Mathilda's Peruvian Gap Year Adventures

Thursday 20^th Feb

I have almost been here for a week now and I feel like I did so much but it flew by. On Sunday, I ended my weekend by going to a market in Pisac (a small town about 40 minutes by where I am by bus). It was a nice market but very touristy so the sellers were a bit pushy and everything seemed very overpriced. Nonetheless, it was nice to see some typical Peruvian crafts that are made in the Valley.

On Monday, I finally got to see the Rainbow Centre (the school where I will be working), which completed exceed my expectations. It is completely different from a typical school I would imagine as there are 3 different houses for 3 different classes (not divided by age, but by ability). There are also different rooms for physiotherapy, psychology, etc. It is all very colourful and a very welcoming environment for children. However, at the moment it is summer break for Peruvians so there are no children at school for the next 3 weeks. This means that I will be helping with some painting jobs to be done, preparing activities for when the kids come back, etc. There are 3 murals to be painted that Sonya said I could do however I wanted so I am very excited to start those. Although there were no children, I did meet the teachers that all introduced themselves, as we went to have lunch all together. They all seemed so nice and happy to have a new volunteer.

The next day we had a day off, so Marina, Miguel (her boyfriend), Victor (the school’s psychologist) and I decided to go to some hot springs in Lares. Hot springs are basically springs of very hot water that they find in the earth and build pools around for people to go into. It is something Peruvians love to do, as it improves your blood flow, skin, etc. It reminded me a bit of Saunas. We had to take a bus for 2hours to bring us there, which was very shaky as it goes through the mountains very high up, but the scenery was so beautiful. I usually tend to find sea and low land sceneries more appealing, but the mountains here are absolutely stunning. We then walked from Lares, a small town in the mountains, to the hot springs.

 The hot springs looked very different from what I expected but were really enjoyable. It was raining so the difference in temperature between outside and in the pools was very pleasant. There were about 7 pools all with different temperatures of water (I could only stay in the hottest one for a few minutes). It was a very relaxing experience, especially because of the beautiful surroundings. Apparently there are 3 or 4 hot springs in the highlands of Peru, but this one is mainly for locals, which made it a lot better.

On Wednesday, I had to run some errands and then went to the Rainbow House. This house is connected to the school and Kiya Survivors but is in a different location in Urubamba. The Rainbow House is a house were 6 kids live (4 from one family and 2 from another) along with 2 ‘substitute mothers’. These children all have a disability and have been brought to this house because of their horrible family environment. They are taken care of here and then come to school at the Rainbow Centre. I went with Sonya and Rewena and met all the children. I cannot describe in words how wonderful they were and how happy they seemed to have someone come do some activities with them. Rewena had some leftover masks from the summer school activity she did before I got here so we painted those with them. It seemed like they really liked it and had a lot of fun. We also made some popcorn with them and I managed to speak Spanish with them, so I was very pleased. Overall, they seem like such wonderful children and I can’t wait to work with them for the next 3 months!

Finally, today, I am going back to the Rainbow House to do another activity to help them with their English, as they seem very willing to learn some words. I thought I could a scavenger hunt with them where they have to find objects for each letter of the alphabet. Let’s hope it works out!