971831251

I bought a phone and I have unlimited incoming

971831251

Until Tuesday

0051-54-286578


Just say:
Puedo hablar a l'habitacion cinco por favor?


Es possible de hablar a l'habitacion cinco por favor?

Oy dia es VIERNES!!! ME GUSTA VIERNES

 April 29^th

Yes today is Friday and guess what, there is another long weekend yup we get Monday off. I think I have only had one full week since Ive been here. No hay problema.

My spanish still isnt super but I decided not to care anymore and just talk talk talk. Its rather funny actually.

This week has been alright, I was a little emotional one night but I'm better today. Im going to Arequipa and Melanie is staying here. Im kind of looking forward to being on my own in Arequipa. Melanie always likes hanging out with Frankling and Otto. And me well not so much, well I mean I do I just like some female contact sometimes so I will probably hang out with Brenda and go to church. 

I also told Melanie I would pick up her camera at the shop. Im gonna do some shopping too I love shopping. You guys need to tell what ud like from Peru. Ill probably wait till my last week to buy that stuff so I dont have to bring it everywhere with me.

The Escuela has a tradition that when there are new employees they have to cook a meal for all the staff. This week Franklin and a couple of others made lasagna it was dessert. May 11^th its Melanie and I's turn . What are we suppose to make noooooooo idea... ah well it should be fun.

I realize that my blog is actually not that interesting haha, so thank you for reading

Now that you have my addy

If you are in the mood for it here are a couple of things I would love getting

Pictures pictures pictures, of my babies, of my friends, of my love. Id really love getting Pictures

Postcards- letters- drawings- cards

Gum , the 'chicklet' here last 2 seconds and its over I like stride gum

Coffee.. if u can find those little envelopes and you just add water that’s the best

Candy, I love candy and there is no good candy here.

Celebration cookies?

A super nice and warm hoody

Anything that will remind me of home really

Peanut butter, Nutella baguette brie and paté and Thomas Fournier ok thank you!  

Ambushed!

April 26^th 2011

Hello friends,

I know I haven't blogged in a little bit, you must forgive me. I was off Wednesday and spent 5 days in Arequipa. I quite like Arequipa to be honest. Melanie thinks she wont go this weekend Im thinking about going anyway. I need the feel of the city, the luxury of having internet access. The sun.

I find Im not very independent so this will help me I think.

My Spanish is ok, I wish it was better Ive been here almost a month I would have thought it would be better by now but oh well. There isnt much I can do. The thing I don't like is that people don't really talk to me because they know I dont speak spanish. It kind of makes me sad but oh well I will try harder.

I had a fun weekend. We went to a Toro fight. We went with Franklin and his cousin Otto. (what a random german name for a peruvian haha) Anyway it was fun except Peruvians are on such a different schedule than us. Mélanie left at 5 am with Franklin, I refused to wake up that early on a weekend so I went with Otto at 10. Except I totally got owned. Well somewhat. In my head we were going straight to the toro fight to meet up Mel & Franklin. Well Otto showed me all around town brought me to this beautiful bridge with and amazing view. And finally headed to the toro fight around 2. It was almost an ambushed date. I did my best to talk about how much I miss my Marido and how great I thought he was all while practising my Spanish, so all in all it was a good day. The toro fight was rather impressive except kinda too violent for my sensitive eyes. I enjoy Melanie's company a lot because she has a boyfriend and we look out for each other so that we aren't ever alone with an amigo. So it works well.

Addy

The school has no addy but my friend Franklin was nice enough to give me his

Corina Jones
Calle Los Arces
222-A Cayma
Arequipa, Arequipa
Peru




If you are feeling up for it u can send me some gum and other goodies. 


Love u


Coco

You.

These last three weeks I have been through a lot of ups and downs and so far I have not cried.

 Nope I haven't shed one tear. Not even during my period! ( ok I know TMI but what are blogs for?)
 If you know me, you  realize that it is rather incredible because let's face I'm a crier hardcore.

Well this morning my no crying streak ended. I cried.

How could I not:

Combien de fois devrais-je dire "Je t'aime" afin d'assouvir la passion qui brûle au fond de mon coeur pour toi?
Heureusement, le chiffre est incalculable. 
Heureusement, en effet: je pourrai, à chaque jour, à chaque heure, jusqu'à ma dernière, te répéter ces mots, ceux que je préfère dire, et qui ne s'adresse qu'à toi:
Je t'aime.

It's mi Compleanos.

I was worried I would have a terrible birthday.
On Tuesday night the teachers said there was a teacher's meeting in the Salada de Profe at 7h30. It kind of bugged me because our day ends at 8pm and clearly if we were to have a meeting it would go on.
When I got to the teacher's room they had cake and drink and a fiesta for me. Frankllin a teacher that speaks French said that ' On t'apprécie bcp et on veut te faire sentir partie de la famille''. It was so sweet of them
The next day I taught from 7 to 11. At the end of my class all of my students stood up and sang Happy Birthday to me. and then one by one they hugged me and said happy birthday. One by one, every student. Probably my favourite moment here thus far
This week also Wilfred brought me supper and breakfast! YES!  I kind of think he has a 'convenient' crush on me and it works in my favour most of the time, and when not I get Franklin to give him a talk. Franklin has kind of become an older brother to Melanie and I. We appreciate him a lot. I also love the fact that I am married because it's sort of 'game over' for the men here and they don't try as much with me as they do with Mélanie.
Last night we went out for chicken and dancing. I danced the whole entire night. I absolutely love dancing and they dance all the time here. Also surprisingly enough  the guys are really not all over you. they just dance, it's seriously just FUN.

I'm staying at Hostal Reyna. I booked room 20 the suite for my birthday. Best idea and 35 soles I have ever spent.
This has been a very memorable 25th.
Thank you all for your nice birthday wishes

Its my birthday!!!

0051-54-286578 ask for room number 20 . Im here till Monday
Im an hour later than you Its my birthdaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Happy birthday to me

Ah what a fun weekend I just had.
I spent a lot of time with Melanie. God has really blessed me with her.
We sepnt the day shopping hotels. It was fun we would walk in ask a series of questions and I would take notes. It was rather hilarious.
Tonight I went to church with Brenda, the old English teacher. Shes a christian. the service was good I understood more or less. It just felt good to be in the church. It was probably the biggest church I have ever been to. It has 5 services. Afterwards we met up with her boyfriend and I practiced my Spanish with them a lot.
Im heading back to the Escuela tmorrow morning.
Wednesday is my birthday and its also la semana Santa, so we get to go back to Arequipa :)
Happy birthday to me.

Pictures

Ive put up more pics on picasa because it takes much less time than Facebook
Here is the link.
https://picasaweb.google.com/corinajones

God is stronger

April 14^th 2011

A lot of the mountain people here believe in evil spirits. It is very common for the kids or even the adults to get so worked up and have convulsions due to their scares. It kind of creeps me out to be honest.

Yesterday Mélanie came in late and told me she assisted to a purification ceremony. Apparently one student has been having frequent convulsions and sort of panic attacks so he asked his 'guru' to come and preform a ceremony of purification. Mélanie explained to me everything that went on during this sort of purification ceremony. It sounded really creepy. Apparently they had some sort of animal skin and llama foetus and all sorts of creepy stuff, and they chanted stuff in Quechua around a fire. She also told me another woman assisted with here baby because she believed her baby had no soul. Mélanie was interested because she is an anthropologist. It pretty much creeped me out and made me want to pray for protection and read psalm 118.

I know that most of that stuff is psychological. But I truly believe that Satan is real and is powerful. I know however that our God is stronger. Yesterday I felt weird all day like if there was a spiritual battle going on. Maybe the altitude is getting to me but its as if I knew something was going on. Please pray for me, pray for the students . This stuff scares me a lot and seems to be predominant here.  

7 days till 25

13^th of April 2011

It's my birthday in exactly a week. I think it will be fun because I will teach the day of my birthday. And I love teaching! Today at the end of the class we played pictionnary, one of the words I picked for them to draw was Mrs Corina. This is what they drew. We all laughed so much.

The rest of the time we are suppose to plan our courses. Clearly I don't take 10 hours to plan courses. I don’t get it but whatever.

Yesterday it was the principal's birthday we cooked from 5 to 9 pm and had this sit down dinner with all these people from the school and school board ( I'm presuming.) It was fun except I kept feeling very faint, it was really weird, I didn't feel sick just very dizzy and weird.. I don't think I drank enough water to be honest. I need to be more careful about that. Melanie helps me a lot and sort of takes care of me.

Yesterday I also missed Tom a lot. It really got to me. I guess the first week you're still on the buzz of the novelty of it all and then you start missing people. I realized yesterday how much he is my comfort and my rock when I have hard days. I worry about him a lot, if he is okay, if he is eating well, if someone has asked him – how was your day Tom?- and that that someone didn't just settle for an -okay- but probed further to listened to his complicated yet entertaining work/geology stories. Take care of my Thomas for me.

It is so cold in the mountains, I can't believe it. I should have brought my winter coat and winter boots. The thing is that they don't have heating and the temperature changes so fast during the day. I sleep with a tuque on that I bought here. Apparently the month of July here is the worst, sometimes they even get snow.

Food and hotels are cheap however i haven’t found clothes very cheap. I don't like spending money all that much so maybe that's my problem.

Lunch is in 40 minutes. I am starving I am always starving. Mélanie and I sort of do our own groceries and eat sometimes at the caf here when we are starving. They serve big meals for really cheap like 4 soles. We dont have a stove or fridge but we bought a kettle so we have coffee in the morning. Usually we only eat lunch at the caf and fend for ourselves for supper.

I still don't feel super today I don't know why, I don't feel as faint I just feel sad and weird. Tomorrow is a new day and then its only a half day Friday and we are back to Arequipa.

Flash light from heaven!

12^th of April 2011

We are back at the Escuela. What an adventure our way back was.

We decided to stop at Chivays to the Hot Springs. We figured we could take a combis (sort of communal taxi) back to the Escuela. The hot springs were really nice. There were some Irish men who chatted up with us and seemed to want to meet up again with us but we already have the Peruvians all over us we decided we would skip out on the Irish.

We took a combis back but the combis dropped us off in the center of town and our school is about a half our walk in the boonies.

Achoma is a bit of a sketchy town, especially at night, because most people living there are farmers and there is pretty much nothing to do in town, most men hang around and drink. Melanie and I were pretty scared and stranded. Apparently a bus was to pass at 9pm, it was only 7pm. We waited in this sort of store and then tried to find a restaurant. We walked from the store to the restaurant and two men followed us. As soon as we walked into the restaurant they backed off. In the restaurant we met two other men that were sober and very nice. They sat at the table and talked to us for a bit. Finally a bus came like 10 mins later, we had to run back to the bus stop with our luggage the nice men helped us and we felt safe again. We told the bus driver to drop us off at the Escuela. He dropped us off like 10 mins walk in the scary dark woods further. Thankfully Melanie had a flash light and we walked to our house together. It was kinda scary but we were happy to be home safe.

Today I am at the Escuela, sometimes I feel like I have no idea what I am doing. I mean I love teaching but the rest of the time what am I suppose to be doing. I dont understand much and I feel really lame today. That's all for now.

Touch your cheeks!

April 6^th 2011

I think the Lord heard my prayers today. I taught my first class. A four hour class with a 15 minute break. It feels inhuman to have classes for that long but apparently that's how it works in Peru. Students here start their days at 7 am, they have classes until 12 then have lunch for 3 hours they then continue until 7 at night. I taught from 7 to 11 am this morning.

The class went well. Students' level of English is not so bad. Better than I thought. Everytime I say a word they repeat it in Spanish. I guess that helps me learn. We played Simon says today, they really loved that game. And they laughed every time I said '' Simon Says touch your cheeks'' maybe there is a funny word in Spanish that sounds the same. No sé perro es muy comico.

Yesterday I was so discouraged but tonight I am the total opposite. I met Brenda, she was the previous English teacher but also the manager ( who knows ppl seem to multitask . She spoke to me at lunch and asked if she could practise English & French with me and I could practise Spanish with her in exchange. I went to see her to ask her a couple of questions in English, because so far they have explained everything to me in Spanish as if I understand. She asked me if I wanted to practise so we did. Her English is a lot better than my Spanish but she is very patient with me. I may practise Spanish every night with her. I hope it works out well.

Tomorrow I will be in Chivays . There is internet there. Hopefully this post will be posted.

Yo creo en EL

April 5^th 2011

Today we went to Chivay a nearby village. The students from our school had what they call an Evento. There is another Escuela Taller in Chivay. That escuela is much prettier, I kinda wish I was there. At this evento there were a lot of speeches that I didn't understand then a bar tending competition. The students studying in Turismo all prepared their own cocktail and then the school principal and other important people tasted and judged which was the best. Afterwards they presented a traditional dance of Colca I took a video of it.

Nothing is very clear, not just with the language barrier but just with telling me what my tasks are. I find it difficult. Mélanie is friends with everyone and she speaks fluently I feel really lame. I haven’t cried yet but right now I don't see how I will tough 4 months.

Tomorrow I start my first English class. I haven't prepared much because clearly I have no idea the level of the students.

I'm sad tonight but I keep reading this:

''May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit'' Romans 15:13

Tomorrow is another new day I will do better, I will speak more in Spanish.


--- Bartending event, the students made their own cocktail and there were judges to vote for the best one







The students also did a traditional dance of Vale del Colca.

Is that even a language?

Monday April 4^th 2011

We took the bus this morning for Achoma. We had all of our luggage to carry and it was not so bad. Fiorela ( the project coordinator), Mélanie and I left for Achoma and a rather nice bus. It is a 4 hour drive through the mountains. It was so beautiful and I saw so many llama. On the way many people from the villages hitch a ride. It reminded me a bit of the phillipines.

We arrived at the Escuela del Colca around 5pm. We were then shown our house. It is a small apt but we were told it is only temporary. In three weeks we will move to a new apt. We then ate supper with Carlos a teacher there

Everything is in Spanish absolutely everything and I have such a headache. I realize if I really concentrate I can understand about 60%, when I'm tired it's more like 40% , when they speak fast and I'm tired it's as if I'm not human and would do better speaking to llamas. I was really discouraged tonight but Mélanie is really nice to me, she said, you'll get use to it.

There is no internet access at the Escuela, I'm writing this post in a word document hoping I will be able to post it this weekend.

I am so tired.

That's all for now  

Goodbyes & Hell-o customs

I said goodbye to my love today for 4 months.4 months in Peru
4 months
I will be back.

They held me at customs forever at the Montreal airport not telling me what was wrong. Finally they asked me a whole bunch of questions and checked everything in my carry ons. They were waiting for my baggage to arrive to check that too.

My flight was leaving at 5:50. At about 5:40 the guy let me through i got passed security and heard '' AA calling passenger Jones Corina to get C81'' I ran like a crazy person and got to the gate. 

The lady smiled and said Mrs Jones? We almost closed without you. I said 

THEY HELD ME AT CUSTOMS.

Coco