End of an Era

It´s hard to believe, but our six-week teacher training program is coming to an end. As teaching partners, Christine and I have covered everything from phrasal verbs to the pronunciation of the letter J. This Thursday, we´ll have a graduation ceremony, where we´ll say goodbye to our 17 students -- very likely forever.

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This past Thursday, our students prepared a special surprise for us: a Valentine´s Day feast, complete with choclo, two types of homemade soup, beer and wine. They even decorated the classroom, and several of them gave toasts (in English!) about how much they have enjoyed our class. Finally, they presented us with boxes of chocolate. It was one of our best moments here in Peru.

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After the craziness of last weekend in Puno, we opted to stay home this weekend in Pisac. On Friday and Saturday mornings, we volunteered in the nearby town of Calca, which was hard-hit by recent flooding. We worked with a child psychologist to entertain children whose houses had been destroyed.

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Today, we had grand plans for a Valentine´s Day session of all-you-can-eat pancakes at the Blue Llama. But, we´re in Peru, so the Blue Llama is inexplicably shut at the moment. Instead, we claimed the balcony at Ulrike´s, which was the perfect spot to watch the Carneval dances and water-balloon fights in the square. We spent all day there, with brief interludes for shopping and lunch.

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Tomorrow, we´ll start the final week of our training program, and then our whole routine will change. Michael´s coming for a week, then we´re all going traveling, then we´ll be back in Pisac, starting new projects and establishing new routines. Here in Peru, nothing is ever certain, and nothing stays the same.