Arrival in Chincha
Mariana Gledhill from Wellington, N.Z is currently spending 7 months in Peru doing voluntary work. She shares her experiences.
Hola Todos
I am in Chincha and I am enjoying it heaps. Sorry I have not mailed about it earlier. I was in bed with la gripe (the flu) all of last week, so I have not been doing much for my project.
My host family is lovely. My sister Maria del Carmen… we call her Marita, has been helping me out so much with the practical important things, and she is also getting me a social life. I have been here less than two weeks and I was sick for one of them, but I have already attended two parties, one a wedding. Did I know the bride or groom?…. no! But by the end of the night I had danced with them. I am enjoying the dancing here and slowly learning to do it right. One
of my cousins laughs in my face when I dance with him, which does not make things easy, but I laugh at him too, especially when he imitates my dancing and ends up flat on his face with sand in his mouth. My host brother, Alfredo is just such a nice guy. He is addicted to soccer, and soap operas. When I was sick and feeling down in the dumps, he drew me heaps of pictures of kiwis. He LOVES Queen. Alfredito and I have a lot in common! My host mother… quiet, no! She loves to dance as I do and she has a franchaise which she runs from home. She is in Lima at the moment. Ama de Casa (housewife) yeah right!
My house is classic coastal Peruvian, made out of adobe with wood and flax woven together forming a roof. When I first saw the garden, I thought ¨this would be an interesting study in urban agriculture.` Normal people would think ´that is a huge garden¨. My family grow
grapes, flowers, avocados and heaps of other stuff, they also have a zoo comprising rabbits, a pigs, dogs and budgies. I would talk about my host father but I have hardly spent time with him. He is genial and really interested in NZ, especaily the birds. Sofia is now married and
living in Arequipa.
I watched the soccer the other day. It was so stressful. Peru got a goal against Equador in the 1st minite, only to have Equador doing the same in the third then about an hour later- CRISIS- Equador got another one! Peru managed to equalize- but it took too long. Alfredito, Marita and I were so stressed out! If soccer is the first national sport, the second one is hating the politicos. Everyone hates Toledo here, way more than people hate politicos in NZ! Fijimori is hates likewise. However, my favourite politico Peruano is Montesinos because it makes me laugh every i hear his name. Monti decided to be corrupt… not exceptional here… in front of television cameras. He was kind of caught out on TV and he is now in jail. What an idiot! The third sport is keeping dogs. Most families have at least two.
My project- I have not spent enough time on it yet as I have been ill. The kids are lovely without exception… all girls (they separated the boys and girls because they were having issues with el amor.) ¨Señorita”, they always call to me “quiero tarea” (I want homework) so I am kept busy inventing work and helping the people who are struggling with their maths (I know, me teaching maths… It´s like asking someone from enron to teach accounting). I also help with art. When I am better at Spanish, I am going to be doing stuff with theatre and running a choir.
Anyway, that´s all from Chincha for now.
Chau
Mariana
