Yanamilla Primary School update 1

Elvis, from 1st grade class, sitting on adobes

I've been working at the Yanamilla primary school Tuesdays and Fridays, and this has now become the project that I'm spending most time on. Please read on - I'm getting very excited about this one! Some of you have asked how you can sponsor projects in Ayacucho; if anyone would like to sponsor what we're doing here, then please let me know!!

At first I wasn't very sure of my role other than showing an interest in the children to boost their self-esteem, and I've been trying to work as a teaching assistant, answering children's questions, keeping them on task. With about 40 in the class just being there to provide an extra pair of hands is useful. But now I've also started, at the teacher's request, teaching a little bit of English - e.g. after maths, we've done some work on numbers in English, and in an art lesson we've learnt the colours and we've done a colouring activity in English. It's all pretty basic and after I leave it probably won't continue, but it will hopefully give the kids a positive experience of learning English and I hope it will motivate them to continue later on. They also know that other children learn English in private schools, so hopefully it will make them feel a bit special.

I also took in a map of the world that I'd borrowed from another volunteer - to show them where I came from, but when I showed them the map and asked them what it was, they thought it was Peru, and then I realised they'd never seen a world map before! So we found Peru and other South American countries, then I picked out the English-speaking countries - they were fascinated. I bought a couple of maps for their wall, and the kids are very proud of them and now know where Peru & the UK are!


2nd grade kids and new maps

And I've been campaigning to try to clean up the school! Every morning the children get a bread roll and milk, supplied by the state. The bread rolls come in plastic bags, and every day the children and teachers just scatter the empty plastic bags and any other kind of rubbish all over the ground. (Rural Peru isn't great on rubbish - no sign of any recycling schemes and there's rubbish, especially plastic, to be seen all over the sides of roads, edges of streams, etc.) There are no rubbish bins in the school - apparently there were some once but they were stolen - pretty much anything gets stolen as the school has no walls, and even though the classroom doors are padlocked, quite a few of the classrooms don't have glass in the windows, so people climb through them and steal from the classrooms. Also, as the playground is just a wasteland, rubbish just blows through the school and gathers in the ditches. I've now found a large bin liner and am campaigning to get the kids to put the bags in the 'bin' and to collect up other rubbish while they are at it. I seem to be making progress - if they see me with the 'bin', they now know what I want! I also asked the Head about the lack of rubbish bins last week, but got very little response - he didn't seem interested. And what's more I had just come out of a lesson on how important it was not to pollute the environment and then sat there during break watching kids throw rubbish all over the place as per usual! Hmm ...

I came away feeling very frustrated that the school was being treated with such little respect, that the Head seemed to be doing nothing to improve the situation, and that the rest of the staff seemed disillusioned and passive about it all. Also, there are adobe bricks lying all around the school and nothing seems to be happening - as a massive priority the school needs a wall to make things more secure and to give it more of a sense of community. It also needs secure storage for materials, then it needs materials; more desks and chairs (several children are just sitting on planks of wood balanced on adobe bricks); floors; electricity; proper tap for running water (there is a hose); clean toilets with doors (doors were stolen, so the children just use the playground); more classrooms for next year; a sign with the school name on it (there is nothing to suggest that this is a school apart from children!) ... and those are just the major priorities! There are also less urgent, but important issues like the fact that the teachers don't work together or have meetings; there is very little communication within the school as a whole (e.g. no assemblies); the Head doesn't really manage anything and often disappears leaving his 1st grade class on their own and with nothing to do; there is a stupidly long break of about an hour each day, which is a total waste of time ...

Here are some photos showing the current situation (see also previous blog entry):


The 'playground'

The 2 blocks of classrooms surrounded by wasteland

The toilet and water-hose area


The toilets that need attention

4th grade classroom

Well, a bit of frustration on my part was a good thing, as this triggered my talking to Marisol and a few other volunteers at CCS, to share my thoughts with them and to discuss what, if anything, we could do. And there's good news ...

We had a meeting last week and listed all the things that we thought were the priorities for the school, and brainstormed all the things we could do to help. We then set up a meeting with the Head and the teachers in the school in one of the endless breaktimes - this time it lasted about 2 hours, but it was worth it! We took in coffee and biscuits and met in one of the classrooms and asked how we could help and what they thought the priorities were. We managed to elicit most of the points we had come up with. We all agreed that the wall was the priority, and agreed to arrange a meeting with the parents to motivate them and to ask for their help too. We also proposed a Clean School competition, asking each class to clear up their classroom and come up with a plan of action for the school - with the offer of a prize for the best class and a prize for the teacher too. We also offered to go round to each class to talk about the importance of keeping ourselves and our environment clean and to launch the competition. This was all met with great enthusiasm. What also became very celar was that the teachers don't have any respect for the Head and that they are clearly frustrated that nothing has been happening - they were very grateful to us for arranging the meeting - big relief, as I didn't want to tread on anyone's toes, just make life better for the children.

On Monday 4 December we had the parents' meeting and about 80 parents showed up - I was amazed! And we've fixed a date to start building the wall - Thursday 7 December, as it's a holiday. We've asked parents and teachers to come along for the day, and many CCS volunteers and staff are coming to. We've also been to ask if the army, the pre-police school, the scouts, and inmates from the prison can come and help - we've had a positive response from all, but we're not sure they'll be able to make this Thursday, but hopefully sometime soon. We want to make a good start this Thursday, but it'll take several days to complete the wall ...

After the parents' meeting

And then on Tuesday 5 December, armed with our cleanliness posters made the night before, we went in and talked to each class about the importance of keeping ourselves and our environment clean. We also launched the Clean School competition, with a deadline of Thursday 14 December and before we'd left the school, the children were already enthused and making a start ...

Cleanliness presentation

Getting to work on the clean-up campaign

And today, Wednesday 6 December, we invited the newly-elected mayor in for lunch and told him all about our school project and shared our concerns with him. Great news is that he has agreed to come and help on Thursday and will bring some of his friends too - he's also agreed to be patron of the school, and hopefully if he's got time he's going to come and help judge the clean classrooms, which is fantastic.

So watch this space - hopefully some progress will be be made in the next few weeks! I'm not leaving until I've seen some change for the better in this school!

See also Phil's photos - link on right column - in the 'Yanamilla School Project' folders.

Wawa Wasi update

The whole gang ...

Lunch time ... can get a bit messy!

I've been working in the Wawa Wasi every Monday and Wednesday, and it's hard-going, but I'm determined to stick with it! The children are really wild, haven't been taught how to behave, so there's a lot of fighting over toys, hitting and pinching each other, and just crying if they don't get what they want. They are also very messy - their noses run continuously, if they eat anything it goes everywhere, and they always manage to walk through the mud on the way in and out of the Wawa Wasi. On the other hand they have a lot of spirit, are very warm and friendly, and are keen to learn. I'm growing very fond of them!

Nicol, Thalia, Mayli, and Kevin

Nicol & Kevin dancing while we were singing

My Mama, Vilma, is nice, but quite reserved and doesn't organise much for the children, though I think she'd like to learn how to teach them more. She works hard to keep the place clean and tries to establish a routine - play, wash hands, milk, more play, sing, wash hands, lunch - but she leaves me to keep the kids occupied during most of the play time, and she's often busy looking after or feeding her 10-month-old baby anyway. She's not totally passive, but she could do with getting a bit more involved. She's not a trained nursery teacher though - she's a tired mother of 4 children under the age of 7, and she earns 120 soles (about 35 pounds) per month to run the Wawa Wasi 5 days a week.

It took a while to work out what my role is. There is a danger that the volunteers are perceived by the Mamas as being useful just for bringing in crayons, paper, and other expendable materials that aren't supplied, and for babysitting the kids. I wanted to do more than this; I've been trying to work with Vilma in the hope that she will pick up some new ideas, develop her skills as a nursery educator, and hopefully continue with some of the new activities after I've gone. And Vilma seems keen, even though in a reserved kind of way, to do more and learn by watching me ... not that I'm an expert, but I'm having a go!

I'm making a bit of progress, I think, but it's baby steps! I've started by trying to get the children to say 'por favor' and 'gracias', to use each other's names (I was 'la gringita' for the first week, but now they've got the hang of Hazel), and to be nice to each other - and if they are not, to say sorry. And if they hit anyone they are now put on the naughty seat for a few minutes, and are not allowed to play with any toys or anyone else until they have calmed down - this is difficult to enforce, but gradullay I'm getting more support from Vilma to do this. And we've done lots of work on colours and numbers when playing, doing puzzles, or looking at books that I've taken in. And we've started some wall displays of their colouring, colours and numbers - and as I'd hoped, they are now taking more pride in their colouring, and it's something to talk about - before it was just a scribble-free-for-all, with the toddler climbing onto the table and toddling through the crayons and screwing up the colouring! Vilma occasionally carries on with colouring activities when I'm not there if I leave paper and crayons, but she tends to put her own neat work on the wall, rather than the childrern's, so hasn't quite got it yet! As my Spanish gets better, I'm managing to explain more why I'm doing certain things and I think it is gradually sinking in.

Our wall display

I'm also working on hygiene - partly for selfish reasons!! I'm trying to get the kids to use toilet paper rather than their clothes to wipe their noses, and we're working on cleaning hands without causing a flood or needing to change our clothes, and cleaning teeth, though this is proving tricky and most seem to just eat the toothpaste!

Most weeks we take the kids out for a walk one day and this is pretty wild!! It's hard to get them to hold hands for more than 5 seconds, and they all seem to head straight for the mud, puddles, or rubbish ... and they have no understanding of roads. I'm getting quite good at hanging onto about 5 kids at a time!

And I'm now diversifying when it comes to craft activities - I've been collecting empty toilet rolls, cereal boxes, anything that's free that we could use to make things with. We've made cats and dogs, by sticking on faces, ears, eyes, etc. and we've progressed to people too - with the help of another volunteer who came to visit for the day - couldn't have done this without you, Angie, thank you! And I took in some string and clothes pegs to create a 'washing line' to display the work, like in primary school - the children love this, and it's a nice talking point.

Last week I also went to the Wawa Wasi on the Friday afternoon to paint chairs - Vilma had been given paint and she needed a hand. It all got a bit messy as the paint wasn't really the right kind, but the chairs got painted and things look a bit more colourful in the Wawa Wasi now!


Chair painting - in the road!

And on a more general level, CCS set up a meeting with the Wawa Wasi Director and social workers and we found out more about the overall objectives of the programme and what they want our role to be. This should help future volunteers, as it was a ll a bit vague when we started. We also talked about the possibility of doing some kind of workshop with the Mamas later in December, to share some of the activities that have worked in our Wawa Wasis - to provide a bit more input and training for the Mamas who want to improve their skills. It's a good idea, but yet to see if we'll manage it or not!

And the good news is that my Wawa Wasi was visited by the social worker this week, on a day when I wasn't there, but she was apparently really impressed with the work on the wall and on the 'washing line', and my Mama was clearly very happy with the feedback and thanked me for what I'd done. I felt quite proud!

Hair washing

Last Thursday afternoon, we went out to a poor area of the city to offer hair washing and cutting to children. Trudi, the administrator at CCS, is also training to be a hairdresser, and she has been doing this regularly over the last few months - she takes several volunteers to do the hair washing, plus some of her fellow hairdressing students to do the hair cutting.

On this particular occasion, the area didn't have any running water, so we also had to take our own water. We piled up the van with water, bowls, towels, shampoo, hairbrushes, and parked up on a concrete sports area, and near a school where the visit had been arranged. Then gradually children appeared from all over the place, and the hair washing began! The children don't wash their hair very often and certainly not with shampoo and this was quite a novelty. And even though we were only washing hair in cold water, the children were clearly really enjoying the experience. And then they were offered the chance to get their hair cut too, if they wanted to. The word spread fast, and mothers also appeared with younger children.

There were 4 of us washing hair and I think we must have washed at least 10 heads each - then we ran out of water; we could have done a lot more! A good 40 children went away feeling clean and cared for - it was a very satisfying feeling and one of the most moving things I've done here. Something so simple, and something we just take for granted every day, but from the way these children reacted, you could tell that they must so rarely feel so clean and spoilt!

We're hoping to make this a weekly event from now on - visiting different poor areas in the city.

Dental hygiene

I worked in the primary school today, and instead of helping with the 2nd grade class, I'd arranged to go in with Matt, another volunteer, to give dental hygiene presentations to as many classes as we could get round to. Dental hygiene is a major issue here, as so many children are malnourished, and so many parents don't educate their children to clean their teeth - and they can't all afford toothbrushes and toothpaste. It seemed like a good idea to try to educate the children in the primary school as they are at an age when they can save their teeth.

This was inspired by Matt, who had prepared posters on dental hygiene for one of his placements, though was yet to actually give any presentations. I suggested the presentations to the Head at the primary school, and he agreed, so we were all set. The only tricky thing was that we had to do the presentations in Spanish and although we had Matt's fluent Italian and my French, we had a few problems explaining things on a practice run - my Spanish is improving but it has its limits! Luckily, Marisol, our progamme coordinator, agreed to come with us and she saved the day! We had a great morning - we managed to get round to all 6 classes and the children seemed really interested and lots of them took down the recipe for home-made toothpaste! Matt put on his white coat and took in his toothbrush to give technical demonstrations on how to brush teeth. We showed pictures of what a tooth is made up of, talked about the different kinds of teeth, how to brush them, and what causes decay and how to prevent it. Hopefully some of them will remember to brush their teeth a bit more often, or maybe start to do so. Worth a try anyway!

And our Spanish improved too - Marisol did most of the first presentation, but by the end Matt and I were managing most of it on our own. We're now hoping to be able to do the presentations elsewhere in the city ...

Jungle trip

... or 'I'm a celebrity, get me out of here!'

A small group of us went to the Ayacuchan jungle this weekend, with Pancho, the tour guide who works with CCS - this proved to be a bit of an adventure! For those of you who want to find it on a map, it's in the Apurimac valley, in the far north of Ayacucho province - it's one of the main coca leaf producing areas of Peru. From Ayacucho it's about a 7-hour drive, and unfortunately the paved road runs out about an hour beyond Ayacucho, so a good 6 hours on unpaved, very dusty or muddy, but always bumpy, roads - I still have neck-ache from the journey!

From Ayacucho, we first headed north up into the mountains until we reached a pass at about 4,200m; here it was bleak and rugged and reminded me a bit of North Wales - see Peruvian Tryfan on the right!

Then down to a small, remote town called Tambo, and then up and over another impressive range of mountains before going right down into the Apurimac valley at 500m. En route we enjoyed lovely views of mountains all around, passed numerous remote villages, whizzed round frightening hairpin bends, and competed for road space with loads of trucks and vans as this seems to be the only 'road' for miles around!

As we descended, the scenery began to change and gradually we noticed more and more green, exotic-looking plants - palm trees, banana plants, etc., the air became humid, and the roads wet and muddy, and we had to tackle more and more streams gushing over the roads. The houses changed too - now mainly made of wood or bamboo, rather than mud and stones. I noticed that there were very few villages with any electricity, as it was beginning to get dark, and people were just sitting out in the streets, or on steps.

In one of the villages we had to stop at a police control - there are several entering the jungle area as because of the coca leaf production there's a lot of drug-trafficking. Our passports were checked, and we were advised to return to Ayacucho on the Saturday rather than the Sunday as we had originally planned. The reason, we found out with some concern, was that the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) is still active in remote parts of this area and the police were worried that they may target election day, Sunday. 1,500 extra police had been brought into the area for the weekend because of this. We decided it would be sensible to return on the Saturday afternoon - it was now Thursday evening so we still had plenty of time for exploring.

After 7 long hours we eventually reached a town called San Francisco on the banks of the Apurimac river, we crossed a bridge and then drove for about another 30 minutes on cobbled roads to Sivia. The van pulled up at Sivia and we were told that we then had to take a boat to the other side of the river. I thought we were taking a ferry, but no, we had to carry all our stuff onto a small but long canoe-type boat and in complete darkness, we were taken across the river. Before we found the hotel we stopped in a restaurant for something to eat and drink and we were stared at for some time - this place doesn't see too many 'gringos'!

The next morning we could see where we were - in a very small riverside town on the edge of the jungle, and with rolling hills all around with palms, banana trees, and coca leaf crops. At the hotel we were given fresh coconuts with straws stuck into the top so we could drink the juice - very refreshing. Then we were taken back to the restaurant for breakfast. I had coffee and toast in mind, but instead we had the choice of chicken and rice or fish and beans!! People here eat a hearty cooked breakfast as they are then out at work in the fields for the rest of the day. I tucked into chicken and rice and tried to wake up ...



We then went on a lovely boat trip down the Apurimac river, in one of the wooden canoes that had ferried us across the river the night before. This gave us great views of the jungle scenery all around, and we enjoyed the wildlife - eagrets, birds of prey - and watched men fishing from what looked like large inner tubes!

We then pulled up on a shore in a fairly remote place, with just a few huts, and then walked inland, through a village, and through some jungle marshes for an hour or so. There are deer, snakes, and alligators here, apparently, but we didn't spot any - just waded through a a huge amount of undergrowth and mud! It was all very hot and humid, but worth it for the jungle views.

Then it was back in the boat and up the river until we reached a small inlet that was to take us up to a natives' village. This is where things began to get interesting! Because there had been so much rain the night before and the river was so high and churned up, it was for some reason too difficult to get up the inlet by boat so we had to walk instead. We started off in good spirits, with a positive sense of adventure ...

But it was hard work fighting our way through the palms and plants with incredibly sharp leaves. Also there were giant ants intent on attacking our ankles. We couldn't get through, so we skirted along the edge of the river, but then got stuck in very gloopy mud - the kind that sucks you in ... so then the fun really began when we were told we'd have to cross the river by wading through it. It was up to most people's knees, but way deeper for me! And the current was pulling us downstream, so we had to hang onto each other to stay upright!

This was something I didn't really want to repeat, but got to cross the same river in 5 different places in the end! A good hour or so later we found the path to the village. We were incredibly tired, hot and sweaty, soaking wet, bitten by ants, scratched, and very, very muddy ...

The road to the village was actually very pleasant, lined with banana and cocoa plants, and the sort of thing that I'd had in mind from the start ...

We walked through the village, which consisted of little clusters of wooden and bamboo huts, and we were taken to the chief's house for a bit of a chat, have our faces painted with natural dye (a welcoming kind of gesture, I think), and to take a few group photos! The chief is in his 70s, has 8 wives, and 43 children! We didn't meet many other villagers as most people were out harvesting the coca leaves.

By this time we were really tired after fighting our way through to the village, so we agreed not to go back via the 'scenic route' but to walk to a road and hitch a lift back. Seemed like an easy option, but we had to walk quite a way, then work out how to get a lift - the locals managed to get in front of us every time a car or truck came by; this lot clambered up onto a truck before we'd realised what was going on ... we'd planned to ask politely in true British fashion, but this is not the way it works here!

Eventually we managed to get a lift - Claire and I squeezed into a car with 5 men - we stuck out enough being gringos, but with mud and face paint, we were certainly a talking point! When we reached the first town we got out and re-grouped and found a restaurant for a great fresh river fish dinner. We were the only ones drinking beer as 2 days before election day, Peruvians aren't allowed to drink and all night clubs are closed, as they are supposed to be reflecting on how they are going to vote! Then all 6 of us squeezed into another car back to Sivia, and I think we were all in bed recovering by about 9.30!

The next day we set off early and went to visit a local nature reserve and saw animals that are in danger in the area - a shame we only got to see them in captivity. Then we went for a lovely walk - this time on a real path (though there was one river to cross without a bridge!) - up to see some beautiful waterfalls, called the Angela Falls.

And there was time for a refreshing swim on the way back down ...

Then we set off on our long 7-hour drive home. However, when we got to San Francisco, we couldn't get through the centre as the traffic was so heavy and we found out that this was because the bridge had been closed for repairs and wouldn't be re-opened until 5.00pm. As we didn't want to hang around for 4 hours, we went for the alternative option, the 'car ferry'...!!

Then a bumpy drive back over the mountains for 7 hours, and home in time for some dinner and a session with the insect-bite relief cream!