Enrique in Porcon (Mike and Natalie)

Enrique came to La Granja Porcón for a few days to learn how to weave fabric out of wool. One day while we were down at El Bichito, he told us he was interested in learning in the artesanía (craft) shop, and so we arranged it for him to come up. He arrived on Tuesday, July 27^th, and worked and played in Porcón until the morning of Saturday, the 31^st of July. He weaved on the loom in the mornings and early afternoons, and then had the rest of the day to relax. Elena, the woman in charge of the artesanía, said that he was a fast learner. He picked it up very quickly, and had almost finished making an entire handbag by the time he left on Saturday. He had the chance to go to the zoo, go to the trout farm, go on hikes, and participate in our English Club classes at the local school. He became friends with the kids in our classes and had a great time with them. One of his favorite things to do (as with all 12-year-old boys) was stand by the river and try to skip rocks across it. He had a great time, and didn’t want to leave on Saturday when the time came. He said that he may want to work as an artisan some day, but he’s still not sure yet. This was a good experience for Enrique.

Luis (Chris)

We had an wonderful time working with the children in Bichito! We finished the internship last Friday and we are in Chile now. I still wanted to send you some pictures of the Trujillo expedition with the Millers. Attached are some photos of the Miller and us painting the chairs for all the houses at the Aldea. I have a a lot more kids I want to write about when we get home. One kid I wanted to write about was Luis Wilder. Here`s a blog entry:


We`ve had a great time with the children these past few weeks. We've established a Career Day program with the kids every week. We have a professional come and talk to the kids one day out of the week. So far we`ve had a Miner and Tour Guide come and talk to them. One boy that has really cought our attention by being very persistent in doing homework is Luis Wilder. He is about 12 years old and is Maria Alida`s younger brother. He is very bright and had done the second most homework out of all the kids. He is a star at soccer and helps take care of his other brothers. He has the same situation as Maria Alida, where his parents work far away to sustain the family. We learned recently that the reason why they go so far away is that they used live far in the country but the schools were really bad. Their parents moved the whole family closer to Puylucana so that the kids could study, but they still have to travel long distances for work. Luis is part of a special family that deserves so much more. Its been so great to work with him and his siblings.

Enrique (Nancy and Jared)

We have an intern in Por Con! His name is Enrique, he's 15ish, and he is there this week to learn artenesia trades...weaving, painting, etc. Yesterday Jared and I took him to Por Con and dropped him off to the Murrows. They'll bring him back on Saturday. We were getting frustrated because none of the kids were interested, but then we had a Parent's Day last week and the Murrows announced the Por Con Internship and Enrique told us after that he wanted to go. We all went to dinner together last night, and we had alpaca steaks! It was the best thing I've eaten in Peru so far.

Hopefully we will get Alida to the other doctor this friday and see how much an operation would cost.

We were all thinking that it would be cool to take some of the kids on a field trip to Por Con. The two ladies who work at El Bichito, Malchura and Feliciana, told us that it would be 280 soles to rent a bus for the day, and they would organize it.

A few weeks ago some students from the University came and donated crates-full of fruit, eggs, and potatoes. They have been coming over now and then to help us with the kids, and yesterday, we had movie day. They brought a DVD player, projector, big speakers, and we played a movie for the kids on the wall. I can't remember what it was called, but it had guinea pigs in it. Ivan is the one who has helped the most, but he always brings friends with him. It's great to have help.

Take care,

Nancy and Jared

Travels and back to the kids (Preston)

Hey everyone!

So, we are back from our travels. After a few bumps in the road, we ended up seeing everything we wanted to see. Macchu Picchu was amazing. It’s kind of unfortunate that the pictures we took will never do it justice. We went the back way via bike and foot which was a great way to do it. The physical aspect of it really added to the experience. The Rojas family was amazing. They were incredibly hospitable.

Iquitos was also amazing. We stayed with some friends of the Rojas family, the Babilonia family. They showed us around all the sights of Iquitos. We saw the amazon, a few really cool zoos and got to visit a native tribe. It was a lot of fun.

Even though we had so much fun traveling, it felt really good to come home to the aldea. I was surprised how much I missed the kids while I was gone. Kelsey, Lacey and Britney whipped things in to shape while we are gone. They are doing a great job rounding all the kids up with specific activities. The 50 dollar budget is also a big help because we can cook with the kids and a lot of other activities that we couldn’t really do before, so thanks to everyone who has helped make that possible.

It was Ruben’s birthday two days ago. He’s a great kid. When he is a little older, I’m sure he will fill leadership positions here in the aldea. The younger boys really look up to him. He was just moved to casa 5 with the older boys while we were out on vacation. He seems to be doing just fine there. Hopefully he will be able to dodge a lot of the problems that are common with the teenagers here.

Thanks for all of your support. I’m really glad I didn’t let this opportunity slip by.

Preston

A few special moments (Britney)

Natalie, Dan, Tanner and Preston got back from their big trip to Macchu Picchu and Iquitos and so I get to go running again which is so fun! Afterwards, I went to help in a house with Daniel, a boy about 12 with special needs and Pilar, the cute little baby. I kept Daniel occupied for about 2 hours and introduced the Tia to playdough! Then, I went to help Cinthia, a teenager learn how to read and write because I just found out the day before that she didn’t know how. What was so cool was that afterwards, she thanked me and asked me to come back! Then, as I was going out the two older girls in the house where I eat, Ana and Monica who are 16, are always home all day so I want to spend more time with them. We got to eat lunch together and that’s when they begged me to translate Justin Beiber - instant bonding, right?! Plus, I got into a longer conversation with Rocio, a 15-year-old girl!

Another cool moment was that at home I started washing clothes when Sara Lee (8) came over and started telling me the Pinochio story. Later, she wrote down the story for me and decorated it - A TREASURE! Don’t worry, apparently I don’t wash clothes that well so she and the tiniest girl I’ve ever seen - Estefani - both started washing my clothes. Even when I had to go, they begged to keep washing so we decided the next day we would!

Next, I was asked by the older girls to supervise them so they could dance in the cultural hall-ish room. They actually choreograph dances to all our pop music. Then we tried to help all the kids decorate the picture frames, but it was all a guise because they just wanted the pictures we gave them of them with their houses.

Visitor (Britney)

I had so much fun helping little Renzo who is 9 months old strengthen his legs. He has absolutely no leg muscles - he came to the Aldea that way and the Tias try to help him practice crawling or walking but they said they just don’t have enough time so they asked us to help stretch his legs, massage them and help him practice standing to strengthen them. Meanwhile, Benjamin who is 8 and I love him had a day off school and came outside and played with my kickball with me. Then, I helped him study for a test and don’t worry we high-fived after every question he got right! Then SURPRISE, a Congresswoman came so we all had a big fiesta for her- meaning all the houses had some of the kids perform dances. It was awkward though for a couple of the older girls who were dancing to Justin Beiber’s “Baby, baby, baby,” - don’t worry all the girls are in love and I MEAN IN LOVE with Justin Beiber and the Twilight series. Even little Manuel, 6, in a house filled with 8 older girls sings all the lyrics in English. But when I translated them the other day, they didn’t even know what “baby” meant. haha The congresswoman was impressive and wants to work hard for the women and children - she acknowledges that they need a lot of help! She said over 2 million children work when they aren’t legally allowed to. One cool note for me was that cute Jose Antonio always goes around singing in an opera voice so I started singing out his name randomly all through the day - we sand back and forth - cute!

Fundraiser for Southern Cross Humanitarian

Hi All!

It's Joy here, I haven't written on the blog for quite some time now.  I just wanted to let everyone know about an opportunity to help raise money for Southern Cross Humanitarian.

I am an Independent Consultant for Shelf Reliance.  You can check out their website at www.shelfreliance.com, but don't make your order until you send me an e-mail that says "I support Southern Cross Humanitarian."  After you e-mail me, I will set up your Shelf Reliance account, so that you will be able to receive discounts of 10-30% off retail prices.  Even if you already have an account, I can set it up so you will receive the discounts.

When you make an order in September, I will donate 10% of your order to Southern Cross Humanitarian.

Shelf Reliance has great products like 72 hour emergency kits, food storage, and food rotation systems.

Send me an e-mail at joy@thrivecrew.com that says "I support Southern Cross Humanitarian"

Now is always a good time to get prepared!

Career Day & Health Day (Hubers)

In the last few weeks we've started "Career Day" and "Health Day", usually once a week. Chris and Kimball invited a friend who works in the local mine to talk to the kids about career options. The next week we brought a tour guide. They taught the kids about the importance of getting an education, and then finding a job, and told them about their profession. It was the first time the the older kids (16-18) stayed after eating. Usually only the younger kids stay, but this time the older boys were really interested and learned a lot.

Jared and I did a Health Day last week, where we taught the kids about personal hygiene, fitness, etc, and then gave the children a toothbrush and showed them how to use it. Jared used his computer to give a slide-show presentation. They loved it! The next health day is going to be about visiting the doctor, because a lot of the families in the country are afraid of hospitals. We'll keep you posted!

The Hubers

After School Program (Mike and Natalie)

We have been here for three-and-a-half weeks, and things are going smoothly. In the school here in Porcon, we have been able to help the English professor in her classes. We have also established an after-school English club and about 20 kids show up for that each time. We've already picked a very capable student from the club to make sure it continues after we leave. He accepted and he will work with the professor to keep that club going after we are gone. We were hoping to get some teenagers from El Bichito to come to Porcon and work for a little while, but they all wanted to learn mechanical-oriented trades. We talked to Don Alejandro, Pedro, and Jacinto about what jobs they could do in Porcon and they were excited to have them work in the sawmill, as that would have been the best match for their interests. Unfortunately, though, the kids decided in the end that they were not interested in that. But we are going to give Pedro's and Jacinto's phone numbers to Feliciana so that in the future if there is a child who is interested in working in Porcon, she can set that up. We will also let Pedro and Jacinto know that she will likely call them in the future.

The Jenson's are leaving in one week, and the Huber's two weeks after that. We have all been making arrangements for local people to volunteer at El Bichito so that the after-school program continues after we all leave. We all decided it would be best for us to move down to Cajamarca and work in El Bichito after the Hubers leave. That way we will be able to keep it going until we leave and make sure that the people here are very familiar with the after-school program. Yesterday we had about 6 students from the University come and donate fruit and other food and they said that they will continue to be involved. Also, Natalie and I have met a man named Juan who works in Porcon and lives in Cajamarca. When he found out what it is we do, he said he would love to volunteer often at El Bichito. He used to work in another orphanage here, and he said he wants to get back into doing that and helping the kids. We are going to show him where El Bichito is so that he can stop by on weekdays to help out. So things are going well, and one of our main focuses right now is arranging things so that the programs we have started keep going after we are gone.

Thanks,

-Mike and Natalie