The task

Once we got to Chavin our main task for the week was to spend time in the local schools teaching English. This isn't necessarily a great need, it's just an opportunity to meet kids and develop relationships with them. We spent two days at the elementary school in Chavin, working with a total of 8 classes if I remember correctly. Then, we spent two days at the elementary school in San Marcos, working with about 10 classes.

We taught them the song "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes" to teach body parts. The kids really enjoyed the song and it was cute to listen to them say choulders and choes instead of shoulders and toes! I have no idea how many times we sang the song but it was so many that by the last day Haley and I totally couldn't remember how it went. The kids in our group didn't understand what we were laughing so hard at! After we got the body parts down we (by we I mean the people who actually spoke Spanish) went on to explain that God made them and made them each unique and special and that He loved them. It was cool to watch them all sit (in a public school) and be totally captivated by a story about Jesus.



The entire school takes a 45 minute recess in the middle of the morning (this includes a snack bar) so we hung out with the kids and played games with them. These girls let me play Jacks with them but I totally stunk and they just kind of looked at me like, "why is this so hard for you?"


This girl wanted to show off her new song...



Jordan (Brian and Jenn's oldest son) was telling the kids about Jesus right there on the playground...



One afternoon we took a bunch of balloons, face paint, beads, bubbles, and toys out to the little park by Brian and Jenn's house to have a little "fiesta" with the kids. At first there were just a couple kids but it wasn't long until there were a bunch of kids and quite a few adults hanging around. This was definitely a highlight. It was was so neat to see the kids so excited about something simple like a balloon! There were several opportunities for the Spanish speakers to really talk to some of the adults and explain why we were there and explain why Brian and Jenn live there.


We also spent some time just playing with the kids. Here I am taking part in a serious game of Hide-and-Seek:



The kids were all really excited to see us around town and pretty much treated us like rock stars. They'd run up to you and give you a hug and then just follow you around all day. When we were leaving the San Marcos school on the last day several kids got out their notebooks and asked us to sign them! If only they knew how ordinary we really are! It was some good times. It was interesting seeing how schools in Peru take care of business (very relaxed) and it was neat to see that "playing" has no language barriers!

And, because I keep talking about Brian and Jenn, here they are with Jordan and Trevor...