Sara age 7

1. Un dia en la vida de Urpy Chaska Sara age 7 A day in the life of UrpyChaska

2. ¡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)

3. In my neighborhood thereare lots of animals running around. Thereare 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. This is my school. The school is for children between 3 and 10 years of age. I am in kindergarden. In my class thereare 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.

12. 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. 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! 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!

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. ¡Buenasnoches! Goodnight !!

18. 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 ?

19. 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.