Colibri

Colibri is a community centre, which was set up by Cusco police to offer street children a place to go after school and when their parents are at work. They are not children who are homeless but whose parents work on the street selling stuff in markets and who sometimes have to help their parents. There may be other children attending in other circumsatnces that I'm not yet aware of.

The centre is not far from Plaza de Armas, up a very steep street called Suecia and then up two sets of steep steps. By the time I get there I'm exhausted with the effort.

It consists of two rooms in a very old building. The rooms do not appear to be used for any other purpose, which is not surprising as there is no water or toilet facilities. Very basic indeed. The place is locked up when we arrive and we have to open up. By that time there are usually a number of children waiting for it to open. I usually go there from 5pm to 7pm, which is too long without a loo break. I have to go down the hill to a small internet cafe, whose owner doesn't seem to mind letting us use his facilities, as its Colibri. At least I don't think he minds.

The front room of the centre is used as a play area for those kids not in the English class. The backroom is set up as any other classroom, though quite small. It has desks for all and a white board. It is a bit cold though, as there is no heating. We have managed to take possession of a small heater which helps.

The teacher is called Lolita and is French. She is a good teacher and gets on well with the kids. The fact that she is also reasonably fluent in Spanish is a help. She leaves in two weeks time and I believe the plan is that I take over till the new paid teacher arrives, some time in my last two weeks. Which is quite exciting.

The children are very friendly and bright. Very different from those in PF. Ithinkj they have taked to me ok. They call me Professor Don, or just Professor or even Prof. They also call me this when they see me in the street, which is quite strange, but satisfying. They call me Don too, as Lolita thought this would be ok and would not lead to confusion.

I'm still learning all their names, but its name like Javier, Julio, Abel and Miguelangelo. We also have a William and even an Elvis. The girls' names are harder as they tend to sit at the front and Lolita works with them, but am working on it.

They seem to have made good progress in English being as they have only been learning for 6 months, and they seem keen to learn too.

I really enjoy being with them. Gotta go now.