The Gringa Guides of Amantaní - Journal from Wed. 7.15.09

Our final trip to Amantaní began today, and this time, we weren't just in charge of teaching at a library; we were the tour guides and translators for a group of 14 British volunteers! They were World Challenge volunteers, and their original plans to paint a school on the mainland fell through when Peruvian schools were suddenly closed this week in order to be decontaminated of potential swine flu (H1N1) germs. And I must point out that not one of this group could string together a sentence in Spanish. All arrangements for the day were up to us to work out, but I actually enjoyed being a translator for the day!

One of the highlights of the day was a great hour or so of frisbee and intense volleyball with the local women and the WC group. Many of the women were dressed in their full skirts and traditional outfits. And volleyball is apparently very popular on Amantaní. The local women put all us gringos to shame! Madeline and I also introduced monkey-in-the-middle to one of the younger girls. :)

After playtime, we all headed into the library of this community (Villa). I was a little skeptical that the big British group would be much help in this second situation because none of them spoke Spanish, but everything actually worked out very well, probably because the kids that came to learn were so young that Spanish skills really didn't matter. In fact, when Madeline and I led some of the British kids out to climb Pachatata, a fair number opted to stay behind and work with the kids some more!

Pachatata is a main tourist destination on the island. Madeline and I were in charge of getting our group to the top, but this was not such a difficult task given that there was already a steady stream of tourists winding their way up the stone path. My favorite part of the hike was meeting a German girl at the top while watching the sun set. It was really neat that we could all 3 carry on a conversation in Spanish although it was not the native language of any of us!

We succeeded in being tour guides and didn't lose a single student! It was dark when we met Nestor in the plaza of Villa. He helped us direct all the kids to their respective homestays, and then we headed back to ours. This particular house in Villa only has candles in the bedroom and kitchen. Therefore, we enjoyed our rice and veggies by candlelight.