Some thoughts on the project

On October 18th, 6 weeks into my project, I wrote the following email to Katie (who is now in Trujillo). I outlined some of the major aspects of the experience to that point, and now a month after having left Trujillo I still think what I shared with Katie would be useful to any future volunteers. I have 5 points:

"1) Arrival: First of all, are you coming straight from home to Peru? Are you from the UK, or somewhere else? When you arrive, I guess you will probably have at least a day or so in Lima. Orientation is basic, Fiorella will give you some simple, yet important information, and will take you out to a nice lunch. The bus ride is comfortable, but I'd recommend bringing earplugs because they play movies the whole time throughout the whole cabin.

2) Family. Monica, Jamie and their two girls, Valerie (6) and Karin (11) are charming and wonderful. They have a maid Marlany [no longer there!] who does a good amount of the cooking. As it looks now, once I am gone you will have a whole flat to yourself: three bedroom, two bathrooms and a simple living room with a table and couch. You eat basically the same breakfast everyday, bread with jam, juice and tea or coffee. Sometimes you have eggs or something else as well. Dinners are very tasty, and large--I can rarely clear my plate. Valeria is very energetic and silly, her older sister is much calmer and quieter, and they balance each other nicely. Monica and Jamie both work long hours, and sometimes you won't see one of them for a few days at a time. Jamie sometimes longer (he is transferred around the city as a police officer, but it is possible that he will be stationed more locally when you are there).

3) La Beneficencia. I have been working with a group of about 20 five year olds, having taken over from a British volunteer that worked with them for 5 weeks before me. They are wonderful kids, some are a bit ADD, others a bit spacey, and the boys can get a bit rough. I have developed a good daily routine. The kids in the morning (when I am not there) have kindergarten, and more structured classes. After lunch, when I arrive, the time is completely unstructured. Usually when I get there at 1:30 they are all seated around a table, a few still running around. After getting them all calm and quite, we usually sing a couple songs and I talk about the day and about how they can behave well and what I will reward them with if they do. This is easier since I am nearly fluent in Spanish, will probably not work as well for you, depending on how comfortable and knowledgeable you find yourself a few weeks in.

From about 2 to 4PM, they have free time. I have wanted to organize more games, but it is very hard. They are sharing a space with the 4 year old group, and its is chaotic. However, the kids benefit from the free time and social interaction. Often I am either sitting with kids on my lap, or I am playing soccer with a few of the boys.

At fourish they have a snack of liquid oatmeal and bread.

After that, I have them sit around the table, and there are a variety of arts and crafts projects I have them do. ALL the supplies I have needed to bring. The school has nothing. Therefore, I'd encourage you do to two things: bring some stuff, and fundraise a bit so you have a slush fund to tap into. You'd be surprise to find how much help you can get from family, friends, church or your employer if you say you're going to work with Peruvian orphans [though be forewarned, there are nearly no actual orphans at the project; they are needy kids, but i-to-i doesn't get the profile exactly right]. When you arrive there should be a good amount of supplies left over for you and I'm recommending that all future volunteers make an inventory of supplies so subsequent volunteers can plan according to what they will have on hand.

I have also focused considerably on literacy because the kids are noticeably behind where they'll need to be to get ahead. Some still even struggle writing their name. I am not very experienced with this, but I am learning. A little reading up on early childhood development and literacy won't hurt, if you have time.

I am not sure if you will be with the same group, I was pretty much flowed in because thats where the last volunteer was. I think it would be really valuable for the school as a whole if they could link the English speaking volunteers with some of the older kids, because my contact with them is currently very limited [To my knowledge Katie is currently doing just that]. In the next few weeks and when you arrive, we could discuss what kids you are most interested in working with--its possible they need volunteers mostly with my group, but if you have more to offer the older kids, its might be possible to place you with them.

4) Trujillo. A nice city, my first impressive wasn't as good, but now I call it home. Sometimes noisy and sometimes with bad air, it is always sunny and a perfect temperature. You will wear a t-shirt during the day and a sweatshirt at night. There are a few fun places to go out at night, especially if you dance. There are some good restaurants that I frequent daily for lunch, and they are starting to recognize me. Food is cheap, and you can get a good lunch for under 3 dollars. However, you have to watch where and what you eat: I've been sick 3 times. Taxis will take you almost anywhere for a dollar. If you have been to Latin America before, you shouldn't be too surprised by how things work. I generally feel safe, and nothing bad has happened to me even if out at night. Peruvians are quite friendly, and though usually its not very good, they are thrilled to practice their English.

5) Anything else? I haven't had much time to travel. I do a bit of reading, and I go to the internet cafes almost daily. I joined a gym, which I don't go to that often but it helps me feel like I'm staying healthy. I do spend a lot of time with the host family, and I try to spend time prepping for work. There is also trip planning time, and before you know it, the day is over. I find it hard to belief I've already been here six weeks."

There are obviously ways I can elaborate and expand on this basic description. Is there anything that you would like me to write on in later posts?

The past three work days

On Friday, since we had the TV, the tutor Lupe did not show up and I was accordingly on my own, I resorted to showing two movies to the kids: Pocahontas and Tierra de los Osos. Since Friday the TV has been moved upstairs to the library where it is supposedly more secure. I am also informed that the DVD player is for some reason not with the TV, so we need to ask in advance to use it...

Yesterday was a big day: it was both my birthday and the first day that the new volunteer, Katie, was in Trujillo. I'll let her introduce herself soon: whenever she finds the chance to sign on and make her first post. I brought Katie to lunch at a friends house and we got to the Beneficencia at about 2:45 (late, but we had informed them ahead of time). The day was a bit hectic since we got in late and the kids were just doing puzzles until we got there. Consequently they were very energetic. Katie and I visited Casa del Niño, where she may work for a day or two each week.

Today we had a great English lesson. We went over all the vocab: (the weather) sunny, windy, raining, cloudy, cold, hot, (the classroom) desk, chair, pencil, pen, board, and book. I taught 4 new words: cat, dog, frog and hippo. Then we did choral repetitions of the 10 English letters they now know: A, E, I, O, U, T, N, R, S, and H. The kids also played at the playground/swings (columpios) for a while and at the end of the day did some coloring. I worked with Ibelice for a while teaching her to color in the lines.

I will only have 3 more days in the Beneficencia, then Katie will be taking over as the only volunteer. I will keep writing the rest of the week and then will be a contributor both recording experiencies from earlier in my stay and making comments related to the work other volunteers are doing.

Dance party!

Today, after snoozing too many times, signing up for one more week at the Golden Gym (On Jr. Colon, right near where it intersects Pizarro by Romano's), and eating the "menú familiar" at Demarco, I was ready for action. Jaime helped me bring the TV down to the street and hail a cab and then I was off to work.

I arrived and everything went well, though almost comically slow. After taking the celebratory, symbolic photos--with Ever on my shoulders and the kids holding up our English flashcards--we then tried to turn the TV on. First, all the outlets are old-fashioned, so the modern plug with the slightly bigger prong did not go in the wall. Going for a different approach, I got a little electric shock trying to plug in a ghetto extension cord which turned out also to have the outdated plugs. Finally Walter, one of the maintenence guys, used some tool to shave down the TV's oversized prong (probably not that safe) while I meanwhile did some paperwork with the "gerente," or manager.

So the TV worked, but what do we watch? The antenna gets about 2 channels coming in well, and the programs on those channels are crap. So they bust out the DVD player and for the first 5 minutes I try to get it to work it is completely lifeless. Finally fiddling with the plug gets it some juice: sweet! I go to the cabinet to get the children's DVD I had seen a few days ago. Put it in and.... "Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you?". Happy Birthday? Where's the video. I look at the case again, and realize: oops, its just an MP3 cd.

Oh well. But the kids are really excited, and so I skip ahead a few tracks and find a upbeat song, and the kids start to dance. Nice! So we had a little dance party, and after a while Lupe brought the all the boys but two into the dining room for a "nap." Naptime is code for how the staff find ways to bullshit when they see that a couple kids are tired. After their "luncheon" the kids came back to our room (I have no idea what to call it still, what shame). They did puzzles until the end of the day, and that's that!

TV comes to my project.

Today was pretty uneventful. Now with the new tutora Lupe, the kids arrive at our room later, say around 10 of 2, so I can probably start coming at that time instead of the normal 1:30. I reviewed the vocabulary words with my kids: we have two sets so far, one for weather, the other for classroom items. The flashcards Mark and Julie left are incredible, and since I wrote the words on the back I can flip the cards around and get the kids used to "reading," or at least recognizing, words. So they now know pretty well 12, yes 12, words in English.

During the day I went with Monica and Jaime and bought a television to donate to the "Complejo" which I am finally informed is the real name of our branch of the larger "Beneficencia." I am using most of the $ which was granted to me from my dad's Quaker meeting. The rest is pretty much all used up on puzzles, xeroxing, jump-ropes, posterboard, etc.

I'll bring the TV in tomorrow. They will hopefully get it mounted on the wall right away. afterwards, I don't know how things will change, but it will definitely supply another option to tutors and volunteers for ways to teach and/or distract the children for a while.

Welcome to trujillovolunteers.blogspot.com!

This blog is written for and by foreigners who come to Trujillo, Peru to do volunteer work. Specifically we will start with my project, but may expand over time.

My name is Joe and I have been at La Beneficencia Publica de Trujillo since Sept 10th. I was placed by i-to-i, a British placement agency. I have 1.5 weeks left on my project, and will be welcoming a new volunteer on Monday who will take over when I am gone.

The main idea of this blog will be to share ideas, record experiences, and hopefully make transitions to projects easier for new volunteers. There is a lack of communication between generations of volunteers, and there needs to be a central place to discuss what is going on at the project and what can be done to solve problems and make progress.

This blog will also be a way for alumni/vets to check up on their projects to see what's new!

I am hoping that all i-to-i volunteers in Trujillo will post daily on those days that they go to work.

All for now, Abrazos!