First Month Volunteering in Huancayo

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Overview – Volunteering Experience

So far, my volunteering experience is going pretty well. Initially, I was supposed to be on different projects, such as Microfinance and others. Due to circumstances, I ended up teaching English in an Elementary school for about 5 hours a day (2^nd and 4^th grades). With time, I got used to it and I like working with kids. However, I also realized that I am not very patient with them. As the kids didn’t really have any exposure to English language, I am pretty much teaching the same thing to both grades, and those things are very basic such as colors, greetings, etc.





I have classes every day from 1pm to 6pm. My mornings are always the same:

1) Waking up at 7:30am (or earlier if one of the brothers put some music, most of the time the song Bailando from Enrique Iglesias, at 7am or earlier).

2) Eating breakfast, which pretty much consists of bread and a warm drink (a soya or whatever kind of drink that looks like milk).

3) Reading a book in Spanish, studying Spanish or watching a TV Series in Spanish. I am really focusing on studying Spanish in order to become fluent.

4) If I feel like it, doing an abs workout. I have to say I didn’t feel it often …

5) At 11:45am, having lunch. Lunch ALWAYS consists of a soup (called “Primero”) followed by a plate of rice, potatoes and sometimes meat (called “Segundo”).

6) Leaving for school at 12:25pm. On my way, I often get an ice cream or a sweet to give me some energy, and because it’s so cheap!





I have two classes back to back, then a 30-minutes break. During that time, I almost always go to get a fruit juice (banana-mango or papaya-mango …. Yummy!!) And when I don’t go for the juice, I mainly end up eating a chocolate cake (who wouldn’t do that when it costs about 1$ for a huge portion) or going to an Internet place and do nothing. Also, I sometimes end up playing football with the guys or volleyball with the girls at school.





Although some days I just want to kill all of the kids (as discipline is not an important thing in Peru), they are just so adorable. They like to ask random questions like: “Was the other volunteer you mom? No! Your wife? Euhhh no … Oh, you daughter? Euhhhh, nooooooo!” As you can see, no concept of age. Another funny thing is that some kids asked other volunteers: “From which planet are you?”





As I said, discipline here is not the same as in Canada. Almost every class I end up “kicking out” at least 2-3 students (sometimes up to 10 when I am in a bad mood). When it gets really bad (and I mean REALLY bad), I leave the class and tell the teacher and the student: “I won’t teach English to you anymore if it continues like this!” A funny moment is a class that I left furious. The day after, I was teaching another class and I heard someone knocking on the door. I opened the door and the whole class from the day before was there. They were all saying, in Spanish: ‘’Sorry, teacher for yesterday ….” And at the end, they gave me a hug! They were so cure.





As they are not used to see ‘’White’’ people, they are always happy to see us (the volunteers) and to talk with us. They always say: ’’Hello teacher!’’, but that’s it. As we only have 1.5 hours of English per week (and 1.5 means 45 minutes as they definitely can’t focus more than that), it is really hard to progress and teach them new things. Although their English is very poor, some kids (2-3 per class) have pretty good English. During my first classes, I was trying to get all the kids involved and I wanted them all to practice. However, after a few weeks, I mainly put the efforts on those that actually want to learn. Most of the students just repeat what I say. However, when I ask them questions about what the English word means in Spanish or vice versa, they have no clue. A funny moment is when I asked them what are the possible answers to the question “How are you?” other than “good”. They all said: “Good morning, good night, etc.”





Another funny thing in Peru in general is how they use the words “Papito” and “Mamita”. The director of the school always calls me “Papito” or “Papi”, and when I ask something, he says: ‘’Si papi, si papi!’’. One day, I wanted to talk with him about how I want the teachers to be in class when I teach in order to help me with discipline. The problem is that if they are not in class, there is no way I can manage to teach something to the kids. I was explaining to him my concern and what I want and the only thing he said was: ‘’Si papi, si papi.’’ After, he gave me a chocolate bar and told me to bring a mug so they can give me milk the next day. I think he just didn’t care about what I had to tell him.



Overview – Life with the Family and the Volunteers

There are mainly two host families where volunteers of my organization stay: one very basic with no bathroom, and another more “luxurious”. I was lucky to end up in the second one. The family is really nice and, during my first month, I stayed there with three other volunteers: James from Barcelona, Warren from the UK but living in Lima, and Willem from Belgium. Willem and I were teaching at the same school, and the other two at different schools. We got along pretty well and we did pretty much everything all together. The bad thing about this, especially for Willem and myself, is that we only spoke English and didn’t get the chance to practice Spanish.





Every weekend we did some day trips to little town around Huancayo (more details below). During the week, we worked during the day and, at night, we ended up going to the city, playing pool, etc. Most of the time, we were on our phone as, surprisingly, our house had Wifi. Actually, we didn’t always had Wifi but when we did, be sure that we were using it. FUNNY STORY: We didn’t have Wifi for a few days. One night, James and I were talking (as no Wifi = interacting with each other), and suddenly my phone started to vibrate. I just screamed: “James, we have Wifi.” From then on, we didn’t say a word to each other and we were on our phones the rest of the night!





The three of them left pretty much at the same time: Willem on the 28^th of April, and James and Warren on the 30^th. For the first few days, it was strange to be the only volunteer in the house, although I was in my bed for 2-3 days straight as I was sick. With time, I got used to it. Actually, this helped me with my Spanish as now I only speak Spanish in the house.





Apart from the three guys with who I lived, there was another volunteer, Gwen from the US, which was living with another family. In addition, during my first week, there was a family of three from Canada that was volunteering in the same school as where I am teaching!



Overview – Day Trips and Special Events

Cooking Cakes with my Host Sister Maria

Since my host sister Maria is a professional in making cakes and pastries, I decided that she will teach me how to make cakes. The first one we made was “Torta de tres leches” which is by far my favoritecake in South America. The second one was “Charlotte de Durazno (peaches)” which was also pretty good. When I go buy ingredient, I always buy more than needed as I end up eating much of it while we are preparing it.



Day Trip to Ingenio (April 2)

It was the Thursday before the Easter weekend so James and I went with our host family to a little town called Ingenio. The dad of the family lives in a city that is a few hours away from Huancayo, but he was with us for Easter weekend. It’s a place known for its nature and the many restaurants that sell fish. We walked around for a bit before going to a restaurant. James and I ordered a huge portion of Ceviche, which is a dish typically made from fresh raw fish cured in citrus juices. It was the second time I tried Ceviche in Peru. After eating this, I told myself I won’t ever eat Ceviche again: it was delicious but we just ate too much. After the lunch, we went to play volleyball. A group of people wanted to play with us, so we ended up playing a best of three, which we won at the end.





At the end of the day, we wanted to take a bus to go home. However, we couldn’t find any. We had to walk for a certain time before we found one. The bus driver told us the direct road to Huancayo was closed due to some problems and that the ride will take much longer than expected …



Day Trip to Huancavelica (April 3)

The day after Ingenio, James, Gwen, the Canadian family and I went on a day trip to Huancavelica. We took the 6 am train, as it is the thing to do, even though it takes much longer than the bus. The landscape we saw going there was pretty nice but the train experience as a whole was very interesting:

- Everyone has a seat number but they don’t really care about it. Everyone sits where he wants.

- The space that we have for legs is ridiculously small.

- The little women selling different type of snacks, and us buying all of them. :p

- …





The train ride was supposed to last around 4 hours, but it ended up being more 6-7 hours. When we got to Huancavelica, we realized there is not much to do. The first thing we did is find a place to have lunch. The place we found said it costs 4 soles (1-2$) for a lunch menu. When we were done, the waitress said the price actually varies depending what we took, although she clearly said 4 soles at the beginning. After a little fight, James and I ended up paying 4 soles, the other more as the waitress didn’t want to give them their change.





After the lunch, the girls stayed in the city and the guys went for a hike. It was a short but really nice hike to a mine. We didn’t get to the actual mine, but we got to the place that was an office. We found papers and books dating back to 1970s – 1980s. On our way back, the rain caught us and we were soaking wet. The Canadian family left before us. We were initially planning to spend the night there but because of the rain and the fact that there is not much to do, we also took a bus back to Huancayo. It was funny as when we left, the three of us were the only ones in the bus.



Hike to the Cross, Huancayo (April 5)

On Easter Sunday, James and I decided to go for a little hike to a cross close to where we live. The hike wasn’t that difficult, but it was definitely dangerous with the dogs. On our way, we encountered dozens of dogs that were going after us. At one point, we saw 5-10 dogs from far away coming toward us. We didn’t know what to do so we just started to run …. very fast. I don’t remember the last time I ran that fast. Except of that, the hike was ok. When we got on the top, the view of the city was beautiful, although the place itself not that much as people throw garbage all over the place and it was so dirty.



Birthday of my Host Sister Maria (April 7)

This was the first of the few parties that we had in our house. The “party room” is the one that is right next to my room, separated by only a cardboard wall. This means that if there is a party, I have to stay up until the end as there is no way for me to sleep.





The party was actually pretty cool. Maria was expecting around 20-30 people, but it ended up being more like 15. She prepared a really good supper (chicken rolls stuffed with pecans and other stuff) and she will definitely show me how to prepare that! After, we had a cake and, as the tradition wants, “Que muerda la torta!’’ This means that she had to put her face in the cake and have a bit.





Following that, we put some music and started to drink and dance. We also did some karaoke. One of my host sisters, Ines, and I sang the song: “Humanos a Marte”. It was a disaster as I didn’t really know the words of the song and she didn’t know the song at all! The best singing performance by far was by James. After the dancing part, we played some drinking games, although James and I had noclue what we were doing. After a few games, we just gave up and went to bet.



Meeting Stefany and Ruth (April 8)

Two of Gwen’s friends, Stefany and Ruth, wanted to mean all us (meaning the guys). Stefany invited us to have a Lomo Saltado (one of Peruvian’s main dishes) at her place. It was a nice evening with food and beers, and meeting new Peruvians friends.



Graduation of my Host Sister Maria (April 10)

Maria graduated almost a year ago from a “Baking and Pastry School” but her official graduation was this year. She invited all of us to the party and James was her “Prom Date”. The night was really fun. It was in a huge room with 100s of people and, no surprise, James was the tallest there. He ended up also being the prom of another girl, a friend of Maria. The beginning was very formal. We (James, Willem and I) were a bit bored so we left the room and went to drink beers in a nearby corner store. We met other older men there that were also tired of the ceremony so we drank together.





After the ceremony, we got back in the room to drink and dance. A lot of crates of beer were waiting for us. The tradition in Huancayo is that everyone drinks from the same cup, so we followed the tradition. We were also walking around the rooms and, as we were the only foreigners there, many wanted to have a beer with us and talk a bit. A thing that I really like in Peruvian parties is that the whole family is there drinking and dancing. When I mean the whole family, it goes from kids that are 4-5 years old to grandmothers that are 70-80.





At 3:30 am, we got tired and decided to go home. However, the rest of the family was still there drinking and dancing. They got home at around 6 am and they didn’t go to bed. They just continued drinking and dancing until 9 pm the next day. As my bedroom is right beside the room where they were drinking, they woke me up at 7 am. Also, when we tried to cross that room, we had to drink beer with them. At the beginning it was fun, but after a while, we were just hoping for them to go to bed as they were just way too wasted.



Day Trip to Jauja (April 12)

With the family, Gwen and Stefany, James, Willem and I went to Jauja, a town near Huancayo. We did nothing special there. We had lunch before going to a lake nearby where we went for a 1-hour hike.



The Day I Became Godfather (April 13)

I woke up that morning and my host sister Ines went to see me and asked me: “Andrej, do you want to become the godfather of a little Peruvian girls, as I will be the godmother?” How could I say no to that? I mean this is an amazing experience. How it works in Peru is that it is a big thing when a girls turns 15 (called Quinceañera).





The night started pretty easy, with a clown coming to amuse us. Actually, that was also the first time I met the girl of who I was the godfather. This was followed by a nice supper. After the supper, the parents of the girl and the godfather and godmother had to give a speech. This was the worst part as I was not prepared to give a speech to someone I don’t know, especially not in Spanish. It was a big time fail but whatever. I also had to dance with her. The rest of the night was pretty much drinking, dancing and singing (karaoke). At one point, I wanted to go to bed but the dad of the girl said that as I am the godfather, I had to wait until the end …



Climbing Huaytapallana Glazier (April 18)

This is a glazier that is about an hour from Huancayo and the highest point is at 5 500, above sea level, although no one can go that high. We (James, Willem, Mireia and I) woke up early in the morning (6:30 am) to get ready. We took a taxi that drove us there and waited the whole day for us.





The hike started pretty nicely. The weather was nice but it was really hard to walk as we were high up. We had to stop many times to take a breath and drink water. Also, we could feel the lack of air in our head. After 2-3 hours, we got on the highest point where we were allowed to go. However, we still went further climbing up some rocks, which ended up being quite dangerous as we had to slide rocks to go down. We also had the “chance” to see snow (although this is not a chance for a Canadian). We had lunch there and we were ready to go back down.





We decided not to take a guide as it was James’ second time to go there and he said he knew the road. However, on our way back, it was misty and we couldn’t see anything. At one point, we realized that we were lost in the mountains. Some people we more worried than others but why being worried? The worst that could happen is us having to spend the night there. Although we had no food and only a little water, we would manage to survive :p Actually, the biggest problem was that Willem had a headache, and I had a huge stomach pain, which made it hard for me to walk more than a minute without having to stop!





After a few tries, James and I finally saw a sign up in one of the mountains. When we got there, we realized we finally found our way bag. As we got back 2 hours later than expected, the taxi driver wasn’t very happy …



Eating Guinea Pig (April 23)

I tried guinea pig for the first time the day I became godfather. We also wanted Willem to try it at least once, so we asked our host mother to prepare that one day for supper. It was delicious and we all enjoyed it. For those that don’t know, guinea pig meat is among the healthiest ones!



Weekend Trip to the Jungle: Oxapampa and La Merced (April 24-26)

Our last weekend together, we (the four guys) decided to take a bus and to go to the jungle. Our initial plan was to go to Oxapampa and then Posuso, which are two villages with German and Dutch influences. However, after almost spending the whole day of Friday travelling to Oxapampa (which took us almost 7 hours), we decided to stay in Oxapamapa, and then Saturday to go to La Merced to go out.





On Friday, as we got there late, we didn’t do much. We had supper, then a few sweets as it was so cheap, and finally went to a German bar to have a beer and play cards.





On Saturday, we decided to do a hike in a National Park. We decided to do it ourselves, without a guide. We first had to walk 2 hours before getting to the National Park. On our way there, we had to cross a little waterfall. As I didn’t have waterproof boots, a Peruvian guy offered to carry me on his back. It was funny as he was much smaller and thinner than me. When we finally got the National Park, there was a fence and it was locked. Of all the people we asked our way there, no one told us it was closed. So we decided to jump over and go all the way up the mountain. The path was very muddy and maybe this was the reason why it was closed. It took us 4-5 hours to get to the top. We wanted to take another path to go down, but we couldn’t find it. So we ended up going down the same way. It was a good 8-hours hike.







When we got back to Oxapampa, we decided to have supper and a shower, before taking a taxi to La Merced. When we got there, we went directly to our hostel. We had to bargain a lot with the guy, and it was weird as he ended up giving us: a 5-beds room, with only 3 blankets, but we were 4. Sometimes Peruvians don’t have business acumen. After that, we met with Gwen and her friend to go out to a bar, and then a club. The club was really cool and, as usual, we were the only foreigners there. After the club, we went to eat something in the city center!

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