mobs of little girls!!! ah!

Interesing Peruvian Fact Number 2: Quechua is a language believed to be the language of the Incans that is still spoken today in Perú and other Andean countries. This is only partially true. Quechua had evolved to be very different, and in some places as different as Italian and Spanish. Indigenous groups also spoke other distinct languages. The Spanish evangelists needed a common language with which to preach and proselytize, so they actually ended up TEACHING some indigenous groups Quechua. At least that`s what I think the Peruvian historian said today (in perfect English but really fast).

(Dad don`t read this part.) So is it really true that Karl Rove and Scooter might be going down??? If so I can`t believe I left the States when the newspaper might actually be an exciting thing to read! I am craving more American news. But I don`t want to be on the internet all the time. It`d be GREAT to get some American or British news magazines or journals once in a while no matter how old...The Economist, Newsweek, Mother Jones, whatever...HINT HINT. ,o)

Today the environment group split up into groups of 3 to make 30 min. presentations to various schools. We started with an ice breaker about self-esteem and had them write nice (hopefully) things about each other on a sheet of paper taped to their backs. Next we went into the environment game where everyone represents a different component of the environment (such as water, birds, butterflies, humans) and holds a piece of string from the ball of yarn that we throw to one another. Then we threw real trash in the middle of our ¨web of life,¨ and went through how everything is linked and how trash harms water and then all the way to humans. Finally, we promoted our environmental clean-up day on October 29th...

So my group got assigned to an all-girl´s school. The directors were really excited that we came so they stuffed a million girls in each session. OK, it was more like 40-70 girls, but if you have ever facilitated an interactive activity with little girls before in a language you`re not fluent in, you know that it was CRAZY. They were between the ages of 11-16 I would guess. Since there were 3 of us and one girl wasn`t comfortable with her Spanish, we split them up into 2 groups every time. Our second session went amazingly. That time I was by myself and the girls were so respectful, calm, supportive of each other and interested in all the activities. My Spanish rocked as did my facilitation skills. We finished early and they asked me all sorts of questions about where I`m from, the U.S., what Peruvian food I`ve eaten and if I could sing them an American song. No, I didn`t break out into song and dance, but at their request I taught them how to say ¨my heart will go on.¨ The first and especially the last session of about 35 girls in each group was so crazy and chaotic. I would go insane trying to facilitate projects like that each day. It reminded me why I don`t want to work with kids. Arghhhh I am never having kids. They are brats and wrote mean things on each other`s backs, which I couldn`t understand. In addition, they corrected my Spanish, which is something I want my host mom and teachers to do, but not in the middle of my session. Well, to end on a positive note, they were cute when I wasn`t trying to get them to do anything, and they kept on asking me about ¨El Gringo,¨ who is super tall (by Perú standards), skinny and blonde. That was funny. I told El Gringo that all those girls will be coming to our clean-up day just to see him, the new Peruvian Studmuffin. We also were inundated with requests for our e-mail addresses. So I might have about 100 new e-mail pen pals.