During our third week in Peru, we got the chance to teach an English class to the rambunctious kids in the Huntapausqa organization. Before going in we did a little bit of prep work and made flashcards of for all the children. Going into it we weren’t sure what level of English skills the kids had so we ranged from the most basic skills(counting numbers) to a little bit harder skills(formal questions). Most of the children new numbers up to ten and some basic greetings like HELLO and BYE, but besides that, they weren’t too confident. We started off our lessons by writing the translations from Spanish to English on the board and then going through each phrase. Next, we went through the room and had each individual kid pronounce each word. Some children were more eager to learn English than others and were even taking notes. Something we could work on in the future is adding more actions or games. We didn’t really account for the fact that some kids couldn’t read yet. It was a great experience and has a lot of potential for the future.
We also helped Huntapasqa prepare their water tank for a Pollada (They sold cooked chicken for donations). Since they live on a hill, if you want some kind of running water, you put a water tank at the top of the hill and run a hose down. Then some workers come around and you pay them to fill up your tank with clean water. They had the water tank in place, but it hadn’t been covered, so it was coated in dirt on the inside and filled with rainwater. Nic ended up hopping inside the tank to make sure it was sparkling clean!
At the end of the week, we took a little trip to explore the north of Peru to a place called Huaraz! It was beautiful. The altitude was about 10,000 feet and we went on a hike up to 18,000 feet. We were definitely not prepared, but it was worth it.
