Going to School!

18 September 2017

The next day we woke up very early so that we could get to school. The girls and I ended up being late (not last though), because we couldn’t skip our breakfast of pancakes and strawberry jam. We also received necklaces of flowers from our host families. Once we arrived, we joined the other exchange students  before going to get into lines (typical Peruvian school). After we got into lines, some Peruvian students approached us to give us more necklaces of flowers. I was feeling pretty blessed after receiving two more necklaces from two Peruvian girls (some exchange students didn’t get any necklaces). After getting our flowers, we went and sang all of our national anthems. We also listened to the Peruvian anthem and speeches given. 

After the speeches were given, we all got into groups so that we could go to class with the Peruvians. I ended up getting put into the right class, art class. We went through and talked about traditional Peruvian instruments and then we went through all of the countries and talked about traditional instruments. This was a difficult task for me and my fellow American, as we literally had no idea what instrument was originating from America. We needed up choosing the washboard and a harmonica (not really sure if those are American). After that, the Peruvian boys played songs for us and sang in Quechua. All the students were asked to sing or do something in their counties, so Tiia rapped in Finnish and everyone else sang a song. According to Tiia, all the boys were staring at me a little shocked when I stared singing, and when Jeanne started to sing in French, one of the boys started to cry. Afterwards, the Peruvians took back over and we all got up to dance while they played and sang. 

Eventually our class ended, and we all got into new groups to start conquering our task, painting. We ended up sanding the walls, scraping off old paint, and painting the walls with fresh white paint. Our wall didn’t take that long, so my group ended up being done fairly quickly. This gave us time to go to the bathroom and to eat a lunch of oranges, cheese, potatoes, and little fish. The fish were whole fish (eyeball and guts) breaded and seasoned. While it tasted delicious, I could only manage to eat one. 

After lunch, I went with some other exchange students to approach the Peruvians, At first I was a little surprised they didn’t approach us. I thought that since most of the kids on the island would live there for the rest of their lives, they would have many questions for us. But after thinking about it and having someone suggest something I realized why they didn’t want to talk to us. Some kids were so nervous they couldn’t even tell us their names. The kids simply didn’t want to talk to us because they felt inferior. This honestly broke my heart, as everyone is a human and it doesn’t matter if you come from a first world country or third world country. 

So I along with a few others took it upon ourselves to go and try to talk to the Peruvians. While some still were so nervous and didn’t want to talk to us, we did find a group of girls who wanted to talk to us. They asked me if I sang, and so after they sang for me, I sang for them (in English and Spanish). It was really nice to just talk to people on the island and to hopefully teach them that everyone in the world is equal. 

After break, we finished up painting. We had a farewell speech and we all sang the cup song for the school. A lot of the students smiled and got a little emotional hearing us sing. After our song, a Peruvian student told us farewell in English. Then, my roommates and I found Papa Jorge and we walked back to the house for lunch. 

After lunch we had free time. At first my roommates and I thought we would go to the beach. However plans changed and I ended up going with a group of kids to go hike the other mountain of the island Pacha Mama. Pacha Mama was harder than Pachatata, but once again the views were simply stunning. 

After watching the sunset, I started my descent down the mountain. I went to go buy more water and then started the way to my house by myself. I thought I knew how to get there, but I ended up getting a little lost and a little freaked out. It was a lot easier to navigate the paths during the day, but I managed to calm myself down and make it home safely. I only knew the first names of my host parents, so I couldn’t ask anyone for help. Nonetheless, I made it safely back and went up to Gracie and Elsbeth’s room. We then talked with our little brother and waited for dinner to be ready. We learned how to say thank you in Quechua (Solpayki). 

During dinner, I was falling asleep, which my host family found hilarious. I fell asleep at the table, which put them over the edge, unable to control their laughter. They also asked us where we lived in Lima because our host dad had lived in Lima for 6 years. 

Afterwards, we all went our separate ways and packed/called it a night.