Waiting on the world the change . . . in Peru!
Posted by Miranda on June 7th, 2009
So I am not quite sure where to start with my experience here and I can’t believe a month and a half has already gone by. To simplify it, when I arrived, another teacher told me that the first month is very hard, the second month is easier, and the last month is amazing – and this far it is turning out to be true!
Starting with my family, I live with the same family that a previous SWB student, Jonathan Williams, lived with. It is a really big family which makes it both a great and challenging experience. It is great because I practice most of my Spanish with my family, and it is nice to feel like I have some support here. Also, the adorable 3 year old little girl in the house, who is obsessed with singer happy birthday, is always making me laugh. However, there have been some difficulties because it is not the easiest thing in the world to move into another family’s house, especially when you don’t speak their language! Even now I still have feelings of being a visitor in their home. It takes time to adjust to so many people living in one house. It is normal here for children to live with their parents until their late twenties. The daughters of the family live in the house with their husbands and their children. Overall, living with the family here has been an amazing learning experience and I would change it to be any other way.
The food was an issue for me because although I am not a total vegetarian, I do not eat a lot of meat, and I prefer not eat potatoes or rice, which is basically the epitome of Peruvian food. The family told me that they could accommodate to that but it didn’t seem to happen. I think that Peruvians are just not accustomed to eating lots of vegetables. I ended up deciding to cook my own food which was hard because I didn’t want to offend the family and it is not always comfortable cooking in another woman’s kitchen because it tends to be a personal territory. Regardless, I am happy that I am cooking my own food and there is a great outdoor market here where I can buy tons of great fresh fruits and veggies.
Also, I have seemed to have every possible thing with my body go wrong! I have been sick with a cold for over a month now, and I have had my asthma come back viciously after 8 years of not even touching an inhaler. Also, my back has been quite sore because the bed is not as luxurious as we are accustomed to in Canada. Further, needless to really, my stomach hasn’t quite been getting along with Peru since I have arrived either.
As for my social life, I have been blessed to be here with another WUSC student, Colleen Strauch. We get along extremely well and it is so great to not only have someone here who is Canadian, but also to have someone here who shares the same values and interests is wonderful. Also I have made friends with a couple of the other teachers at the school but it’s difficult because there are so many of them. Colleen and I hang out pretty much every day and we bought gym memberships which has been a great way to spend out afternoons. We traveled together last weekend to Trujillo which was a lot of fun. Also at the end of my time in Peru Colleen and I have planned a trip to Cusco and Machu Picchu that I am very excited for! Colleen has also been great at helping me with Spanish (thank you colleen!).
Speaking of my Spanish, it is certainly coming along and I can say a lot more than I could in the beginning which was basically nothing. It has been quite funny learning a new language because I have made lots of mistakes. In Spanish a slight change in the pronunciation of a word can change the meaning to something quite different and in my case sometimes offensive! However, with my family and friends, we have definitely enjoyed lots of laughter over these mistakes.
Last but not least, teaching at ICPNA has been an excellent experience. At first, I must say that I was overwhelmed with the preparation required for classes, and everything else especially because things at ICPNA can often be unorganized. Regardless, everyone has really opened there arms to me here and has been very helpful. I have found that I prefer teaching the beginner classes because they aren’t as complex with the grammar, which is very hard to teach if it is your first language. Also, in the first cycle, because my evening class was so large and the students were extremely difficult to control, I was a stressed out and felt like I was a high school teacher. However, by the end, once I got the hang of things, it was much easier and I have really started to enjoy teaching. I actually love it!
This cycle I am teaching conversation class and it is nice because I can get to know the students, the culture, their values, and their personalities. I decided to play the song and the lyrics to “Waiting on the world to change” by John Mayer, and after I asked them “If you could change anything in the world what would you change?” I was pleased to know that they said that they would eliminate corruption, poverty, pollution, and make people more generous with others! We had a discussion about how these are all problems in Peru and then a student asked me if we had these problems in Canada. I felt guilty to say that, relative to a country like Peru, we don’t suffer from these problems. They also said that they thought that none of these things would ever change and that there was nothing that they could do to make a difference. It just dawned on me that it’s almost our obligation to strive to help alleviate these problems in the world because we as Canadians have been blessed to born in a country that, in comparison, does not have these problems. Further, I realized that I have been blessed with the education, knowledge, and opportunities to do this, where most of the Peruvian people will never have these things. Although I am not necessarily over here in Peru changing the world, I feel like I am learning so much about it. We learn about these problems in Canada but it is a different thing to live in a country and get to know people that actually experience these problems first hand.
Overall, although not every waking moment of my experience here is amazing, and I probably wouldn’t even say that I love it here, I feel like this is the best experience I have ever had in my life. It has been such a learning experience about myself, the world, and other people. I have traveled a lot in the past, but it does not compare to living in another culture. I have already made wonderful friends here and I am excited to see how the next two months turn out.
Without any hesitation, I would totally recommend this experience to anyone thinking about doing something like this.
Saludos,
Miranda
