From Trujillo to Chiclayo

Tuesday, 16 May 2006

Greetings from Chiclayo,

Megan, Shawn, and I arrived in Chiclayo yesterday on the 5 am bus from Trujillo. It was a 3 hour ride up here, but I slept for most of the ride. Before leaving Trujillo we had the opportunity to visit some places around the area. We say Chan Chan ruins of the Chimu people (pre Incan) as well as Huecas del Sol y de la Luna, ruins of the Moche people. They were very interesting and I captured lots of pictures of both of them. At the Huecas you can still see the paint on the stone, the artwork was pretty impressive. After seeing the ruins on both days we headed out to Huanchaco, the beach in the area. On Saturday I ate ceviche for the first time, it is fish that is cooked in citrus juice (it has an interesting flavor). We also just wandered around and took in the amazing views of the ocean. At night we went out salsa dancing at a club called La Barra with some of the English students from the center. We wanted to see as much around Trujillo as we could before coming further north.

It was pretty amazing to get to Chiclayo because it is so different here than it was in Trujillo. There is not nearly the same amount of traffic and the city is less crowded it seems. We did our laundry yesterday, which involved water in a bucket and scrubbing and wringing the clothes out before putting them on the clothesline. It is a lot warmer here as well. The center is bigger, but there are fewer volunteers here. We are working with Adam and Jodie from Australia and Jean-Marie from France. Also at the center lives our cook Eugenia and her son Danielo. The food is amazing. It consists of a lot of rice and potatoes. Today for lunch we had potatoes with chicken, tomatoes, cucumbers. and spinach. It is very good food.

Yesterday afternoon we went to the market, it was huge and there were many sights and smells. I definately did not enjoy walking past the fish vendors. There was so much going on there and people, especially children or mothers with children walked up to us and asked for money, it is really hard to see the kids and not give them money, but you don´t give them money because if you do, you will have a trail of children following you expecting money for them as well.

Last night I taught my first English class! I am teaching beginning and elementary English (the people with the least English experience). It went well I think, there are only two people in the second class and they showed up 30 minutes late, apparently Peruvians like many peoples do not have the same concept of time as Americans and are habitually late. No one from my first class came, but I think there was a misunderstanding because there previous teacher had left and they thought since he left it would not continue, so hopefully they come tonight.

This morning I woke up to bells ringing, not pretty ones...it was a man trying to sell his wares at 6am. We left the center at about quarter after 8 for Labaique (spelling) where there is a school in which we have a class. I went out into the slums with Paty, the social worker looking for more students. It was hard work because everyone we saw was like nope, we all go to school, even though many of them do not. Jodie says it is because they have grown accustomed to seeing gringos there and the parents have told their children to say they go to school, even if they don´t. We did find two girls who wanted to come to school and so hopefully they come to school tomorrow! The children in the school are so beautiful and they were so incredibly excited when we walked in the door to the schoolyard (all of the schools are baracaded by big walls), they came running up to us screaming with excitement. When Jodie took out her camera, she was mauled with children wanting their photo taken, it is very exciting for them because they don´t often get to see themselves in photos. I am not sure if I am going back to Lambiaque tomorrow or if I will be at another school. We bought some grenadines at the market yesterday and I had one to eat at lunch today. It is a very juicy, sweet fruit. It is similar to a pomagranite but you suck the seeds out of the center.

To get to school we rode in motos, motorcycles with carriages attached to the back of them where th passengers sit. They are very prevalent here. My Spanish is getting better I think, I think I am able to understand more, they talk really fast here. Speaking is still a struggle, especially when I am asked to translate some things that I don´t really know how to say.

Everything is going well once again and I think I am adjusted well now, I am not so nervous about everything and the shock of being here is going down, even though it is still there because many things are so different.

Love,
Kathy