Recent Developments

Here are some new developments in photos:

My class in Huanchaquito. As my life changes, so does theirs. I´m learning a lot from these kids.

Brian and I finally saw the famous and enormous Chimu ruins, Chan Chan.

Brian picked up a new sport... Sandboarding!

It´s a lot colder. Pobresita Arenita...

One other good one: Brian has picked up the nickname of Pelo Bonito, or Beautiful hair. Hilarious. I´m sure you all can imagine how that got started. I can´t wait to see what a beauty he´ll be in 2 months! (Marla: it might be a good idea to set an appointment with Maria for when Brian gets back...)

As for me...

Mancora changed me. Surrounded by hippies and beach, I felt that I was being taken back to my Oregon roots: a local down the road weaved my hair into dreads and in one of the street markets, I had a local ink artist tattoo a hibiscus on my lower back. I feel great. Happy Mother´s Day, Mom!

Just kidding!

Really, things are pretty normal around here. I thought of the title ¨Recent Developments¨ back when it felt like everything was changing: our mentor, friend, and faithful leader Bart retired from his position as Volunteer Director to move on to new projects in Buenas Aires with his lovely lady Marjiolijn; Brian and I decided to stay in Trujillo for 2 more weeks after a kind invitation from Bruce himself; I turned 24; and a new wave of volunteers were on their way.

Now, our two weeks are almost up. The new (and fantastic) volunteers are here and working hard. And Brian is now running the show as our Director (he has to have a cell phone - haha!). Things are good. The only major development lately with me is that I did get my hair cut: 4 soles, 10 minutes, and a free chocolate bar. Awesome.

Still, as our time is running down, ideas are flowing like never before.

· We´ve started a guest/guide book in Bruce Peru: a work in progress of sorts. Brian and I have written down some of the tips and cool places we´ve learned about while we´ve been here with the hopes that future volunteers will use these pages to get to know the city better and then add pages of their own. Additionally, when we leave, we´ll write a little blurb about how much we love the place.
· Brian and I are working on a manual for future volunteers and staff to use as a reference. It´s fun to think back and figure out the clearest way to communicate all that we have learned over the past two months.
· We´re also working on developing a project in Huanchaco that would hopefully develope a sustainable, local tourist industry and help the local fishermen and farmers to develop the Huanchaco food market. We´re hoping to do something like the initiatives in Ballard or around Portland where a store could put a sticker in their window that says that they promise to buy products from the local workers. We´ve hooked up with some locals who are also interested in the idea and are hoping that the enthusiasm continues.

That´s about that, I suppose. I´m appreciating more and more everyday the great community we´ve developed around us here in Trujillo. However, my mind will still drift to images of New Seasons Market in Portland, or Greenlake in Seattle, or even my white pants that my mom and I found at Anthropology right before I left on this trip. Cultus Lake, the hanging out with the Sanders family in Seattle, Lydia´s wedding, and other summer excursions are also lingering in my mind in anticipation.

We still have so much to see and learn on this trip and I truly can´t wait for it! Laura´s coming to travel with us in Arequipa and Lake Titicaca; we´ll have another tour though Huaraz (yes!), and then many more surprises to come once we´re in Bolivia. Still, when the time comes, I think I will be ready for the comforts and familiarity of the Northwest, as well as the future opportunities of applying all that I have learned here to more local and personal projects.

As a side note, here´s a recommendation for a fantastic book that Brian and I have been reading (Thanks Donee for leaving it in Bolivia!):
· Whispering in the Giant´s Ear by William Powers. A great read regarding the changing global economy though the eyes of Bolivia.

Ecuador (very briefly) and Mancora

This past Thursday was a ferriado (holiday) in Peru, so we had a four day weekend to do a bit of travelling. We needed to extend our Peruvian visas, and the easiest way is to leave the country and return. So Wednesday night we set out from Trujillo via an overnight bus to Tumbes (about 30 km from the Ecuadorian border).

We heard different stories on what the protocol is for extending our visas. The most reliable sources at Bruce Peru seemed to agree that you have to spend one day in Ecuador before returning to Peru. Everyone, including the Lonely Planet, warned that this particular border crossings is a bit sketchy. So the plan was to spend a night in Guaycuil, Ecuador. But our plans began to change when the moto-taxi we flagged down in Tumbes took us to the border contrary to our request to take us to a bus station in town. The driver told us a bunch of lies saying that the bus station we were looking for in Tumbes didn't exist, etc., and we ended up taking the expensive way to the border (not by choice). The good news is that we spoke to the Peruvian migration officier and found out we were allowed to get both exit and entry stamps (and new visas) in the same day.

We made our way to the Ecuadorian migration office, a few kilometers from the actual border, got our passports stamped a couple times and were crossing back into Peru within a half hour. The border town was interesting. There is free trade between Ecuador and Peru, so there were carts stacked high with all sorts of fruits: bananas, mangos, pineapples, and more. We found a cheap colectivo to take us back to Tumbes and he even stopped and waited for us at the Peruvian migration office. By 11:30 am we had new visas and were back in Tumbes.

(Here is a picture of the border. Peru on the left and Ecuador on the right, with a really horribly contaminated stream in between.)

We quickly grabbed a combi from Tumbes and within two hours were in Mancora. According to the Lonely Planet Mancora is Peru's "worst kept secret". It is the most "resorty" town along the north coast of Peru. I also happened to see an article in today's New York Times about Mancora (check out this link), so it isn't getting any less popular! We quickly found out why this is an attractive spot for backpacking travellers and Peruvian tourists.

The beaches are beautiful and the Pacific is warm in Mancora. The water is crystal clear and the weather is hot. It feels more tropical than any other place we have visited in Peru. We were lucky to get a place to stay at Laguana Camp. It is a hostal that is comprised of different bungalows, hammocks everywhere, and a really layed back owner who we chatted with a lot. Here are the highlights of our two and a half days in Mancora.

• Having fresh squeezed juice with meals. All the restaurants served homemade juice and it came in a small pitcher with a straw for about 4 soles ($1.50). The fruits in season were papaya, pineapple, banana, orange, passionfruit, and others... yummy!
• The beaches: white sand, swimming, surfing, beautiful sunsets, and even some decent people watching. The only downside: we both got a bit sunburned yesterday.
• Hanging out with Eduardo (owner of Laguna Camp) and chatting about random subjects in hammocks and around bonfires while drinking a few beers. The Laguna Camp was away from the busy Panamerican Highway where parties in the street and semi-trucks passing through somehow co-exist. The only sounds we heard were the waves.
• Eating fresh fruit on the beach. One morning we had bananas, mandarins and the best mango ever. We were covered in as much juice as we were sunscreen and we didn't care. The mango tasted like a dessert for breakfast.

Mancora was nice but in our minds Huanchaco (our local beach near Trujillo) is more our style. We loved the warm water and tropical climate, but Mancora is a bit more of a tourist trap. You have to be more on the lookout for people trying to rip you off. And after many weekends in Huanchaco we have friends and our favorite places, which makes it a special spot.

Brian after some surfing.

A gecko friend we found in our bungalow.

Another beautiful sunset.

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.