In the blink of an eye, my time at Mater Admirabilis school has come to an end. Yesterday was my last day volunteering, since Thursday and Friday are days off and on Monday I begin my adventures around the south of Peru.
Eleanor, Alex and I were thrown into the week as soon as we arrived on Monday morning, when we found out the presentation we were meant to be preparing was due to be performed in the next twenty minutes. It was just as well that I’d been prepared and had written out most of what I needed to say the day before, giving me just enough time to print it all off and run back downstairs in time for assembly.
This time, the weekly assembly had to start without the group of Fifth Graders marching in with the flag, since they were all away in Cusco - including Natsumi. They’d all gone on a trip from Saturday to Wednesday on what’s known as the ‘promoción’, to celebrate their imminent graduation. For this reason, assembly started straight away with the speeches, prayers, national anthem and hymn.
Soon it was time for us to get up and do our bit. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt quite so unprepared, but for some reason, even though I had to lead the whole thing and talk in front of over 600 people, I didn’t feel at all fazed by it. In the end, it all turned out surprisingly well, and the three parts of the presentation, which we hadn’t even practiced, fitted together seamlessly. I handled the introduction, with a bit of history on El día del Árbol (the equivalent of our National Tree Week); then Alex and Eleanor followed with more details. The aim was to raise awareness about the importance of trees for our environment - and to do this, we divided up tasks throughout the day to create a Giving Tree.
The Giving Tree consisted of a large cardboard trunk (generously supplied by the Art Department) Blu-Tacked onto a board in the SUM Room. We cut out templates of leaves and distributed them to each class in the school, and each student was asked to write a message (in English) on the leaf, and to tack it to the tree until it was in full bloom. Cutting out over 600 leaves was an epic task but the end result was lovely.
That day, as well as attending a Humanities class in which I learnt a surprising amount about the EU economy, I went to two English classes. One was with Ursula, whose English is excellent and who all the kids love. Her class consisted of the hearing of the song ‘What’s Going On?’ by 4 Non Blondes - filling in the gaps and analysing the content.
The other class, however, was a different story altogether. The teacher, whose knowledge of spoken English is fairly good, was left completely out of her depth when faced with explaining the conditional mood. It was obvious from the moment the class began that she didn’t have a clue, as she tried to begin using an incorrect example. Fortunately, I am embarrassingly keen on grammar and happen to know this topic inside out in both English and Spanish, so was able to step in. At first, I tried to stay back, not wanting to embarrass the teacher, but eventually, when all the girls were asking me to explain it to them, the poor teacher had to admit defeat and asked me to take the rest of the class. With the help of some Spanish and English examples and a bit of context to go with the rules, I soon had everyone coming up and having a go with their own sentences on the board. By the end of the lesson I felt like I’d made a real breakthrough. The blackboard was covered in a colourful array of conditional sentences, and I had to have a photo with all the girls in front of it (even if one sentence did say, “If I had been born earlier, I would have married Harry Styles”). I can’t believe even Peru hasn’t escaped the One Direction mania; they’re coming here in concert, and all the girls are obsessed and have got all the merchandise.
After school, I had a phone call from Pily to say she was on her way to drop off Nicole’s lunch, since Nicole forgotten to take it with her, so did I want a lift home. Never one to turn down a free ride, I gladly accepted. I then spent the afternoon writing up the last epic blog entry, writing postcards and doing online orders for people back home (who will remain nameless for obvious reasons).
The next day, as soon as I arrived I set about sticking up the Giving Tree with the other two volunteers, and initiated the sticking of the leaves. Then I had to go and help in 3A, who were doing plurals of animals. By the end of the lesson, even I was unsure of the spelling of ‘chickens’, I’d seen it written out so many times. I also had to explain the concept of the Giving Tree and draw examples on the board in several classrooms to help give the children - and the teachers - a better idea of the concept.
After the first break, I skipped French to wait for one of the teachers, who was going to record a video of me. The school does this for every volunteer who comes to them on the VolunTeach programme; we have to make a video talking about ourselves, our experiences in Peru and what we think of the school and the country. I hate seeing myself on film so this was quite a traumatic experience; I was genuinely shocked when I heard how posh I sounded. Not only that, but I had to recite the whole thing by heart, which was unbelievably nerve-racking. It didn’t take very long, but afterwards I realised I’d made an embarrassing mistake in the last few minutes and needed to redo it.
My last lesson of the day was in First Grade, who were, as always, ecstatic to see me. This time, it being my last lesson with them, I was mobbed even more than usual and at one point a fight almost broke out about who was allowed to sit on my lap (a pile-on ensued). Miss Cruz, who is only 19 but a lot better at handling a group of twenty tiny kids than I am even now, let me take over the lesson and teach the kids some songs. When I began to run short, I resorted to the classic ‘Five Fish’ - which I’ve come to realise no one actually knows apart from me, but it is epic nevertheless. The lyrics are as follows:
“Five fish, they swam in the ocean blue,
Up, and down, and to, and fro,
They flapped their flippers and wiggled their tails,
Nobody knows if they’re frightened of whales.
How many fish,
How many fish,
How many fish have we?”
The song then continues until there are no fish left. Evidently the lyrics were a bit complicated for the five-year-old Peruvian girls, but they watched me sing in absolute awe. I soon had them all taking turns to be fish, which they loved.
As soon as we all finished class at 1.05, Alex and I went to collect Amy from her school ten minutes down the road, before we met Eleanor back at our school and took a taxi into town together.
Our first stop in Lima central was the Cathedral, since we’d all been trying to make the time to see it since we’d arrived. For S./10 (£2.50) per person, we got a personal guided tour, in English, of the whole cathedral, which lasted over half an hour. It was well worth the visit; the Cathedral has a fascinating history. It was inaugurated on 18th January 1535, the very day of the foundation of the city of Lima. The first church was relatively simple, but constant repairs due to the damages caused by numerous earthquakes led to expansions including three additional naves and a side chapel. By the 17th century, the building had grown into an immense Baroque cathedral, a reflection of the importance of the Catholic Church in colonial times.
These works were continued over the course of the following centuries. Eventually the architects decided on a lighter structure, with pillars and ceiling arches constructed from, incredibly, wood and coated in plaster, enabling more flexibility of movement during earthquakes. The resulting structure is an impressive combination of styles from Renaissance to Neoclassical, and now consists of a central nave with two side aisles and thirteen chapels. The first of these chapels is home to the grave of Francisco Pizarro, a Spanish conquistador and the founder of Lima, who was responsible for the original church’s design and layout. Unfortunately he was brutally assassinated by his own people, and analysis of his skeleton has shown he was stabbed an impressive fourteen times. The other chapels hold immense sculptures to the saints, as well as their relics (a small part of the body which is preserved after their death). Most important is the chapel of Rose de Lima, who was the first person of the Americas to be canonized by the Catholic Church. Her relic is part of her little finger.
After seeing the magnificent organ, which is now out of use (since repair works would cost an excessive 9 million euros), we were taken through the old sacristy and the adjoining rooms, which house the Religious Art Museum of the Cathedral of Lima. Here we saw religious art created in Peru. The interesting part of this was the different perspective the Peruvian artists had taken on the religious scenes to make it more accessible to the Peruvian public. For example, in all the works from Cusco, the religious figures had the bright rosy cheeks characteristic of the local people.
We were then taken down into the crypt - which I was slightly wary about, given the unpleasant surprise I’d had last time I’d gone underneath a church. Fortunately, it appeared that there were no skeletons in sight - until our guide told us to take a look behind us. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw the massive glass cabinet full of skulls.
By the time we’d finished the tour we were starving, so we decided to head straight into the centre to grab some lunch. After being approached by two guys from two restaurants that were right next door to each other and had almost identical menus, resulting in a stressful and prolonged decision, we finally sat down at one of them to order. It was an impressive selection, with three sets of three-course meals - vegetarian, seafood and meat - each with over ten options to choose from. Deciding to make the most of the opportunity to try more Peruvian food, I opted for the seafood menu and ordered causa de langostinos (Peruvian yellow potato, mashed, with shrimps and a mayonnaise-like sauce) and sudado de pescado (boiled fish with onions, peppers, garlic and tomatoes in a rich red sauce). To drink, we each had a small complimentary Pisco sour and a chicha morada, a Peruvian soft drink made from purple maize, boiled with chunks of pineapple, quinces, cinnamon and cloves.
It was after 5 o’clock when we’d finished lunch, so all the tourist attractions were closing. We all needed to buy a few things, so walked to Gran Vía. Whilst there, we stopped off at the supermarket (where, unfortunately, the over-friendly security guard recognised me from last time) and bought ginger ale, grenadine, Pisco and limes to make cocktails later.
At around 7.30 we took a taxi together to Evelyn’s flat. Evelyn is the psychology teacher I met during my first week at the school but I hadn’t had chance to meet up with her until then. She’d invited us all round for drinks, as her friend Javier had arrived from Spain that day to stay in Peru for three months. It also happened to be his birthday, giving us twice the excuses for celebration.
Evelyn lives with her husband in an attractive and modern block of flats right on the Lima sea front. We stayed for a few hours, chatting, drinking and eating an incredible Peruvian take on birthday cake called torta helada. This cake consists of three layers: sponge cake, followed by jelly mixed with milk, followed by strawberry jelly. It may sound a bit bizarre but it really does work.
When it started getting late, I had a phone call from Pily, wondering what time I’d be back. I’d texted her earlier in the day with a rough time but she must have got worried after not hearing from me since then. At any rate, I felt a bit guilty at the thought of them waiting up for me, so decided to make my excuses. All the other VolunTeach girls did the same, and Evelyn accompanied us downstairs to hail us a taxi.
It so happened that the taxi we ended up in was driven by a young guy who was up for a bit of laugh. He had pop music on the radio and it wasn’t long before we had Flo Rider blasting and were all dancing and singing along. When we starting singing Adele at the top of our voices, I did feel a bit sorry for his poor ears, and Eleanor found it hilarious that I was the only one managing to sing it in tune.
I was almost reluctant to get out the taxi when we arrived at my apartment, but once I was there dived straight into bed. I would have to get up especially early the next day since I hadn’t had chance to wash my hair before bed.
Yesterday was my last day at Mater Admirabilis. As soon as I arrived, I met Oscar to re-film the last part of my video. Then, my first class was with Third Grade of secondary school, who were having a debate on religion. As you can imagine, in a catholic country like Peru, this got fairly fraught and it was a relief when it was over. Then I had ten minutes to show the class some pictures of me and my family and some videos of the family bands, which they’d been bursting to see. Both the Third Grade classes seem to have developed a strange and inexplicable crush on my brother, which started when they found out he was a musician and is now bordering on an obsession.
After break, I had my last French lesson. The lovely French teacher had finally found his files on verb conjugation I’d asked him for and had brought his USB drive to lend me - but of course, by this time, it was too late. He asked me to write down my email address so he could send it to me. I’m such a swot.
Both Eleanor and I were at a loose end after the next break, so decided to go with the lovely Tina Cruz, the teacher I know from First Grade, over the road to help in kindergarten. The kids had no idea about English but they were really quite cute. After that, we had a bit of free time before the last two periods, which I was spending with the other Third Grade secondary class.
They were doing the same lesson as the other group but their debate was even more intense. The problem with both groups, but particularly this one, was that they were all taking the topic way too seriously and were getting genuinely offended by each other’s comments. The topic was “Religion plays an important role in modern society”, but they started arguing about whether God actually exists. As you can imagine, things got a bit tense.
Before I knew it, the bell was ringing and my last day at Mater Admirabilis was over. I went down to the playground to meet the others, who were already sitting eating lunch. It’s no wonder we’re always cold here; it’s such an outdoor culture that we eat outside and have all the windows open even though it’s the middle of winter.
After lunch, we all went our separate ways for a few hours before meeting back at the school at 6.30 for the despedida (farewell party) that the school was hosting for me. Apparently, this is the first depedida the school has ever hosted for a VolunTeach student, so it’s quite nice to be the one to start the tradition. I arrived with Pily and Natsumi, who had returned from Cusco that day. I hadn’t been expecting any of this until I was informed on Monday, and it was lovely to see all the effort they’d gone to. It had all been set up in the SUM room - a big table of drinks and snacks; balloons tied to the ceiling and scattered about the room, and a massive display with photos and posters that people had signed with well-wishing farewell messages. On the top of the board Ursula had written, on behalf of the First Grade, “We will miss our Shakira!” She couldn’t wait to tell everyone the story of how they’d insisted I looked like Shakira and had ordered me to sing.
Lots of teachers and some students from Upper School had turned out for the little gathering, as well as the other volunteers, their families and Evelyn and her husband and friend, who was also being welcomed to the school as a new teacher. Ursula had everyone write a message on a balloon, then made a speech thanking me, after which I had to read some of the messages aloud. They presented me with a CD made by students of the school, then it was time for the toast and a few snacks before people started to drift home.
When the three of us got back to the flat, Natsumi and I set out all the balloons, photos and posters in my room and took photos. Then I sat and chatted with Nicole before sitting down for a family dinner. I can’t believe I have to say goodbye to everyone so soon; I’m really going to miss them.
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