Every day this week, a team of 5 or 6 volunteers, were driven to the LaMolina Unversity by taxi. We leave the hotel at 8:15 am and get to the university about 9 am, so about a 45 minute drive. The first day at the university we met the director of the Language Center and were given a tour of the campus. This is an Agricultural and Forestry university which has a good reputation and is well known.
The facilities at the school are very plush compared to other places I have worked. The library at the school has wifi and lot so teaching materials from other Global Volunteers even though the volunteers have been only coming here for two other previous times. The cafeteria or cafe at the university gives us different choices every day. On the menu there is mostly chicken, potatoes and rice, but it is always good. I got a salad the the other day and wondered if would make me sick but it seemed to pass the test. There are a lot of flies that hover around the food which makes it somewhat annoying. The only thing that is a minor problem is, even though we order a head of time, they never get the order right. So, the waitress always asks us again and again what we ordered, then bringing sometime different.
The first day of class, we were given class lists with about 25-28 students, so that is how I prepared. My co-teacher is Marianne who is from San Francisco. She has done two other GV programs before and she is retired from a job with a pharmaceutical company. Another Teacher/volunteer, Sara, is from Kent State and will graduate in one year. She has been in So. Am. all summer and is a Spanish major. The other two teaching volunteers are Jack and Elaine, both 83 years young and a couple, from Madison, WI. They are both retired many years from the school. Jack was a school counselor and Elaine taught ESL. They are a lot of fun to work with and bring a wealth of ideas.
Reality set in with our first class. We worried about our lessons and the material that we had prepared. The class ended up being about 7 students, none of which were on the list. Also, our classes were divided into intermediate and advanced but the students just decided themselves where they wanted to go, so then each class had a full range of English abilities. There seemed to be no reason why the signed up students were a no-show but this is how somethings work in Peru. haha!
Some of the students want to come to the U.S. to study but I am not sure that will happen because they don't seem to have much money. Most of the students are about 20-24 years old. Some have graduated and are now working on their masters and they speak basic English but often their accents or grammar has some problem. Some teachers have been sitting in our classes too. Their English is better. One teacher got his Masters in Mississippi. He told me that he didn't understand anything when he first arrived in Mississippi. I think I would have trouble too. ha! The students are all friendly and enjoyable to work with.
I have not have any problems so far other than my heel is still giving my fits!! So that limits my walking which is a real bummer for me. I doubt now that this will improve on this trip. It might be planter fasciitis. Peru is not the No. 1 producer of coca and they have a new president. The country is not sure if he will be good or not but he seems to be aligning himself with Chavez and Moralas.
All for now... Cool here again and it seems to be the same everyday. About 65 degrees but lots of humidity. Cloudy sky, never see the sun.
Take care all.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Lima Peru
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