Flora Tristan Magical World of English

The charity I´m volunteering is called TNT (Traveller Not Tourist) and it has two projects; the orphanage where I work and an English after school club. On Thursday I went up to the school to see what it´s like and to offer an extra pair of hands.

It´s miles out of Arequipa, about an hour on one of the lovely ´combi´buses, right at the foot of the volcanoes. There´s such a contract in Peru between the city centres- which boast huge colonial mansions- and the outer city suburbs which are little more than shanty towns. The area where the school is is the latter of the two, the roads are unpaved and the houses nothing but stone and corrugated iron roofs. The school is great though, unlike the orphanage, it is entirely run by TNT and was built and painted by past volunteers. The classrooms are really cheerful and colourful and the children seem to enjoy it. The English lessons are free and open to everyone, the ages range from about 4 to 20 and are they taught by the volunteers. After class the volunteers run playtime where the children play games together in a local playground.

It was really nice to be able to go and see the other project, it´s obviously hugely successful and all the students seem to really enjoy it.

The School with the volcano El Misti in the background

Playtime

Playtime

One of the classrooms

All the teachers/volunteers outside the school