El Milagro

I have been assigned to the Bruce Peru school in El Milagro, a suburb to the north of Trujillo. El Milagro means "The Miracle" in English, and it is quite the contradiction when you walk through the area. Every morning we hop on a combie, and it takes about 20 minutes to get to our stop in El Milagro. The Bruce Peru classroom is located at the normal El Milagro colegio (elementary school). The director of the colegio has been nice enough to let us use a room for the morning. Here is a brief overview of the bad and good experiences I've had at Milagro so far.

The Bad:
I always travel to El Milagro with Lourdes, the Peruvian teacher hired by Bruce Peru. When I first came to Trujillo I was here for the first week of school. To start the year Juan was the teacher. After Kim and I came back from Huaraz and Cuzco, Juan had found another job so Lourdes had replaced him. Lourdes has been difficult to get to know. She doesn't seem to like to talk a lot and is not overly friendly to anyone. It has been difficult the past few weeks because the class is not very "classlike". Lourdes comes in to the classroom, sometimes takes attendance, and then starts giving out work to do without evening saying hello to the kids. I would like the class to feel more like a group. Lourdes has been getting better at giving the kids work to do, but her teaching style is very difficult for me to understand. I'm worried that the students aren't getting as much out of the classes as they should. Some other folks in the organization are concerned with her teaching style as well, so I've been waiting to see what happens. But it has been frustrating to watch.

The good:
For the most part the kids are fun to work with. It has been great to help kids one on one and actually feel like I've taught them something. I really enjoy teaching the older kids. Math works the best for me because I can use my basic Spanish to explain the math concepts fairly. And some of the kids are quite sharp and hard working. There are days when some of the children don't want to work or learn, and they can be very difficult and frustrating. There are only nine kids in the class now, and I've been able to get to know all of them pretty well over the past couple months. I have even been to some of their houses, with Rosa, and seen their living conditions. It makes it much easier to have more patience with them when I remember where they live and some of the hardships they have already encountered in their young lives.

A couple more good experiences:
About two weeks ago the director of the colegio asked us to plant a garden in front of the classroom. I asked the kids to bring plants from home and I bought several plants as well. The next day nearly everyone brought a plant, and most of the kids knew more about how to garden then me. It was a fun day (there are some pictures below). Yesterday and today I played soccer with the kids during recess. It was a lot of fun, eveyone laughing and the entire class participating. Someone would score a goal and the kids would run around celebrating just like the professionals.

Here some pictures I have taken the past few weeks... Chao, Brian

The colegio at El Milagro.


The children working on the garden.

A group photo after the garden was completed.

Rosa having a meeting with the children's mothers.

Omar posing on the top of the monkey bars.

Almost the entire class on the merry-go-round.

A nice artsy shot of the kids at the playground.

Volunteering in Trujillo

Author Key: Brian = blue, Kim = black

We have written a lot about our travels, our thoughts, and observations. The main reason we came to Peru was to volunteer and help the people (and kids) that need it the most.

Yes - Brian's right. The travels were amazing, but tons of amazing things happen every day here in Trujillo and since it feels more "normal" we don't write about it. So here we go:

The work we do is pretty basic. The directors locate an area, close to Trujillo, that seems to have the need for a "free" school. These areas are in the barrios that extend outward from the center of Trujillo, and we currently have four schools: El Milagro, Nuevo Jerusalem, Alto Trujillo, and Huanchacito. Then, a social worker or teacher walks around the town - going door to door - asking for kids who are not currently attending school. These reasons can be economic or personal, but if the family does not have the means to send their child or children to school, we sign them up. By going door to door we see the child's living conditions and also connect with the parents.

The master at this is Rosa. She strides through neighborhoods in her sunglases and gold earrings, asking everyone she sees whether they know of any kids around who aren't in school. The only thing that slows her down are the overly-protective local dogs. Seeing her in action is quite the lesson in persuasion. "No" is not an option - which makes sense because school is only from 9:00 - 12:20, the kids do not have to bring anything, and (most important) their children receive an education. The kids even get lunch! Rosa signs them up right there on the spot and then throws in a little spiel about the responsibility of the parent to make sure their child attends class. Once we have at least 10 students, we hop back on the Micro (bus) and head back - job well done. Both Kim and I have had the experience of walking through the barrios and knocking on doors with Rosa.

The classrooms are quite basic - four walls, chairs, desks or tables, and a white board. With the right teacher and a firm but loving hand, kids ranging in all ages and skill levels come together as a class. Of course we have our problems: kids can fight and push and steal and say nasty things... but it seems to function pretty well. Yes, I took a pencil away from one boy 3 days in a row, and yes, I made him cry 3 days in a row. But he keeps coming back! Tough love.

So this is an introduction to the work that we do every morning (M-F) in Trujillo. Currently Kim is teaching in Huanchacito and Brian is at El Milagro. We'll blog more about the different schools, our personal experiences, and some of the students we work with.

Here are some photos of kids from Alto Trujillo. This was the school Kim was working in before we went on our Cuzco trip.

Momentitos

A lot of "little moments" have happened over the past couple weeks. While some moments were a bit longer than others, each has stayed with me through our 2 week travel vacation to now... and I'm sure they'll stick around for a while longer:


Memory Trail: My mom and dad traveled through Peru in 1973 on their honeymoon (quite cool, I must add) and the kids have been hearing about the stories that were made for years. The trip Brian and I took to Machu Picchu and Aguas Calientes made all those stories come to life. We saw the hotel by Machu Picchu where Dad famously smashed his lunch bill into a fruit cocktail to make an angry point to the waiter and stormed out of the building. We also hiked the trail where Mom almost divorced Dad for trying to drag her up Wayna (Huayna) Picchu. It's funny how the government, politics, inflation, tourism and so much more in Peru, has changed drastically in the recent past. At the same time, so many things here have stayed exactly the same.

Wheelbarrows: In Aguas Calientes all the men we saw were working in manual labor. The town is built essentially on a hill and cars don't seem to go into town so all goods are delivered by wheelbarrow. Machines are a luxury in Peru. All this work was done by hand. These people were amazingly hard workers.

Anita: In Huaraz, Brian and I spent our last night around our hostel's dining room table, drinking homemade Pisco Sours and telling stories with our Peruvian hosts (Anita and Teo) and two French couples. Now I don't think Brian and I wrote about it before, but in 1970 a massive earthquake hit Huaraz, killing about half of the 30,000 inhabitants and destroying 80% of the city. The town of Yungay, just down the road, was erased by a landslide. Anita was 8 years old when this happened. Here are some of her memories (I'll quote as accurately as possible):

"Our neighbor was leading her sister and her kids through the streets, away from the falling debris. After a few steps, she turned around to see if everyone was still following her, and they had been swept away."

"Fue terrible." (it was terrible)

"My mother's boutique was new so we were safe inside of her building. We ran to find my brothers. In these moments, all you think about is your family. My brothers had dug a hole out of the rubble to climb out of. There are 10 of us in my family. We all survived."

Pisco Sour: limes, Sprite, sugar, Pisco, and an egg white. Blend it all. And don't worry, "the alcohol kills the salmonella".

Anticucho: I looked this work up in the trusty Lonely Planet and it defined it as shish kebab. We'll, yes, it is meat on a stick... but it's not just any meat: it's heart. I can now add cow heart onto the list of strange things I've eaten. Right up there with cow tongue.


We've met some amazing people and seen amazing things so far on this trip, and it's crazy for me to think that we still have 3 more months!