Back to Work

I'll try to keep my focus while I have to listen to this blowhard in the Sheraton lounge talk about his 'pimp condo in downtown Chicago. It's pretty sick man.' Anyways, sorry for the negative aside. I had my first real day working at Grupo GEA today. Do I know exactly what I will be doing yet? No, but I have a better idea. I am working with a couple other full-time employees on Buena Voz, a program that aims to help high school kids from the poorer schools around Lima achieve whatever goals they want to set for themselves. There are 7 schools participating currently, and the students meet every Saturday for 4 hours to participate in the Buena Voz activities. Today, one of the GEA workers and I visited 2 schools in Callao to deliver materials, ensure they are prepared and staffed for the Buena Voz activities, and set expectations. I did not do much of the speaking - my Spanish is improving, but working in Spanish is challenging - but fortunately I was able to understand most things. The schools were really different from what I was used to in the US. Callao is about 30 minutes north of Lima, and it has a reputation of being a rough area with lots of crime, gangs, etc. The city is strange, though, because there are lots of people meandering on the streets and very few cars. And it was eerily quiet. Just some impressions, let's go back to the schools. Both of them were surrounding by 15' high cinderblock walls and you can only gain entry by knocking on the door and speaking with the school bouncer. Once inside, I noticed two snack carts with cookies, chips and sodas, but these were operated by folks just making a living rather than by school employees. The classrooms are really dark and all the students wear uniforms even though these were public schools. However, there were computer classrooms with high speed connections. The rest of Lima has many of these interesting combinations of past and present as well. The teachers were all very nice, and very welcoming to the white guy. I hope to be able to attend some of the Buena Voz classes, but I'd like my Spanish to be a little better first. Did I mention that speaking Spanish all day long is tiring? It's pretty tiring.

The other interesting activity today was having lunch at the house of one of my coworkers, Melissa. She lives in the Surco district (right next to Barranco where GEA is located) with her family, and we ate with her dad and two aunts. I had a great time because they spoke very slowly and clearly. And the food was good! We had a Peruvian dish of boiled/sliced potatoes with Huancaina sauce (a cheesy, slightly spicy sauce), pasta bolognese, and some lemonade (served hot). During lunch the Brazil-North Korea soccer match was on. It was fun seeing two elderly aunts going nuts over Brazil scoring that first goal (it was a good shot, but they took it to another level). After lunch we went back to work, but it was late in the day so I didn't really do a whole lot. We spent some time after work looking for more apartments for me and I think I will probably be in a place in Barranco, but the initial option of a hotel at a monthly rate didn't pan out. Hopefully this will be done by Thursday but my hotel points are serving me well in the Sheraton. Ok, I know this all wasn't very organized and had a distinct lack of humor or insight, but this dude in the lounge is really bothering me. On that note, I'll end this one!

Hope everyone is doing well up north.