Second Day

Today was my second day at Fe y Aegria and it went very well. It was the day that I introduced the students to American Football. I spent the first hour of the day with the physical education teacher Luis Humberto explaining the concept and the rules of American football to him. After an explanation of the game we watched some videos on Youtube for him to get a better idea for how the game is played.

The children then went to recess at about 10:00am and I ended up playing soccer and basketball with them. The children were really good at soccer and were very competitive.

After the soccer game I gave a presentation on American Football to the class and then we went outside to play. The teacher separated the boys and the girls and had the girls sit and watch the boys play as I only bought one football. (Tomorrow I’ll bring the other football for the girls) We played for approximately 25 minutes and believe they were able to get a good idea for how the game is played.

After the gym class was over I went and severed the children lunch. We first bought the plates to the small children and then I worked in the kitchen to help serve lunch to the older children. They ate a dish of white rice, and fettuccine alfredo. The principal invited me in for lunch and I ate with the staff. I was a bit hesitant at first to eat because of the fear of getting sick, however realized that if the children and staff eat the food on a daily basis that It should be ok for me to eat. I accepted the lunch and ate with and socialized with the cooks and some of the teachers in the kitchen. I learned that some of them have lived in Villa El Salvador since the inception and had been working at Fe y Alegria for 20+ years. This proved to be a great session to lean Spanish, to get to know some of the staff, and for them to get to know me.

While the food was cooked in a large metal pot and was mixed with giant utensils, it was still good and I cleaned my plate.

Pachacamac Ruins

The cultural activity for today was to visit the Pachacamac ruins that were South of Lima close to Villa el Salvador and near to the Pacific Ocean. These were ancient Inca ruins and had a lot of history behind them as with many of the ancient Inca structures in Peru. Some of the structures that stood out to me were the temple for the Sun god and the temple for the moon god.

Talk with Lucein Journalist

After visiting the Pachacamac ruins we had a meting with Lucein a journalist for “The Economist” and for “Time Magazine.” He specializes in writing articles about Peru and gave us a lesson on the history and the currently political situation in Peru. Again this was very informative and helped us understand the motive behind some of the protests with people in the jungle regions of Peru.