This week was the first week of the month and of the regular
semester at La Pedro (the university as it is nicknamed) and the first time of
seeing some of the new projects near Chongoyape and getting to talk to an
American and a German since coming to Peru.
Classes began on Monday at the university and my schedule is
still being worked out. I am teaching
beginning English for sociology majors, as well as teaching and assisting with
other classes for upper level foreign language education majors. One really interesting, but fun thing that I
did at the university was attend a French class for foreign language
majors. The students are in their 5th
semester of French and in order to practice their translation skills, I was
invited to the class to participate in their conversations and answer their
questions. The trick was, that they were
only to speak French during the class and I was only to speak English. It was rather tricky, because I kept wanting
to respond in Spanish or in French (for the few small things I know), but I
loved it and realized that I seem to understand French quite well, as I never
had to have them translate for me!
I am just getting back from the second of 2 days near
Chongoyape (in the mountains) where CIPDES has a few projects. Yesterday we were checking on families who
are raising guinea pigs for food and to sell and also ensuring that they had
shared 8 of their “cuys” within the first year, with another family to help
support them as well. Additionally, I
got to see and visit with some women whose home or kitchens had been improved
with the support of CIPDES. Now they
have more than 1 room for the family or they have a kitchen with a wood-burning
stove rather than a few stones on the ground…which makes cooking much simpler
and quicker and uses less firewood. The
women are no longer shedding tears from the smoke as they cook. I felt so happy for them, as I can well
relate to how much better their situation is after my time in Kenya.
Today, we left Chiclayo at 5:30am for Chongoyape
where I met a Peace Corps volunteer from Maryland. CIPDES is helping to support her in the
construction of a community building for the rural village which shall include
a small library, a place to perform theater presentations, other nature facts
and a honey house to support the local bee keepers and give them a place to
sell from. We spent all morning hacking
away at the ground and digging the foundation.
By the beginning of next week, they plan to add the cement for the basis
of the structure. It was great to swap
stories with the volunteer and I also met a girl from Germany in that area for
a few weeks. Since she speaks very
little English and Spanish, I got the role of translator…which was a bit
complicated to speak to everyone in the right language at times, but fun all
the same.
Now, filthy and covered in dust, I think I’ll wash my
clothes while there’s still sunlight to dry them.
