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Hello to everyone!
Hopefully you are all still keeping well ... I realize that I have been falling behind in the e-mail updates as well as the blog updates. Terribly sorry. In my defence, there has been some construction going on and we have lost the internet at the home base. However this is no real excuse.
Just to let you know what is going on, I am currently in Cusco preparing to leave on my machu picchu hike, which is pretty exciting. I just arrrived this morning at about 6am and found myself a hostel. It was raining, which is a first for me here in peru, in fact i think it is the first time there have been clouds. Arequipa has pretty consistant weather conditions (aka SUNNY). I have my briefing tonight at 6pm and leave first thing in the morning! It is a 5 day, 4 night trek on the Sacantay trail, reaching an altitude of 4500 meters and ending at the machu picchu inca ruins.
In terms of volunteering, things have been interesting. Due to the school vacations we have been working at an boys orhanage instead these past 2 weeks. It houses about 55 boys ranging in age from 8 - 18. We are working in pairs and I am in a class with the 10-13 year olds. Its a lot of fun as they are young enough to be enthusiastic about learning but still cowed when you get angry. The older boys are EXTREMELY hard to work with as they are very jaded, belligerent, and sometimes downright cruel. The culture shock has been especially tough as these kids are either abandoned or orphaned and often come from very rough circumstances. It is especially difficult as all the other volunteers are female. A typical example is when a 14 year old hit one of the other volunteers and then blithly asked "does your boyfriend hit you too?". However, there are many kids who love having us there and have taught us to play their tops games, marbles, soccer tournaments, and throw themselves into learning english.
Hopefully you are all still keeping well ... I realize that I have been falling behind in the e-mail updates as well as the blog updates. Terribly sorry. In my defence, there has been some construction going on and we have lost the internet at the home base. However this is no real excuse.
Just to let you know what is going on, I am currently in Cusco preparing to leave on my machu picchu hike, which is pretty exciting. I just arrrived this morning at about 6am and found myself a hostel. It was raining, which is a first for me here in peru, in fact i think it is the first time there have been clouds. Arequipa has pretty consistant weather conditions (aka SUNNY). I have my briefing tonight at 6pm and leave first thing in the morning! It is a 5 day, 4 night trek on the Sacantay trail, reaching an altitude of 4500 meters and ending at the machu picchu inca ruins.
In terms of volunteering, things have been interesting. Due to the school vacations we have been working at an boys orhanage instead these past 2 weeks. It houses about 55 boys ranging in age from 8 - 18. We are working in pairs and I am in a class with the 10-13 year olds. Its a lot of fun as they are young enough to be enthusiastic about learning but still cowed when you get angry. The older boys are EXTREMELY hard to work with as they are very jaded, belligerent, and sometimes downright cruel. The culture shock has been especially tough as these kids are either abandoned or orphaned and often come from very rough circumstances. It is especially difficult as all the other volunteers are female. A typical example is when a 14 year old hit one of the other volunteers and then blithly asked "does your boyfriend hit you too?". However, there are many kids who love having us there and have taught us to play their tops games, marbles, soccer tournaments, and throw themselves into learning english.
posted by RPM at 7:15 PM
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