Marco´s Kindergarten

So on Monday we mostly just chilled out and on Tuesday my cough and cold were still pretty foul so I didn´t go to Marco´s, although I went to the Amistad where we teach English and I sung the rainbow song so many times I´m quite sick of it by now! On Wednesday I had my first day at Marco´s Kindergarten, its official name is Kindergarten Lucerito I think but everyone calls it Marco´s because the guy that runs it, Marco, is so nice. I was put with the five year olds, I sat on a table with Maria, the orphan who introduced herself to me when I first got there, Miriam, Jean-Pierre and a couple of other boys whose name I couldn´t catch, they were the "naughty" table and it was basically my job to make them be quiet so the other kids could learn. They were incredibly cute, Maria and Miriam started stroking my hair instantly and kept asking me why I was white which I found absolutely hilarious, they also thought (and still think because I was too amused to correct them) that blue nail varnish is my natural colour because my nails are drier than theirs- amazing. Maria is especially naughty, because she´s an orphan and I guess feels validated by the attention, she kept trying to monopolise all my attention. Jean-Pierre, who´s very serious, just wanted to colour my nails in more with felt tip pens, and Miriam and the other boys kept offering me their food and clinging to my arm, wrapping my beads/scarves around themselves etc. The kids did lots of worksheets, that´s all they ever seem to do, but the teachers were really nice and obviously cared about the kids a lot. I had to sort out a couple of fights- Maria bit Josie, another orphan, on the hand and made her cry. My Spanish is still limited but I managed to assert some sort of authority and they were playing happily together on the seesaw by the end.
After Marco´s we went to El Molino market and bought masses of stuff for the Chinchero kids, stationery etc., with some of the money that you guys raised for us, it was amazing, we can´t wait to present it all on Friday, we´re going to do a mini-olympics for prizes, because the olympics and countries/flags of the world is what we´re teaching there tomorrow. Last night we went out for dinner with some swiss guys, friends of Lauren that she met on a trip, and they ended up paying for the meal which was nice, and we went to Rootes bar for drinks afterwards, me and Heather left early though.
Today at Marco´s me and Heather were both with the four year olds attempting to teach them some English at Marco´s request. We taught them thank you, good morning etc., the numbers 1 to 5, the rainbow song and heads shoulders knees and toes but we were pretty sure they´d instantly forgotten everything until the teacher started quizzing them and they actually remembered a surprising amount which was really good. After Marco´s we wandered up Gringo Alley and had a good lunch, then met Cecile, a new volunteer, and it was straight off to the Amistad to teach English there. We reprised heads shoulders knees and toes which they loved, I must have sung that song at least 20times today, exhausting. We then taught them feelings (happy, sad etc.) and the alphabet. Then we had them draw a picture of themselves and write how they were feeling. I did one myself just because I like colouring in, but when the girls saw the picture I´d drawn they gasped and said it was amazing and eight of them demanded identical pictures, so I had to reproduce the picture once in biro, once in red and six times in black (one girl wanted two copies)- I was bloody sick of that picture by the time I´d finished.
Tonight we´re out to dinner, and then off to Chinchero tomorrow to teach and try on some traditional Peruvian clothes.
missing everyone lots, loads of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx