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!