Mathilda's Peruvian Gap Year Adventures

Sunday 16^th March

Made it through my first week back to school! Or, made it through half of it, as I was very sick on Tuesday and Wednesday, so was stuck in bed all day. Nevertheless, I did really enjoy the three days when I did go to school. And this also means I’ve been here for a month already!

On Monday, it was the first day back, so the teachers wanted for the kids to have an easy and fun day. We decorated the school in the morning until all the children got there (usually school starts at 9).  Unfortunately, not all the children were here or will be here in the next few weeks.  By the end of the week, there were about 15 when we except to have 45 in total. This is because parents have to pay for school here, and most families can’t afford to pay all their children’s’ school the first month. The sad truth is that they will send children with special needs to school later on in the year as they consider them less important, or sometimes don’t think it is necessary to give them an education. Nevertheless, although it didn’t seem like a lot of children to the other volunteers and teachers, it did seem like a lot to me since I have only seen the school empty. We did a series of fun activities with them outside and then broke a piñata all together, which was really fun. There were also snacks and a cake, partly for Asha’s birthday that was the day before.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I did not go to school since I was sick. I was very happy to go back on Thursday and see all the kids again. The school has 3 different classes: Inicial, Primaria and Funcional. The kids are put into the different classes according to their abilities (not their age like in mainstream school). I want to try all the classes out, so I started with Inicial, the class for the children with the least abilities. I helped the teacher, Profe. Hilda with various activities. She told me that when the kids get back from the break, they need to do a lot of exercises with their hands, as they don’t use their hands much during the summer. Therefore, there is a lot of work done with play dough, ripping paper, etc. I really liked helping in that class, however, I felt like what I could do was quite limited because of the children’s’ abilities. I am also not used to working with children with disabilities, since this is something completely new to me, but I hope it will improve with time. In the afternoon, we all played outside together and did some drawings with chalk on the floor. Overall, I had a fun day getting to know the kids and trying to help in any way I could.

Friday, we started the day with ‘Brain Gym’. This involves all the kids and it consists of an activity that varies each day. We played a Peruvian game in a circle that I didn’t really understand because it sounded very confusing. But Sharom, Benjamin and I still had fun (see photo below). Friday, I decided to go in Primaria (the middle class) and help Profe. Rosanna. Here as well we did a few exercises to work on the kids’ hands. I also played a game of domino with Leonel. He is deaf but a very smart and funny kid. Overall, I enjoyed working in Primaria more because I felt like there was more I could do to help. After helping serve lunch to everyone, we had a ‘goodbye ceremony’ for Rowena as it was her last day at school. She gave a short speech and then all the kids went to say something to her and hug. It was very bittersweet, and I can’t believe Rowena left, the house feels so empty now…

All in all, really enjoyed going to school for three days and I’m so excited to go back next week to try helping in Funcional and Physiotherapy. Hopefully there will be more kids. Next post about Marco’s birthday on Saturday and visiting Chinchero!