home is where you make it!

Hola amores desde Oxapampa–or allinllachu oxapampamantam!

I’ve been living in the department of Pasco for a little over a week now, though it’s felt like years. This past week has been full of surprises and dotted with colorful characters that I feel so privileged to get to meet, my students included. Aiden and I arrived to our little log cabin in Chontabamba last Saturday, after a 50 minute flight and a 6 hour drive through the windiest, most convoluted roads I’ve ever seen outside of West Virginia. As daunting as the drive was, I couldn’t close my eyes and grit my teeth through it all, because we were driving through the most beautiful scenery you could possibly imagine. In fact, Oxapampa itself is the most beautiful place I’ve ever lived in (apologies to Carrboro). Oxapampa is the bigger town of the two (I definitely wouldn’t call it a city, but it sometimes feels like it compared to Chonta), and it’s about a 15-20 minute drive from Chontabamba, where I live, and where the school is.

Chontabamba, with all love, is the size of a thumbtack, but I adore it. What it lacks in excitement it completely makes up for with its lush greenery and wonderful people. Our cabin is cozy, if sparsely furnished, but we’ve been on a gradual campaign to add what it needs (a frying pan, curtains, lamps, a cutting board, rigging up our own window screens out of mosquito netting, etc). It has its faults, of course–I made my bed yesterday just to find out I’ve been sleeping with a spider for the past week, which I was very much not happy to discover–but every crack in every window is slowly endearing itself to me. Do I love waking up at 7 am to the incessant crowing of the rooster next door? No, not really. Nor do I love the stray dogs that decide midnight is the best time to start a chorus, and bark til 3 in the morning. But I live next to horses! And baby cows! And every morning I see the russet hen followed by her flock of determined, fluffy, golden chicks pecking across my yard, and I feel very lucky to live here.

Cows in my backyard!

We’re in the middle of the rainy season in Chontabamba, but there hasn’t been a day yet where the sun hasn’t made an appearance. What I love about Chonta is that everyone carries an umbrella, every day, either to shade from the sun or shelter from the rain. The clouds here are magnificent and threatening–I have by now figured out that they will rain on us when they want to, and not just when they’re full of precipitation. We have a family living next door to us, but otherwise our only neighbors are the cows and the mountains that surround us on all sides. We rent our cabin from Señora Sandra, a very independent woman of an indeterminate middle age. Sra. Sandra has short, black, curly hair, and I’ve only seen her wear a plaid button-down, jeans, and boots. I love her. She is the owner of the Albergue Dolce Vita, which is the name for the series of wooden cabins that she rents out to visitors and strangers alike. More often than not, she’ll pass me on the street, riding her red motorcycle, or I’ll see her hammering some fence post or bringing us a cutting board. Every time she sees me and Aiden, she smiles so widely you can’t help but instantly feel at home, and always ends every conversation with “ya mamita, ya papá.” I’m not convinced she fully knows my name (I think she called me Cheese earlier today) but I’m totally fine with that. Today she showed us how to light our tiny gas oven, and gave us recommendations for the vegetables she loves to roast. 

Our first night in Oxapampa! From left to right: Ana María, Juan Manuel, me, and Aiden. Can you spot Cody?

Another very important character in our lives is Ana María. Anita, as her friends call her, is the primary English teacher at the COAR Pasco, where Aiden and I are teaching until July. A COAR stands for Colegio de Alto Rendimiento, which is a government-run high-performance high school. Students have to apply in middle school, and only a few from each are selected. Anita is shorter than I am, and has long, black hair that reaches the middle of her back. Ana is also a huge dog lover. I know this not only because she told us this within seconds of meeting her, but because she was carrying her “perrijo,” Cody, into the Italian restaurant we were about to eat at. Ana has taken it upon herself to show us all around Oxapampa and Chonta, and where Ana goes, Cody is sure to follow. He is a tiny dog, who always looks like he’s smiling, but he’s a little instigator of trouble when it comes to other dogs on the street (and there are a lot of stray dogs around here). Our first night in Oxapampa, we tried to take a group picture in front of the town plaza, but we were quickly distracted because Cody chose that moment to start aggressively humping a much larger dog. So that was my first memory in Oxapampa!

As our self-appointed tour guides, Ana and Cody have introduced us to all of the store-owners on Chontabamba’s main street, has arranged for a local restaurant to cook vegetarian plates for me should I need it, and insists on taking us to every shop that sells artesanías. And though it’s been a little tiring keeping up with Ana, she has yet to lead us wrong. Everything she’s recommended to us has been nothing less than delicious, or useful, or perfect. Ana was the one who introduced us to all the teachers in the COAR, and has made this first week a very smooth transition–and I’m eternally grateful. 

There’s so much to share about the COAR already, I don’t even know where to start. All the students in the COAR are extremely bright, very ambitious, and live in Chontabamba full time. It’s basically like a boarding school, where the students come from all over Peru, and live in residencies near the school. They have classes from 7 am to 7 at night Monday through Friday, and workshops on Saturdays from 7-12. There are 3 grades, each split up into 4 sections: A, B, C, and D. Los terceros, or 3rd grade, are the freshmen. Cuarto, or 4th grade, is for sophomores/juniors. Quinto, or 5th grade, is for the seniors. 4to and 5to study the International Bacchelaureate program, so their studies are incredibly rigorous. It’s very intense, but the students are so lovely and sweet. Since they’re away from their families full time, many of the students have latched on to us and the other teachers, and are always excited to ask us questions or show us affection. The other day, a 4th grader named Davida told me she thought Aiden and I had “good style,” and another group of fourth grade girls have already invited me to help lead a new dance club that they want to form. We’ve spent the last week preparing for the incoming of the 3rd graders, who don’t start school til Monday, and getting to know the 4th and 5th graders, who spent this week acclimating to their schedules and preparing dance presentations for the assembly last Friday. Since there are no actual classes yet, we haven’t done much teaching, but I like getting to know the students so much that I haven’t minded. Besides getting to know the students, we’ve been making bookmarks for the incoming 3rd graders from scratch. We printed out useful English phrases they can use in class, pasted them onto cardstock, decorated the backs with stickers, and then “laminated” each one (and by laminate I mean we covered them with shipping tape). They’re not perfect bookmarks, but they were made with love, and I’m really excited to hand them out to the kids on Monday. 

The day we introduced ourselves, the 5th graders asked to take a picture with us!

Aiden and I came with a representative of EducationUSA, Juan Manuel Delgado, who works with Fulbright to introduce scholarship opportunities to Peruvian high schoolers. So Aiden and I came up with the idea to introduce several workshops on how to write a college essay to the students, since almost all of them want to go to university, and a lot of them want to study in the US. We’re spending this weekend drawing up the plans and agenda for the first workshop, which we hope to host next Saturday, and I’m really excited. We also each have to complete a supplementary project, as part of the Fulbright program, so we’ve been trading ideas about what we want those to look like. Aiden is really into zines, so he’s contemplating starting a club at the COAR Pasco to show students how to make a zine, and have them create their own. I’ve been struggling with ideas for my project, because the project is supposed to span the duration of our program, but I feel like it won’t be enough.

I really want to dedicate time to impact the students of both schools I’m assigned to, so I might end up doing two mini-projects and combining them into one. My first thought was to start a book club, where I could introduce the students to some of my favorite American authors (part of our project has to include an element of cultural exchange). But I’m also considering starting a creative writing club instead, where I can show the students some of my favorite short-stories and poems (both American and not), and they can work on creating their own poems or stories. Eventually, with the help of Fulbright, I might be able to collect those works and publish them as a volume, but we’ll see. There has to be interest first, so I’ll test the waters this coming week. Either way, I’m really excited, and there’s so many plans bouncing around my brain that I want to develop at the COAR. It’s been a while since I’ve been as inspired and motivated as I’ve felt since I got to Peru–gelato-making is fun, but it gets a bit mundane after a while. I’m hoping I can hold onto this excitement and inspiration so it can motivate me to apply to grad school....eventually....as I know I will need it!

What else is new? I finally hung up all my pictures around my room, so it feels really cozy and I’m surrounded by familiar faces. Last Friday, the students at the COAR split into sections for an assembly, and each section performed a dance number, blending pop, salsa music, and traditional Andean dances together for us. At the end, as a surprise number, Aiden and I decided to show them the steps to Cotton Eye Joe, which they really loved! And then we had half an hour of free dance time, where we showed them another line dance, the Cupid Shuffle, and they taught us how to zapotear and the difference between música selvática and música costeña. I was so sweaty and breathless by the end, but it was the most fun I’ve had all week! Last Wednesday, we stayed late at the COAR after work to play a game of volleyball with the kids–but we had no net, so we had to imagine one in place, and Aiden and I often jokingly came to blows arguing whether a serve had actually made it over the nonexistent net or not.

So we’re settling into life here in Chonta, and if we don’t have the most structured routine yet, it doesn’t seem to really bother me. Every day is a completely new experience, and I love the freedom we’ve been given to make a life here. I rented a bike for the month the other day, and I rode it home immediately after. It took me about 20-30 minutes, which was longer than anticipated, since I rented it in Oxa and had to ride all the way home to Chonta. But! I ended up seeing the most beautiful sunset through the mountains, so it was completely worth it. (I was thinking of you, Sarah, the whole time! But reliving only the good bike memories, I promise). 

I’m hoping that this upcoming week involves more actual teaching, but either way, I’m really excited for it to start. I’m planning on lots more hikes, bike rides, and explorations this week also, so of course I’ll hopefully have more to post soon. In the meantime, please enjoy the pictures in my gallery and on this post!

love, Chelsea