Sunday – Huaycan-rigged gym class

The voluntarios have taken to calling things that we’d normally call ghetto-rigged, “Huaycan rigged.”  Doors that we keep shut with sand bags, sinks held up by bricks, etc.   It’s my new favorite saying.

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English and gym class for 6-9 year olds.  Highlights:

Milner is a chubby little boy of about six.   He has a big round face and always wears a  Brazil soccer jersey with his name on the back that’s just a liiiittle too tight for his frame.  He is shy and mumbles a lot.  Very sweet.  He comes to class today with his mother, who reports that he has a really bad rash and shouldn’t be allowed to scratch it.  I look at him.  His face is covered in cortisone cream in all the places where he hasn’t already succeeded in scratching it off.  He wants to kiss me hello, as all the little kids do here, but I hold him at arm’s length.  Whatever he has, I don’t want it.  He sits in class and starts maniacally scratching his arms.  Is it on your arms too, I ask him.  He looks at me very seriously. Yes, but don’t tell my mom.

I tell his mom.

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Played soccer with the kids today for gym.  Made the first and probably only goal of my life.  These six year olds have nothing on me.

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Huaycan rigged gym class game #1: Play volleyball without a net.  Not just without a net, but without even a string or anything to denote the location of a net.  So what happens is we just bonk the ball over the imaginary net, and then argue about whether or not it “went over.”  My eye is obviously off, because I keep “hitting the net.”  Jeez, I even suck at imaginary sports.

Huaycan rigged gym class game #2:  Huaycan at this time of year is incredibly windy. It’s too windy to play Frisbee, so instead what we do is lodge the Frisbee in the side of a large rocky hill.  Then we climb the hill and throw rocks down onto the Frisbee. The first person to dislodge it, wins.

Huaycan rigged  gym class game #3: Scale the side of the rocky mountain without your shoes on.

Huaycan rigged  gym class game #4:  Imaginary jump rope is just what it sounds like.  All the girls hop around pretending to have ropes. It’s not a bad system for me, because this way I never mess up, but really this is sorta pathetic.  We apparently had a jump rope at one point. I need to buy some.