A man on a mission...my journey into the aquisition of a second language

Learning a language has probably been one of my longest and most strenuous challenges of all time. It is much like working out. It takes persistence and dedication to gain results. It is nothing you can measure on a day to day basis…which makes the acquisition a little frustrating. Some days flow good and other days you feel as if you have regressed. The new language can give you headaches. Learning it can discourage you and it can make you feel as if there is no hope. Now is when I tell you about myself. I love challenge, I am super competitive!

I do have some challenges that do not aid my language acquisition. My ability to concentrate has always been a challenge during my whole life. The smallest background noises will absolutely devour my focus (Bloody dogs! May the fleas of a thousand camels invest your armpits). More than one event happening at once causes fragmented focus. For example, we went for a meeting with Arariwa and during this meeting there was a child and adults running in and out of the office, and the odd telephone interruption. If there is anything that will create a challenge when you understand the language already this would be it. These challenges when understanding a small percent of what is being communicated to you makes for one of the largest brain stimulations ever possible, especial in a society that is so much different than what you have been accustomed to throughout your entire life.

Having so much difficulty in the language has caused me to feel a little incompetent with my work. At times I have felt very discouraged and unable to help when visiting the communities we work with. I do not enjoy this feeling at all. This has caused frustration and a game plan. I realized that majority of the fluent Spanish speakers are leaving shortly. Therefore, it is very important to pick up my studies and efforts to keep the momentum of our projects.

The past two weeks I have begun to intensely study the new language. My day starts with the memorization of a flashcard set from the website http://www.spanishdict.com/flashcards. This website is a great way to learn new vocabulary which I find very useful is day to day conversations. I then eat breakfast, read a Spanish article, speak with Yovana and begin my daily activities for NeVo. Our activities include much conversation with community members about our progress and our projects plans in the future. After the day’s work, I go to my Spanish class and practice with my teacher for 1.5 hours straight. Just when you think this is enough, following Spanish class I go to the gym where I have now made a few friends and we talk in Spanish and some nights I close with a movie in Spanish.

I have now started a language exchange with a local anthropologist who wants to learn English. We get together twice a week; one day pure Spanish and the other in pure English. This is a challenge for both of us and a great way to expand our abilities. I first met her when she came into the NeVo house to give a lecture about the history of Peru, its people and its culture. When I first met her I did not understand anything and I had several failed attempts trying to speak. When we met, our first conversation was 2 hours in nothing but Spanish. I surprised myself. With all this practice I have become much more confident in my ability and I feel as if I can contribute much more the success of the projects of Nexos Voluntarios.

Another Tongue Twister!

¡Compadre, cómpreme un coco!

¡Compadre, coco no compro!, porque el que poco coco come, poco coco compra y como yo poco coco como, poco coco compro!

Experiencial Tourism

We have been working with a community called Media Luna which is planning to achieve this industry for them. There is a lot of work involved in the preparation of creating a community ready to serve tourists. Experiential tourism allows outside parties to have a living and breathing experience. You learn all about the community, what their challenges are and how they survive. The communities in the sacred valley all have different strengths and different aspects that make them unique. We are focusing on the strengths of the community in Media Luna for further development and have begun with the steps necessary to create this industry for them. Nexos Voluntarios will be working with a local capacity development organization named Arariwa which will begin workshops in September. We have also begun workshops on computer skills. Our project does face many challenges; for example, the organization and participation of the community at times, the level of education of the community and the proper practices of the daily activities of involved in the tourism project. It is very important that the involved members of the community in the project deliver a safe and friendly product. To gain a full grasp as to how this type of tourism functions we visited two successful communities with this same type of tourism; Amaru, and Misminay.

Our first visit was to Amaru where we traveled by bus to Pisac where our guide and community member met us with a taxi. We took the tax well above Pisac to 3500 feet roughly. Our group met the community with a very warm introduction and showed us the community and served us mate(tea).

Following this our group began a long journey up the mountain. During this walk we discovered and learnt many new things about the life of the people, their utilization crops and plants and the efforts that go into daily activities.

Once we reached the top of the mountain we were joined by a group of Amaru ladies who were carrying an amazing three course meal with more mate. After our lunch we travelled as a group to see the herd of alpaca that were a few hundred feet above us, then down to view one of the lagoons. We encountered an ancient style house with human bones inside and finally after a long trek made it back into town where we were served dinner.

The night was an early night and the morning was an early morning. Our group participated in some cultural activities and dressed in some traditional clothing. We danced to local music and witnessed the complexity of weaving as one of the main crafts of the females in the communities.

This two day visit to the community of Amaru was a very great experience. All activities seemed to flow and were very well sequenced which was great. The level of hospitality was pleasant as well. Amaru was the bi-product of Arariwa’s capacity training a few years back.

The other location that we visited was Misminay. Our visit was for a similar purpose but with a twist. We were there to view how things were done, however, we were also there to be part of the creation of a promotional TV show on experiencial tourism that will be on Haciendo Peru.

We travelled up the mountain to Misminay where we were at cloud level. Our bus stopped before entering the community and that is when lights, cameras, action began. We exited out of the bus with film rolling, the community playing instruments and welcoming us into the community. From there, we filmed different segments and on breaks talked with the locals. After a day of filming the night was spent sharing stories with the local community and participating in dance. We had a big fire and live music playing during the night.

The next day we all went horseback riding, mountain biking and visited the houses of a couple community members who demonstrated how to make mud bricks (which are used for the creation of houses here), how to colour wool and weave, and how to use local plants are medicine for different ailments.  After these activities we ate a large feast and drank chicha (fermented corn). Now all was good with this tour and the community was very experienced in receiving guests, however, we may have found an area that needs attention.

Attention and improvements can always be made by anyone, or any organization everwhere in the world. This noticeable need for change we believe may be needed in the production of the chicha. After the final day Ronny, the TV host, and myself became very ill. I was put in the hospital with severe dehydration from a fever derived from a bacterial infection and I also had a parasite. This past week was not a pleasant one and was spent in my bed. These little occurrences are the risks that need to be eliminated from experiential tourism and must be stressed. This is something that we can stress and pay acute attention to when working with Media Luna. In Media Luna, one of the activities is the production of chicha. It is the responsibility of the community to deliver a safe product to the customers and it is the role of the communities’ support system to train methods of achieving this success.

Our road to the development of Media Luna is a long road, but the motions have been in play and we are  continuously bridging connections with hotels, and Urubamba.

My Birthday In The Jungle

 

People always say that a picture is worth a thousand words then this blog is worth 1300 alone through photos. I sat and wondered how to talk about my 25^th birthday experience in the jungle and had difficulties with where to begin and which topics to talk about. Therefore most of this blog will be a photo journal with a description.  

This birthday has by far been one of the most amazing birthdays and most amazing visits of all time. I can say however, that my family and friends were missed a lot. A shout out to my best bud Ryan! Dude a birthday without you in it sucks, jungle would have been way cooler hahahaha.

We finally escaped the weather of Urubamba and entered the hot and humid temperatures of the jungle. This was a great reason to swim and enjoy the heat. Wow did this make my feel like home. However, I found out later it was hotter in the Niagara Region.

The jungle with my friends that I did go with though was an absolutely perfect experience and they really made me feel loved during my birthday. Right down to a birthday cake at a gorgeous restaurant overlooking the Rio de Madre de Dios. One noticeable change when leaving the mountains and entering the jungle was a change in music preference.

The people of Puerto Maldonado were so friendly. This is my birthday cake which was a free gift from the resturant which we ate at. The owners we sitting in the table beside us with guests. We all shared the chocolate mocha cake. This meal was tasty and large. My friends and I ate more than needed. This was the perfect time for all of us to lay around in our hostel hammocks and enjoy a rest.

There is nothing better than a hammock.

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The three stooges

At this moment we were waiting to meet a guide to determine whether or not we will choose to him or our hostels tour. We met the man who was recommended by Lonely Planet. He was an older man who knew the jungle well. However, some of the members of the group preferred to take a tour with someone who spoke more english. We also felt that he lacked a plan. We decided to take the tour option with the hostel tour. They were young and connected with our group very well and spoke a large amount of english. This is great during a tour especially when you are entering an atmosphere that is so new and so complex.

Returning to the city after holding a boa. I was included in a comedy act in the Plaza de Armas of Puerto Maldonado. Although my espanol es mas o menos, I still was able to participate and it made for a great story for the birthday boy.

Spending some time swinging and climbing vines was one of my favourite activities in the jungle. If i lived there I would honestly do this everyday. A great workout and much fun. It also grabs the attention of monkeys!!!

Canopy walk just after zip-lining. A great photo of Ronny in the distance. I was challenged here to exercise my fear of heights. I made it without being too scared! hahaha

A great group of friends!

Monkey see....Monkey do

I hope everyone enjoyed this picture blog of my time in the jungle. The first weekend trip in Peru and not the last. After this I look forward to my other excursions and expiriences to take in.

Hast Luego!

I Fell In Love

After a week of staying here I can actually say that I have fell in love with the Peru's culture and landscape. The people here are very friendly. I find spanish a little difficult at the moment but in time I am hoping that will change. Spanish lessons have started and I am hoping in a month I will be able to have fluid spanish  conversations in full.

I also went to present money towards the NeVo Social Fund to the school named here IES. Tecnico Agropedcuario Urubamba as a representative for the Welland Rotary Club. This was a very great experience and the school expressed great gratitude for the donation towards the 2 place winner.

Ronny and I have also spent a good amount of time in seperate meetings with different stakeholders in the community for our current projects. These are the building blocks for the implementation for our contributions to the NeVo projects.


Thursday night the NeVo house had its culture night. Thursday we went to a ceramic makers house. We met a man who makes pottery for local markets. He told us his story and we met his children. We also learnt and experience the difficulty of his craft. This was a very new expierence and I think I have found a new hobbie when I return home. His daughter began telling me all about the Quechua festivals with all the different types of clothing. Little did I know that I would get to view this type of festival so soon.

This weekend I was supposed to join NeVo group for a trip to Cuzco, However, do to illness, I could not attend and spent the day sleeping......this sucked! Sunday I felt much better and decided to climb a
small mountain with Ronny and a new volunteer Ryan. Just prior to climbing we came across a very cool festival. After the festival, we purchased banana fingers and then climbed a small mountain. For a first climb, it was a hard one hahaha. The view at the top was just amazing. We spent some time enjoying the views and later went down, took a moto to a very fancy resturante named Tunupa and ate our fill. A new food this week was Alpaca meat......yum.

Hasta Luego!


A new tongue twister:
CONFUSO CONFABULABA UNA CONFUSA
CONFABULACION,
CONFUNDIDO NO CONFIABA EN LA CONFUNDIDA CONFABULACION,
QUE ACABABA DE CONFABULAR

Beware of Dogs!!!

I took the plane to Lima where I joined Ronny and our driver. We then went to a hostel in Lima at roughly 2 am. We were both very very excited to be here and tried a local beer before bed. The next day....."good morning Peru" We ate breakfast and waited for our next taxi to the airport to fly to Cuzco.


We arrived to Cuzco where we met Audrey and Edwardo our driver. We drove for one hour through the mountains to Urubamba. Wow, is Peru different. Especially this area. The urubamba area was far more rural than I originally expected. As we were driving Audrey noted that there was an abundance of dogs.....we will come back to this later.

The first few days Ronny and I climatized and met the volunteers at the NeVo house and built great friendships from that start. We also started meeting the locals right away. Our first local we met was Senor Daniel who was the owner of the hostel we are staying at for the first month called "The Palace" named after one of the volunteers. Senor Daniel is a great man who really does all he can to make you feel comfortable living there. He was also a great first person to practice our new language, Spanish.

Ronny and I started our first day in a meeting in regards to a project we will be working on called Media Luna where we discussing different aspects of the project and the development of the Media Luna's capacity with a local mirco finance institution. We were also working in Villa Marcelo where we aided in some very extremely difficult labour picking into the ground, shoveling stone, and lifting boulders. A long days work. The next day Ronny who has superior computer capabilities than I went to Media Luna to set up computers and I went back to Villa Marcelo to do more labour and meet Hector the Director of the school. This day Ronny and I started finding our fit in NeVo. We will be actively involved with Media Luna and all its aspects, and the oversight of the Villa Marcelo funds and implementation of activities from this point on. We started spending more time meeting key contacts and discussing future plans. Now, doing all this requires language abilities. Therefore, Ronny and I have started spanish classes and all I can say is "wow my brain hurts". We will learn alot very shortly.

This paragraph goes to new experiences. During our stay here we have made a strong effort to  try everything that comes infront of us. Bargaining in a market, taking the combi and moto, drinking sugar cain juice, and yes for all of you who heard about my desire to try Cuy it was done!!!!! The final expierence that was not expected was quickly discovered during our first walk home. There is an abundance of wild dogs that run the streets. During the day, they are tranquil and friendly. At night, they gather is packs and become alive which turns out to be a little aggresive to humans walking home in pitch black streets. What a scary expierence!!

Hasta Luego!!

T- Minus 4 Days

The count down begins and following it every possible emotion. The check list being composed and corrected. Items that seem necessary being eliminated (sorry bike, you just won't fit). Time to say my goodbye's and thoroughly practice my Spanish. Friday marks the beginning of new language, culture, geography, family and friends in the city of Urubamba. Today was my farewell party with the family. This is the appropriate time to say "I will miss everyone!"


This trip has definitely been the object of discussion amongst myself and family members. Especially after an article was posted about the upcoming adventure by the The Tribune on Saturday June 25th's issue http://www.wellandtribune.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3187162. I have never bore witness to parents so proud hahaha.
As I approach departure I also begin brain storming and day dreaming of my daily functions working with Nexos Voluntarios. I also have been creating a list of places to visit in the beautiful country of Peru. Thus far: Machu Picchu, the floating islands of Lake Titicaca, and the oasis of Huacachina, Ica.


At this moment while writing, I have just thought about the voyage of my co-worker and new friend. The man has left the region to Israel for his brother's wedding. He will then fly back to Lima to meet me and from that point fly to Cusco. GOOD LUCK my friend!!


Until the next Blog! Hasta luego