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Family day out for Father's day. Me, the delgados and the other volunteers.For the last five weeks I've found a little pocket of Peru that has felt like home. I've been staying in a town called Huaraz, which is nestled comfortably in a valley flanked by the Cordillera Blanca and Negra. This town was completely devasted by an earthquake in 1970, and forty years later is still being rebuilt. Yet this town, with all its rubble and stray dogs, is totally charming and I found I quickly fell into step with the Huaracino way of life. Que tranquillo....
I came here to volunteer with the organisation 'Teach Huaraz Peru' (THP) which was set up by Luis Delgado. THP invites volunteers from round the world to stay in the Delgado family home and volunteer at local schools, colleges and language centres. I've been living with the Delgado family, who are Luis and his wife Haydee and their 11 year old son Essi and their 25 year old daughter Sindy. The Delgado family completely open up their home and family life to the volunteers that stay with them. At the moment, there are six of us volunteers staying at the house. There's two brothers from Leeds, a couple from Australia and a guy
Chavin head
pre-inca ruins at chavin de huantar from the US. We all have our own rooms and private bathrooms with hot(ish) water. From my bedroom I have a stunning view of some of the surrounding snowcapped mountains, a view I could never tire of. Here's a little day in the life of my time in Huaraz...
On a school day, I usually get up and at my leisure and have breakfast with Haydee of fruit salad, bread and really bad coffee with condensed milk. Haydee doesn't speak English so I have to draw on all my spanish to muster a semi-intelligible conversation with her. Thankfully, Haydee has the patience of a saint and tolerates my awful Spanish and we get by. She also has a wicked sense of humour and one of the most beautiful laughs I've ever known. I teach at secondary school which means I start school at 12.50. Here, the kids at primary school go to school in the morning and then the older kids go to the same school the second half of the day. So most mornings I take a stroll into town and go for a coffee and come back for a hearty lunch cooked by Haydee and we sit
Mirror lake
Lake Awak. I went on what was promised to be an easy walk in the mountains was a 6 hour streep hike but totally worth it to see this. and watch a peruvian cooking programme together.
Then, to school. I've been volunteering ata local public school called Senor de la Soleded, a short walk from my house. On Mondays and Fridays the school day starts with an assembly in the scvhool playground, in which the students line up and sing the Peru national anthem follwed by the Huaraz national anthem as the respective flags are raised. Next, the school recites a prayer and 'Director' makes a speech. I've been working with the school's English teacher, Nancy, and have been assisting in her lessons. The kids are aged between 12 and 16 but look so much younger then kids the same age back home. Classes are noisy and discipline non-existent! The kids chat, fight, walk around the classroom and the teachers don't bat an eyelid. The classrooms are pretty bare, the paint flaking,broken windows and filthy floors. Most classrooms have a painting of Jesus above the chalkboard bearing a message that Jesus loves me or that Jesus is my friend.
The kids have been great to work with. Their curiousity made me a source of constant attention and I can't tell you how many times they asked me
to say 'Coca-Cola' so they could laugh at my accent. Even the loudest, most cheeky teenage boys who would wolf whisteld me as I walked into class would squirm in their seats if I sat next to them and would obediently read their work out to me with their cheeks burning. For some reason, all of the kids seem to think that because I speak English I probably know Michael Jackson and Hannah Montana (I don't). Nancy, the English teacher, qualfied the year I was born, so her English, though gramatically perfect, leaves a fair bit to be desired, so she has been really grateful to have me there and I've had all the time in the world for her as we've shared languages and practised together.
School finishes at 6.30 pm at which point I head home and chill out for a while before having dinner with the family and the other volunteers at eight. Dinner is mostly something with rice, maybe vegetables, or some potatoe dish in a corn sauce. Last week was Essi's bithday when everyone had Guinea Pig, except me, as being vegetarian I was given a Tamal. Halfway through eating my veggie alternative I
Punta Union pass
me and my fellow trekkers the donkey whisperers was warned it may contain a bit of meat.... like everywhere else in South America, vegeatrianism is a curious concept and is mostly interpreted as just not eating red meat so most vegetarian dishes have a healthy portion of some unidentified white meat thrown in for good measure.
I've made the most of my weekends to see as much of the surrounding mountains and villages as possible. Some of the highlights have been mountainbiking, visiting the pre-inca ruins at Chavin, visiting the thermal baths at Monterrey and of course enjoying the nightlife that Huaraz has to offer. This seems to have revolved around a bar called 13 Buhos where the owner, Lucho, brews his own beer from Coca Leaves. Siobhan if you're reading this, if we found a way to import this to England we'd be loaded! Alternatively, imprisoned. After a few beers I usually manage to nag the brothers into going to the club downstairs to dance to some Shakira and the like. The hips don't lie. Really. Last time I learnt to play the bongos and befriended a peruvian art teacher. I love Huaraz.
Last week I took a few days off school and headed into
the mountains with the two brothers and a random Brian we befriended over a football match and a game of ping-pong. We went sin guide and did the Santa Cruz trek carrying all our own equipment and food, was such an adventure! We trekked for three days through the breath taking Cordillera Blanca, passing bright turquoise lagunas, perfectly pointy snowy peaks and struggled our way over the Punta Union pass at a staggering 4,750 metres. At that height we heard the thunderous sound of the mountain glaciers cracking echo around us. The second best sound of the mountains was the boys emulating the sound of the donkey herders... Hacha harrrrrraaaaaa ha... Lastly, the sound that nearly drove me to high-altitude insanity was the incessant singing of the Boney-M song 'Brown Girl in the Ring'. If you've seen or read 'Touching the Void' you'll get it.
And now my time here is nearly up and I'm heading over to the coast for a few days to chill out near Trujillo before flying up to Quito, Ecuador. I've had an amazing experience in Huaraz and will be pretty sad to leave this town where I've made some great new friends, enjoyed
family life and had a very special glimpse into huaracino life that I'll never forget.
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Siobhan
non-member comment
Aw Love, my eyes filled up a little at the end- what an adventure. I'm glad you had hot water at the house- very important point to make and damn I thought you knew Michael Jackson and Hannah Montana- thanks for pointing that out, I'd never have known ;-) Plus my dear Jesus does love you and I am glad you have had the chance to be aware of it- now for the churches of Columbia.... I love the lake- its amazing!! Now if that had been at the end of our 5 mile trek in Borehamwood all would have worth it too. Missing you loads lovely lady and how lucky everyone over there has been to have had your company, knowledge and laughter over the last few weeks. Can't wait to see you, love you lots xxxxxx