Mathilda's Peruvian Gap Year Adventures

Saturday 12^th April

This week was another very busy week at Arco Iris as there was so much to do and what seemed like so little time.

I worked a lot in physiotherapy and started to do more speech therapy with different patients that don’t attend school but come a few times a week. I have started to work with Dayra, a very sweet little girl (3 years old) who has delayed speech so I practice a lot of sounds and words with her. She seems to have a lot of trouble pronouncing the sound ‘r’ so we are working a lot on that. I went to psychology with her and did some exercises with Profe. Luciano (the new psychologist) to try and find out the cause of her delayed speech. He told me that often one of the reasons is if the child lives in a violent home environment, which might very well be the case with her. The more I talk with teachers and the more I get to know the kids, the more I realized how frequent it is for them to have violent parents (especially fathers). Unfortunately, it is something quite frequent in this area of Peru, also because of the very high alcohol consumption.

I have also been working with another small girl called Brigitte, who is not a student at the school but comes 3 times a week to the centre. Now, there is no way to explain in words how happy this girl is or how happy she makes me. She is by far the most smiling, excited, energetic, loud little girl I have ever met. When she walks into the room she has to hug and kiss and say hello to everyone there, and will do this a few times. Nevertheless, this also means that she has a lot of trouble on staying focused on specific tasks. Therefore, I do a lot of games with her that help her to concentrate on one thing at a time. For example, I tried to read her a story, which might seem very easy, but she repeats everything I say and cannot stay focused on one page for more than a few seconds, making it actually quiet challenging. I also tried to teach her how to hold a simple dialogue to introduce herself. It was very difficult to do, because she just rambles on all the time, and doesn’t even say words at time, and then hugs you for no reason. Although its not easy, I love working with her and she always brightens my day.

Overall, I love working in physiotherapy because I have been learning so much. It is something still completely new to me and I never thought I would ever do anything like this in my life. Everyday learning about a different disability and what kind of therapy helps is so interesting. It also helps that the physiotherapist, Profe. Lucio, is one of the funniest people I know and is determined to make me taste all kinds of typical Peruvian foods. He made some pastel de choclo (typical cake made with corn) last week and brought me a piece to taste. I loved it since I love anything that has to do with corn.

In addition, on Monday I decided that this week we would finish the animals’ mural we started. But of course, that did not happen. Everyday I would get to school and be determined to work on it the whole day, but everyday something else came up with that I was asked to help with. I am quite used to this now, as everything seems to be planned at the last minute here, and it is something that is culturally very different from where I am from. Although it can sometimes be a bit confusing, I don’t mind it at all. Everyday is a surprise and makes it all more exciting! Nevertheless, Marina and I managed to at least make some progress on Friday. We worked mostly on our own, as some detailed parts of the painting are impossible to do with kids around. It is looking good so gar I think, and we will hopefully work on it next week and maybe miraculously finish it!

Finally, on Friday after school, Marina and I went to the Hogar to do an English activity with them. I came up with the idea of teaching them 20 objects in English and they had a list with the words and had to find all these things around the house. It got very competitive by the end and they were all running around the house like crazy kids. We then shared some candy between of all us, which they very well deserved after all that running around. They seem to really enjoy learning some English and this was a fun way for them to learn some everyday words. I told them everyday at lunch I will ask them for some words and that they better know what they mean!

Overall, it was a busy but really fun week as usual. It’s getting colder at night now, so all the kids were sick this week and their hygiene is not the best. So, I am not feeling to well now and I think I caught a cold from one of them; but tomorrow the CIS’ Team Peru gets here, and I get to see my brother after 2 months, so everything shall be better. :)