Transcript Slide 1

Un dia en la vida de Urpy Chaska
Sara age 7
A day in the life of Urpy Chaska
¡Hola! My name is Urpy Chaska Saldiron Huaman. Urpy means “Dove” and
Chaska means “Star” in Quechua, which is an Incan language that is still
spoken in Peru. I speak Spanish.
There I am, in pink. I am 5 years old. I live with my family in Cusco, a city in
the south of Peru—in the Andes Mountains. Cusco is big. It has about 400,000
people. I live with my mom, Nely, and 4 brothers and sisters: Renzo, Francis
(but we call him Chico), Sara and Flor de Los Angeles.
Left to right: top; Renzo (13), my mom Nely, Franzis (Chicho) 10,
bottom: Sarah (7), me !, Flor (3)
In my neighborhood there are lots of animals running around. There are
chickens, goats, pigs, lamas and lots of dogs. My favourite dog is a brown one
named Toffee. Where we live there´s no washing machines or dryers, so my
mom washes my clothes by hand and hangs them outside to dry.
This is Cusco as seen from my house. The city
is in a long valley in the moutains! It is very
high, about 11,000 feet! This means there´s
little oxygen. I always smile when tourists
walk up the mountains. They have a hard
time breathing!
When I go shopping with
my mom there are lots of
different places go.
There are many little
shops in peoples’ houses.
That is where we buy bread and simple things.
There are also big markets where everyone sells
something different. Some people sell vegetables,
others sell grain and others sell herbs. There are also
sellers that have gifts to offer to Pachamama, the
mother earth.
On the right is my house. It is made of adobe. Adobe is a mix of mud and straw that
is dried into blocks that are like big bricks. Behind my house they are making a lot
of these blocks. That is a lot of fun because you can climb onto them. The roof of our
house is made out of roof tiles and plastic. Sometimes when it rains it makes a lot of
noise. The landlord doesn´t have money for windows yet, so my mom put plastic in
front of them. Otherwises it is very cold when it is windy.
Our house has 2 rooms. Downstairs is my mom´s bed, where she sleeps with my
little sister Flor. There is also a table to do our homework and to eat at and the
kitchen. Our kitchen does not have a fridge, a stove or running water. Every day we
get a fresh bucket of water. My mom has a little cooking set where she makes dishes
like mixed rice and potatoes. To go upstairs—to my room--we have to climb a ladder.
This is my room. I share it with my brothers and my
sister. Franzis and Renzo sleep in 1 bed and Sara and I
sleep in the other. We hang our school uniforms on the
wall and we each have a little space for our clothes (mine
is the one with the poster of Eyore and Tigger--on the
left). We have some toys and some books. We also have a
lamp for when it gets dark.
On school days we wake up at 6.30 a.m. My mother
calls up to us, “Good morning childrend!” We call
back, “Good morning Mom!”. We don´t have a toilet
in our home so we all use a bucket that we empty
afterwards in the bushes outside. We put on our
uniforms and wash our faces and brush our teeth.
My mom helps Sarah and me to braid our hair. We
help Flor get ready since she is small.
When we are ready for school we have breakfast. We eat bread and butter every
day. We also have a porridge that we call “kwakker” . Kwakker is milk mixed
with flour and sugar. I love Kwakker, it is delicious!! We must be on time for
school since if we are late they lock the doors and we cannot get in. Renzo is
lucky. He is bigger and so he goes to a different school that starts a little later.
It takes us about half an hour to get to school. First we
walk down a big hill to the bus stop. When it rains the
road is very muddy and it is very hard to keep our
uniforms clean. At the bus stop we get into a combi-which is a big van that serves as a bus. It takes us about
10 minutes to get to the school. Sometimes the buses are
so full that you can´t even move.
This is my school. The school is for children between 3
and 10 years of age. I am in kindergarden. In my
class there are 23 children. (Can you find me in the
middle of the picture?) In the morning we always start
by standing up and singing a song. We also sing a
song at the end of each school day. I like to sing.
Every Thursday we all eat breakfast at school. They
bring 2 big baskets of bread and a big bucket of
kwakker outside for us to eat. After breakfast we have a
bit of time to play and then we go to class.
We don’t have winter
and summer like
you. We have a
rainy season, from
November until May,
and then a dry
season.
In school we all have our own workbooks. We do
math and other things in them. When we finish
our homework we can do puzzles!
Today we had class
outside. We learned about
the weather and the
seasons. In Peru our
seasons are “upside
down”. Our winter is your
summer!
At recess we have a snack and play. I like to bring bananas to eat. Our playground
is a concrete courtyard. There are a few toys to play with and we can play games. I
love to play football or volleyball with my friends. In the middle photo you see me
with my 2 best friends. Kindergarden in Peru finishes at 12.30 so that we can go
home for lunch. I have to wait a little while for my brother and sistern and then we
take the bus back to the bus stop and climb the big hill. Somtimes it is very hot in
the afternoon when we return home.
My mom is a Spanish teacher. Sometimes she has to work in
the afternoon and cannot be home with us. On those days
Franzis makes our lunch.
We all wash our hands and sit at the table. Today my mom is
home. She made tarwee. Tarwee is a kind of grain that my
mom mixes with potatos, peas and rice. She makes a big pot of
tarwee in the morning and then we eat it for lunch and for
dinner.
After lunch I love to play outside with my brothers and sisters. I also like to draw.
We also have to do our homework. We all sit around the table and start working.
My favorite class at school is language but when I grow up Iwant to be a ballet
dancer.
My other favorite things are the color pink,
little bananas, hot dogs, cats with kittens,
drawing and football.
When we have done our homework and played then my mom comes home. We
eat our tarwee and rice and we get ready for bed. I love to sing with my mom.
Sometimes we have to laugh really loud. We brush our teeth and put on our
pajamas. We always talk a bit about our day before falling asleep.
¡Buenas noches!
Goodnight !!
Questions;
What things are the same in your life ?
What is different ?
How is Chaska´s neighborhood different from yours ?
How is her house different from yours ?
How is her family the same or different from yours ?
You probably noticed a lot of differences between Chaska´s life and
yours.
Nely is since the beginning of 2007 a Spanish teacher at FairPlay and
this changed her life completely.
Before, 2 of her kids lived with their father and Chaska lived with her
grandmother because Nely didn´t have enough money to maintain all of
her family. This was very hard for Nely. She constantly worried,
especially since her husband is an alcoholic and never works.
Now that Nely earns a middle class income, all the children live with her
and it is a lot of fun in the family.
It is very common for young children to take care of their younger
brothers and sisters in Peru. They all together catch the bus to school, they
prepare food and do their homework.