Nearly One Month In...
I’ve returned to Piura for a quick break from the world of Tunal, Lalaquiz, Piura. I’ll be coming to the city just about ever two weeks for a change of pace and a hot shower. It’s pretty essential in maintaining my sanity…at least for the first few months! I can’t say that the past couple weeks went by extremely fast, but they were successful in the fact that I made a number of really good contacts in the community and was able to meet a lot of the children. I’m beginning to feel at home…as much as possible considering that I’m still very far from fluency.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the health center with some of the interns from Lima and Nasca. They’re around my age, which is quite nice. I’ve been teaching them a bit of English and they’ve helped me a lot with Spanish. We eat every meal together and spend many evenings playing cards. They primarily play a game they call “Casino” which I had not heard of until coming here. It’s not quite as fun as Spades, but it’ll have to do!! I taught them Black Jack one night, so they’re excited to give that a go.
This past Wednesday I accompanied them on a vaccination campaign in the schools. It is a country wide attempt to eliminate measles. Next week they will go from house to house to vaccinate the over 6,000 citizens. My job was to take photos as well as convince the kids that the vaccination was important. Surprisingly it went fairly smooth.
I’ve spent a significant amount of time in the schools getting to know the kids. This past week I began giving basketball lessons to first year high school students. There are about 300 students in the town of Tunal half in the primary school and half in the secondary school. They are all excited about learning about the US and hearing me speak English. This coming week I will be teaching two English classes to primary school students. I am really enjoying my time with the kids.
In the afternoons I have been playing soccer with the older guys. I’ve got a lot of improving to do… my idea of football is a bit different than theirs! They’ve all been playing since they could walk, so they have a bit more practice than I. I did, however, score my first goal on Wednesday!
I am already beginning to appreciate the tranquil life of rural Peru. Despite my struggle with Spanish, I think I’ve never been so stress free in my life!! The evenings and nights are especially favorable. The people are used to going to bed early since up until two or three months ago they had no electricity so by 8-9pm the town is extremely quiet. There is very little ‘light pollution’, so the stars are incredible radiant. It’s definitely a different way of living, but I’m slowly adapting to it one day at a time.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the health center with some of the interns from Lima and Nasca. They’re around my age, which is quite nice. I’ve been teaching them a bit of English and they’ve helped me a lot with Spanish. We eat every meal together and spend many evenings playing cards. They primarily play a game they call “Casino” which I had not heard of until coming here. It’s not quite as fun as Spades, but it’ll have to do!! I taught them Black Jack one night, so they’re excited to give that a go.
This past Wednesday I accompanied them on a vaccination campaign in the schools. It is a country wide attempt to eliminate measles. Next week they will go from house to house to vaccinate the over 6,000 citizens. My job was to take photos as well as convince the kids that the vaccination was important. Surprisingly it went fairly smooth.
I’ve spent a significant amount of time in the schools getting to know the kids. This past week I began giving basketball lessons to first year high school students. There are about 300 students in the town of Tunal half in the primary school and half in the secondary school. They are all excited about learning about the US and hearing me speak English. This coming week I will be teaching two English classes to primary school students. I am really enjoying my time with the kids.
In the afternoons I have been playing soccer with the older guys. I’ve got a lot of improving to do… my idea of football is a bit different than theirs! They’ve all been playing since they could walk, so they have a bit more practice than I. I did, however, score my first goal on Wednesday!
I am already beginning to appreciate the tranquil life of rural Peru. Despite my struggle with Spanish, I think I’ve never been so stress free in my life!! The evenings and nights are especially favorable. The people are used to going to bed early since up until two or three months ago they had no electricity so by 8-9pm the town is extremely quiet. There is very little ‘light pollution’, so the stars are incredible radiant. It’s definitely a different way of living, but I’m slowly adapting to it one day at a time.
posted by Ryan Nelson | 6:57 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home