Thursday 25 October 2007

First day at School


Well Cuzco came alive today with bustling streets dodging cars and every kind of street vendor and tienda. Police of different types congregate on corners, shoe shine boys line the pavement eying your feet, elderly indigenous women sell chicken soup or bread from their blanket covered baskets and young girls sell telephone credit cards. There is an evident mix of the reasonably affluent and heartbreakingly poor. I saw a man walking on all fours with blocks of wood and knee pads to help him make his way alongside smartly dressed office workers and children in school uniforms.

The school made a cool welcome by setting me an examination and on completion the director of studies told me that I seem to have forgotten a lot of my Spanish! Ah well – I was assigned to my teacher Mariene and we spent a productive three hours covering quite a bit of ground and in an enjoyable way. I added my name to dancing lessons and short trek in the Sacred Vally but I understand these only happen if there are sufficient takers – there are other activities as well which include lectures and Peruvian cooking, so we'll see.

Finally today I managed to find an Internet café and was able to chat with my family and see them on Skype video – so now to my homework!

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