I had an early breakfast, then Juliana came to pick me up just before 8. She came with me on the bus to the playschool (my class, Jazmin Class, are 3-4 year olds) - she'll show me how to take the bus this week, then from next week I'm on my own.
I'll take a short pause here to describe the bus service as I've experienced it. There are no bus stops or timetables, at least not in the small towns. You wait at a specific corner for a bus to turn up, and ask the conductor (usually a young man or woman) if the bus goes the way you're going. Then in the bus, you're either lucky enough to get a front-facing seat, or you get a rear-facing seat (it's a nightmare trying to hang on while the bus speeds down the road, or goes uphill), or you stand up with your head brushing the ceiling, and holding on to the rail - I'm always conscious of the doors of the bus being open all the time, so I hold on extra tightly. The conductor jumps in and out of the bus, sometimes while the bus is moving (I'm in awe), and hangs out of the door and shouts the bus's destination. Still, for 70 centimos each way (about 16p?), I won't complain!
When we got to the playschool, there were only three children there - the rest came in gradually through the next half hour. Sasha was leaving today, so the teacher Jenny was making a card for her, and all the children had their hands painted yellow (I got to help, and met most of the children through handprints) and pressed them on the card. I thought that was lovely! Sasha was really touched. Then the children got in their 'trains' to go to the dining room, then we sang songs and prayed, then the children received their potato breakfast - I spent most of the time cutting up the potato into smaller bits and trying to coax the children to eat. Some of them are so cute when they're stubborn! Then we went back to class and played (I got to help making a house, tying shawls with dolls in them so that the girls could be like their mothers with their babies, and sometimes just jumping with the little ones), then there was a 'lesson' where Jenny and the other teacher Edwin led the children in making tiny balls from pieces of crepe paper, then putting them in bottles and letting the children blow into the bottles with straws to make the balls fly. Naturally a lot of the children got bored, or started pinching each other's paper - I just ended up smiling as I separated the squabbling children. After that, there was lunch - back to the dining room for songs, a prayer, then food. The children all brought their own lunch, then commenced much peeling of oranges (I feel okay, hopefully I'm not contact allergic), mashing of sweet potatoes, spoon-feeding of the stubbornest ones, and much coaxing and soothing tears and endless toilet trips. It took a fair while for most of the children to finish their lunch! We went back to the classroom after that for more playing, and Jenny read 'The Ugly Duckling' to those who listened, then the parents started turning up to collect their children. Juliana turned up not long after, so I said goodbye to the children and to Jenny and Edwin, then Juliana and I took the bus back. Ah, what a fun but tiring morning!
I met Hilda's mother at lunch (she's living with us for a while now - she alternates one month between Hilda and Hilda's sister), she's very talkative and very forgetful - thrice she asked me where I was from, and twice if I was Peruvian. I like her. It was quite nice seeing Hilda, her mother and Yesy at the same table, the three generations of women together. We chatted over soup, then over rice and potato and chicken (most dishes here consist of rice and potato on the same plate), then I hung about for a bit searching for my keys (I couldn't find them when I got back to the house after the nursery - Yesy had to unlock my room for me to have a look in there, and sure enough there they were next to my hairbrush) and petting cats, then I headed over to Juliana's.
The afternoon was a quiet one - there was nothing for me to do! So I stayed at Juliana's house watching Shrek 3, then I went to the internet for a bit. By the time I left, it was chucking it down and there was lightning - I practically ran back to Juliana's, and was grateful more than ever for my raincoat which has a permanent home in my bag. When I got there, I chatted to her her mother for a bit, then Juliana came back from work, then the other volunteers turned up. Juliana bought us pollo a la brasa as a goodbye-party for Sasha, then we hung about chatting until it was time to go. Juliana ordered me a taxi, but 15 minutes later it still hadn't turned up, so I ended up taking the bus back.
It was about 9 by the time I got off the bus, still relatively safe, but all the same I ran back to Hilda's house (and got slightly wheezy, thank goodness for asthma inhalers). By this time I wanted nothing more than to sleep, so after a quick hello to Hilda, I went to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment