Pucusana, Pizza, and Picarones

Posted on March 5, 2017March 14, 2019 by Lark

I’ve been loving our little weekend adventures! For the last few Saturdays, we’ve been sleeping in, taking some free time in the morning, and then going somewhere and doing something together in the afternoon/evening. It’s the perfect combination of relaxation and adventure so you don’t feel like the whole day was wasted.

Yesterday morning was especially good for me because I finally put my foot down and forced myself to finish the planning for my trip to Machu Picchu. I had been mulling over the train times and other options for days at that point and just needed to decide. My biggest choice was whether I wanted to do an organized trek with a company or just go on my own, and I ultimately decided that it would be better on my own because I’ll be able to go at my pace and do all of the things I want without worrying about a group. After I decided that, I had to pick train times, and that’s complicated because you have to get to the train station in a town that’s about an hour away from Cuzco. I was originally thinking that I would hike Machu Picchu and take a train back that same night, but then I was worried about having to figure out transport back to Cuzco in the dark and by myself. All that worrying finally led me to the conclusion that I should just stay over two nights in the town by Machu Picchu because if the thought of doing it in a day was stressing me out that much, it probably wasn’t right.

In summary, I got my train tickets and Machu Picchu tickets and hostel booking all finished, and I feel a million times more relaxed as a result. Why didn’t I just do it earlier? That’s always the question after you procrastinate something, and somehow, I still haven’t learned my lesson. The answer is, yeah, I probably should have. Now it’s finished though, so we can put that behind us!

Our afternoon adventure was a trip to Pucusana, the same fishing village that we went to when the team was here. The car was being used, so we took public transportation there instead. There is a very similar system here to what they have in Ghana with tro tros. Here they’re called combis (cohm-bee) and the fare collector is a cobrador, rather than a “mate” like in Ghana. Conceptually though, they’re completely the same. Super packed and super cheap. We got a ride to Pucusana for 1 sol (1 USD = about 3.25 soles). It’s usually maybe a 10-15 minute ride, but we hit some traffic because there was a “huaico” (mudslide) last week, and the street is still underwater.

Yeah, there’s a street somewhere under there…

This is the second time in the last few weeks that there’s been a huaico there, and we learned that the problem started because of some bad decisions. There’s a river bed that had been dry “for a while” (I know no specifics), so recently, the land there was developed. Good idea, right? Except there’s been more rain than usual in the highlands this year, and all of that water needs to go somewhere. Instead of just flowing down the river as it would have in the past, it’s been flooding the new developments and overflowing because there’s no path for it to follow anymore. Who knows what is going to be done about it, but it seems clear that something has to change. It’s all politics though, so it could take forever.

Looking towards Pucusana from the top of the hill

Anyway, we eventually made it into town and hiked up a hill to watch the sunset over the ocean. I love the mountains here… the sunset made the sky glow orange in all directions, and the mountains behind Pucusana looked like something from another planet. It was surreal.

We stuck around for dinner and got a pizza at an Italian restaurant nearby. Weekends are a wonderful break from the rice, rice, and rice that we eat every day during the week. Out of the nine meals that we have prepared for us each week, I’d say at least 7-8 involve rice. I love carbs, and that’s a lot even for me. So yeah, the pizza was a nice change of pace! For dessert, we got picarones (pee-cah-ROH-nays), Peruvian doughnuts made from sweet potato and squash and coated in a syrup that Debbie and Julie said was made with figs (figs are a big deal around here), but who knows. I was definitely a fan of the picarones (it was like eating fried air… yes, I know that doesn’t make sense), but I could have done without the sauce. Maple syrup probably would have been really good on them, or just a sprinkling of powdered sugar. Either way, I would do it again.

It was a short adventure but more than worth the trip. We took a combi back to the highway and then went the rest of the way on a moto. The motos are like if you chopped the back wheel off of a motorcycle, connected the front part to a carriage, and stuck a tarp over it. You end up with three-wheeled “taxis” with space for a driver on the motorcycle part and about three full-sized passengers on the bench seat behind them (though three is just the maximum number for a comfortable ride… it seems like ‘as many as you can cram inside’ is the maximum number allowed).

This isn’t a great picture, but you can see some motos on the street

Today was the usual church, grocery shopping, cleaning, and working on my to-do list. Big changes are ahead tomorrow! School starts and with it come the afterschool and overnight programs. Goodbye quiet, kid-less nights. See you next weekend.

Staff Training Day

Posted on March 3, 2017March 14, 2019 by Lark

Today was a VERY long day (also, apologies in advance that I have very few pictures from today, so I’ll attempt to be somewhat entertaining to make up for it). Since this is the last work day before the after-school and overnight programs start back up next week, we had a staff meeting/team building day. Thank goodness my Spanish has gotten a lot better since I’ve been here… I at least understood most of what was happening. The day would have felt MUCH longer had I been completely lost.

The first item on the agenda was mostly concerned with logistics. Irma first talked about how important each part of the team is and how everyone’s skills complement each other so that the team as a whole can be successful. She also went through the specifics of what people’s roles and responsibilities will be once the programs begin. I was interested in all of the details because I’m excited to see how everything comes together next week, and it will be good to have some background knowledge to help with the learning curve.

Part two of the morning of meetings was a workplace safety presentation by some “safety expert” guy. It was just about what you would expect from a workplace safety presentation… mostly boring and unrealistic. The guy had an unfortunate habit of asking questions and then calling on random people in the group to answer them, so I put most of my effort into taking fake notes and avoiding eye contact. I’m sure that my notes will serve me well in the future. Here is an excerpt so that you also can learn about workplace safety:

I’m terrified he’s going to call on me.

OMG he just made intense eye contact and said something to me, but I don’t think it required a response.

I just gave him the most wide-eyed look. Calm down, Lara!

No more eye contact.

I think I also need to write something every once in a while to make it look like I’m engaged.

Maybe I should keep some chips close and shove them into my mouth when he asks a question.

Now he’s talking about controlling your environment to minimize risks, and honestly, it’s a little crazy.

He said there’s a chance the ceiling fan will fall, so you can walk around it rather than under it to be safe 😑

He has to be kidding.

This is ridiculous.

Yeah… you get the picture. My worst nightmare came true with only about 10 minutes left in the presentation: he asked me a question. I was a disaster. Honestly, it’s a bit embarrassing in hindsight. I had a mild freak out and then started sweating even more (I was already sweating because it was at least 5000 degrees in that room) and blushing. The worst part? I knew the answer to his question, but my brain and body were too busy calculating how quickly I could escape from the room to realize it. Smooth, Lara.

Thankfully, he left after the presentation, and I never have to see him again. Everyone else… well, I do have to see them, but they’ve mostly accepted that I can understand them but am mostly a mute except in special circumstances when I awe them with my mastery of the language by saying things like, “Good morning” and “do you know where the extra AA batteries are?”

Tony and Jim wrapped up the morning by talking a bit about the vision and mission of the ministry, and then we were off to the pool for lunch and team building! Through this activity planning process, I’ve realized that I have some serious anxiety when it comes to planning events (this is unrelated to my horrible decision making skills that I talked about yesterday). When I’m responsible for something, I worry that it’s going to go horribly and that everyone is going to have a miserable time and blame me. It’s not the blaming me part that bothers me. It’s the everyone having a miserable time because of me part. I feel like it’s my responsibility to make sure everyone is okay and enjoying themselves. Yes, I know it’s over-the-top and ridiculous, but regardless, that’s the way I am. Something to work on! Anyway, that was how I felt about the team building activities. Yes, Tony had a hand in the planning, but I’m the one that came up with all of the potential ideas. She just picked from those.
We started off with some water aerobics moves to get everyone comfortable, and people slowly moved from being latched onto the wall to being about 2 inches away, so that’s getting counted as a success.

Next, we attempted to make a whirlpool, but everyone was moving too slowly and bumping into each other and failing, to an impressive degree, to stay on path. You know what though? Everyone was also laughing the entire time, so we can check that off as a team building success.

Our small group was pretty amazing at human knot detangling

The third activity was the human knot… in the pool. For those of you who haven’t done it, your group gets into a circle, and everyone crosses their arms and grabs hands with two different people from across the circle. Then, you attempt to untangle yourselves, a process that always includes some acrobatics and close-proximity awkwardness with your teammates. That also went well! It was funny doing it in the pool, and after doing it successfully in small groups, we combined into one big group that got hopelessly tangled. Again though… bonding, communication, and teamwork were the goals, not successful untangling. I get to be the success judge today, so yeah, activity three also gets a gold star.

Our big group, on the other hand, was probably just way too many people. It was still fun though!

Finally, we split into two groups and each made a synchronized swimming routine. My group was beyond dysfunctional… I partly blame my language barrier, but I think we would have been a mess either way. We mostly just moved around, unsynchronized, during our “routine” and laughed because no one knew what to do. The other group managed to pull something together that was quite nice.
Afterwards, we had free time to play around and hang out before heading home. It was a full day, but I am so happy with how everything went and how comfortable everyone seemed in the pool by the time we were finished. Even if they didn’t actually feel comfortable, they all embraced the spirit of team building and pushed themselves. Solid efforts from everyone!

Library, Trip Planning, and Water Aerobics

Posted on March 2, 2017March 14, 2019 by Lark

It’s been mentally exhausting couple of days… Yesterday morning, as predicted, I finished the library cataloging job! It’s exciting that I actually estimated my finish time correctly because estimation is definitely not one of my strengths. (For example, I once estimated that there were 200 people at a concert where there were a few thousand. Another time, I estimated the population of our village in Ghana at 1000 people which, in hindsight, is ridiculously low because there are probably at least that many kids in the schools. Oops.) Anyway, for once I was right and with a little time to spare. I finished all of the books about 20 minutes before lunch. Perfect!

Isn’t it beautiful? I put those colored stickers on the spines. Vanessa did most of the pink, blue, and light orange books in the bottom left part of the bookcase, but the rest was all me!

The rest of the day was spent attempting and failing to make plans for my last week in Peru when I’m going to Cuzco and visiting Machu Picchu. I usually plan vacations with my friend Sarah, and we’re a perfect team because I gather a bunch of information, get overwhelmed, and am paralyzed. She steps in, combines her research with mine, and makes decisions. Then, I come back and work out the details. We’re a well-oiled machine. In summary, I can’t make choices because there are too many options. I spent probably 5 hours researching the same thing over and over again and getting nowhere because I have the information I need, but I want someone to just tell me what is best. I feel like this is such a classic girl problem… can’t make decisions. For me though, it’s mostly just in the area of vacation planning. So yeah, got nowhere on the trip details. I’m giving myself a deadline of this weekend to book my tickets (I do, at least, have my plane tickets already, so that’s something).
My big planning attempt was in response to a mild freak out I had when I realized that it’s March, and I’m only 3 weeks away from leaving Esperanza de Ana. How did time go so quickly?? Part of me is trying to ignore reality, and another part is trying to force myself to acknowledge it because it’s best to be mentally prepared. I can tell already that I’m going to have a much harder time leaving here than Ghana. There, yes I was leaving friends, but with my volunteer friends, I knew that soon enough, they were leaving too. Here, I will leave, and life will go on with all of the same people but without me. For some reason, that makes it harder to accept. I don’t know if that makes any sense… My head is all over the place about this.

Anyway, I’m apparently in a rambling mood today. Sorry for all of the mixed-up thoughts, but that’s where I am right now. No need to worry… I’ll work everything out soon enough.

I spent today helping Tony plan a staff activity for tomorrow. We’re going back to the pool where we took the kids that one time during summer school, and she asked me for help coming up with team building activities to do in the water. It should be interesting considering the broad spectrum of the staff’s experience and comfort level with water. We’re starting out with some water aerobics to get everyone moving and used to the pool, so I spent a few hours today watching videos of water aerobics workouts, learning some moves, and putting together a couple of routines. I think I’ve found my new calling, but we’ll find out for sure tomorrow.

Prep Week!

Posted on February 28, 2017March 14, 2019 by Lark

Happy last week of summer break! Remember those days growing up? One more week to fit in every last bit of fun because life is basically over once school starts. Well, lucky for me, I don’t have to go to school or do homework anymore, so I’m not enjoying this last week of freedom because of those reasons… I’m enjoying it because we’re currently kid-free. Is it bad that I’m kind of loving it? One more week to fit in every last bit of quiet, tantrum-free time because life is basically over once school starts. Okay, slight exaggeration… but it IS going to become much less relaxing.

Everyone is working this week to get things ready for the start of school/the after-school program/the overnight program. I have been assigned the task of organizing the library which, if you know me, you know that I love books. I’m more than happy to take on the challenge. Vanessa started the process of cataloging and sorting the books, and I’m finishing the work she started. I spent all of yesterday and half of today holed up in the library, listening to music, putting stickers onto books, and entering information about each one into a spreadsheet. The alone time has been great, and I always like tasks like this. It’s simple and a bit repetitive, and I get to figure out the most efficient way of getting it done. There’s nothing better than making a plan, executing it, and knowing that it was done the most effective way. Ah I love efficiency.

I made great progress yesterday, and I think I would have finished today if I had worked on it during the morning as well. Instead, Debbie and I had the joy of cleaning the floor in our old classroom. Throughout the course of summer school, it got to be more and more of a disaster. A lot of the kids worked on their models on the floor which means that it was completely covered in glue, tape, glitter, and paint. After sweeping up whatever we could, we went at the paint spots with soapy water and scrubby brushes and the glue and tape with razor blades. Thankfully, Debbie brought some mats that had been adapted into knee pads, so we didn’t have to kneel on the floor or squat the entire time. It made things about a million times more comfortable. Over an hour later, we had a floor covered in only soap, and I felt gross. We mopped to get the soap up and then left the floor to dry. Not my favorite thing I’ve ever done, but at least I felt accomplished at the end. Plus, now it’s finished, and we won’t have to do it again!
Tomorrow I’m headed back to my library cave to finish up the rest of the books. Is it lame that I’m a little bit excited? If only there were more books… It’s too bad that I’ve been so efficient because I only need another couple hours to finish. I’d be happy doing that job all day.

Azpitia

Posted on February 26, 2017March 14, 2019 by Lark

We had another weekend of freedom!! It is so incredibly nice to have a break, especially with the end of summer school and the craziness of the last week, trying to get everything done. We went on another mini-adventure yesterday to make the most of our time!

From the moment I woke up, the day was already going wonderfully. Why? Because I got up at 9AM after 10 WHOLE HOURS of sleep! In the scheme of my normal life, 10 hours really isn’t that much. In the scheme of my life here, 10 hours is nearly unheard of. Same with 9AM. Ah, Saturdays! They really are the best. We intentionally planned our destination to allow for some morning relaxation time, and honestly, that was equally as nice and rejuvenating as the actual adventure. I even had time to do some reading, organize my stuff, and catch up on a few things that I had been putting off before we had to head out for the day.

Horrible picture, but this is the beginning of the dirt road to get there

Julie, Debbie, and I headed out around 11:45AM and stopped in Chilca to pick Vanessa up on our way. I was excited to have some time to hang out with her that didn’t involve talking about work/summer school! Our destination was Azpitia, a town about 45 minutes south of us. It’s just about in the middle of nowhere, and apparently, Jim and Tony randomly stumbled upon it years ago when they were doing some exploration driving where you just take turns and see where you end up. After getting there, I seriously have NO idea how they found it. You get off the highway at an exit that seems deserted, go down a skinny paved road, and then turn off onto an unpaved road that looks like a driveway. How did they even decide that it was a road? I don’t know.

First glimpse of the valley, plus a view of the road we had to take to get there

You drive along that mess of a road – windy, unpaved, and dusty – for maybe 10 minutes before coming around a bend and BAM you’re hit with an amazing view of a green valley. Remember, we’re in the desert here, so “green” isn’t exactly common. We’re used to a whole lot of brown, brown, brown. The reason everything is so green there is because of the river Mala that flows through the town. Early in the town’s development, the people created an irrigation system to turn this desert valley into a viable location for farming. Looking at it now, there’s no argument that it has been anything less than a huge success.

So much green! You can see the river at the bottom of the picture, but it’s a little hard to pick out because it’s so brown

We ate lunch and then spent some time walking around. You can walk along the cliff that leads down to the river, and there are a bunch of restaurants that seem precariously perched over the edge but that give you an incredible view of the valley. There’s also a fun sidewalk which is worth noting because it has trees growing out of it, situated in an irrigation channel that runs down the middle of the walkway. We took a steep staircase down to the river which is probably the brownest thing in the whole valley. I don’t know that it’s usually like that, but there has been more rain than usual this year, and a lot of the rivers are apparently higher and dirtier than in past years.

We headed back to Chilca after our mini-hike. It wasn’t the longest adventure ever, but it was relaxing and beautiful and refreshingly green which was enough to make it perfect. Even better, we had plenty of time to come home, watch a stupid movie, and get to bed before the neighbors’ parties really got going.
Today was the usual Sunday routine but thankfully without the panicked last-minute prep for class. Church, grocery shopping, and time to chill before we get back to work tomorrow. I’m not completely sure what this upcoming week is going to involve, but we have a one week break to get everything ready for the start of school next week. As far as I know, my job is to just do as I’m told… I can handle that.

Last Day of Summer School!

Posted on February 24, 2017March 14, 2019 by Lark

Can you believe it? Today was the last day of summer school! I’ll admit that part of me is a little sad, but a bigger part of me is excited for no more late nights of hot gluing antennae on 30 robots.

Our morning was relatively uneventful. I spent about an hour fixing a couple of the robots that we ran into trouble with yesterday, including the one that started smoking when we put batteries in. I’m still not really sure what happened with that, but after I switched out the battery holder, it started working fine. I’m happy to not question it anymore and instead just be pleased with the fact that it works and is potentially no longer a hazard. I say potentially because you really never know… Who knows what happened to it this time, so who’s to say that it’s not going to happen again?

A couple of butterflies and a spotless lady bug

Anyway, not my problem anymore! All of the kids took their things home, so I wash my hands of any responsibility for the well-being of the robots. I give it a week until everyone’s robots are completely destroyed from the kids handling them like they’re indestructible. On the contrary, they are quite destructible and have already managed to be a pain in the butt with all of the repairs we’ve had to make. Granted that has something to do with the quality of assembly when we first put them together, but that’s not the point. Point is, you need to be careful with these things, and the kids are anything but careful.

The room set up. Our tables are all the way in the back of the picture

Two of the kids who volunteered to talk about their robots

Okay I’m getting sidetracked. Back to business. Since it was the last day, there was a bit of a showcase in the afternoon before the parents took their kids home. All of the teachers put out/hung up their kids’ work from the program, and the students showed off some of the things they learned. The three older classes got up and recited the weekly Bible verses that they have been working to memorize, the oldest class did a dance that they learned from Madeleine (she’s been helping Ingrid with her class), and Debbie gave a bit of an explanation about what the mini-engineers course involved.

The cities looked so cool!! The parents were all taking pictures, and I don’t blame them because they turned out so well. Debbie and I also had an extensive photoshoot before the showcase started. The best pictures were the ones taken at street level that kind of make it look like you’re a tiny person in a cardboard city. The older class especially did an awesome job, even adding some stop signs, traffic lights, trees, light posts, and street names.

The most epic museum. Yes, broken CDs are giving the roof its shimmer

The stadium with chess piece fans in the bleachers

The little kid robots from the kit. Cute, right?

After the performances and such were over, everyone was invited to walk around and check out the work. We pulled apart the city models so that the kids could take their buildings home and handed out batteries so they could finally play with their robots. I also ended up fixing something like six robots which means that, inevitably, they’re all going to break again.
Endings are when you get all sorts of surprises. For example, the kids who thank you the most and give you hugs are the ones that you thought hated class and wanted nothing to do with you. I had some good moments with a few of the kids which was nice. It’s those things that make the whole teaching thing seem like slightly less of an overall bummer. Without a little bit of positive feedback, you’re left feeling drained and tired and wondering if it was even worth the effort. Between today and what Irma said about more kids saying that they want to be engineers when they grow up, I feel pretty good about the whole teaching experience.

The municipal building, compete with balcony, streamers, and glitter

Another thing… Time here moves so much more quickly than in Ghana. There’s nothing to mark the passage of time, like new volunteers showing up, and I definitely feel like I have more of a purpose here in what I’m doing. That’s a nice feeling (but I also makes the days go by even faster). It will be interesting to see what the rest of my time here is like! I know that there are a bunch of projects they want me to get involved with before I go, so I’m not worried in the least that I’m going to find myself without anything to do. It will just be a less routine/predictable something to do than it has been during the summer program. (Don’t even talk to me about how much time I have left here. It’s something I’m consciously choosing not to thinking about.)
I know I said that last weekend was going to be a real relaxation weekend, and it mostly was, but THIS weekend is the real deal! No Sunday evening lesson planning, no random class-related tasks that need to be accomplished. We’re having an actual WEEKEND! Wish me luck… I might not know what to do with myself with so much leisure time.

Birthday Party and Aliens

Posted on February 23, 2017March 14, 2019 by Lark

Yesterday was another long and tiring day! I started writing this last night, but I was doing the whole fall-sleep-and-write-nonsense thing, so I figured that finishing it would be better left to today.

Wednesdays are usually kind of chill because we don’t have any classes, but yesterday was definitely the exception. The big activity for the day was finishing up the soldering and antennae on the C3 robots to get them ready for class today. I got started in the morning and had only finished the soldering and antennae bending by lunchtime.

The afternoon was completely booked by a birthday party for the people with January/February birthdays. The kids get to drink soda and eat candy, and there were some pretty hilarious activities. They started off with some races where each person on the team had a straw in his/her mouth, and two teams raced to pass a plastic ring from straw to straw without using their hands. After that, they did a relay race where the team members had pass a balloon over their heads and through their legs, and then afterwards, the front person waddled their way around a chair while holding the balloon in between their legs. The process repeated until the entire team got a chance to waddle.

It was fun watching the kids play the games, but my favorite part (besides the cake, of course) was the dance party at the end. Ligia explained the rules: you dance around with the music while it’s playing, and once it stops, you freeze like a statue. The real fun began when the kids started to be creative with their frozen poses, the girls usually opting to hug each other and the boys pretending to fight.

After the party, we had a little down time to work on our robots, until about 5:30 when we left for a staff bonding excursion! I wasn’t sure about going because we still had a lot to do with the robots, but I’m so glad I did! It was cool getting to spend time with everyone outside of work, plus the excursion was great.

We went to Las Salinas in Chilca to do a group hike. The first part of the hike is pretty short, and you make it to the top of the first hill where there’s a huge cross and a nice view of Chilca. There are two ways to get there: the way you’re probably supposed to go, with a bunch of switchbacks, and the way we went, with an aggressive incline (I’d guess 60 degrees) and shale-type rock pieces sliding around. I thought the view from there was cool, but then we kept going! We went up more super-steep hills until finally reaching the top… where there was a random rock wall. I was confused about why it was there until we got closer and I realized that it wasn’t just one wall, it was a square of rock walls, and inside was a rock circle with one rock in the middle. Weird. The explanation of what it is makes it no less weird: aliens.

The front of the Chilca pamphlet. Alien.

Chilca is obsessed with aliens. The tagline of the city is “Chilca es de otro mundo” or “Chilca is from another world”. There are a bunch of reports of UFO sightings, and the Chilca marketing people have run with the idea, making it the center of their marketing material. The pamphlets describing the attractions in Chilca feature pictures of a red-orange alien participating in activities from horseback riding to bathing in the lagoons that supposedly wield “energy from another galaxy” and have various healing powers (here’s the website).

Vanessa said that people come from all over the world (alien-enthusiast types of people) to do rituals or something to communicate with the aliens from inside the rock shrine. There’s some claim (by a Peruvian “UFO contactee” Sixto Paz Wells… if you’re interested, here’s a weird interview with him) that they’re drawn here because Chilca is on a geological fault and the released energy creates a magnetic corridor that their ships use. Or something. I’ll let you form your own opinions about that.
Whatever the reason for their existence, they’re impressive. The walls are made from rocks just stacked on each other without cement to hold them together, and they aren’t cut into specific shapes or anything to make things easier. Whoever put that place together had a lot of time on their hands.

Anyway, the view from the alien communication square was even better than the first lookout. I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Check out the mountains in the background!

Debbie and I still had hours of robot work to do after getting back which is why I was falling asleep last night while writing. We finished the antenna connections around 10:45PM… ugh. But now they’re finished! And the hiking break was well worth the time.
Today wasn’t extremely eventful. We had our last period with Vanessa’s class and tried to wrap up their city and robots. It mostly went fine except that one robot started smoking when we put batteries in… ehh well, we’ll figure it out. That’s a problem for tomorrow!

More Robots and Cities!

Posted on February 21, 2017March 14, 2019 by Lark

I had a nightmare a few nights ago. I don’t remember a lot of the details, but I do remember being in a car with my mom, driving up a very steep road. When I say steep, I’m talking probably an 80-degree incline. We were halfway up when these massive spools of wire started flying down the hill towards us, and we avoided every one of them until the very last which left a foot-long gash in our back left tire. What does this dream mean? Who knows? But if we’re taking guesses, I’m going to say that those giant spools were probably filled with solder wire, and I’m officially having robot-inspired nightmares.

Explaining/demonstrating the soldering process

It’s amazing how wrong you can be when you take a guess at how long something is going to take. These robots are one of those times. Our time estimate: 3 classes. The actual: hahahahahahahaha. TBD. We got the kids as involved as possible in the assembly process, but some things, like the soldering, are not in the scope of things we’re comfortable letting the kids do. If we had only three kids in the class and could fully supervise and give them some training, maybe it would be a different story. With these circumstances, though, Debbie and I are doing all of the soldering. That led to a late night on Friday and another late night yesterday as we tried to get the C4 kids’ robots ready for their shells to be glued on today. We also had to do some jerry rigging to get the antennae to stay in place (it involves a complex system of dental floss – the strongest thread known to man – and hot glue), and the method we came up with was way too precise for most of the kids to handle (a lot of them are still at the age where detail work is a challenge. As architect and engineer, Debbie and I are trained in painstaking detail work).

Aside from the extra hours yesterday, things went very well! We only have 2 classes with each older group this week, and we need to assemble our cities!… while also finishing the robots… Yesterday, we reviewed the city project, did some city planning by deciding where we wanted to put each building, and split into teams to paint/name streets, make stop signs, traffic signals, trees, and street lights, and glue the buildings into position. Everything is starting to look really cool! We had the C4 kids again today, and their city is almost completely finished. The trees, street signs, and other details got installed today. I’m excited about the work the kids have done!! I think they have a couple things left to finish, and hopefully Ingrid will give them some time before Friday to wrap everything up.

The last robot steps are to glue on the shells that the kids decorated and test to make sure everything is functioning correctly. It was a lot of fun to see the kids play with their robots for the first time and how excited they got when the robots ran into walls and turned around like they’re supposed to (I was also excited because it seems almost inevitable that someone’s robot out of the 29 we made shouldn’t work… but fingers crossed because at this point, we’re still doing okay). At the risk of sounding like all I ever say is that everything is “great!”/“awesome!”/“so cool!”… the robot shells that the kids made are all of the above. I’ll work on some new adjectives, but for now, I’m going to back up my claims with photo evidence so that you can all agree with me.

The C3 kids have one more class on Thursday, and they still need to finish up the details of their city. They’ve done some awesome (yeah, I know) work so far, though. Even the kids who seemed completely disengaged produced great buildings! Debbie and I also have to finish up their robot soldering and antennae installations before class so that they can glue on their caps. Thank goodness for class-less Wednesdays!

One of the girls working on her “stores”, complete with window displays, a swingset, and little puffball people with sequin eyes.

Finally, this afternoon was our last class with each of the younger classes. Julie deserves a round of applause (and a paid vacation) for helping me out every week. We started in her class (2-3 year olds) and decided to do another lego day because our creativity was wearing thin, and we had to mentally prepare ourselves for what we were doing in the C2 (4-6 year olds) class. No matter though… the kids loved it and stayed engaged for an entire hour. You count it as a win when you have seven 2-3 year olds doing ANYTHING (besides freaking out and trying to escape) for more than 20 minutes.

Making a hand-wall to keep the robot from falling onto the floor

Laughing about their three robots getting stuck together

With the C2 class, we were making robots! Nothing to the extent of the ones we did with the two oldest classes, but it was complicated enough. Debbie found these kits online (https://www.teachersource.com/product/scooterbots/electricity-magnetism?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=bots) which are nice and basic. In hindsight, it would be easy to get the parts for these on your own and make them for a lot cheaper, but it was nice to have something that we didn’t have to think about. Forty minutes and a lot of troubleshooting later, we had 10 working scooter bots! The kids loved them! I thought they were kind of dumb because they just vibrate and wiggle around, but even I have to admit that they’re fun. If I was 6, I would be pumped about them. After finishing the construction, they spent the rest of class running around and finding different places to play with their robots.
I may be exhausted, but I feel really good about the last couple days! Everything is coming together, and I think I understand why people keep teaching. There are some tough days, but when you get to see your kids grow and show them something new and exciting, it’s super rewarding.

You know what else? This is my favorite thing: Irma said that a ton of the kids are saying they want to be engineers now. How cool is that?!

Barranco

Posted on February 19, 2017March 14, 2019 by Lark

We had a rare treat this weekend… a day off! Actually, we technically had two days off (a normal weekend… imagine that!), but Debbie and I had to do some prep for class today, so maybe we’ll settle at a day and a half.

In celebration of our vacation, we planned a trip into Lima on Saturday. Debbie and Julie’s favorite part of town is the Barranco district, described by them as “hipster Lima”. It’s the part of the city where a lot of artists and musicians live, and you can definitely feel the artsy vibe (plus there are murals everywhere). There is also a famous 19th century bridge, the Puente de los Suspiros (Bridge of Sighs), that crosses a ravine (“Barranco” = ravine) turned walkway to the beach (called the Bajada de los Baños). As you might imagine, this part of the district is very popular, especially during the summer months as people are actually going to the beach. The beaches in the area are PACKED, and the waves are decent so there are also a lot of surfers (fun fact: the “shores of Peru” are given a shout out in the Beach Boys song, Surfin’ Safari).

The cliffs and the remaining part of the walkway to get all the way down to the beach

The church next to the main plaza: Parroquia La Santísima Cruz

I’m getting a little ahead of myself though… As I was saying, we decided to go into Lima, but not until around noon so that we could sleep in!! I got a whole 10 hours of sleep! Plus I had time to accomplish things before we left. It takes about an hour to get into that part of Lima from where we are, and after we got to Barranco, we ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant and did the walk down to the beach. The way down is nice and scenic, and the way up is nice and steep. As a reward for our good walk, we got some gelato and watched some spectacle that was going on in the main plaza. No one in our group seemed to know exactly what it was, but there were a bunch of groups dressed in traditional attire (someone said they were from the highlands but who knows) and doing dances. I wish I had any idea of what was going on/that we were a little closer, but it was still cool to see everyone’s outfits.

Our last stop of the day was Larcomar, a shopping mall in the Miraflores district of Lima. We rented bikes, per my request, because I’m working on a bucket list goal of biking on every continent (shout out to Kristine who came up with the idea for herself and allowed it to be stolen by me). I only have Oceania/Australia and Antarctica left, and don’t even ask me how I’m going to accomplish that last one.

Late sunset from elsewhere along the cliffs

We biked down the road that runs along the cliffs to “Parque del Amor” (Love Park) and then paused and found a good spot to watch the sunset. The sunsets here are pretty amazing, and there are people lined up along all the good lookout spots on the cliffs (Miraflores is basically city, cliffs, beach, ocean) to enjoy the view. You can’t go wrong when you end a day by watching an awesome sunset! Afterwards, we headed back to the mall to return the bikes and then to the car to make the trek home. By the time we got back, I was wiped out. Good thing too because our neighbors kept up their perfect record of Saturday night parties, but I was so tired that I fell asleep without a problem.

Today was the usual Sunday schedule – church, grocery shopping, some relaxation time, and class planning with Debbie. As much as I’ve enjoyed teaching this class, I also won’t be too upset when we don’t have to prep for it anymore! Teaching is a lot of work! The last week of summer school starts tomorrow, so we only have 2 more classes to finish off the robot and city projects. We can do it! I think. I hope.

More Robots

Posted on February 17, 2017March 14, 2019 by Lark

If I never have to solder another connection, it will be too soon. The fact that I’m going to have to do it again on Monday means that it’s DEFINITELY happening too soon. I’m going to have robot-filled nightmares tonight.

Measuring a wire before cutting and stripping it.

Next week is the last week of summer school, so we really have to get this robot project wrapped up so that we can finish the city project too. Even though the robots aren’t finished yet, I’m happy with the progress we’ve made, and I don’t think we could have possibly worked any faster than we did. There’s just too much to explain, and every single step has to be almost fully supervised because they’re using tools and are way too likely to jump ahead and mess something up if you don’t keep an eye on them. Today, all of the groups were finally at the point where they were ready to start soldering, and there was nothing we could do to put it off any longer.
I would love for the kids to have a chance to try to solder, but I don’t know that we’re going to have the time for that. With all of the explanations and safety stuff we have to do, there’s no way that we would be able to get through all of the kids. Maybe we’ll try to at least let each of them do one connection so that they have the experience… And maybe not… We’ll have to just play it by ear and decide if we think they can handle it.

We had class with the older kids in the morning, and it was a bit chaotic. I always expect the younger class to be somewhat out of control, but not this class. Someone must have been giving out pixie sticks at the door when they got to school today or something because they were all over the place. Debbie gave them the whole talk about how soldering is dangerous and the iron is very hot and they need to listen and be careful, and then as soon as we started working, the whole class was crowded around the table and touching things and stressing both of us out. She basically told them that if they couldn’t behave, they weren’t going to get to work on their robots anymore. That did the trick, at least enough to make it through the end of class without anyone getting a burn.
The younger kids were in the afternoon, and working with them was like something out of a dream (for the most part, excluding the one girl who was pouting instead of participating because “this is a boy project”. I won’t even tell you how I felt about that comment. I’m sure you can imagine). They were all so calpm, they listened and followed directions, and they did a great job. Vanessa must be working some magic on them because their behavior today vs. the first week of summer school is like having a completely different group of kids. I still think that part of it is the excitement of the robots (kids keep asking when they’re going to get to work on their robots again), but part of it is absolutely also them being much improved in general.

Debbie, finishing up the last robot of the night.

The kids got all of their wires cut and stripped, and we started soldering them during class. We got through most everyone in the afternoon group (which is only half of the class, keep in mind), and after all of the kids left, Debbie and I decided to keep on going to finish up the connections so that next week can just be putting the finishing touches on. That was the most exhausting part of the day. All I wanted to do was snack and eat dinner, and we didn’t end up eating until 8PM.
I’m falling asleep while typing again, so I’ll do you a favor and wrap things up before my writing really starts to tank. Hooray for Friday, and hooray for weekend days when you can actually sleep in!