Second and Last Month of My Volunteering in Huancayo

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Overview – Volunteering Experience (2^nd Month)

Since the three guys have left the place, it has been quite in the house. I moved up to sleep on the second floor because the nights were getting colder and it was warmer in the room upstairs.

NOTE: I watched many of the NHL playoff games as I missed hockey. Initially, I was watching the games on my phone. However, after a while, I couldn´t stream the games on my phone so I was going to an Internet place that was close to my house. It was so funny seeing the kids staring at me watching hockey as they probably never seen that in the life.




Huari (May 2)

On Sunday, I went with the girls (Stefany and Gwen) to a little village near Huancayo called Huari. If I remember well, they were one of the first inhabitants of the city. We ended up walking around and visiting a museum that was about this culture (which was not very interesting). We also met a group of young little girls playing volleyball so we joined them. The sad thing about this is that we accidently exploded one of the two balls they had. We were playing and the ball ended up on a cactus tree …




Huancavelica Sunday Market (May 3)

It took me almost a month to go to the famous Sunday Market on Huancavelica Street. It is a huge market where you can find pretty much everything, especially good food. I went there with Gwen, Ruth and Stefany. Ruth came with her son, Nicola, and I fell in love with that kid. He is five years old and there was just a good connection between the two of us. I almost kidnapped him to bring him with me to Canada.

Overall, the day was pretty relaxed. Gwen ended up buying many gifts as she was leaving on the following Wednesday. I bought some handmade warm socks for my dad and a sweater made of Alpaca for myself. We also had lunch there, and many many desserts on our way.




Gwen´s Going Away Supper (May 5)

Gwen organized a supper that night in a nice restaurant downtown as she was leaving early the next morning. For that occasion, I prepared a coconut cake with my host sister as I knew Gwen loves coconuts. I arrived a bit late with a huge box (cake inside) and everybody was a bit surprised that I made it.

There were a lot of people at the table, many that I didn´t know. The two new volunteers from California were also there. I met them for the first time earlier that day and they looked pretty cool. We had a nice meal and I forced Gwen to give a speech. Nicola, the son of Mel, was also there, so I ended up playing with him pretty much the whole night. He was scared to go with other kid to the ´´kid´s playground´´, so I had to go with him. At the end of the night, we took a few picture.




Skipping School Like in the Good Old Times (May 6)

That day I decided not to go to school as I wanted to watch the Barcelona-Bayern game. JJ




Mothers´ Day Celebration at School (May 8)

Although it is officially on Sunday, Mothers´ Day is a big thing in Peru and they celebrate it at school on the Friday. I thought I will have a normal Friday but it ended up that they didn´t have classes. In the morning, the kids were preparing a special dance for all the mothers that came to school. Afternoon classes were canceled. For lunch, male teachers prepared a Pachamanca for all the female teachers of the school. I was like a waiter serving them. I think this is a pretty cool thing to do and the meal was amazing. A Pachamanca (probably my favorite plate so far in Huancayo) is made of meat, potatoes, corn, peas, etc. The special thing about it is the way they cook it. They dig a hole in the ground, put all the food, cover it and make a fire to cook it.




Mothers´ Day at Home (May 10)

For Mother´s Day, we decided to prepare a nice supper for my host mom. In the morning I went with one of my host sisters, Ines, to buy all the things we needed. I think we are the worst possible combination to do groceries as we ended up no buy some things and not buying the proper things!

The supper was supposed to be at 6pm. However, as my host sister Maria had to work and got back late, we ended up eating at 10pm. I was supposed to prepare the different plates with her. However, as we were running late, she ended up calling her friends from work (5 guys) and they all prepared everything in less than an hour. The supper was delicious and we didn´t stay up that late.




Seeing a Doctor in Huancayo (May 12)

As I was sick for almost my whole stay in Huancayo, I finally decided to see a doctor. This ended up being a fun story. When I met him, he didn´t even do a proper exam. He said: ´´I know what you have. You need to take: one injection, antibiotics and syrup.´´ (It reminded me a bit of the doctors back in Bosnia where they think they know everything right away without even doing dome sort of examination … ) So I said ok and went with my host sister to the pharmacy. In Canada, the injections are given in a clinic or in an hospital. However, in Huancayo, a random women (not even the pharmacist) gave me the injection in the middle of the pharmacy, behind a little door. She said: ´´Put down your pants.´´ It was a little bit awkward as her 5-years old son was sitting right beside me watching this. At the end, I am not even sure this helped me as I was still sick the following days ….

Before my medical appointment, I also went to see a dentist as, in Canada, my insurance doesn´t cover it and it is much cheaper here. The dentist made such a funny comment. He was using some electric tools and he asked me: ´´In Canada, do you use electric tools or you still do everything manually?´´ I looked at him like, are you really asking me this question. In my head, I told myself: We probably invented it back home and then sent it to you … lol!!




Football and Volleyball Championship (May 15)

As most of my Fridays, the classes were canceled because of an activity. This time, the activity was pretty cool as every year, they make a soccer (for guys) and volleyball (for girls) championship tournament at school. Initially, I wanted to go back home but the kids wanted me to go with them. So I decided to spend the whole day there with them. It was such a nice day to see them play. The kids were running around me the whole day (when they didn´t have a game) and they wanted to play with me the whole time. Parents were even funnier as they were thanking me the whole time for teaching to their kids and they were giving me food.

I thought our parents were crazy, but Peruvians are even more. There kids were like 9-10 years old, but the parents behaved like it was the World Cup. They were cheering, screaming at referees, etc. One mom even said to her son that was the goalkeeper: ´´What happened? How did the ball go in? You have a whole in your hands. My god, who made you like this …´´ It was so funny. After the finals, it was so cute to see the kids as those that have lost were crying like it was the end of the world. And it was even worst with the girls playing volleyball …




Last Weekend in Huancayo (May 16-17)

In the afternoon, my friend from Lima, Nadia, got to Huancayo so I went to pick her up at the bus station. On Sunday, we decided to hike Huaytapallana. Nadia never climbed it, but for me it was the second time. We found a taxi that will drive us there, but when we tried to call him to reconfirm the time, we realized the number doesn´t exist. So in the early morning, we all met in the center plaza and had no problem finding a tour that was going to Huaytapallana, and it was cheaper than a taxi. Nadia and I were going there with the 3 American girls (Mary, Jen and Carmen). The hike was nice, although I was really sick at the end, same as the first time I hiked it. When we got back home, I went to bed right away, so Nadia had to stay alone with my family the whole night … She left the following morning!




Last Days at School (May 18-19-20)

The last few days at school were so nice. The kids were with me the whole time and didn´t want me to leave. Some of the funny/cute moments were the following:

1) In one of my groups, I had a kid with disabilities. At the end of the class, he told me (in Spanish): ´´I want you to be my teacher for the rest of my life.´´ And he gave me a hug and didn´t want to leave me! So cute!

2) In one of the classes, a (male) professor said (in Spanish): ´´Kids, this is a think that happens in life. People come and go. Don´t cry. Now, make a line and give a hug to the teacher like this (and he showed them how to give me a hug).´´ I was laughing as the teacher was so serious, as if he was talking about some who died …

3) One of teachers asked me to put my name on the boards so the kids can add me on Facebook. It was funny because I don´t even think that the kids have that, but she added my in the next 30 minutes. So strange …

4) Before the last class of my last day, the kids were fighting to have a class with me. The class that was supposed to have a class with that day started to fight with another group. The teachers had to come over and separate the kids ….



Going Away Supper and Last Day (May 21-22-23)

I decided to do a going away supper with a few people that I met during my stay in Huancayo. I wanted to prepare a meal that my host sister prepared for her birthday and that was delicious. It is called ´´pollo relleno con pure de pina y arroz jardinero´´. I just love that plate and wanted to learn how to prepare it so I can do that this year for Christmas when I will have over my parents! For dessert, we made some homemade chocolates.

A funny thing that happened is that before the supper, my host brother (with whom I never talked before) wanted to present me to his friends and wanted me to drink with them. This was a little bit awkward. When his friends left, we continued to drink alone. We drank more than 10 bottles (big bottles) the two of us alone and I was a bit drunk when my guest came over.

My last day in Huancayo I was doing some ´´administrative stuff´´, running left and right, saying bye to people! The morning of the 23^rd, I had to wake up at 5am to go catch a car that was driving me to my next destination. I had to say bye to my family that was still half sleeping ….





NEXT STOP: Doing a trek in Marcahuasi (1 hour from Lima) with Nadia, Mary, Jen and Carmen!

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