Before I go

Hola everyone,

So in a few hours I´m heading to Lima with another volunteer, Yuko. tomorrow night I´m going to meet my sister in Lima and then we are going to head out for Cuzco. I´m excited!!

But, before I meet my sister, Yuko and I have a little mission. Bryan, the boy at the orphanage who is wheel chair bound needs a new wheel chair. The wheel Chair is useable but it is slow breaking a little bit every week. We don´t think he has very much time on it. I still have donation money so I want to try and find bryan a new wheel chair. Yuko and I tried to find one in Huancayo but we were unsuccessful, there were only ones for adults. So hopefully we will be successful tomorrow!

Last weekend I took two kids, a brother and sister from the chupaca project, to the sunday market to buy them clothes and a new bed. The brother and sister share a bed and now the sister is too big for it. I plan on trying to see the bed when I return to Huancayo for a few days with my sister. Thta day went really well and it was a good time taking the kids to the sunday market.

The electricity has been installed!!!!! After 7 weeks of dealing with the electrical company here the fmily finally has lights in their house!!!!!!! This is awesome. I was starting to get nervous because i wasn´t sure if it was going to be possible. The family had it installed last monday. They live close to the chupaca project and so it was easy to visit their house ny time there was a problem with the electricity. Well lady came to the chupaca project, she is the girl who´s house now has electricty. When she came to the project she told me tht there wre more delays nd i was ready to freak out because this was my last week where i could try and do anything. Well when i went to her house i found that there was electricty. Lady´s family want to surprise me. haha. they did a relly good job. haha.

wll i´m out of internet time. thanks to everyone who donated and plan on another blog post in two weeks!

Tyler

Donation stuff!

hola hola,

So lots has been happening. I only have one week left of volunteering! ekks.

Last weekend I took two girls shopping and we bought...

two pairs of shoes
2 long sleeve shirts
warm hats and gloves
underwear
a big towel
shampoo
soap
soap for washing clothes
milk
yogurt
sugar
rice
pasta
an two dolls for the girls

I think all this cost right around 100 USD.


Finally, the electricity has been paid for at Lady´s house and the installation process has started! . i´m excited about this. And the new rooms for her house have been completed. Lots of stuff has been happening there. it has been great to watch.

I also bought an atlas for the Casa project because the kids don't have an geography lessons at school. It has been really good for the kids and thy are really enjoying the lessons. And today there will me no staff from Expand Peru at the Casa project. It will be me and three new volunteers. I{m in charge because i speak the most spanish but that is not saying much at all. haha. wish me luck.

This weekend I plan on taking two more kids from the chupaca project out shopping. one girl needs a new bed so that should be fun a day.

WEll now i have to run off to the special needs school for a little while. adios

tyler

Cosas

Well things are really moving quick as I really only have two weeks left of Volunteering!!! ahhh. Yes, i´m nervous to finish things up. haha.

So with all the donations I started by helping Lady´s fmaily finish up a room of their house. I paid for a roof and floor borads for a second level. This is awesome because now their house has doubled in size. If i can ever figure out how to post photos again i´ll be sure to put them up. haha. I wish the electricity would go as fast as everything else here. The electrical company is taking forever to get things going but I really hope hope hope that next week it will be up an running for this family. Lady will finally be able to complete her homework after ths un goes down!

Now i´m also trying to bring a psychologist from lima up here who has a wide range of experience with autism. I am in contact with an organization but this is also a slow process. After a week of waiting they finally gave the information for a trained professional that i can contact. I was hoping I would be able to work directly through the organization but this is better than nothing. I´ll keep you updated on this!

Tomorrow, me and a few other volunteers are going to take a few of the kids shopping for clothing, school supplies, cleaning supplies, and other such things. That should be a fun and crazy afternoon in the city.

They celebrate mothers day here! When I woke up in the morning i was told by my host mom that I needed to cook fish for about 15 people. hahaha. It was fun but crazy. The familys are huge here. I don´t know if my mind is capable of keeping track of such a huge family. haha. Fun stuff.

Well that is all for now!

take care

Over this past weekend I went with Bernabe and Ingrid to visit some families of the children from the casa project. Bernabe and Ingrid are the coordinators of Expand Peru...

We first went to see two young girls from the casa project. They are really nice and funny girls and they live with their mom. Their mom is a maid for a rich family and lives at the same house. The rich family only gives the mom food even though the mom has paula and flora with her. The father worls in Lima for 20 soles a day. the mom makes about 120 Soles a month, at the moment the exchange rate is about 2.8 soles to the dollar. Do the math. So i´m going to buy clothes, school books, and food for the mom and her daughters. yey for donations!

oops, no more internet time!

adios

I´m still alive!

haha, I realized that i haven´t written for almost a month. ekks. lo siento.



Things are going well herea dn are really getting busy since i only have one month left of volunteering.



My parents were here last week! it was a good time and they brought two suitcases full of donations (school supplies) for the children here. They were also able to raise 900 USD do donate to the children in most need. Here is a quick list of what i plan using the money for...



1. fix a broken window at the casa project to prevent a injury

2. install electricity at Lady´s house and possibly finish the kitchen there so they don´t have to cook under a torn blue tarp

3. clothes, personal hygiene products, school books, and food for the children at the casa project living in poverty

4. A world map and a globe for the casa project

5. and a bed for a girl from then casa project who is sharing a bed that is too small for her with her younger brother.

6. Paying a qualified austistic therapist from Lima to come to Huancayo for a few days to teach the moms with autistic children different forms of therapy for thwir kids!!



I´m sure there will be money left over but i think it is a good start!



Thanks again for all of those who donated!!!!!!

Now i´m going to work on posting photos.

Hasta pronto! serio

The first home visit

Well we finally got a little start with visiting the homes of the children at the chupaca project. Not all of the children live in a poor setting or environment but thís wasn´t the case for the frst home we visited.

Out of respect for the girl and her family i´ll just say here name is Lucy. The house isn´t far from the chupaca project as we were able to walk there. Along the way we walk down an unpaved road and a brown river. In front of lucy´s house were patches of semi fertile soil, one patch had fully grown corn. This seemed to be enough to provide some food but i wouldn´t presume it was enough for a whole year. Lucy had to run ahead to hold back a dog named Rambo, and i´m willing to bet we would have been eaten if Lucy hadn´t done this. well while waiting the door, a piece of flimsy sheet metal, to open i noticed there was no lock. also, someone could easily just jump over the door and be in Lucy's house. It was no wonder they needed vicious dog in front of their house.

When we entered, a expand Peru staff member, Lucy, and me, i saw dirt walls that could be entirely picked away with my fingernail. I had to duck because there was electrical wire hanging up to hold wet clothes for the sun and wind to dry. But there is no electricity running through those wires or the house and there is no running water. They have to use the river. There were two rabbits in two different rabbit cages, another dog, this one was much more friendly, and a one eyed little white duck. The house was completely uncovered except for three rooms (including the main room, there were a total of five rooms). The first room was the bedroom for Lucy and her brother to sleep. they each had their own bed but Lucy´s bed was a couch. around the room were boxes of clothes. it looked as if the family was all packed and ready to go somewhere, but they wern´t. We were there late in the afternoon and so the sun had started it´s descent. Yet, where the roof and the walls were supposed to meet, there was light sneaking in. the nights are getting colder here and sleeping in that room wouldn´t be very different than sleeping outside. Then we moved to the parents room and i could give the same description all over again. I wish i could say the same for the kitchen.

We walked over to a small corner with a blue trap. the holes in it made me think it could have been used for Target practice. I couldn´t imagine cooking there in a cold rain. There was no place to keep fresh meat clean and hidden from animals. everything has to be cooked over a little fire pit. i wondered how much it cost them just to cook their food as they would have to buy wood or charcoal each time.

I found out the father picks potatoes all day in a field when work is available and the mom washes clothes by hand all day long. The dad only brings in 20 soles for a full days work, about 7 dollars. I never found out what the mom earns but i don´t think it can be any more than what the dad makes. If they both have a fulls day work then i imagine that everything would be okay. but what happens what the dad or mom gets sick, injured, or work just isn´t available? where does the money then come from? Food prices in Peru are also on the rise but the wage of Lucy's parents isn´t.

This is a family on the edge of extreme poverty. When i walk down the street now i can´t help to think that some of the homeless and poor were not so different from Lucy. What would happen to Lucy and her mom if her father died.? My guess s that they would end up on the street. I don´t have a guess for how many people in peru are living on the edge and i can´t begin imagine living on the edge.

Well Lucy is living on the edge but until i went to her house, i never would have guessed it. She doens´t always listen, like all kids, but she is always smiling and laughing. her clothes are clean even though her mom has to wash them in the brown river. She likes to color, play games, and, when you ask her, help out.

At the moment i´m working with expand Peru to see what the family needs most. When my parents arrive with the donations in two weeks, something will be able to be done to help give this family a little support. thank you in advance to anyone who will help Lucy and her family!

Hola

Everything has been going well here. This past Friday i travelled with two other volunteers to a mountain school, i think it was somewhere south of huancayo. As usual, is a beautiful trip with a mountains and small pueblos. When we were there we split the children into three different groups, one volunteer with each group. The children were then able to ask us about our countries, it was a great cultural experience. The children were in shock about the cold weather and snow. haha. Other children asked about food, music, sports, and all that fun stuff.

But half-way through the questioning one quite boy politely raised his hand and asked (this is my translation), "What about the war?" Well anyone knows me or has been reading my blog probably has a generally good idea of what my response was. It is interesting to learn about your own country from the outside and how people feel about it. That in itself i think is a very good reason to travel. Yes, i said before one person doesn´t necessarily need to travel to learn about the world but i do think it helps in more ways than you can imagine, travelling that is. Basically if I have to sum up what i had said in the last two blogs into one sentence i would say this...

Do what you need to do to learn and experience your world, just make sure that you do it.


Moving on... The orphanage has been going well. Every morning i play guitar for bryan and every morning he falls asleep when i do. I think it is good for him because he crys a lot and a lot. Ramiro has been in a good mode the last two days so it has been really easy working with him. haha.

There haven´t been too many children at the Chupaca project this week because the children have had to practice marching or something at their schools. i´m not really sure what it is they do. haha. but having a small number of children has made for a nice break.

tomorrow i have another meeting with the moms of autistic children at the special needs school to gather more information about what they need. This week I have been emailing organizations that assist family's with autistic children. hopefully i will have more info. next week.

I ate guinea pig again last night. haha. I apologize to anyone i may be upsetting by sharing this but it common to eat here.

Ahora, yo necessito comer almuerzo. adios.