000 esquejes (stalks) of quenuales.
Myself and members of my community helped build these nurseries, because many of these people work in associations in the park, and are required to put in some work to support the park's conservation efforts. After the long day of planting I hiked back to my community with my other community members, with tools on my back and all.
Somehow, somewhere in the midst of manual labor, I hurt myself. I was sore for 2 days, and didnt think too much of it, just pent it up to a good day's work. After a few days, I didnt understand why my abs hurt terribly, because I had not been doing pilates or any other type of stomach exercise due to soreness. After a few days of this, I went running, where I discovered that something was very wrong with my ribs. After a trip to the doctor, I was told that I had a few bruised ribs and to take it easy for awhile. Aside from some pain after walking and breathing deeply, I am mostly frustrated, because this prevents me from bouldering on the weekends. In order to quench a little of that thirst, I will be watching climbing videos in site, in order to anticipate the next time I can get out and climb.
This weekend, I have been in Huaraz for 4 days, for the second installment of Quechua classes. Quechua is an indigenous language of this region, and it is completely and totally different from Spanish. Actually, a strange matter of trivia, the language of Jabba the Hut is based on Quechua.
Most of the people, actually all of the people in my community speak Quechua. The only time that I hear Spanish being spoken in my community is if they are talking to me, or to other outsiders that do not speak Quechua. Me speaking Quechua is something painful to hear, but hopefully after two years I will have some standpoint to understand and speak some of the language. I hope....
February was not only filled with much work and productivity, but lots of merrymaking as well, which deserves its very own post later today.....
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