Monday August 31 to Friday September 4 - Peru Week 3, Let Chaos Rule

So this week has been a total wild rollercoaster for me. Last week at General Ollanta was not so bad but this week has been a total madhouse and I have rather thought of the school as General Ollanta Institute for the Insane instead of a school. After I got out of class on Monday I actually had to go have a drink somewhere.

There is a 55^th anniversary of the school this week and they have been preparing for it, so I am hoping this is why it has been so crazy, but three out of four days this week the entire teaching staff has gone into meetings during the school day. This means that the only teacher/staff anywhere is me. Just picture what it would be like when you were in your high school if every single staff member left the students completely on their own in the school. Let’s just say not much learning has been going on and the inmates have been in charge.

I don’t know if this is normal in Peru for the teachers to have meetings during the school day and leave the kids 100% on their own in the school but I have been told that my school does not have the highest reputation in Urubamba.

Here is how my week went;

Monday – The day starts out quite normal, I am just tired from Machupicchu but in the afternoon my teacher leaves for a minute but never comes back. Total chaos breaks out in my classrooms and what is supposed to be the top class at the school just wanders around, eats, plays soccer in the classroom, some just leave. When I walk out and look around the school, every classroom is like this and I do not see a single staff member in sight. At the time I had no idea where any of them were but at the end of the day I grab my stuff and go home. Then I go grab a drink.

Tuesday – Starts out OK but in the 2^nd class of the morning my professor has to go to another staff meeting at 10:00. He was there at the start of class so it actually went OK this time and the students did their work until the 11:00 lunch break but I find out that the staff has more meetings in the afternoon and I am asked to teach the rest of the classes. OK but I might as well have tried to swim up Niagara Falls. I am the only teacher on the grounds and every class in the school looks to be in total chaos. Students are mostly outside playing soccer, eating ice cream, a few are getting friendly with one another in the stairwells, some of the guys are wrestling each other, talking, listening to music, and so on. Nobody is studying. This is pretty much how it went from 10:00 to 2:00.

Wednesday – Normal day as the teachers did not have any meetings until the end of the school day. We had a social at the Project’s Abroad office that afternoon and my supervisor is on vacation this week but I did say something to the staff during a check in interview. They seemed rather concerned about it and I am rather expecting to get a visit from my supervisor when she gets back from vacation.

Welcome back! This type of shit always would go on when I was not in the office so it is nice to know it is universal.

Thursday – It is a half day today as the students have the anniversary parade in the afternoon but I am not sure why they are bothering to have class. They would have been better off just working with the students on their dances for the parade. I only have two classes and the first is 4^th graders and they are pretty chill and talk to me, play cards in class, some are practicing their dances, listening to music, watching videos on the computer, etc. All and all it was like they were hanging out on a free period. The second class was 3^rd graders who are around 14-years-old and total chaos reigned. There was actually one girl who was trying to do the lesson plan but the rest, forget it. A couple of the guys had beer bottles and were pouring them on each other. At one point I told them enough and smelled it and it was just water but I am not 100% sure that was the entire time. I also got mobbed by some of the girls and guys who were asking me all sorts of questions about dancing and smoking pot. I was totally OK when noon hit and classes ended.

During all of this the students were totally nice so it was not like they were acting aggressive towards me or each other, it was just a free for all.

Me and two of the demons before the parade

 

Thursday afternoon was the parade which should have started at 4:00 but in Peruvian fashion really started at 4:45 instead. After the week I almost did not go but I am glad that I went as it was a total turnaround from the rest of the week and I rather enjoyed it. The kids were having fun, the staff was actually present and I got to walk through the streets of Urubamba with the students on their way to the Plaza de Armas where they were going to perform dances.

Class 3A and my teacher

While waiting to go to the plaza I hung out with the students and my teacher and we talked and took pictures. Several of my students were playing the parts of the demons. They were involved in all the 3^rd and 4^th grade dances and essentially their job was to act like chaos during the dances. They were well suited to this. Their job was to run up and down the other students; act silly; dance with each other, sometimes suggestively; and to toss firecrackers around in the dancers and even the parents who would walk through after their kids performed.

Enter the demons

But I will also say that these are the guys who totally stole the show and everybody watching totally got a kick out of then as they ran up and down during each of the dances. I am guessing that they had more fun than anybody else during the parade.

Each class, 1^st to 5^th grades groups A, B, C and D all had a dance number that they would do so this went on till around 9:00 pm. Starting with the school band and followed by the teachers, each class would come into the square and perform a 5-7 minute dance in front of the crowd before moving on for the next class. The mayor was up on the steps in front of the church announcing each of them as they came in and some of the students were next to him playing music for each class.

I almost did not go after the week I had but I am very glad that I did as it erased all the stuff that went on earlier in the week. Don’t get me wrong, I really don’t want another week like this, I mean holy fuck! But I had so much fun talking with the kids, walking the streets and watching the parade that it more or less put me at ease with the rest of the week. I just wish I had some idea what this was going ahead of time as I would have invited some of the other volunteers to watch. It was one of the most fun things that I have done so far in Urubamba.

I’ll close with some observations that you would never see in the United States with something like this.

1. You would never find the school abandoned of staff like I saw this week. At least I would hope not.
2. They never would have had kids throwing fireworks into the dancers like I saw, too many lawsuits just waiting to happen with that.
3. The parts of the demons would have been totally regulated by the school and would not have been anywhere near as much fun as it was here.
4. During one of the dances there were two 4^th grade kids with hair spray and lighters. Need I say more?
5. The parade floats where rather impressive and often rather simple too. Often in the U.S. I think there is this attempt to always out do the others and that was not really here. Rather refreshing.