It's been a month now since I arrived in Peru, and I'm still not dead. Hoo-ray me! I did meet a dead person though. His name was Montezuma, and boy was he pissed!
I can't say I miss the States much, yet, except for the NBA finals and soon the All-Star game. It's 70 degrees here everyday, and all the girls love me. (Blogging is an exercise in narcissism so I can say things like that, right?) But I do get stared at...by everyone. I think I am going to buy a shirt and write GRINGO or GUERO on it, and maybe that will stop the staring. Hopefully the Peruanos will get the message: "hey, I'm white so deal with it, and stop staring! You know we exist!"
(actually, during the course of composing this post, which has taken two weeks, ive found out it would be taken as saying that i'm better than they are, but it would have been funny to me)
I guess I should say what exactly I'm doing down here. Basically, I teach English at San Augustin Language Institute (SALI) in downtown Trujillo, Peru. The Institute was started by some Presbyterian missionaries to fund the work of Peru Mission (www.perumission.org - I think the site is down though). English language schools are a booming business in Trujillo, and the Institute is gaining new students everyday.
last month I taught 3 classes: Basic English 4, Intermediate English 4, and a Conversation Club. this month is similar, too.
In Basic 4, I'm teaching them can/can't right now. In Intermediate, it's the passive voice (this is really difficult because the passive voice is kind of built into their language). In Conversation Club, we just talk about whatever - it's just designed to help build conversational skills. But lately, in this last class, I just bring my iPod and play music that they know and put the words up on the board so they can learn them. We've learned the Cars' "Just What I Needed" and RHCP's "Scar Tissue. Sadly, there's not much of an indie-rock scene in Trujillo.
All of my classes were in the afternoon after siesta ends at 2:30, which is sweet cuz I get to get up late. And stay up late. So I usually get up at 9 or 10, and read and get ready for the day. Then I go downstairs and talk to out landlady who lives in our apartment building with us. This helps me practice my Spanish. I'm the only one there in the late morning/early afternoon, so she usually has some coffee and food ready for me. Sadly, there isn't any fresh-ground Peruvian coffee made around Trujillo, and the only Peruvian coffee I've had has been instant, but it still tastes better than the instant coffee from Jersey that SALI has.
All the other teachers at SALI are also American (i.e. native English speakers), which makes SALI unique among Trujillo's language institutes. There are 5 guys and two girls, all between the ages of 20-27, and 2 from TX, 3 from MS, 1 from SC, and 1 from FL. We're a vastly different bunch, but we all get along.
The other guy from Texas is my roomie, and he's 20 and we get along pretty well. He's been a lot of fun so far. I get along with all the others too.
Sorry to bore with all the basic stuff; that's all I've got for now. Next, I'll post about my trip to the jungle. Hopefully, it will be replete with pictures, but that's up to my tech support.
Posted by dp at July 5, 2005 1:34 AM | TrackBack