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.

Assistance is Welcome!

Hola hola,

I wanted to give a quick shout out to everyone at Advent Lutheran Church in Cedarbrug, WI who have given donations for my projects here in Peru!!! It will be a great help for the kids so be sure to keep checking my blog for updates. Again, muchas gracias!

Today I visited the special needs school behind the orphanage, i´ll have to check my other posts to see if i talked about this. haha. I learned that there are about 6 children with autism. Yes, i met some of the children but the most inspiring part of it was that i met two of the children´s mothers. I couldn't imagine raising an autistic child but to raise one in Peru! wow. these moms are heroes. IN this country you can easily find a place to leave your child so you never have to see them again. sadly enough, it happens here, but not with these moms, they are amazing. Lucky for them Huncayo has a school for their children. The problem is that it is their only support line. There is no organization here helping them and no support groups, nada, nothing. They told me that there are other moms in and outside the city who know absolutely nothing about autism. Even the special needs school wants to learn more. My biggest concern is about the future of the children. What will happen to them when they are too old to attend the special needs school? Who will be able to take care of the children when they turn 20 or 30 years old? Where will the child go?There is literally next to zero support here for family's with an autistic person.

Autism is very new here. At first they moms wanted me to give them a class to educate them about autism but they know as much as I do if not more, they have done lots of research, lots. What we did conclude is that there needs to be some type of organization in Huancayo to support the children, moms, and family's of autism. So as soon as i am done with this post i´m going to get started. In two weeks i may be travelling to Lima to met with two different organizations there. My hope is that i can have something started by the time I leave. Expand Peru might even take it up as a project. i hope i hope.

If any one knows anyone involved with some type of an autistic organization or has any ideas then please please email me. Thank you thank you!

volunteer where and why

It is interesting traveling here after working in Tanzania. I was in shock after walking through the orphanage in Peru for the first time. Issues in Tanzania are things the children here, at the orphanage i work at, don´t have to think twice about. Running water, food, shelter, disease, and education all taken care of. I am actually relieved to be working at an orphanage like this because it is have been great for me to see opposite ends of the spectrum. Now with that said, there are still many things that children here need. Some of the orphans here come straight from the street. One young boy lived with his parents and they had him take drugs so he would´t be hungry all of the time. this is one extreme example and not all the children here have lived like this. What i knew, but now can see, is that there are people in need wherever you go.

I have been asked in the past about why i have chosen to volunteer abroad and not so much at home. For me, i don´t like to look at the world in terms of countries or lines on a map. I used to be someone who wanted to fill my entire passport with stamps but the more i work with people the more i don´t see that as a need for me. Taking the time to live in three extremely different cultures (Wisconsin, Tanzania, and Peru) have helped to not only realize, but feel that i don´t need all those stamps. Although the cultures and languages have been very different, i have learned in my heart that all people are the same. We all want to laugh, love, and live. You will find that is a commonality wherever you go. Borders and boundaries don´t change that fact that we all are the same and that we all live on the same earth. I guess I have wanted to travel and volunteer abroad because seeing that we are all the same is something that I have wanted to experience in my heart.

Does one person need to travel to see that we are all the same? I do not think so. Maybe that was a fault of mine, having to travel to fully embrace this concept. Reading a book about a new culture or life, introducing yourself to a complete stranger for no reason, and giving a hand to someone in need are all things someone can do to see this equality. And these are things that i will continue to do when i arrive home. In the USA, homelessness and poverty are a great concern to me. There is a reason why an international aid organization, like Save the Children, has given attention to places like Appalachia and others. So where will i go next? I´m not sure, but, at the moment, i´ll give a hand where ever it is needed.

A few weeks ago i was in a van with a bunch of volunteers driving through the mountains. Looking out through the window the landscape was green but with no trees. Small pueblos, people, black sheep, and donkeys were rare to see and yet they were the tallest objects around. It was one of the only places in world that i have seen where mankind and nature seem to be living together as one, except for the paved road we were driving on. I wondered what it would be like to be that free.

This past weekend was Easter and it was very busy. I don´t think i had a chance to even sit down. there are fiestas, markets, events, parades, processions, and more. IF you are ever in Peru for the Easter holiday may i suggest checking out Huancayo. You will not be bored, to say the least.



On the Saturday before Easter and bunch of us went for a seven hour hike through the hills just outside of Huancayo. We weaved our way through fields of maize, grass, and whatever esle was being grown. The fields here are a little different. As there is no farming equipment the fields are much smaller. From adistance the land looks like a patched green quilt. On hike we got lost and literally stumbled upon a soccer field with 6 kids. As soon as the first kid saw one of us he yelled out "gringos." I don´t hear that term too often here and so when it does i always turn my head. I wonder how many "gringos" have stumbled upon their soccer field. Well the sun was out and kids a very flat ball. We all decided to play a game short game that turned into about a 1 and a half hours. haha. it was great. I think that was the most fun with soccer i have ever had. Even the kids dad came out and watched us with a grin on top of a small hill. After the game was over we all sat down in field and shared bananas, mango's, and oranges with the kids. The word gringo was only ever mentioned when we first wandered upon the kids. During and after the game it wasn´t even a thought anymore. we were all friends.

In a world where race, religion, nationality, and more can define us in ways that may not be looked upon positively by others, and can cause people to fight wars and create violence, i don´t think there is a better way to spread peace than by playing a soccer game and sharing fruit.



Today, I went with another volunteer to check out a special needs school in close proximity to the orphanage. Some of the children i work with started attending the special needs school this week. I was very happy to see it. the school has a `physical therapy room, this will be great for Bryan! I also found out that Ramiro went there when he was younger. He no longer attends it because he was too much of a challenge. lucky me! haha. But the school was great and I have a meeting with the director on Monday to see if i will work there. I am not sure if i will do so because i have enough work on my plate but it will be good just to check it out.


Today, in the afternoon, we took the kids from the casa project to soccer field to play games and such. It was a fun little break from working on homework and studying English. and no more Internet time.

bye!

At the moment I am stuck in the city because Bernabe, he owns and old beattle car, has broken down and we are waiting on the mechanic. In the meantime I thought i would write a little more in my blog.

My travels to the jungle last weekend was amazing. When driving there you will meet mountians that are trying to reach the heavens. There are raod clean up crews tht must never be out of a job because every few miles you can see evidence of a rock slide. At one point we drove by a boulder on the road that was bigger than our van. ekks. The jungle looks as if it is trying t tame the mountains by pulling them back down. The scenery is incredible.

Today, all of hte volunteers and I went with the orphanage staff and children to a very large hill just outside of huancayo. AS you walk up there are 12 statues representing the final days oif Jesus. At the top is a huge cross that can be seen from the city. It was a fun experience with the kids and someone brought a guitar that we played as we walked up. I felt the altitude again today. haha.

Yesterday, I made some great progress with Ramiro. I made flashcards with very basic spanish words and I had him put his hand on the word that i spoke. We just worked on the word "Bano" but by the end of the 45 mintues he could identify it without a problem. Next i plan on teaching him some more words. After that i need to work on transferring his newly learned words into everyday life. that will be interesting.

The Casa project is going great. the kids are full of energy but also eager to learn english, well most of them are. Soon one of the staff memebers will start pulling the children aside one by one to go over a questionnaire with them. I helped write it with the other staff. I may have tlaked about this before but i´m excited to get it in the works. Then sometime in the future Expand Peru will start visiting the home sof the children. So with the questionnaire, working with kids two hours a day, and visiting their homes, it is our hope that we will be able to dramatically improve the childrens lives. we shall see what happens.

Adios

Insects at away at me over the weekend in the jungle. it was a good time and nice break from Huancayo. If there is one thing that will drive me crazy here it will be the pollution. A combination of high altitude and a high number or cars with horrible fumes will lead to this. other then that the city is great.

This coming weekend is the biggest festival for the year in Huancayo. Apparently there might be a few bulls running through the streets. Schools are closed this thursday and friday so the other volunteers, expand peru staff, and I are taking the kids from the casa project on a little field trip to play games and eat lunch. It will be a crazy four days!

Here are some photos!

http://picasaweb.google.com/tylweber/PeruUno

hello hello,

It has been a long time since I last posted. ekks. my apologies but i have very full days here. In the mornings i´m at the orphange from 8:30-11:30.then from 2:30-6:30 i´m out at the Casa project. I love all the work but wow, it is taking up loads of time.

It has been hard working with Ramiro these pastfew days because he has been sick. At the moment I plan on teaching him to carry his own lunch tray. It will be interesting when we try to do this when the tray is full of food. haha. ekks.

Other things at the orphanage are going well and someothers things not so well. I can´t say too much but it is interesting working with special needs here as treatment isn´t as developed here as back at home.

At the casa project i am working with the older kids, mostly girls. the age range is about 9-12. everyday, another volunteer and I, work on teaching a short english lesson and then playing games with them. Hopefully sometime soon we will start visiting the homes of the children to seewhat their living situation is like.

As usual, this past weekend was full of fiestas. I got to eat guinea pig! ekks. hmmm. sorry if that grosses or freaks anyone out but it is a culturally normal here. The family who held the fiesta actually sells guinea pigs, and the peoplewho buy don´t use them as pets.

many spanish is improving but i still find myselflost in conversations. haha. it is usually fun when that happens. All you need to survive is a sense of humor.

time for me to go. I hope I don´t take so long to write again! thanks for reading.

adios

heights

Huancayo is full of fiestas. There was a fiesta for the month of February, of which I am unable recall its name, where people are allowed to throw water balloons at you. Yes, this includes anyone. Kids usually hang out on the top of buildings or around corners to hit unsuspecting passerbys. ONe volunteer had about 15 water balloons thrown at her from the top of a building. If I wanted to i could have thrown a water balloon at a complete stranger. fun stuff.


I have also been to numerous birthday fiestas this week. It is fun listening to peruvian music and testing out my broken spanish. The weirdest thing about being here is being taller then everyone. At all three birthday fiestas i went to this week i was the tallest person by far. I am only about 5 feet 11 inches.

The projects are going well. I completed the english versionof biopsychosocial assessment for the Casa project in Chupaca. Another volunteer is helping me with the translation. About 41 children have signed up so there will be lots of work to do in the near future.

well i just wanted to write a quick post, time to eat lunch.

adios

I just got back from a little adventure with the boys at the orphanage. We jumped on their bus, which needs to be hotwired everytime anyone wants to drive it. I´ll be sure to post a picture of it sometime soon. Well we drove to a farm and picked a little fruit that looked like a mix between a blueberry and a grape. The boys would climb to the top of the tree and shake the branches. The boys on the bottom would collect and eat the fruit. It was a fun experience as the farm seemed to be in the middle of Quechua land. You don´t have to drive far out of the city of Huancayo to be in the heart of the peruvian culture. People working in fields of all different kinds of crops. All the farming is done by hand. They don´t seem to be in any rush because everything they need is only a short walk away. Staring out the window of the big blue bus made me feel like i know little abot a hard days work.

There are a few things going on with my projects. At the moment, expand peru is opening a new house were local children of the Chupaca region, a small part of huancayo that is only about a 20 minute bus ride from where i live. The house is called La Casa and it will be a place for the children to play, relax, get help with on schoolwork, and more. Next week the children will be going to La Casa to sign-up for the program and I have been asked by the expand peru staff to make a psychological test for the children. ekks. well i´m not going to do that but i am working on making a general psychosocail assessment. This will enable the staff to gather general information about the children and give light to any difficulties, insecurities, interests, thoughts, and more. I want to make so it will be easy for the staff to follow, which means it needs to be in spanish. ahh. i have lots of work to do.

This past weekend I went on a little tour in the mountains around Huancayo, and there are a lot. From the top of my house, on a clear day, I can see a peak covered in snow. This is a place i hope to travel to in the future. anyway, the our was fun and I went on it with 3 othr volunteers. the tour was in spanish so i can´t give you too much info but it was a good time.

adios

Huancayo 1

Hola everyone,

I haven´t written in a while because i have been working on getting my feet on the ground. It has been a little tough adjusting to life here due to the fact that i know little spanish, but that is changing. The family I am living with is great and keeps me on my toes with my spanish vocab. I have also met loads of great locals and travellers.

The boys orphanage I work at is a great facility. It is state funded so there is no lack of food or necessary supplies. At the moment, I am working with 7 different individuals with special needs living at the orphanage. As I am only going to be working here for about 3 months I am working to learn about the children and educate some of the staff about what I know. There is one individual, Ramerio, who is 20 years old and has been diagnosed with severe autism. He is a handful but a fun person. We did run into a problem beacause he found a cactus called tona (not sure if the spelling is right) and decided to eat it. Eating Tona is normal here, and very delicious, but that is after you peal it. You can guess what happened but Ramerio is good now.

Hunacayo is surrounded by many beautiful mountains but this makes living with the altitude interesting. I am living at about 10,500 feet. It definitly took some time to adjust to and i´m still not fully there yet. haha. Yesterday i played a soocer game at the orphanage and i felt like passing out after the first three mintues of the game. haha. it was good fun though.

The food is great here but it also takes some getting used to. That is all i really need to share there.

Everything else is great and Huancayo is a great place once you get to know it.

adios

Viva Peru!

Peru us a great country! the people here are very warm and welcoming, the food is delicious, and there is a lot of things to do here, well, just about everything. I have already been invited by some new local friends of mine to go rock climbing tomorrow. that should be fun.

I was supposed to arrive in Huancayo in Tuesday but I just wandered in yesterday morning. Continental airlines happened to leave 60 luggage bags at the Newark airport. Luckily for me I was in no rush to go anywhere but i´m sure that wasn´t the case for everyone. While in Lima I stayed in a part of the city called the mirasflores. It is a very Affluent part of the city with Starbucks, burgerkings, Marriot hotels, shoping malls, parks, and more. I did enjoy my stay there but i wasn´t too keen on seeing the starbucks and fast food chains everywhere. Lima is an interesting city because its population is around 9 million people. The entire population of Peru is about 17 million people. Take a look at a map of peru to really see how crazy that is.

After jumping off the bus in Huancayo at 7 am, it was a 7 hour ride from lima, I was greeted by staff from Expand Peru. I was then driven right to my host family´s house. The family was very welcoming and after spending thirty seconds in the house I knew that may stay in Huancayo would be great. Then I was off to a fiesta at the orphanage. It was a nice introduction because I met many of the children that I will be working with and also other staff and volunteers. It iwll be fun starting up my project on monday as I may be teaching some of the staff what I know about special needs. ekks. It will be fun!!

adios

Before I go

Hola!

Well I’m getting in the packing mode for Peru. Here are some quick facts about my trip...

Country of Destination: Peru
City in Peru: Huancayo
Duration of trip: 4 months and 2 weeks
Dates: February 11th to June 17th
Volunteer Organization: Expand Peru
Living Situation: Host Family
What will I be doing? Volunteering!

I am very excited about my travels to Peru. I have always been interested in learning Spanish and now this will be an excellent chance. While I am there I will be taking Spanish classes, working with children, staying with a local family, and living in a country where very little English is spoken. My Spanish speaking qualifications definitely place me as a beginner. This will probably make for a fun, exciting, challenging, and interesting four months!

When in Peru I will be relatively stationary. I am signed up with a local volunteer organization, Expand Peru. They have placed me with a host family and I sill sort out my volunteer project(s) once I arrive. Most likely I will be placed in a special needs program that focuses on children in poverty and/or working with orphans. It is my plan to work on my projects for almost the entire 4 and 1/2 months. This is all I can really tell you at the moment, but you can count on me to share more once I arrive. Internet cafes should be easy to find.

For anyone who hasn't read my past blog feel free to check it out. I volunteered and travelled through East Africa for three months this past fall. Here are two albums from my trip...

This album was posted on the last blog.
http://nmu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2068514&l=7cb7a&id=40603000

This is a new group of photos that I recommend taking a look at.
A little Bit of East Africa in 35mm

At the moment I am looking into different ways of sharing photos. Wish me luck, haha.

If anyone is interested in making a donation to my projects in Peru you may feel free to do so. There is a way for you to send your donation to me while I am abroad and I’ll provide details later. I want to say thank you to everyone who donated to my projects in Tanzania, and thank you to those who may donate in the future. I wish I could have you travel with me and see the difference you have made in the past and will make in the future.

This concludes my first blog.

Adios until Peru.