Call me profe

I have not written for a while and probably to the surprise of many (considering my past articles) I am still in Cusco. But the main difference with July is that I switched from a traveler to a volunteer.

I had this idea for a while as many travelers have met do in general a volunteering at some point. After more than 18 months of continuously moving on I felt I was ready to give it a try and stay a bitm ore in one place. The irony is that it takes place in Cusco whereas I would have loved to stay in Colombia or I have even tried to go to help Chile when there was the earthquake last February.

Since late August I am an English teacher in the school of Maras. I teach twice a week to 6 classes (1h30 each class) of a primary school. I found this opportunity knowing the family of the restaurant Muña (see specific album). Maras lays one hour away from Cusco (which means to get up as early as 5h30!!!), close to the famous Moray, and is a country-side school. Here it is not about training the future generations of leaders for the country, it is about learning Spanish to the kids who all speak Quechau as a native language, the it is about learning them to brush their teeth, it is something really social for kids who help their family in the fields when they are not at school.

The site of Moray where Incas did some experinces for agriculture

Although Maras has Moray nearby the turistic boom has not spread over its population: there is water only 2 hours per day, really few people in the village have a car (all the kids go hme walking) and there is no internet, and none of the kids has a computer has a computer at home. I was also told that two years ago some Canadians made a study that showed that many kids suffer malnutrition which hinders their capacity to learn. Therefore although the kids are really happy to have classes of English, it is not a priority for them: almost no one does his homework and most of the time half the pupils do not bring its materials of the week before. English is then more having some good time and learning a bit.

On my side I learn a lot. I am not a teacher and having kids that young (the youngest are 6, the oldest 13), keeping them interested, making sure they ALL learn something is quite a challenge for me. Although sometimes I wonder what I do here when no one brings what I asked to bring I love doing it and will do it until the end of October.

I am also really grateful to the professors who have welcomed me in such a nice way. We have "breakfast" all together each day at the first break (10am); they cook what would be rather for me a lunch but I want once to have a French breakfast with croissant, baguette, yogurts, fruit juices and cakes.

I went to see the teachers in the "teachers Olympics" of the surroundings of Maras where competition does not only include sports but also reading out loud a text, traditional dance, sapo (a game where you throw tokens in holes to get points) etc... Unfortunately I was not allowed to participate due to the fact that 2 years ago a gringo won all the disciplines of athletics.

All in all this makes a wonderful new experience and a new step in my trip.

Update on pictures

Hola

Because this has been a while I made links on my blog I will for once post all of the new albums in a post

Since my trek spree I went to see nearby Cusco for two weeks the family of a friend. They run a restaurant for tourists  and I gave them a hand at various works. Although you won´t see it a lot n the pictures there is a sharp contrast between the quality of the erstaurant (I really love it) and the simple life these people are living (no fridge, no hot water...). Find all the photos in this album.

Then I have the album of my time at the school of Maras as well as the surroundings of Maras/Moray.

As I stayed more than three months in Peru I had to renew my passport. I then crossed to Bolivia for less than two days but it gave me the time to got o the Isla del Sol on the lake Titicaca and I loved it.

Finally two albums that will keep growing because they represent the two sides of Cusco:
The turistic side of the center of Cusco
The other side of Cusco, the one I am experiencing since I left the centre, simply more much Peruvian.


Plus I have published two new articles below....
Enjoy your readings and the pictures.

The shoe challenge

Life is full of unexpected events. When I started my trip I bought a new pair of hiking shoes because I knew I would trek. But I never knew that my trip would last so long and that I would not be able to replace them in South America...

I was tough with my shoes and especially in Patagonia they have been tested many times...

The extremely wet Caleta Tortel in Chile (I took the pic but the same happened to me) and the hardest day of teh Torres del Paine.

 This means that since the end of January when I came back from Santiago I could easily have considered getting a new pair. The problem is that in Chile I could not find size 47 (I admit I did not look a lot).

The months passed by and my shoes automatically got a new ventilation system of 4 holes, rotten laces and all sorts of signes that mean "we are tired". The look of most South Americans has also changed as I see many people staring at my feet in surprise and sometimes disdain: "How can a gringo wear this rubbish!!!"

I will take another picture to show you how bas they look.

A little background explanation; in South America you still have everywhere shoe-polishers to make sure your shoes look clean and I am convinced this is a sign of social differenciation, especially from the really poor who just have sandals barely big enough for their swollen feet. So my shoes put me in a category that does not suit with my "gringohood" and the widespread perception here that gringos are so rich that they can pay 5 times the usual price without being bothered, that my house is made of gold and that each morning when I open my door to the garden I find the $ (Euros in Europe) that have fallen down during the night like rain because this is how easy is life for us gringos, right? (thanks to MTV for showing the life of the rich and conveying these myths).

To come back to my shoes that is now 4 months I´m trying to get some new ones and no, 47 does not exist in a country where 44 is the biggest size. This has been confirmed by the 50 or more shops I have visited.

As a consequence my shoes will have to survive until the end of the trip and I will continue seeing the look of the South Americans wondering about this strange combination gringo/rotten shoes.