Schugirl

Let me first start by telling you what a fabulous night we had last night. We had invited everyone in the house, including CCS staff and their spouses (this meant the drivers, coodinators, maids, and cooks). We wanted to properly say thanks for taking care of us for the past two weeks. They are so wonderful. It will really be difficult to say goodbye to them all tonight (we leave early tomorrow) So our pub crawl began with 8 or 9 people to start. We all had a cerveza at the restaurant that is connected to our building. Some had guitar lessons or spanish classes so they we meeting up with us later. From there we walked a block to this little outside (tiki bar) looking place. We had another cerveza and some others joined us ... read more

Today was an interesting day. I was able to go to the prison to help out with the day care there. Marisol, a CCS coodinator works there everyday, but she was short staffed for the rest of the week so I went to help out. Before we entered, Marisol recognized two past inmates waiting outside with their child. They travled all night to wait outside the prison because they were witnesses of a murder. While she was speaking to them a little girl (probably 4 yrs.old) ran up to her to hug her. The little girl´s mom had been in prison for killing her husband. Yikes! When we entered the prison, we went through a checkpoint where I received two stamps, one on each arm. The next checkpoint, I had to leave my passport and the ... read more

Today was my last day at the orphanage. The day started in the kitchen, which as you know, I quite like. Then we played with the children. They have been playing that game with string that we use to play when we were kids...you know, the one where one person wraps the string around their hands and you grab certain parts of the string and transfer the string to you hands. It was a lot of fun. The kids have also learned to do a bit of macrame. They were making bracellets with twine(ish) material. I had the job of holding the end while they made the bracellet. One of the boys gave us each a bracellet! It was very touching. Today I made use of the rope Todd bought for me before I left. I ... read more

Today I went back to the orphanage with Alyson and Nigel. They had bought some new knives for the kitchen staff and a sharpening stone. Their existing knives were so dull. Alyson I tried to use them last week to trim off the ends of green beans and we gave up and used our fingers to snap them off. So today, they presented them with the new knives. The women were so happy. Nigel also worked quite dillegently sharpening their old knives, while Aly and I shelled fava beans and peas. After a few hours, the women informed us that the children were not there today because they had a field trip. Apparently this past weekend was the dia de los niños. (day of the children) So today they were not on the premises. Aly and ... read more

Hola Amigos! Today we visited the Wari ruins. It was quite amazing to see the tombs, sacrificial tables, and artifacts that were found at this site. As you walk around, you see pieces of terra cotta that were used in the pottery made by the Wari people. I picked up a few pieces hoping to make them into jewelry when I return. The vistas were unbelieveable and it was really nice to get out of the city and get some fresh air. The weather was gorgeous( 70´s). The ruins were filled with interesting trees and tons of cacti. I took so many pictures. We actually saw of first critter. It was a spider inside its web. It was really cool. I took tons of pictures of that as well. We then went to Qiunua. This is ... read more

Today as part of Care Corps, we were invited to visit two communities in the highlands. The first one, named Paraccay is a wonderful community. As soon as we got off the van, a woman greeted us all and gave everyone flowers(Amarillis and Bouganvilla). Then the president of the community got on the loud speaker to announce our arrival. Everyone from the comunity came to greet us. We then went into a room, where the leaders brought out a bulletin board to explain the improvements that they have made since Care Corps has adopted them. It was impressive, however I´m told the people are still a little sad that they do not have running water. I´m told it would take 100 Soles( $33) to complete the project. We toured a guinee pig farm and some houses ... read more

Today I decided to go to the nursing home to help out another girl named Sue(she´s from England). It was truly wonderful to do massage for the women in the nursing home. Sue and I did hand massages. For some bizarre reason I brought 6 or 7 little bottles of lotion with me to Peru. They are small so I guess I figured I didn´t want to run out so I brouht lots of them. Well it came in handy today. (must have been some higher power telling me to bring so much lotion) The women are so full of life and their spirit is heartwarming. When I started massaging their hands, they massaged mine as well, wanting to share the lotion with me. It was so sweet. When I finished mostly all of them kissed ... read more

Today I was supposed to go to the Nero Street drop in center. This is a place for street vendor children to stop in a get a warm meal and to do their homework. I ended up going back to the orphanage beause the drop in center was closed. Alyson, Nigel and I first helped out in the kitchen, which was enjoyable. Some of the boys worked with us, but not all of them so we got a chance for some one on one with a few. It was great. The women in the kitchen are very sweet. I loved starting their today. It was a good way to ease into the day. We then helped some of the boys with homework and played frisbee and futbol. Tomorrow I will be going to work in the ... read more

Hi Everyone, Today was my first day at the orphanage. I was with two other people, a couple from New Zealand, named Alyson and Nigel. They are great. We entered the orphanage and walked into a room to be greeted my lots of boys working on their homework. We helped them a bit, but some didn´t have any homework, so we did some English lessons. We had so much fun. After an hour of that, we played futbol (soccer). It was very fun and quite a work out. The kids are great. I am happy to be here. After lunch, we had a meeting and a lecture about Care Corps. and their involvement in Ayacucho. We brainstormed the problems we each saw in our placements and some solutions. The Care Corps. director will take the info ... read more

Buenos dias! The day started with breakfast and went into our first meeting with the program director, Rudy. He explained a bit about the history of Ayacucho and then we went to visit some work sites. The first site we visited was the URPI orphanage. It is close to where we live. It is a boys orphanage ages 6-16. This is one of my work sites so I was glad to see it. The boys were so happy to see us. They were anxious to chat with us and pose for pictures. It was unbelieveably heartwarming to se their smiles and feel their arms around you. I know I will love it here. The second site was a soup kitchen. It was very small, but warm and inviting. The women were cooking when we arrived, but ... read more