Hola! Alie and Aleza here, live from Pisaq, Peru! It’s the middle of our third week here and we all have increased our teaching loads. Groups of us began teaching at Divino de Corazon, a school in Pisaq with kids ranging from 6 to 17 years of age. We all found the new experience different from the Strive Center. At the Strive Center, we work with a smaller group of students and are able to tutor one-on-one based on individual ability. At Divino, we taught a larger group of students at a time with varying ability levels. We quickly learned to adapt to this challenge through the use of games and hands-on activities. Hearing the laughter and seeing the looks of recognition on the student’s faces after completing a lesson was quite the reward. We are all looking forward to getting to know the students better and at the same time, helping them develop their English language skills.

Monday night, however, took an unexpected turn. While here at the Willcamayu Hostel, one of our duties as interns is to cook dinner for our peers. We rotate nightly in pairs to shop, cook, and serve balanced dinners. This job can be quite difficult being in a foreign country. The food options are different than what we are used to and we have a stove as our sole cooking device. Monday night’s dinner consisted of a bean concoction and sweet potato fries. We knew something was up when the beans were a little harder than usual. Many of us started to feel sick, so we went to bed straight after dinner, hoping we would feel better in the morning. Unfortunately, this was not the case, as most of us made frequent trips to the bathroom throughout the night. We learned in the morning that the undercooked beans were the culprit. Although this was not the most enjoyable event, as Tyler put it, “it is part of the Peruvian experience.”

Alie and Aleza signing off. Adios until next time!