Like I never left

I got back to Ayacucho early yesterday moring and when I walked into the casa it was as if I never left. All the kids were happy to see me and remembered my name and I started working right away because I already know how things are run here. Two new volunteers came today so we´ll actually be 6 instead of 4 but that is still a really small number. Hopefully by the time I leave on Thursday they will have found another couple of volunteers. Well I don´t have much time so I´m going to head out but here are some pictures from Machu Pichu that I promised because I did find my cord in my backpack.

Peace,

Brandon

This is actually still machu pichu just from a shrine that was really far away that we walked to.

Change of Plans

So right now I'm sitting in Cruz del Sur which happened to be the palce that I did my first entry from Peru. This time the scenerio's a little different. My classes just finished yesterday and I have 5 days before my dad gets here so I planned on going to Trujillo where there are more ruins and temples and other cool things to do. I had reserved my trip and was ready to go when last night I happened to run into the coordinator of the orphanage in Ayacucho. In case you didn't know there are over 8 million people in Peru and I happened to just run into one of the only 3 volunteers left from when I was in Ayacucho. She explained to me that there are currently only 3 volunteers. If you haven't read my entry about the Casa let me explain that the casa has 27 children, 7 of which have cerebal palsy or other simliar problems. There are senoritas that help out but volunteers are there to help out in any way possible. The ideal number of volunteers is around 12 and when I was there the most we had was over 20 and the fewest was 9. The week with 9 was very demanding and exhausting so naturally I was concerned to hear that there are only 3. So...after a little bit of thought I decided to cancel my trip to Trujillo and I am now waiting for my bus so that I can return to Ayacucho and help out for 5 days while they are trying to find more volunteers and while I'm waiting for my dad. As I mentioned it only took a little bit of thought to make this decision. These kids aren't just numbers, they aren't just orphans, they are my children and so when I heard that they were in need I did not hesitate to drop my bags and head back to Ayacucho. This was one of the main reasons I came to Peru and so I look forward to helping out a little more.


P.S. sorry for the lack of Machu Pichu pics my professors decided to give me 4 papers and a presentation and only 3 days to do them all and I just realized I left my cord at the house in Lima so I wont be posting pics till I get back to the US

Cusco

Hey everyone, this is going to be a really short post but I just wanted you guys to know that I´ve been in Cusco the last few days and got to visit Machu Pichu yesterday and it definetely lived up to all the hype. Tomorrow is a free day so I´m going to visit the churches (about 15 of them) and museums here in Cusco and then we fly back to Lima around 4. I´ll write a more in depth blog and add some pictures when I get back.

Peace,

Brandon

A full day

Yesterday I didn't update my blog because I left the house at 8am and didn't get back until after 10:00. We woke up early to head to Pachacamac which is a site about an hour from Lima that has some Inca Ruins. It was kinda hard to get excited about them because next week we're going to Cusco to visit Machu Pichu which is going to be far more exciting and amazing. Afterwards we went to a food fair and ate soem really good Peruvian food (in case you didn't know Peru has been named the second best country for food behind France). After we got back we went to a soccer game between the Club team from Lima and a club team from Ayacucho. In my head I was rooting for Ayacucho but everyone else there was for Lima so I didn't let it show. Lima ended up winning and then we headed back to the house and came back in a little after 10:00, ate dinner, and then at that point I was exhausted and decided to got to bed.

Then this morning we went to visit a church and got to tour the catacombs there. On my way over there I past a protestant church and they happened to be playing a song that I knew (todo poderoso). I only know 4 or 5 songs in spanish and so for them to happen to be playing one of them at the moment I was passing by was a pretty cool experience. Other than that not much has happened since my last post and I'm pretty tired so I think I'm going to go take a nap.

Chao,

Brandon

What really is best?

So I've said a million times that i was going to try to update more often and so I'm going to follow up this time (at least for today). A lot goes on each day, some things that are very interesting and others...well...are just plain boring. As I mentioned in my last post I've started my second class on Politics, Society, and Economics of Peru. The class has been very informative and although I would love to share everything I have already learned I'm going to stick to one topic at a time.

Today in our class on Peruvian Society we watched a short film on schools in Peru. First i need to start off by explaining that in Peru there are many different indigenous languages with the predominant one being Quechua which over 4.4 million people (19% of the population) speak. Indigenous languages, however, are often looked down upon and people who speak Quechua are considered lower class. Because of this, many schools (and even parents) are trying to phase out Quechua by only teaching and speaking Spanish in their schools. Imagine for a second if you were raised speaking English and then when you when you made it to Kindergarden you walked in to only hear Spanish. It would be a little difficult wouldn't it? Like most countries there are certain goals that kids are supposed to achieve before they can move on to the next grade. In second grade Peruvian children are expected to read a 60 word story in under 60 seconds and comprehend what it is they read.

The video showed 3 different schools, a private school in Lima, a public school in Lima and a bilingual school in Cusco. The children in the Private school read the story in well under a minute and were able to answer all of the corresponding questions to the reading. The movie then transitioned into the second school where many of the children struggled to read and obviously were not comprehending what they were reading, in fact, a statistic was even shown that 19% of the school could not even read a single word. This was due in part to poor education but also due to the fact that many of these children had been raised speaking Quechua and so they had much difficulty transitioning into Spanish speaking schools. The final school that was shown was the bilingual school in Cusco in which, instead of Spanish, the kids were given a story in Quechua and all were able to read it within the time limit and answer all the questions. The next part was the most surprising. The kids were then given a story in Spanish and again all were able to read it in the designated time limit and answer the corresponding questions. When interviewed, the teacher explained that it is important to first teach the kids in there primary language, and once the kids have developed a capacity to learn they can then be taught Spanish. So while the rest of the schools are trying to cleanse the country of Quechua they are in the process hindering these childrens ability to learn while the schools such as the one in Cusco are raising children to be bilingual and developing a capacity to learn that is even greater than that of the private schools in Lima.

That's great but that's Peru, it doesn't affect us right? We know what's best. Our way really is always the right way, we never surpress someone who could develop better if they did things their own way. There isn't a better way to do things than the way we've always done it. We don't need to be open to other peoples ways of thinking, to other people's cultures, or to other peoples languages.

Maybe every now and then we should take a step back from the way we've been doing things. If we're not getting the results that we want then maybe we've been going about business the wrong way. Maybe we should look at what other people are doing and see if their way really is better. Maybe we should be open to other peoples ideas. Maybe we shouldn't be so afraid of change. Maybe we should give the other guy a chance every now and then. We have a choice, we can go about life the way we always have, we can stick to what we know or we can open our eyes, open our minds, and see what's going on in the world around us. I bet we'd be surprised to see how little we really know.


Brandon


P.S. If you haven't seen my video of the kids in Peru check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf5r7w5x-MI

Sorry

Sorry it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post because to be honest I completely forgot about it. I'm really enjoying Lima and I can tell that my Spanish has gotten better. I am still far from being fluent but I can get around pretty well. I've also gotten to know the city and can get around pretty well on their bus system (which although the drivers here are crazy they have a very good public transportation and you can get pretty much anywhere for 2 soles or less which is about 65 cents American). I have 2 classes which are really like 4 because while one of my classes is all Spanish grammar my other class is social, economic, and political reality of Peru. I just started my second class on Tuesday and am really enjoying it because I'm learning more about Peru and it's past. My days mostly consist of going to classes and going on a few mini excursions here in Lima. I've also gone out to some dicsotecas and although my Salsa dancing has gotten better it is still far from good haha. Next week we'll be leaving for Cusco and visit the ruins and Machu Pichu so I'm really looking forward to that.

On another note, I've unfortunately felt my faith slipping a little bit since I've arrived here in Lmia. Lima has a busy lifestyle much like that of the US and so I have found myself with less free time and have not been reading my bible or praying near as much as I did in Ayacucho. This makes me kind of sad because my faith was growing so strong in Ayacucho despite being surrounded by other volunteers who were mostly Athiests or Agnostics, but now that I'm in Lima it has grown stagnant. It also happened right under my nose and it probably would have continued if I didn't stop to reevaluate myself and this blog is helping a little bit too. I do have a lot of free time here but unlike in Ayacucho I have more distractions here such as TV, internet, other English speaking people (HAHA) and just general distractions that come with a big city. The good thing is that I've made myself more aware of it so hopefully after writing this I'll discipline myself to try to get back to where I was in my faith in Ayacucho.

That's about it for now, there have been many fun and interesting things that have happened but I probably couldn't put it into an interesting story and it would be hard to pick out which events to tell so instead I'm just going to try to do a better job of updating frequently so I can go into detail about some of the smaller things that happened.

Later,

Brandon

A little bit different

Sorry that I'm only updating once a week now, it's manly just because I'm being lazy. The first week in Lima has been pretty fun, we went dancing a few times and have been out to get some Peruvian cuisine which is really good. My family here is really nice and they are always making sure that I am not cold and that I am well fed. So far I have visited the point which is a piece of land in Lima that juts out so it's completely surrounded by water, the Plaza de las Aramas in Lima, the orphanage I visited last time in Lima (and they said I can't work there so I need to look for another one) and a couple of other little suburbs in Lima. I want to go to go visit some cities in Peru this weekend but everyone that was going to go with me backed out at the last minute for different reasons and so now I'm not sure if I can go. A lot has gone on the last week but at the same time not much has gone on so it's kinda hard to write a blog. I promise I'll try to update more often