LIMA 21K

I've been negligent with the blog. Apologies. I promise to hit you with a pile of updates in the near future. I've been in Lima for dental problems so I've been a grumpasaurus and not in the best state of mind for blogging. BUUTTT, I did run a half marathon on Sunday and thought the pictures would be a quick and easy post.

I had planned to run this race way before my damn teeth landed me in Lima, but the timing worked out pretty well so that I had a week in Lima to adjust to the weather and get a few good runs in around Miraflores before race day. The weather in Lima has officially declared winter upon the city, so the running conditions are fantastic these days.

I'm planning on writing a full post about the race, but for now please enjoy some classic race shots- always glamorous and never unflattering. Haha.

Case and Point: Don't I look pretty? 

This was at the finish line. 

Not my finest form. Heel striking. Dammit. 

Ready to be done at that point. 

Brian and I both ran the Half. It was his first and he killed it. 

8:40 pace just as he had wanted. 

Awesome job, Brian! 

PS- I look tiny next to him. Piere, who has met Brian only once, calls him "The Giraffe."

Our group minus one. 

Brian and I after the Half.

Kelsi, Mario, and Kate after the 10K. 

Great race everyone! 

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day Moms!

To my sisters (that includes you, Rachel)-

 I hope you had a great day and were all able to relax. You are awesome mothers and an inspiration for me. I hope someday I have that much patience. I miss you and your munchkins soo soo much! Can't wait to meet the little ones! Thank you all for your continued support and fun packages too. Love you guys! Happy Mother's Day!

To my Mom-

I can't thank you enough for your support and patience with my crazy Peace Corps lifestyle. Thank you for learning how to Skype for me, for the letters and emails, for the silly faces you make in front of a webcam, for your occasional yet well-timed & creepily accurate worried messages, and for just being you. I love you and miss you more than you know. Hope you had a great day!

Nigon Moms + A Little Monster 

Christmas 2011

Labor Day, Peru Style

Unfortunately, child labor exist here. I don't want to get into the sadness of that, but I do want to recognize the kids who that affects. There is a wonderful group for those kids at my high school that one of the English teachers here created a few years ago. He is a great advisor for them and is very passionate about working with this group. They are called the NATs, the Niños y Adolescentes Trabajadores. In English, Child and Teen Laborers. This is a really cool and active group that holds a lot of awesome activities and does a lot to advocate for children and the areas of Ascope with higher poverty rates. Anyway, since there was no school that day for the holiday, and because this is a holiday for workers, they got together on Labor Day for a full day of fun and activities to recognize the kids and teens for all they do. The group asked me to prepare some fun things for them to do that day. Things that they could do to "enjoy their youth and take advantage of their special day," in the words of their advisor. What's more fun than water balloons, right? 

Here you have some shots of the afternoon, before my camera was made victim to a water balloon explosion...don't worry, it's back up and running after the battery spent a couple of days in a bag of rice :) Crisis averted. 

Posters around the school for the big day. 

NATs group in their club t-shirts for the year. 

Water balloon volleyball! 

Man down. 

Sidenote, that kid in the purple is a host-fam relative, so he was up until 5am with me and the fam the night before. It was like a silent fight for both of us to not appear tired during this event. lol. 

Valient effort, but the boys took the prize. 

This is why you shouldn't keep your camera in your pocket while carrying water balloons. 

Poor choice. 

Sidenote: I realize that I was just talking about our water shortages last month, and now I'm talking about throwing water around and that might be weird. I justify it with this- A- The kids get so hot in the desert that they throw water on each other everyday anyway (flirting is universal and daily teenage water fights irritate the hell out of me) and B-I went Tuesday to Sunday with no showers the week before this event, so the water I didn't use then can be counted as the water I used for the balloons ;)

La Cruz de Botija

My posts are so long. I'm trying to keep this one short and let the pictures do the explaining...

May 1st is Peru's Labor Day. My host family has a tradition exclusive to their family for the night before Labor Day. About 4km outside of Ascope, there is a bend in the road where things start to get a little less flat as you head North and into the cerros (mini-mountains, as one of my visitors called them ;). This is the site of the Cruz de Botjia. A botija is a big ceramic pot and a cruz is a cross. The story my host-grandpa (we'll call him Abuelo) told me is that his grandparents and their families used to live pretty far north of Ascope, some of them even living as far as Cajamarca, the department north of ours. They used to travel to Ascope by donkey to do their buying and selling, and the site of the Cruz de Botija was a stop on the trip for them. They started using it as sort of a wayside to stop and rest. Then after awhile, they put a cross there so that God would bless them on their journey. This was in 1928. I'm not really sure where all the botijas came from. Abuelo said that there are stories about the botijas being found there, but no one really knows for sure where they came from. That's part of the story I'd like to figure out, but I asked a bunch of relatives, and no one could really give me an answer. Anyway, in honor of their relatives, it is now a family tradition to throw a night-long party at the Cruz de Botija every year on the eve of Labor Day. 

I went out to the Cruz with Abuelo Monday morning and helped him paint and get the place ready. We spruced up a few of the botijas and then I painted the steps leading up to the cross bright blue, so that people wouldn't trip on their way up in the middle of the night. I had extra paint, so Abuelo asked me to paint the rocks under the cross and the bench we sat on. Then he made me put my name on a botija as a recuerdo that I was there. Adorable. It was really cool watching him get so into this party. He made sure everything was perfect. There were fireworks, luminaries, music, food, dancing, the whole thing. He did a great job. 

My host fam and I left for the Cruz at about 9pm and lasted until 5am. At around midnight, one of the tias (aunts) lead the rosary, then the dancing, drinking, and fireworks began. It was a lot of fun for me to just chill with my host fam while meeting relatives and watching the older generation enjoy each other's company. Being in the middle of the desert in the middle of the night under the stars in a candlelit clearing was very peaceful, even with the Huayno and Cumbia music blasting through the cerro. Great way to spend the Peruvian holiday. 

The cross sits in that little house up there. I painted all the blue parts. 

Botija. 

At Abuelo's urging, I left my mark :) RDO= Recuerdo.

Getting the cruz ready at the beginning of the night. 

Luminaries. 

Piere burning boughs behind the cross. He liked the smell. 

There is never a shortage of Inca Kola bottles in these parts. 

What the place looked like from the road that night. Preeettty. 

Host Dad, Me, Cousin, Host Mom, and Host Grandma. 

3:00am. Still hanging in there. Shortly after this, I crawled in the back of the truck and found a blanket. 

Teaching Teachers

I have been meaning to write about this for about 2 months now. I have a project I love and want to tell you about it. I've mentioned it on the blog already, but not in too much detail. I teach English teachers. In the March Recap post, I talked about the 2-day workshop I gave the teachers of my province and how it was my favorite event so far. This is true because of the teachers I work with and the volunteer friends who came to help me out. But it is also true because I really enjoy teaching teachers and I like teaching English very much. 

I started working with these teachers last September, and it was a project that just kind of landed on me. The teacher at the school district who is in charge of reading and communications saw me bumming around his office, which he shares with my community partner who I work with on the Red Ambiental, and he asked me if I could work with his high school English teachers. He explained that the English teachers sometimes feel a little neglected because they don't get in-services or workshops like the teachers of other areas. This is mostly due to the fact that there is no technical support for them. No one from the school district can speak English, so no one can give the teachers in-services to help them develop and maintain their skills. There had been attempts to get them support from an organization in Trujillo that specializes in teaching English. But because of funding and logistics, this never happened. So when Profesor Manuel saw me, this random white girl, in his office, it was "like I fell from the sky, thanks to God." Those are his words not mine. I'm happy to be helpful and they are happy to have me around, so it works out. After he and I agreed that it would be super-awesome to work together on this, he took me to the director of the school district. I was intimidated by this at first, but then I realized how cool the director is and it wasn't so bad. He told me in that very first meeting that English and Math are the lowest scoring areas in academic records across the province. I promised I would help with the English, as long as he never asked me to help with the math ;) Deal. 

After my first meeting with the teachers in September, we started planning the workshop in March and things have just sort of taken off from there. I have more teachers at each meeting I hold with them, and as they get more comfortable with me, our meetings get more productive. At the workshop in March, I had 26 of 29 schools in my province represented there. I was delighted about this, and it turns out, so was my school district. They were so happy with the feedback and turn-out with this event, that we planned 3 more of them for this school year and we've set-up bi-weekly Friday afternoon casual meetings with me and the English teachers so that we can discus methodology and practice English skills on a regular basis. 

My goal for working with the teachers is to teach them the learning styles of language learning and share some non-formal education practices with them. Their goals are to improve pronunciation and practice with a native speaker. Our objectives lend themselves well to each other and mean for a lot of listening activities, games, songs, and other fun stuff. Apart from those outcomes, we're also coming across opportunities for other things, like exchanging ideas amongst colleagues. Last Friday we had our first casual afternoon meeting and we discussed activities that work and don't work in our classrooms. It was so great to see the ideas, suggestions, and critiques being passed around amongst the teachers. It's really cool to think that we're all helping each other and that I can contribute to improving Education. 

It might seem strange that I'm working with the teachers and not the kids, but I think it's awesome. The reason I think that working with the teachers is a better project for me to be involved with is because it is sustainable. Sure, I can teach as many kids as I want to right now, but eventually those kids will leave the high school, hopefully taking with them any English skills I may have given them. When I work with the teachers, I am trying to share skills that will stick around and eventually help a greater range of people. And because I work with the teachers of the whole province, I have a larger reach of people that this project could potentially affect.  I work with kids too, so this isn't my only English project. It's nice because my experiences with the kids help me with the teachers, and my experiences with the teachers help me in my work with the kids. 

You might also be wondering why I would need to teach people who are already teachers, but it's a little different here as far as language teachers go. The teachers are able to teach English, but not all of them can speak fluently. And those who can speak well, still struggle with pronunciation and technical grammar. I use the word 'teach' loosely. I work with them on English improvements and sharing classroom ideas. As far as teaching, they are teaching me as much as I hope to be teaching them. 

I will stop there. That was a lot of gushing. Thanks for sticking with me. Also please know that I'm not trying to brag about this. It just makes me happy and it's something I'm proud to be a part of. And this is the blog, so all things are positive... but trust me, there are a lot of not so romantic things I could say about this or any other project. No room for negativity though. That's not helpful for me and certainly isn't anything you guys would want to read about. 

I'm really looking forward to seeing where this project goes from here and will keep you updated. Now that I have it going, making it effective and sustaining it while I'm gone is what I am focussing on. There are ways to achieve the sustainability after I go... but that's a whole new post that you'll just have to wait for. I bet you're at the edge of your seats. lol. 

Pictures! 

"We're going on a trip. My name is Britt and I am bringing a bear. What are you bringing?" 

They had to remember everyone's name and item as we went around the circle. 

I did this to learn names, and it worked. Alina took an apple and Chela took cheese. 

Now if I could get them to say 'bear' and not 'beer,' we'll be alright. I totally would take beer though ;)

Talking about successes and challenges in the classroom. 

I know I was wearing this shirt in my last post, but this picture was taken on the same day as that Red Ambiental meeting. I do have clothes. Don't worry Mom ;) 

Ordinary Things 4: Inca Kola

The first time you drink Inca Kola, you will hate it. I only know of one person who liked it on their first go-around, and he likes weird things. So for the most part, people try it , hate it, get forced into drinking it again (Peruvian folks are very persistent when it comes to food/ drinks), and then slowly start to fall in love with it. Soon after those first startling sips, it begins to grow on you. Then before you know it, you're craving a nice cold Inca Kola fat boy (El Gordito ;) on those hot summer days. 

I didn't really drink soda before coming here. I mean, I'd have the occasional root beer float when I was at Mom and Dad's house, maybe a Sprite if it had some vodka in it, or a diet coke when I was really tired or eating Chinese food. But other than that, my diligence to dental hygiene kept me away from the stuff. But then I came to Peru where they use cane sugar and not corn syrup... and now I drink soda. Aaahh yes, my dear sweet Peru, where the sun shines brighter and the soda tastes sweeter, how I love you so... but now I drink soda. Dammit. Don't worry, I brush my teeth after every occurrence. I also attribute this ugly new habit to a lack of options. It is very common to have soda served with your meal, and no water available. So, it just sorta happens. 

Of all the soda I get served to me though, none is more common or presented with so much pride as the one and only Inca Kola. To visit Peru without guzzling just a cup of this sweet nectar is a trip wasted. Un producto Peruano, and perhaps second only to Machu Picchu on the country's list of things they are proud of having. And as far as lists go, it also sits around the top of my "Things I Will Miss in my Far-Away Post-Peru Life" list. 

So here's to you Inca Kola. Salud! 

Farid and I go buy the good stuff before lunch almost every day. 

Here he is at the bodega down the road from our place. 

A fixture at any party or meeting. 

Lunch with the host family. 

3 Liters. Om Nom Nom.