A Day in the Life

Explaining my daily routine can be a difficult task, considering every day is quite distinct. A lot of what I’m doing now is exploring the town and beginning to settle into some introductory work. However, I thought it would be fun to go through a “typical” day to help you better understand what my life looks like here in Poroto.

6:30am: Good morning! It’s time to wake up and get ready for school. I have breakfast, which consists of a giant bowl of chicken soup, avena (which is sweet really watery oatmeal) and bread, or occasionally eggs with bread. I usually also have coffee that is toasted with cinnamon but I don’t think actually has caffeine, but it’s really delicious.

Formation at the Main School in Poroto

7:30: I head to the local school, which is about 3 minutes from my house. I am greeted by dozens of primaria students and hang out while I wait for the secundaria students to finish formation, which is a bizarre military type line-up where the students receive announcements before school starts. I go to the teacher’s room, say good morning, and accompany the English teacher to their classroom. The English teachers don’t actually speak any English, but are conducting English classes to complete their hours. Therefore I have pretty free reign over what I teach. Most of the upper level students can formulate written sentences based on examples but have no idea how to pronounce English words, form their own sentences, or create any sort of significant dialogue. I’ve been starting with basics and trying to encourage the students to be more creative and use their new vocabulary by participating in class activities. Most are painfully shy when it comes to speaking out loud in English, but with practice they’re improving. We’ve currently been learning verbs and how to form the present progressive tense, so we’ve played various games including charades. At first the kids would just stand in the front of the room and stare at their classmates when they had a verb to act out, but now they’re much more engaged and even acted out “I am dancing” which was a pretty big development.

Playing Hangman with family names

9:30: Sometimes I have another English class at the same school, or I’ll help out in a classroom doing other little things such as charlas on nutrition and making fruit salad, helping with crafts, or just hanging out with the kids. I’ve also started a series of sessions about teen issues for the students who will be graduating in December, so one day a week I give a session about drugs/alcohol, peer pressure, etc.

Autoestima Session

Other days I head to a caserio school to give either English lessons or a values/self-esteem workshop. I’ve been using my bike to travel to and from the caserio schools, so I roll up my pants, throw by bag over my shoulder, and pedal off to school. These students are younger, so they get really excited when I roll up on my bike and I’m greeted by shouts of “SENORITA KELSI!” When I teach at the caserio in Mochal it is a more rural environment so students in 1^st-3^rd grade are in one classroom and students in 4^th-6^th grade are in another classroom. When I come to teach English they all pile in one room and we learn about colors, numbers, and other basic English lessons. It can be quite a challenge to teach such a wide age range of students, but these kids are the most interested and well-behaved so I really enjoy it. Because they’re young they’re more likely to participate in my games and activities too, so we’ve played tag, hangman, and other games incorporating English words. Last week I taught family words, so at the end of the lesson I showed them pictures of my family from home which I labeled father, sister, brother, mother, grandmother, cousin, friend, etc. I don’t think I’ve seen them remember the words for anything so quickly. As I continued through the pictures I would point at Abby and hear a chorus of “SISTER!” or at James and hear “BROTHER!” My family and friends are now famous among my little students.

1:00: Lunch Time! I live in a menú restaurant, which means there are about 3 options every day for a fixed price. The most common options are fried chicken, duck, or lamb served with rice, lentils or beans, and a salad that consists of a piece of lettuce. Luckily I can make my own plate so I can skip the rice and fill up a plate with extra salad. Sometimes we have other crazy options, some of which are really good and some of which I could definitely do without- for example, chicken stomach. I eat with whoever happens to be in the restaurant at the time; sometimes my host sisters but more often some random police officer, community member, or myself.

The Plaza where I spend lots of time

1:45: I hang out for awhile. Sit in the plaza and enjoy the sunshine, work on my community diagnostic, read, etc. Whenever I’m outside I’m surrounded by lots of small children who are constantly asking how you say their names in English. I can only tell them so many times that Javier doesn’t exactly translate to English, just like Kelsi doesn’t really translate to Spanish. However, they’re easily entertained and the questions they ask keep me laughing.

3:00: Sometimes I have afternoon meetings to attend; parents assemblies at the schools, interviews with community members, meetings at the health post, etc. I’ve also been actively involved in a teen health promoter’s group called “Consejeros de Salud,” which works to promote healthy lifestyles among their peers. A Peruvian NGO called Ceprocut works with this group, so I’ve been coordinating with their representative to take part in this organization and help with workshops and activities the group is planning. Other days I will go by the health post and see what’s new there. Everyone at the health post is great and I’m always greeted with a warm welcome when I go by. I’ll chat with the doctors and nurses and see if there’s anything I can help out with. Right now I’m still learning a lot about the community and they have a lot of valuable information to share. Sometimes in the afternoons I’ll help kids with their homework or go for a mini adventure of some sort.

One of my running routes

5:00: At this time the sun has usually calmed down enough for me to go on a run. I pretty much have two choices for my running route- the first starts with a long winding downhill but that means I have to return uphill. It’s a pretty road with sugar cane fields, farmers harvesting their crops, and little children sitting on the side of the road. However, if I go this way there are more dogs (as well as sheep and donkeys) that can present some problems. Also, if the farmers are burning their fields (which is quite common) I have to try to dodge ashes and smoke fumes. }

Really good for the lungs

The other direction has more mototaxis that I have to dodge but fewer dogs. I also have to enter the main road, which can be a little treacherous. I change it up, but no matter which way I go there are lots of people along the way who like to yell out to me. Running isn’t common here, so people always have some sort of comment to make. They’re pretty used to me by now and accustomed to the fact that I pass by several times per week. Slowly people are learning my name, so in addition to shouts of “la gringita” I also hear “Kelsi!” Sometimes I can convince some of the teenagers to come with me on my run, which tends to turn into a run/walk/cross the river/visit my neighbor/pick some fruit. However, some of the girls are pretty interested so I can go on a “real” run with them. Lately my host sister has been riding my bike alongside me while I run, sometimes with a friend on the handlebars. She thinks it’s funny when we go downhill and she can easily whiz by me, but it’s not as funny as we’re coming back up the hill.

Alexandra biking

6:30: I reluctantly throw myself into the cold shower. Sometimes we have running water, other times I have to use a bucket of water. There have been several occasions where I’ve undressed and jumped in the shower only to realize there is absolutely no water; that’s always fun.

7:30: Dinner time. I always have tea or coffee and sometimes leftovers from lunch, bread with condiments, or whatever else is around.

8:30: Sometimes I hang out for awhile, but I usually head to my bedroom and read, watch a movie on my laptop, make good use of our free RPM minutes and talk to another volunteer, or otherwise entertain myself until I feel like going to bed.

Laundry Time

During the weekend there’s a wide variety of activities I may participate in, none of which compare to a typical weekend in America, but that’s to be expected. If I’m in my capital city for a night that’s a different story, but if I’m at site some of the highlights of a weekend may include hiking through the fields/river with some teenagers, attending a birthday party or other social event, hanging out with the “cake lady” who brings her sweets from Trujillo to sell in Poroto, going on a bike ride around the caserios, sitting in the sun, and doing laundry. Laundry is quite a process, and I swear to never complain about doing laundry with a washing machine again. First of all, I have a terrible habit of waiting until I have a huge mound of laundry waiting to be done, so laundry is at least a 3 hour procedure. Last time I did laundry I was really sunburn by the time it was finished. First, I have to find a time of day where we actually have water, which sometimes can only be before 9am and after 6pm. Second, I fill up a giant tub of water and let all of my clothes soak with some laundry detergent. Next, I get the wooden plank and scrub brush and get busy. This takes forever, and I think my clothes are slowly disintegrating. After the clothes are soapy and brushed they have to be wrung out and rinsed off, then wrung out again. This is much harder than it sounds, or maybe I just have weak wrists. After the first time I did a big load of laundry, I will embarrassingly admit that my wrists were really sore the next day. Anyway, after everything is ready I hang it up on the line, our wall, piles of empty cajas of beer, or whatever else I can find. I just have to be careful not to use the line that is reserved for the drying of animal skins. I’m not really sure how clean my clothes are after I complete this process, but it’s quite an experience.