My attempt at going for a run at 6:15am ('cause I'm really trying to not fall off entirely with this marathon training) was stopped when I remembered that the front door locks from the inside and Kelli had our key! Oh well, it gave me time to finish up yesterday's blog post and send it out to all of our readers.
Today we put our few days of hard work into action! We got fueled up with eggs, bread and cantelope juice for breakfast before heading to the Vive Peru office.
We worked from 9-1pm on the school presentations and scripts for Friday. We did two full dress rehearsals of the school presentations in the office and worked out the kinks and pronunciation errors. We came back to the house for lunch (soup, rice, chicken and veggies served with a spicy cream sauce on the side).
We got in a quick nap (I'm starting to realize that practicing a foreign language is exhausting) before heading back to the Vive Peru office. On our way we met a very happy priest who was on his way back to the United States after a three week visit in Peru. He blessed us and wished us well in our work here.
From the VP office we caught a cab with Claudia to Antonio Torres Araujo high school. We met the principal and he showed us to our first classroom. The students are around junior high school age. The first class was surprisingly well behaved and the second was more of what we would have expected from that age group; very giggly and rambunctious. :)
The presentation started with an introduction from Kelli explaining that we are audiology students from Northwestern University in Chicago, IL and we were here to talk to them about what audiology is. She explained that audiologists are doctors who study ears and the balance system, and help people who have difficulty hearing and who have vestibular problems. She discussed that audiologists work in a variety of settings including schools, hospitals, with musicians and with people who have noisy jobs.
Next, Rachel talked to the students about what sound is and what in our daily lives produce sound (dogs, people, music). She did a demonstration with a tuning fork and a ping pong ball dangling on a string, showing that sound energy is produced by sound vibrations that move through the air in sound waves. The tuning fork when struck and placed against the ping pong ball causes it to shoot out sideways because the sound waves have energy. When the sound waves are no longer produced by the tuning fork, the ping pong ball stops receiving the energy from them and stops moving.
Mary Catherine talked to the students about the anatomy of the ear and it's three parts (outer, middle, and inner ear). She explains how sound travels through the auditory system starting with the outer ear, the middle, the inner and then ultimately travels to the brain where it is interpreted. The students are then given a picture of the auditory system and are asked to color the three different parts of the ear.
Following ear anatomy, Kelli discussed how loud different sounds in the student's daily lives are. She utilized a "sound thermometer" to show what sounds are quiet and safe, those that are loud but still safe for short periods of time, and those that are very loud and are only safe for a very short period of time. The kid's took turns coming up to place the different pictures on the thermometer.
Lastly, I spoke to the students about hearing conversation. I talked about what you can do to protect your hearing from dangerous sounds including wearing ear plugs, turning the volume down and walking away from the sound source. The students also offered suggestions of ways they could implement these strategies into their own lives. Thanks to a generous contribution from 3M and Sensaphonics Hearing Conservation Clinic in Chicago, we were able to give each student their own pair of ear plugs. We reviewed how to properly insert the ear plugs and when they should be wearing them.
Finally, we instructed the students to let their teachers, doctor or parents know if they are having any problems with their ears or are having trouble hearing.
We had chicken vegetable stir fry served with uca (similar to potatoes) for dinner. We ate sliced apples for dessert with after-dinner tea. I also stopped at a bakery on the way home from the office today and got a small "truffle" that turned out to be similar to a cake pop. It wasn't nearly as sweet as those from home, but it helped with the chocolate cravings. More sweets experimentation to come in the future!
I know that food is taking up a big part of the blog, but meals have been a big part of the day! It is also one of my favorite parts of traveling, trying different cuisines, so I apologize but try to bear with me if you're already sick of all the breakfast/lunch/dinner plates :)
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