July 26: “Shalom, that bug says” and watch out for that….palm tree?

Tuesday morning we had language class in a few places around Santa Eulalia. We started out by going to the commiseria to talk with a cop about the police system in the district and about problems with delinquency in the area. The real excitement though was when my friend Jon managed to cut his forehead open by walking into the frond of some strange cactus, palm tree type plant. There’s not a lot of greenery around these parts, but apparently it can defend itself :-P Unfortunately that morning was one of the times I still have when my Spanish completely fails me. This man spoke so quickly I nearly went cross eyed….that’s right, cross eyed. Amusing tid-bit, apparently when learning languages most people try to read lips along with listening. Keep that in mind the next time you’re talking with a non-English speaker and they’re staring at your lips, its normal. I basically had to wait for each new question because it would provide a break in his monologue and give me the chance to try to pick up the thread again. Oh well, can’t win them all.
After the commiseria we walked up to another neighborhood in Santa Eulalia called Buenos Aires. There was a parade of the local school kids in celebration of the Fiestas Patrias that were coming up. There is a tradition of marching for national holidays in Peru. All the students and teachers practice for the weeks leading up to the parades. It’s quite formal and there is generally a prize for the class that marches the best. I particularly enjoyed seeing all the little primaria kids in their full uniforms.
That afternoon was had another round of tech training classes and there was a presentation from a current volunteer. She talked about a literacy and leadership program that she’s been doing at her site. She’s held workshops with the older students to work on literacy and public speaking skills, and then set up times for the older kids to go read books to classes of younger kids. I absolutely love this project and really hope to have the chance to try something like it in my site. We also met out new Peace Corps Volunteer Coordinator Evan. The PCVC is a third year volunteer position whose job is to keep track of us pretty much. Evan will be around to support us if we need it. He seems super cool and I look forward to working with him.