Random Thoughts

Random Thoughts

1) I forgot to write about this:  Yesterday, in Calca, Fortunata, Chaska, Judith, and I ran into two men that Fortunata knows.  First she introduced Chaska and Judith as “mis hijas” (my daughters) and then turned to me and introduced me to the two men as “tambien mi hija” (also my daughter)!  It made me feel so good because usually Fortunata introduces me as her volunteer.  I am part of the family!

2) I have been thinking about all the things I am going to miss when I leave soon (two weeks in Pisac and then one week in the Amazon jungle doing the Projects Abroad conservation project).  Most things have both a happy and sad side to them, like I will miss my host family, but I am so excited to be with my family in my house.  I will miss the school and kids, but am looking forward to going back to Wooster.  Three things that I have recognized (so far...) that I do not want to leave at all are 1) the mountains…I am so not looking forward to being in boring, flat, ugly Skokie.  2) public transportation: it has been so nice not having to drive myself anywhere.  Wherever I want to go, there is a bus, taxi, or collectivo that I can take for pretty cheap.  Even though I don’t drive when I am in Wooster, I miss it because it is hard to get places, so it has been so nice not having to rely on having a family or friend’s car.  I wish we had better public transportation in the States (especially in Wooster!).  3) The Pisac market.  I have been living in Pisac for over three months now and am still not sick of walking around the market.  I love the colors, sounds, people (locals and tourists), buying things or just looking.

3) I have already started having stressful dreams about how I am going to pack everything up and get it all home…hey, it’s better than having stressful dreams about finals, right?

4) Seeing improvement - I have noticed over the past couple of weeks that I am really

seeing an improvement in how the students count, color, cut, write their names, etc.  It is exciting to see this progress and I am so glad that I decided to stay in one classroom for three months so that I would get the chance to see this progress.  For example, last week a few girls were playing a game where they had to see how many times they could swing around a bar and they would all count as one girl took her turn.  In the past, the girls would do the same sort of swinging, but it had never been a game before.  Now that they know how to count they were able to create a game/contest all on their own.  Also, a couple of the girls have jacks that they play with - they used to just throw the ball and collect all of the jacks but now they are able to go in order and collect 1, then 2, and so on.

            In addition to counting, over the past month and a half I have been working with the students on writing their names.  At another volunteer’s suggestion, I found plastic sheet protectors and put a paper into each one that I had written the student’s name on in solid letters and also in dotted lines.  The students traced over their names with a white-board marker on the sheet protector.  The kids had fun (and still have fun) using these because they get to use the special white-board markers and can erase easily and whenever they want.  And the improvement is amazing: one student, Flordeli used to just draw random lines when we would ask her to write her name and was not able to even make an “F”.  Now, she can write her name in cursive in a straight line without any problem.  I am so excited by this improvement.  Especially since it was my idea to have them practice their names.  Vanessa used to just rewrite their names if she could not read what they had written.

5) Buenas Noches Luna/Good Night Moon.  One of the books that my parents brought in October and the kids love is Buenas Noches Luna.  I have read it to many children over the past couple weeks during recess and, a couple days ago, Vanessa read it aloud to the class.  It was great because for the line that reads “And a bowl full of mush” (in Spanish mush is “papilla”) Vanessa decided that the kids wouldn’t know what papilla is so she just said “comida” (food).  At this, Adriana shouted out, “No! No! Papilla!” and wouldn’t stop until Vanessa went back and read the line correctly.  Today, I watched and listened to four boys looking at and “reading” Buenas Noches Luna.  They would turn the pages and say the lines that they had memorized, sometimes repeating the same line for different pages and would try to correct each other.  This is the beginning of reading!  I am very excited.  Also, most of the students didn’t even know which way to hold a book when I first got to the class (many would hold it upside down and backwards) but they all hold the books correctly now and really enjoy using them.