Ville Chachani is an invasion settlement. In Peru if you buy some land you need to build on it or it is anyones land. Once you have built on the land you have to wait 5 years before you can petition the government for electricity and water. This means that entire populations of people will often "invade" a piece of land, sometimes hundreds of miles away and live without basic commodities for 5 years. This is the case in the suburbs of all Peruvian towns. Ville Chachani is where we are teaching English to kids from a tiny shack in the suburbs of Arequipa, it measures 8x10 ft and can sometimes hold 40 kids!
The kids range in age from about 2 to 15 and almost all come from extremely deprived families. They are great fun though and luckily they like football. One kid, Juan Martin is really good, its a shame he will never get to play for a team if he remains out there in the suburbs, this is why teaching them English will be so valuable to them. The reality of life out there is that some of these kids are working in the quarry nearby and coming to us afterwards. One kid, Oscar, is 15. He has epilepsy and learning difficulties, he cannot read or write Spanish let alone English. He left school because of bullying and is now working at the quarry where a truck full of sand will get you s./ 2 (about 40p). Its hard to see a positive future for this kid...
We even found Jesus out there, and his sister Hilda. He is 2 years old and wheres a parka like Kenny from South Park, I´ll show you a picture of him when i return. We ride a combi to work everyday, combis are great they are like tiny minibus van things that are always bursting with people, its far too much fun to worry about safety. It costs s./0.7 for a one hour journey which is about 15p. Minor criticism - the music is the same every day, crap peruvian samba, after this long it hurts. The combis stop wherever you want them to and we get off at the foot of Misti volcano where the road has become a dirt track and the "streets" have no names. It is then a 10 minute walk to the shoebox of a classroom.
The kids are actually quite good at english and unlike kids back home, they actually want to learn. Teaching isn´t really one of my qualities so teaching 3 year olds in a language i barely know is quite difficult but we have found that putting a smile on their faces is more important than languages. (cue - "fix you" by coldplay, the most overplayed annoyingly sentimental charity-live 8-comic releif-lenny henry-kids with flies on their face-music, thats actually quite a good song)
It´s quite sad seeing the kids come in everyday some of them haven´t been washed once while we´ve been here, the village gets water 2 hours a day, thats still enough to wash a child with vomit on her jumper isn´t it?? Despite these conditions the kids are always happy when we are there, especially if they are drawing on your face. I enjoy playing football with them, especially as I am by far the best on the pitch, helping poor kids and an ego trip at the same time, who loses?
We met the girls from ours and the other project (an orphanage), they all live in a flat over the road from our hostel. We went Go-Karting last night which was super, you can buy beer there too, Cusqueña (the only good beer in Peru). I´m loving living in Arequipa temporarily, there are a few of us staying a while at the hostel so its cool and its a great city. Because we are tied up during the week at the school I have planned myself some good weekends. This weekend its rafting and downhill mountain biking, next weekend its climbing Misti 5800m above the seaside. I finished my third book yesterday and I´m nearly done with Conquest of the Incas (after 6 weeks!) so I´ll be at a loss for what to do, I guess I´ll have to talk to James..but I don´t know much about hair straighteners..
P.
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