School, Hot Springs, and Manicures

What a good week!  I am back in the swing of things at my school after my vacation and taking more initiative over creating projects for the kids.  My two successes this week were teaching the kids Go Fish and doing a puzzle art project.  It was difficult to teach the kids Go Fish because of my Spanish and because I don’t think they would have understood the rules even if we had the same native language, however the kids loved the game and were constantly asking me everyday, multiple times a day, when we could next play.  Even though only one kid understood the rules completely, the game got them all counting and having fun with numbers, which was its purpose!  And it was a great Spanish lesson for me.
    This week we were learning about various modes of transportation, so Vanessa asked me if I had any ideas for an art project to teach the kids about bicycles, motorcycles, and moto-taxis (taxis built on motorcycles).  I decided to make big puzzles that the kids would have to decorate and put together.  I drew each of the three vehicles on their own poster board and then cut them into puzzle pieces.  I gave each kid a puzzle piece and they decorated them and then we worked together to put the puzzle pieces together and then I taped the back of the puzzle.  The kids were a little frustrated while decorating their piece because they didn’t know exactly what the whole picture was, even though we had put the puzzle together once, before taking it apart to decorate, just so they could have a basic sense of what the final project was (I was thrilled that every kid knew exactly what the vehicles were that I had drawn!).  However, even though there was some frustration, the kids painted and pasted happily and were extremely excited by the final product.  Although Vanessa was skeptical throughout the entire 2 hour project, she was also very happy by the final product and told me how good the puzzles looked.

    Today, Saturday, was a great day.  Yesterday, I told Fortunata that Mariska and I wanted to find the hot springs in Calca, a city 20 minutes from Pisac, and I asked her where they were.  Instead of telling us where the Machacancha hot springs were, she said that Ricardo and Chaska would come with us!  This morning, after a very strange breakfast of fried chicken, fried potatoes, mint and onion salad, and coffee, Ricardo, Chaska, Mariska, and I headed off for Calca.  After getting off the bus in Calca, Mariska and Chaska stopped to use the internet and Ricardo and I watched a parade of school children who were celebrating “Dia del Libro” (the day of the book).  Then, we all took a crowded taxi that should have fit five people, but had 13 squeezed in, to Machacancha.  The hot springs were not what I expected, it was kind of like bathing in dirty bath water, but it was fun because I was able to talk to Ricardo and Chaska and it was really nice to be somewhere that was not touristy at all - Mariska and I were the only people there that spoke English.
    After the hot springs, we went out to lunch at a typical Peruvian restaurant where we had quinoa soup and chicken and rice and were joined by Chaska’s mother, Judith.  My favorite part of lunch was our lively conversation about cell phones.  Judith was complaining that Chaska keeps asking for new cell phones or losing them and then needing a new one.  I told her that I have a friend that had 12 phones in 12 months, which made everyone laugh and made Judith and Chaska agree that Chaska wasn’t doing so bad.  Then Chaska and I talked about how we both wanted iPhones.  It wasn’t a very complex discussion, but it was one of the first times that I have been able to join in a conversation so successfully and completely understand what was going on.
    During lunch, we also talked about how Mariska, Chaska, and I wanted to get manicures after admiring Judith’s nails.  Mariska and I thought we were going back to Pisac after lunch but, to our surprise, we all went to Judith’s house where she gave us ice cream and gave us manicures herself!  It was great to spend such a long day with the family (we were together from about 8 to 5) and to see parts of Peru we would not have found on our own.  I hope I will get to spend more days like this with my host family.