Voluntary work in Trujillo

TRUJILLO

Our reason for going to Trujillo was to do voluntary work in an orphanage. Jurgen had made contacts many months ago in the States with an American guy who knew of voluntary work needed in the area of Esperanza, Trujillo. So for months, we had been mailing 'Darlin' (the owner) re how our services could be of need.

We spent our first couple of nights in a fabulous family run hostel “Residencial Munay Wasi”. The Dueña was slightly neurotic and wanted to practice her English with us at all times. She welcomed us to Trujillo by making us a few Pisco Sours and chatting with her and her family…..

After making contact with Darlin who was very pleased to know that we had arrived, we took a taxi to Esperanza - 10 mins away from Trujillo centre in a taxi. The area matched our expectations; small shacks for houses, litter everywhere, kids playing in the dusty streets and rickshaws outnumbering the number of people around. The whole street seemed to know that we were there and came out onto the street to welcome us as we arrived.

Our plan was to stay there for a few days but we wanted to learn more from Darlin about his current and ongoing project. It turned out that he and his mother provide a kind of refuge for those in need of food and shelter plus education facilities for children from 3-8 years old. The classroom has recently been built on the side of their house. It was extremely basic but equipped with desks, chairs and writing materials. Unfortunately for us, it was holidays so no school. Apparently, the classroom accommodates up to 30 children. The local government provide the teacher which is a huge win for Darlin and his cause. He has been fighting for this for many years…..
Up until 5 years ago La Esperanza didn't have paved roads, local drug addicts ruled the streets and orphaned children were left alone to fend for themselves. Jurgen and I (gringo's) wouldn't have been able to walk the streets at that time……
Darlin and his mother took it upon themselves to help clean up the community so by working with the local government they received funding to provide education facilities and a shelter i.e. Lila (Darlin´s mother) provides home cooked meals for the homeless and orphaned children from 10.30am - 15.30pm every day of the week. The meals are basic; rice, beans/lentils and soup but the big portions provided will feed someone for the whole day. People come to her house/kitchen in droves.

Part of their development is to provide a bigger refuge to accommodate not only education and food facilities but also sleeping accommodation for young children and single mothers/fathers. This refuge is under construction about 1500 metres from their own in a very run down and somewhat dangerous part of the area. It's basically a shell at the moment and they don't know when it will be finished because the work is being done bit by bit and is dependent on funding and help from the locals for building work. Jurgen and I went with Lila to take a look. It was sad to see that delinquents had put grafiti on the walls and treated it as a rubbish ground. We (foreigners) obviously drew a crowd so whilst Lila was explaining the work needed to be done, a group of youths gathered around trying to intimidate. One even went as far as urinating on the premises - obviously trying to get a reaction from us which didn't work. Lila and Darlin are both extremely religious so she tried to preach the words of the Lord to them but they just stood and laughed……. We just had to take it in our stride…… It's sad to see with our own eyes how people from their own community fail to understand the good that can come from this project but this is what Darlin and Lila are up against on a daily basis. Their only 'buy in' is from the church.

This brings us onto our next topic. As we arrived on Easter Sunday and not knowing just how religious Darlin and Lila are, we were expected to go to church. We didn't mind at the time, because we're guests so will go along with what they do. However, attending an Evangelist church and 3.5 hours of preaching, praising the Lord and cries from those who could feel His presence, we became very irritable and Jurgen saw confirmation as to why he's not religious… The local preacher even gave lesson in religious education by using a whiteboard and a Q&A session!!!! This is because such a setting is the only way to educate and preach 'goodness' to the local people who are not very well educated. We walked out, not converted!!! Darlin was aware of this but our differing beliefs should not have any affect on his cause. However, every now and then both Darlin and Lila would try to preach to us…….

We failed to see what we could do to help because 1) it was holiday time and 2)no construction materials available to do work on the refuge. We therefore hung out in the house for a couple of days and helped Lila serve food to the locals. Young orphaned children would turn up wearing very little clothes, no shoes and hungry. Their faces would light up at the glimpse of a bowl of rice….
We also made friends with the local kids; brought chocolate Easter eggs which had the neighbouring children visiting on a regular basis. Jurgen managed to have a football game with a couple of kids. They thought he was a big star from Holland!!! (he wishes….). Also, we got to know the rest of the family quite well and Darlin's friends passed by intrigued to see the foreigners because no Europeans pass by there very often....

What Lila does is very admirable so our way of helping out at that time was to take her food shopping. We stocked her up with kilos of rice and beans along with poultry products. These products are becoming increasingly expensive for them so she was very grateful.

Our living arrangements were extremely basic. Our room was on the second floor but built on top of slabs of wood knocked together. Below us was the guinea pig/chicken and rabbit pen so when we passed to use the outside toilet, you could here the guinea pigs squeaking away. The chickens would freely roam around with the cats and puppy dog whilst the parrots squawked in the corner. Lila fed us on a dish of fish and rice and also a meat dish which we think was rabbit!

Our 3 day visit was an eye opener for us. Not only to see poverty first hand but also to see how a community with very little hope can become totally reliant on the church as this gives them hope and purpose in life. Darlin and Lila made us very welcome and once we have further confirmation on the developments of the refuge, we hope to help them out.

After this we returned to our hostel in Trujillo, before we took the bus to Mancora.

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