Time to Go

Unfortunately it´s our last day with the children today, so we´re watching films in the house and having cake. Yesterday, the children in the afternoon made us leaving cards. The cards are all really lovely and there´s some really sweet messages. Stuart spent the afternoon spinning the children around until they felt sick, which was hilarious.

We´ve really had a great time here and thoroughly enjoyed working with the team at Seeds and of course, the children. We´ve also spent a lot of time working with Yuri on communications for the charity, including writing emails, the website structure and copy, taking endless photos for the website and advising on the charity as a business, in particular how to get donations and volunteers. It´s been really great fun and we´re sad to go.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

We´ve been here a month, and we´ve experienced some kick arse rain! Every afternoon it rains like mad, except during a full moon, when for some reason the sun shines all day, and the mountains in the background are clearly visible. When there is a downpour, the water simply runs down the street and walking anywhere is a hazard! And it´s not even the rainy season. In January and February it rains all day! The photo here is near where the children live and is a typical street. Not much fun, but the kids all still have smiles on their faces!

Working Kids

In the evenings and at weekends we´ve often bumped into the kids on the street working. All of them have jobs outside of school and Seeds. We´ve seen them shining shoes, selling oranges, selling sweets and selling hard boiled eggs. They have to do this to supplement the family income. They seem to have fun, but in reality they should be having fun in the playground and not on the dirty streets.

Yesterday, we went to the houses of a couple of kids and this really hit home how poor some them are. You don´t really realise at the school, as they´re always really happy and smiley. It´s only when you look closely at the children and their faces and hands are filthy, they have holes in their clothes and their shoes are falling apart. The picture here is the house of David´s family. There is no running water in the house, no bathroom or toilet and no electricity. There are 9 people living in this house - a mixture of cousins, brothers, sisters and parents. Three of the children living here attend Seeds of Hope and are really lovely kids, but they are incredibly poor, even though their parents work all hours. Many of the homes of the kids are the same and the families similar too - mud huts and large families. Seeds of Hope gives them a few hours of contact with adults who have the time to spend with them, help them with their studies, provide a place to get clean and give any help and support to them and their families (should they need it). Seeds of Hope means so much to these kids and it´s great to be part it.

And Some Girls Too...

Some More Monkies

Monkey on my Back

The kids have a naughty tendency to jump on you, particularly your back. They´ve frightened the life out of me several times and I´ve nearly fallen over. The other day, Stuart swept the two classrooms with Edino on his back. It took him 15 minutes and it was quite hilarious!

The Three R´s

Stuart and I are really enjoying working with the kids. They´re challenging, but its very rewarding. We´ve both had to brush up on our long multiplication, long division (I had forgotten how hard that is, and avoid the kids who have it for homework) and all sorts of other complex maths stuff, which I never use now. Stu is in his element though and has been having great fun doing maths and making stuff with the kids.

My favourite part is reading with the kids. It´s something they really enjoy as well as it´s 10 minutes one-to-one and am opportunity for them to really show us what they can do. It´s obvious that they don´t get this time at home with their parents, who are probably busy at work or looking after the rest of the family. Afterwards the kids look really pleased with themselves and quite proud. I underestimated how much one-to-one time makes a difference to a childs confidence and self-esteem. I suppose it´s something that we took for granted growing up.

Flea Ridden Fun

It feels a little while since we´ve posted any new articles, so firstly, I must apologise. Anyway, enough of that, here´s what we´ve been up to.

We´re still in Huaraz and still working with the kids. The little monkeys have fleas and I have been inflicted with dozens of flea bites over the last two weeks. I have learnt though, that Vicks Vapour Rub is very good at easing the itching and so I have been applying this with gusto! I´ve had to treat our bed clothes twice and have now taken to wearing deet to class. Unfortunately you can´t stop kids clambering all over you and certainly can´t say ´do you mind not touching me or coming near me?´. Anyway, it´s only for a short period of time, so I can put up with a bit of itching for the sake of the smiles on their faces when I give them a big hug. Strangely, Stuart doesn´t not have one single bite and that´s just not fair. Nevermind.

Walking at the Weekend

Yuri took us walking at the weekend again, but this time we tried to hard to avoid the rain, but didn´t have much success. Instead we went to the local villages by collectivo (overcrowded bus) or taxi. It was good fun and we got to see a bit of the countryside. We had lunch in a local restaurant near to Caraz with a beautiful garden - Yuri´s favourite restaurant. Stu was treated to Chicharron (greasy, fried pork) - he seemed to like it, but it looked pretty minging! We finished off the day with an icecream in Caraz, before catching another collectivo back to Huaraz.

Little Devils

In the mornings, we´ve been mainly helping two little boys, both in the second grade at primary school. They´re nine and can´t read or write yet. They both keep us on our toes and need our constant attention.

One child is really good at colouring in, he keeps in the lines and is extremely neat in his work, but he only wants to colour in pictures and he won´t do any of the copying or drawing exercises that will help him learn to write. He needs the constant attention to help him with his exercises. He seems to have quite a few problems with concentration and it´s his way or the highway (Lindsay - any tips would be great, as I imagine Stuart was a little like that!). From talking to the other teachers, he was left by his parents and now lives with his grandparents, but they work all hours, so he is often left to his own devices.

The other little devil has four other brothers and sisters in the Seeds scheme. For the last few days, I have mainly been helping him and with constant guidence and attention he can do his exercises, but he really needs one-to-one supervision. Even after 90 minutes, you can see the improvement, but this is needed every day to ensure that there is constant improvement. He´s also filthy and the other day a little beasty jumped off his jumper onto the desk. After hopping around a bit the beasty jumped back onto the little boy and snuggled into the warmth!

I think over the next few weeks we´ll spend more time in the mornings with these two little devils, and hopefully we´ll see even more improvements.

Back to School

On Monday we went back to school and we definitely felt like the new kids! The kids were as welcoming as ever and greeted us with the obligatory kiss and hug. In the morning there were 15 kids and the afternoon 24. Seeds of Hope can only take a maximum of 25 kids, mainly due to the space available, but also because of the amount of materials used by each child - there simply isn´t enough money to go round.

In the morning Stuart worked with a small group of 4 children on their Spanish homework, which was pretty testing and I had maths. I never thought I´d say I´d be glad to be doing maths! It was about all I could do, simply because maths is pretty much a universal language. The morning session ends with a cup of sweet porridge and a bread roll, which is devoured with glee by the kids. We then disappear off for our lunch, kindly cooked by Yuri´s aunt and to date has been fabulous. After lunch we go back for a new group of kids, and more punishment!

This has generally been the course of events for the last few days, except today we had a washing session. We´ve been using a new venue for the school and there´s been no water because the council have been doing work on the road outside all week, however today was the first day with water, so the kids had a bit of a wash. Definitely a good thing, as some of them are a bit stinky! Hands, face and some of the boys hair was washed. Unfortunately, one of the girls didn´t want to wash as the water was really cold. I think we may try again tomorrow, when we watch a film in the Seeds of Hope house and where there is an electric shower with a small dribble of hot water. Fingers crossed.

Seeds of Hope

Seeds of Hope has been going about six months and has been set up by four people who used to work in a similar charity. The purpose of the charity is help the poorest children in Peru´s society by providing them with support in various ways, including
- Providing educational support in the form of a school structure for those children who can not afford to go to school, to a place to study and supply of school materials such as pens, pencils, paper, text books and professional teacher support
- Providing emotional support in that the teachers and directors of the charity are permanent members of the team and are a prominent feature in the children´s childhood, including working with the parents and helping them to learn vocational skills if necessary
- Teaching social skills and the fundamentals to play an active and successful part in society
- Providing clothes, shoes and balanced diet
- Teaching personal hygiene
- Providing medical assistence, health and growth check-ups
- Providing support to the families, legal assistence and working for the rights of the children

The main activity Seeds provide is education and although education is ´free´ in Peru, some families can not afford to send their kids to school. It costs approximately $25 per month, per child to pay for the books, materials and food to send a child to school and many families have large families, so simply can´t afford it, or the child is needed at home to help with the family, the farm or simply work to contribute to the family income. Seeds tries to take this burden off some of the poorest families and so gives hope and opportunity to those that need it most.

At the moment Seeds is only in Huaraz and limited to a maximum of 25 children due to the cost and the amount of space they have available - they simply can´t fit any more kids in! For more information, visit Seeds here. The site is being worked on at the moment, but it will give you a better idea of the charity.

I´ll also post some more photos of the kids and their work over the next few days (Friday is film day, so you´ll have to wait until next week, when the kids are back in the school).

Walking at the Weekend

Well the weekend came quickly and Friday night we went out for some beers and bonding. On Saturday morning we went for a walk or an 'itchi-trek' with our housemates through the beautiful countryside nearby. The view of the mountains from the surrounding hills of Huaraz is spectacular. On one side of the valley is the Cordillera Blanca (snowcapped mountains of the Andes) and on the other is the Cordillera Negro (black mountains of the Andes), which make up the lovely views all around. We ended the walk at the Aguas Terminales in Monterrey, where we had a bath in the very dirty, but very naturally very hot water. Stu and I weren´t keen to have a bath, but were glad as it was the most hot water we've seen in a long time, and the 20 minute soak in the tub was well worth it. Unfortunately, we ran out of juice in the camera and so we don´t have many pics. Those we do are here though.

Another Chilled Afternoon

On Friday the kids had a special day at church due to the school´s anniversary and so we had the morning off. We haven´t done that much with them yet, but I imagine next week will get back to normal and we´ll be busy. In the afternoon the kids popped round to the house and we all sat around, had a mango and chatted about their morning. They only stayed for a short while and then went home.

A Procession of Lanterns

Well we´ve moved in with the teachers and yesterday was our first day with the kids. In the morning they had a sports lesson and so we went to meet them at the sports ground - a concrete basketball court that doubles as a volleyball court and football pitch. The kids belonging to Seeds of Hope came bounding up to Yuri, one of the Directors and gave him a big hug and kiss, followed by a kiss and a hug for all of his companions, including us. He´s obviously very popular and as his teaching assistants, we are too. We watched the end of the football match and then watched a volleyball game, during which the kids generally climbed all over us and wanted lots of cuddles. They´re really cute and all very well behaved. In the afternoon, they made lanterns which would be used in the early evening to parade through the town in celebration of their school´s anniversary.

We met them later, we met them again as they began their walk through the town. The lanterns were great. They were really well made, with lots of different designs from aeroplanes to rabbits. They all had a candle in the middle and so the lanterns glowed in the dark. There must have been about 70 kids, which made a great procession through the town. Again, the kids were really happy to see us all, especially since we had a camera - which they went mad for!

The next day was a school holiday as it was the national celebration for the Day of the Dead. On this day, the Peruvians take presents and food to their loved ones in the cemetary and have a little party. A little strange for me, but they all certainly seemed to enjoy it!

Starting Voluntary Work

We´ve finally managed to sort out our voluntary work in Huaraz, which we start on Wednesday at a new charity called Seeds of Hope. We´re going to be hanging out in a classroom and generally annoying some teachers. Actually we´re going to be helping out the kids with their homework and general life skills, so we´ll keep you up to date on all that. It was actually really sweet when we went to look round the school, one of the little boys came running up to me to give me a big hug and I even managed to give him a hug back, even with his snotty nose! They´ll be about 15 kids in total, so we should have great fun and lots of stories to tell over the next month with them. We´ll be living with two of the teachers, who seem quite cool and are kindly going to give us Spanish classes in the evenings as well. We´re both looking forward to that.

This is a picture of our little house.

Hanging out in Huaraz

It feels like we´ve been here ages, but in fact it´s only been a couple days. We´ve been pottering about this little town which is quite quirky. We´ve found ourselves staying in a hostel that is normally frequented by Israelis, however there are none staying at the moment because it´s low season. Strange, because I thought all the notices and posters on the walls were in Quechuan (the local Peruvian language), when in fact they were in Hewbrew! The lady who owns the hostel said that she started it 24 years ago and one of the first people that stayed was an Israeli, and since then, most of her guests have been Israelis. Nothing like word-of-mouth recommendation! We even looked in her guest book and on every other page there´s a European couple, other than that, they´re all Israeli. We´re with a Swiss couple and French girl, all of whom are really fun to be around.

Huaraz is on a fault line and has been hit with many natural disasters in the last 100 years. The two main types of disaster are earthquakes, and the second are aluviones which are when high glacial lakes burst their banks causing a wall of water to wipe out whole towns in the area. Huaraz has been rebuilt at least three times and so is not the most beautiful city, but Mother Nature certainly keeps you on your toes.

The surrounding countryside is high glacial mountains and is impressive because of the number of peaks over 6,000m. It´s really quite beautiful and yesterday, we went on a tour to visit one of the glaciers, where we were allowed to clamber all over it. It was melting at an incredible rate and at the base of the ice was a small cavern which allowed you to see under the glacier. There was lots of water and a beautiful bluish hue from the centre - very pretty. We climbed almost to the top of the glacier, which was a breathless 5,200m and very tough. Getting down was much more fun, especially as we were sitting on our plastic bags. Unfortunately, I span out of control and bashed my head on some ice, just before being saved by Stu. Nothing worse then falling over on the ski slope though, and no lasting damamamage.

As part of our tour (more like package tour), we also visited a few local touristic sites, which were a touch amusing. The first stop was a pond of effervescent water - all naturally carbonated! The little pond was surrounded by a couple of traditionally dressed women with llamas wearing sunglasses and wigs. There were also the obligatory small child with a lamb wanting you to take their photo. The lamb was called Picachu and very cute, but not worthy of a photo. The 15 Peruvian teenagers on a school trip from Lima seemed tolike this though and enjoyed both the llamas in fancy dress and the carbonated water. The next stop was the ´lake of many colours´, which was in fact a small pond, no bigger than my front room and generally a dirty brown colour, rather then the well publicised seven colours. We then saw plants that only flower every one hundred years, and unfortunately they weren´t flowering! Anyway, it was still a fun trip and we enjoyed our time on the glacier.

Long Bus Rides North

After Machu Picchu, we stayed in Cusco for a couple more days to enjoy the night life. We had a few drinks, met some really annoying people and promptly left the next day to go to Huaraz, eight hours north of Lima. Our journey to Lima was 18 hours on a very special bus. As we set off from Cusco we were given a magic show from a teenager, then at the next stop, only 15 minutes out of town, we were treated to 30 minutes of singing by a tone deaf, local boy. This was coupled with hundreds of different people jumping on the bus to sell all kinds of food from cheese to sweetcorn - at least you never went hungry!

The bus had a DVD player, but unfortunately we had no sound. It would have been difficult enough in Spanish, but with no sound at all, the films were useless! There was a toilet as well, but they kept it locked as the door didn´t shut properly and with the winding lanes around the Andes, the door would have banged all night. Unfortunately, 18 hours on a bus didn´t work too well without a toilet, so a couple of stops were made for two minute toilet breaks. All good and well if you´re male, but there were just as many women on the bus and we simply had to forget our modesty and pee with the men on the road side.

We arrived in Lima and wanted to get straight on a bus to Huaraz, but unfortunately we they didn´t go until late at night, so we set off in search of some accommodation. We found a cute little hostal in Milaflores, the posh part of town and chilled out to a naff American movie and a bottle of wine. The following day, we tried to do some tourist stuff, but failed terribly as they were on lunch, or the museum was really far out of the centre. We only managed to get to one museum, which was all about the Inquisition. That was pretty interesting as the building of the museum used to be where they tortured people and you could still see the cells and artifacts from the time. Very interesting, it gave me lots of ideas for when I need to get something out of Stu. Later that night we set off for Huaraz and another night bus. An uncomfortable ride, eight hours later and not much sleep, we arrived in Huaraz.