Blogs from Ayacucho, Peru, South America - page 22

Oh my gosh! I wasn´t going to write in my journal today, but I was reading all of your wonderful comments and had to respond! Thank you so much! I am still having a great time in Ayacucho. It´s actually starting to feel like home more and more. We are teaming up with Care Corp and seeing how they work with people living in poverty. They have many programs all over Peru to help bring money into the economy. We hiked up a mountain today through a ¨neighborhood¨to visit local artist. These people make their home their studio. We visited weavers and stone carvers. They sell their products for next to nothing. CARE is trying to find ways for them to market their work to bring in more money. Again, I am inspired with the talent ... 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

Well my life living at just over 9,000 ft above sea level is going great! Despite the fact that I am fighting one hell of a cold. I’ve done lots since my last update. I’ve spent two days at the Santa Elena clinic, attended several meeting to discuss poverty issues in Peru and how the Care Corps is tackling this enormous undertaking, shopped, ate like a Queen, and made some great new fiends. This morning on my way to the health clinic a group of us stopped off at a school in a very poor district and gave the kids the school supplies that I brought down. They organized them into lines according to their classes. I was surprised at how well the behaved. Marisol, our house coordinator, explained who I was and what I was ... 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

My first full day in Ayacucho so far has consisted of an orientation of the CCS program and a tour of the locations that they serve in town. We went to a boy’s home, a soup kitchen, Santa Elena health clinic, a school, and a prison. The boy’s home is a place were boys from the age of 5-18 live. They are mostly boys whose family can not afford to take care of them. They have a very nice place to live and go to school. It is very clean and they seem really happy. The boys got all excited when we showed up. I think that they really enjoy the time they get to spend with volunteers playing and working on their English. The soup kitchen is in a extremely poor neighborhood. They provide breakfast ... read more