getting the ball rolling

Isaac and I are falling in love with this Peruvian community. The first couple weeks were difficult but somehow this week I have found myself enjoying everything we have encountered. Our home life is going well. We have enough to eat and a warm bed, but our priority is our work in the school in San Juan de Lurigancho. The children can be very difficult to handle and the small aula or classroom can seem very crowded, but slowly we are seeing differences in both us and the children. We are struck with the kindness the children show. Each day we climb the long steep hill to our school and are greeted with shouts as the kids come into view. The kids race to our sides saying cargame which means carry me. It is customary in many LatinAmerican countries to greet with a kiss on the cheek and I cannot express to you how precious these greetings are from little two to five year old children. The parents of the children are equally kind and giving. Last Sunday we spent the day in the community playing soccer and eating fried chicken and camote. Everyone talked with us and treated us with open arms in a way that we have not experienced closer in the city. Today we had a cultural day in the community. All of the pronoei´s or kindergartens gathered in on this court and many dressed in their cultural garb. Food from the differnt provinces of Peru was there for testing and Isaac and I were stuffed by the end of the day.We taught about fifty kids how to play duck duck grayduck although I think maybe one kid actually understood the game haha. It was so much fun running with the kids and seeing the laughter on the audience and childrens faces during the game. We then walked back up the school with the children and their mothers and had another lunch at the school (the food at the event was not free and so none of the children or mothers ate except for Isaac and I, they insisted we eat and would not take money for the food). I am not sure I am getting across how much we are enjoying and loving the community we are working in. I don´t know how we are going to leave.

Our work is beginning to take form also. We, the community and us, realize that we really can´t do any projects that we want until we have a new school. Let me paint a picture of what the school is now. It is about 8 meters by 5 meters and holds about 25 kids and three adults daily. There are holes in the walls and ceiling. The walls are made of a much less sturdy form of plywood and I could easily punch through. The door is warped and does not close and the small building saggs. The community could live with the school if only it was a bit bigger. However, the school serves 365 families and a new school is really the only option. We met with construction companies today and have a meeting with the fathers of the community tomorrow morning. We are happily finding that a new school nearly three times the current size would really not cost much at all and so, although we need to do much more research, we are very excited. Also, tomorrow we are visiting museums to see what would be the best fit for the children. Well, please continue to pray for us that progress will continue and that the families and children of San Juan de Lurigancho will be blessed.

First Cita

Yesterday morning we had our first cita, meeting, with the families that live in the community where we work. The meeting was suppose to start at 7 am but as it sometimes goes in Latin America we were slow to start and began the meeting at 9am. Most of the mothers were there for the meeting and two of the fathers. It was very cool to see a group of mothers sitting around discussing the advancement of education in a society that is often dominated by men. The meeting began with Gabriel and myself introducing ourselves and explaining why we have come to Peru. We talked about how we have been blessed with education and how we want to help others receive this same blessing. After the introductions were done we got down to business and talked about the projects for this summer.

The meeting made it clear that what is needed and wanted is a new school building for the children. This week we will be going to various contractors to gather information about costs and hope to begin the construction in July. The community would also like to combine the construction of a new bathroom with the new school. There is limited space but a few members of the community presented ideas and, along with our team, are going to research these ideas and an estimated cost. We also explained our idea for a small library for the current school that will be able to expand in the new planned school. We are going to start with 3 to 4 books for each age group in the school that will be available to the children to loan from the school for one night. The idea is that if the kids have books available they will be excited about learning and also draw their families into the excitement. The future library will be available to the community as a whole. We are in the process of planning a trip to a local park and museum so the kids can see more of the city they live in and experience what their country has to offer.

Today in class Gabe and I put on a small puppet show with pop sickle animal sticks to help the kids learn English. The skit was in Spanish with only the names of the animals in English, my favorite character was Señora Pig. The kids were very attentive during the skit and Gabe and I are planning a continuation.

We are pretty tired and are looking forward to the weekend when we won´t have to get up as early. I am trying to figure out how to get my pictures up so you can see where we are living. Have a great night and check back soon.

One week in

Gabe and I have been very busy this past week as we have gotten acclimated to Peruvian life. Getting to know a city of almost eight million people can be a very tricky process but we feel a lot more comfortable than when we first arrived. We live with a family in Barrios Altos, a district in Lima. We wake up each morning around seven, drink some coffee and eat some bread, and take an hour bus ride to San Juan de Lurigancho, where we work. This district is the poorest district in Lima. After the bus ride we walk for 20 minutes through part of the district to our school where we stay until two pm.

This past week in the school has been dedicated to getting to know the kids and identifying the most pertinent needs of the school. The children have so much engergy and we have found it challenging to keep their minds on learing. Part of the problem stems from the school being extremely small and unable to support the 24 kids ages 3 to 5 that attend daily. There really is no place around the school where they can play and so the classroom becomes both a playground, cafeteria, and place to learn; the lines between the three blurr together. Also, the parents of the students usually work outside the home and return from work at about 9 at night. Thus the kids spend most of the day with little direction or discipline from their parents.

We have met twice with our contact in Lima and starting tomorrow will begin implementing the most pertinent projects needed by the school. Stay posted, we hope to blog again within a day or two.

a night in Atlanta

Ok, so we aren't in Peru yet. Instead we decided to spend a night roaming the streets of Atlanta, Georgia looking for a cheap restaurant. Previously, our plane was delayed due to bad weather and so we arrived in the Atlanta airport approximately twenty minutes before our connection flight to Lima. We grabbed our carry ons (two extremely full travel backpacks and a guitar that all should have probably been checked) and sprinted to Gate E5. We were accompanied by other Peruvian hopefuls from our flight. Unfortunately for us the Atlanta airport is huge and we arrived just in time to see our plane leave the terminal, "$#!@".
But Isaac and I do not mind an adventure and our hopes rose. We called our contact in Peru and my dad (who would not have been as adjusting as we were) and headed to our hotel. We then walked along highways to this nice restaurant called Checkers. Our waitress was great and actually drove us back home because apparently those highways were not the safest place to walk at night. We slept late which brings me to our present location in the hotel lobby where I'm writing this blog waiting for our 5:05 pm flight.... so that gives us about five hours to check for spelling errors, sweet. Done

Time to Go

I'm sitting at my computer at 1 am with friends who came to say goodbye, and it's crazy to think that later today Gabe and I will leave our family and the friends who are with me now and head to a new world full of adventures and hard work. Months of preparation, for the moment when we will board our airplane without knowing what lies ahead, have finally come to an end.

For the past few months Gabe and I have been raising money and collecting school supplies to contribute to a public school in Lima, Peru where we will be working as summer interns for High Cloud Foundation. We will experience the thrill of teaching English to students who are excited to learn and the challenge of leading projects to improve the quality of education for these students such as building new facilities and creating a library. Gabe and I are both nervous but ready to tackle what Peru has to offer.

My backpack is full, my passport is ready and I have said goodbye to all those I love. It's time to GO!