Volunteering Week Three

It´s crazy I am already halfway done with my time here, it went by so fast! I will again just summarize each day of my week, I still had spanish every morning and I was at San Judas Chico (the girl´s orphanage) every afternoon.

Monday (Sep. 12th)
I have decided to stay at San Judas Chicofor work every day this week. We just worked on homework today and I was with the older kids again. Turns out some of the math I was helping the girls with was for an exam today... oops. But the girls were so demanding for my help and some of them had no clue what they were supposed to do so I tried to teach them a little while helping, and I made them do as much work as I could. I realized I need to get better at asking the woman in charge of the room what the plan is every day so I don´t keep helping the girls with their exams. But it was actually a good day and I like to think I helped the girls at least a little bit with their understanding of math.

Tuesday (Sep. 13th)
The bus today from our house to San Judas took forever today (they are not on any real schedule) and they it finally came it was packed. So while I was trying to get in I put my hand on the part between the back sliding-door and the front passenger door (they are like mini vans, called combis) and lucky me my finger overlaped a bit into the passenger door part. SLAM. Right on my finger. I´ve had that happen before but this one was incredibly bad. The skin right under my fingernail was vut up and half my nail was black from the blood underneath, and it hurt like crazy. I wanted to just get off and go back home, but I had to go to work. Turns out work was kind of pointless anyways. The girls were practicing for a dance performance for tomorrow at their school so Vivi and I just kind of sat around and by the time they were done it was basically time for us to leave, and my finger was killing me, so we just left a bit early.

Wednesday (Sep 14th)
Although I was supposed to stay in one place this week I still wanted to visit Ccorca again. So I met Joao at 7 am to buy more oranges and then wait again for a taxi out to the town. This one was even more packed than the last with nine people (2 in the front seat, 4 in the back seat, and 3 in the trunk), and this is just a regular sized car, not a van. At Ccorca we went again to the market for some food (we were early this time) and, thank goodness, it wasn´t more sheep head soup today, just potatoes, rice, and chicken. We visited the preschool again which was even more fun this time because the kids were learning their numbers and shapes so I got to help with that, and they were adorable. Today at the elementary school we played futbol with the 4th graders which was a lot of fun again. The taxi ride home was a lot emptier which was nice but then right when we got back to Cusco it started raining. We made it to the spanish school without getting too drenched (I had classes in the afternoon) but it wasn´t unlocked yet since we were early, so we went down the street to a restaurant to wait. While we were there it started pouring. It was some of the hardest rain I have seen in a long time and it continued until the time we had to walk back for my classes, so by the time we got there I was soaked through my rain coat. I didn´t have another jacket with me, so I was freezing during classes and we finished early. When I got home I put on every piece of clothing I own to warm up!

Thursday (Sep. 15th)
My nail was still hurting a lot this morning and the blood had spread through most of my fingernail, so I emailed my personal doctor (my dad) for advice. To my displeasure he said I need to burn a hole in my nail to let the blood out and release the preasure. So now I have to find a paperclip to do this eventually and I am kind of scared. Today at San Judas the teacher for the younger kids wasn´t there so both Vivi and I were in the younger kids room to help out. They were just supposed to read some passages in their book and then they were free to play. Eventually most of them left to go to theater class so I went back over to the older kids room to see if anyone needed help with homework. I brought with me today some blank maps of South America to give to the girls since most know almost nothing about geography. My original plan was to have them color and name the countries and then cut them apart to make a puzzle, but it was a bit disorganized since I just gave them out to girls who were done with their homework. So I just had them color and label the maps to keep, and hopefully they learned something.

Friday (Sep. 16th)
My last day of spanish classes today was bittersweet. I really liked my teacher and I think the classes helped a lot, but now I will be able to sleep a bit more in the mornings I think. To celebrate I bought two slices of cake for us to eat during break and I gave her a farewell present. Back at San Judas this afternoon and it was the last day Vivi and I were here together (next week she will be working at a school for disabled kids in the afternoons.) It was a free day for the girls today, no homework, so they were scattered around, some watching TV, some playing outside, and some working with Vivi and I on the maps and other handouts we had with us. We could have organized the girls for an activity, but they were having a good time just hanging out so we just hung out with them and helped the ones who wanted out help (the little girls especially wanted to play with us which was a lot of fun.) When I got home tonight I did the dreaded deed of burning a hole in my nail with the paperclip. And it was actually incredible! I went really slowly since I was scared to burn too deep, but when the blood started coming out of the hole my finger felt a billion times better, it was amazing! I will probably loose the fingernail eventually and it still doesn´t look too great, but it looks better than before and feels sooo much better. Thanks dad, you´re a genius!

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Week Three Starts

Well week three of the course started today and it looks like another busy one. People who are looking at taking a TESOL course should look closely at the center they are considering. This course is definately packed with information and work. Although there is a lot of work I can see the need for it. If you are looking at a course that looks light on content and work I would reconsider. I had a long week last week, three practice classes, the biggest complint, my printing on the board is bad, to the point, if I don't improve, it will be difficult to get a job!! All the way back to grade two problems. So here I am in downtown Bangkok, am I out drinking beer, NO I am practicing printing in my hotel room!! Thank god for the little grocery store on site that sells beer ha.

But there has been some fun. I have not done an "interesting people I have met" blog for some time, so I will start with that. The other night at a bar I frequented last year as well, I met two gentlemen from Nepal. One of the guys was a eally nice guy with great English. He was the owner of a treking company that takes people up Mount Everest. I have his card if anyone is interested! He was quite willing to dicsuss what is involved in a hike, what levels various climbers should try etc etc. Great chat.

Then I met Mohamed, an Iranian who has sold everything he owned in Tehran and moved here to open a business selling long distance phone cards. He lives in the same hotel I do and his business is just down the street. I met him at the hotel and as we were both heading in the same direction we chatted and he showed me his little store. Not much, but it is enough to support him and his Thai partner, female! Said he could not live in Iran any longer. His brother has the same type of business in India.

Then Sunday night I was at a corner restaurant having a beer with supper and there were two caucaison women at the next table, they were obviously mother and daughter. We ended up having a drink together, we were the only caucaisons in the restaurant. They were from Austria. The mom who was probably a bit older than I lives here now, she owns a business taking people to casinos outside the country as casinos are not legal in Thailand. The daughter is here visiting but has an open ticket and although she would like to go home eventually she is in no rush. The mom's thai was fairly good, I was impressed. The interesting thing was these women were both around the six feeet tall, so to see two tall blond women was quite a oddity for the Thai guys that were around, I say no more!

In the news, I was out looking around yesterday, just taking a walkway over a very busy street when I noticed quite a commotion below. I stopped to look and what it was was a march on motorbikes and trucks of a large group of red shirts. Everything was very peaceful but it was the the first time I have run into anything like that. But it just goes to show one how easy it would be to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, a Sunday afternoon walk.

Also on Sunday I went to the biggest market in Bangkok. I will have to get the name of it for you and some pictures for a future Blog, it was acres and acres of booths that sold everything from clothing to live animals, amazing place.

I don't know if anyone is following the news about the flooding in this part of the world including Thailand. It has been very serious north of Bangkok and this week they are expecting flood waters to reach the city. We have been assured we will be safe here in this part of the city so I hope so. At the same time I feel very sorry for the people who will be negatively affected. Thais work very hard to make a go of it and it will be very sad if a lot of them loose their homes becasue of the floods.

Anyway gang that is about it for now, I will try to post more frequently! Take care.

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