June 8th

Our first alarm goes off at 5:30. It's also the family's rooster; everyone loathes that tiny bird that steals our sleep. By 7:00 when we finally do get out of bed, we are still exhausted. This morning we were particularly slow at getting ready and when we showed up to work the school door was locked! 

Our workplace

It turns out that classes start at 7:30 not 8:00, oops!

That darn rooster

Our school

The first class I went to with Professora Eleonora She warned me that the kids were a little crazy. I walked in to find thirty adorable eight year olds and I saw one passing a note to another one which was so cute and I thought they must not be that bad! However then the kid ran up to me to show me what had been written on the note and it said in Spanish "You're ugly and horrible." I was shocked; these kids are not as angelic as they look! 

Then Eleonora left and I was assigned to help in a first grade classroom, and I was excited because I had taught there yesterday with Eleonora, but the regular teacher was scary. When I first walked in the whole class got up to give me a giant group hug and the teacher yelled at them for being disorderly and for getting up during a test. They're five years old! Then I was sent to the back of the classroom without even being asked my name and graded papers while she disciplined the kids more than taught and even gave one boy a spank when he was in her way! I've also heard that another teacher pulls kids ears to punish them. I just personally don't understand how you can't realize that the use of violence in primary school makes it seem acceptable to the kids!

Alison had a great day and had gone to a local kindergarten to help as well as the school. There was a girl at the school that had lost an arm from a meat chopping accident which was a pretty crazy thing to hear, coming from the US.

Then Alison and I went home for lunch and had a classic Adrianne and Alison moment when we heard a sneeze and said bless you to each other only to both be very confused and find out it was the dog! 

In the afternoon we went to INABIF and helped out with homework and I cut out flowers for these incredibly intricate boxes the children make and sell to get money for the institution.

 The bottom part is crocheted and the top is a felt flower. It takes almost an hour to make. The kids there also found it hilarious that the name of the town I live in in the US, Boulder, translates as large rock. "You live in a large rock?!" they ask, amazed.

In the evening the four volunteers went to explore more of the city center

Another day another church. This one was closed except for one gate keeper who said he would open it up if we wanted. We said yes but expected some small church especially because Joyce could barely fit through the front door.


Joyce is too tall

 It was incredible we were almost all alone in this incredible place! It would have been even more impressive in the 1600s though. Ayacucho really is the city of churches, and I wonder if it doesn't have to do with its troubled past. It used to be the center for the infamous Shining Path gang and still has one of the highest rates of poverty in Peru, there's something about suffering that makes faith stronger.