Life in Peru (Dan at Aldea)

Hello everyone!

Life is great here in the great land of Peru. I got a little sick this week, but maybe it's just a painful way to lose weight. At the Aldea they serve a lot of food every meal, and it's tough to turn it down. That means that just maintaining my weight will be difficult here and my dream to lose a few pounds for real will be especially difficult. I have been running however, and we found this great trail above the houses that is on the side of the mountains. Except for the ever vicious dogs, its a great run that gives a really good view of the valley. I'm really glad I have Natalie and occasionally Preston and Tanner to run with. Even in this beautiful country, it's still easier to have someone running at your side.

I'm not sure if I told that I carved a baseball bat, but I made a rudimentary bat that is still slightly curved so we can play baseball with the kids of the Aldea. It is awesome! (If I do say so my self) We have also been playing some volleyball, which is a favorite of many of the girls here. Another great game is tree tag. There are some great mango trees in the center of the aldea that have great branches for climbing and 'monkeying around.' We play tag while staying in the trees, it's tough to get the little ones because even the small high branches will hold them just fine.

We are working right now on our travel stuff to Machu Picchu and then Iquitos. We now have tickets from Lima to Cuzco for the first week of July. It's about 100 dollars round trip for the plane, and about 25 bucks for the bus down to Lima. I am really excited to go the Sacred Valley and see all that stuff. After that, we are planning to go to iquitos which is a town in the Peruvian amazon. I'm pumped, getting the tickets has been a challenge. I'll have to get some malaria pills those few days, but it'll be well worth it. I've just heard so many great things about Machu Picchu and Cuzco that I'm just pumped to see everything.

I also picked up a panflute this past week, it's not great, but I got it for only 18 soles, so that's okay. I really do want to get and play a churrango. It's a 10 string oversized ukulele that is just awesome. You play 2 strings at a time so every note has harmony. Right now we (the band we created 'Lost in Aldea') is practicing the Hawaiian guy's version of "Somewhere over the Rainbow." Tanner has a uke, and I have a panflute solo at the end of the amazing song. I'm pumped to play it.

We had a great Saturday night talk where we wrote down 100 goals that we want to do in our lives. It was tough to get things down, and I only have 75 written right now, but it really made me think about the important and the not so important things I want to do.

Anyway, I think we're going to Chan Chan in the morning, which is a world heritage site near Trujillo of pre-inca ruins. I'll let you know how it goes.
Thanks for all the support stateside, and hope all is well with you!
-Dan

Meet Renso (Lacey)

We have started taking the toddlers and babies in the mornings. This way, the tias have more time to cook and clean and we get to help the babies! This has become some of my favorite parts of the day! We played with Renso this week. He is the only baby in the casa 5 (about 8 months old). Casa 5 are all older boys and they really dote on Renso.( I just heard he is being moved to casa 2). He does not really have a lot of strength in his legs and we have been trying to improve that. He is just the sweetest kid. The biggest brown eyes you have ever seen! I wish I could take him home! I wish I knew more of his story. But I hope we can continue to help him. He is definitely my favorite.

This is a photo of me and Renso. :)

More Aldea Children (Preston)

(Victor and Miguel - see their bio below - they are new to the Aldea...)

Hey everyone!
This week has been a lot of fun. I'm getting the hang of their names and getting to know them on a more personal level which has been very rewarding. We have had a few good activities this week like painting one of the walls with a tree and then using the kids hand prints as the leaves. There was a group from the local Baptist church that put on a presentation for the kids and brought them lots of gifts. Some of the kids have troubles saying my name so they call me "Fresco" which translates to fresh. I kind of like it. All the interns here aldea have been collecting information on some of the kids that are here. Here is the information that I managed to gather from the kids.

Victor Manuel Mun~oz Ramirez is new to the Aldea and arrived a few days before I did. That doesn't stop him from being the most outgoing child in the Aldea. We still don't know much about him like when he was born, but he claims to be 8 years old. He loves piggy back rides and any form of play. He has a younger brother that came with him named Miguel.

Evelin Edith Arenas Llaro was born on April 8th, 1996 and is 14 years old. She is always kind and a great help around the house where she is staying. She likes to jump rope, play volleyball and run. She also really likes to play computer games.

Dina Cruz Garcia was born December 1st, 2003 and is 6 years old. She is a little reserved, but often times her 6 year old mind gets the best of her and she is just as loud as the rest of the kids. She is always ready for creative activities like painting or drawing. She is an aspiring singer. She is one of 4 sisters here at the aldea.

Elvia Marleny Sanchez Garcia was born on November 4th, 1995 and is 14 years old. Music is her passion. She loves to sing and her favorite music is reggaeton. She has 3 sisters here in the aldea: Dina, Israeli and Daniela. She's a good sister figure for them and also does a good job of taking care of the younger kids that are in her house.

Stanley Enwin Mora Sevillano is 14 years old and was born on the 23 of October, 1995. She must have a little conquistador blood in her because her dream is to explore the world. She loves music, but is rather picky with her selection because she only likes romantic "ballads". She has an adorable son named Luis.

Eliza Elizabet Carranza Reyes was born on the 13th of July, 1993 and is 16 years old, making her the oldest one in her house. She has a younger sister living with her named Antonina. She likes to play volleyball and listen to romantic music.

Next week I will send you more information. Thanks for everything!
Preston

The Children of the Aldea (Natalie)

Hello! Here are a few bios of the children in Aldea:

Sara Maribell is a 16 year old girl who is incredibly smart. Her birthday is August 14th. She's working hard at school learning English and is surprising good at it. Her favorite subject in school is English as well. However, she wants to be a nurse when she gets older. She is sort of a tom boy and fits in well with the boys because of how athletic she is. While at the same time, her down to earth personality makes it really easy to talk to her. She is a beautiful girl with dimples in her cheeks when she smiles.

Mercelith Sanches Saucedo is another 16 year old girl at the Aldea. Her birthday is June 5th. Her favorite color is purple. When asked what she likes the best about the Aldea she said she loves having lots of friends. She is very social and is always smiling about something. She is a great dancer and enjoys that as well. She is not afraid to perform as proven in a big concert we put on for the kids last week. I was impressed! She also loves any kind of music. She enjoys soccer and volleyball as well. We she is older, she wants to be a hairdresser.

Leticia is a 17 year old girl. Her birthday is the 26th of November. She enjoys tennis and volleyball. Her favorite colors are black and white and she absolutely loves reading books. Currently, she attends the cosmetology school in Trujillo. As much as she enjoys doing that, she says that she'd rather be a teacher for children one day. After she told me that, I've been able to observe how cute and patient she is with the younger children in her casa. I couldn't believe how patient she was even with me as I spoke to her in broken Spanish. She has been really helpful and probably one of the first kids I go to when I need help with my Spanish.

Antonina is a 5 year old girl at the Aldea. She is the most adorable girl I have ever seen. Her dark eyes squint so much when she smiles and she is such a tease. She is ALWAYS smiling. Not once have I seen her throw a fit, or pout, She's got the cutest little haircut and wears little dresses almost everyday. Her favorite color is red and she loves noodles with chicken. She is loves to paint, play with her dolls, and when asked what she wants to do when she gets older: homework. So cute! Her older sister Elisa lives at the orphanage as well.

Sophia and Fanny are 5 year old twins at the Aldea. We volunteers sure get a kick out of them. They are two of the toughest little girls here. Just like all sisters, they pull hair and kid around with each other, but unlike most sisters, they rarely cry about it! They love to tease each other, and are always laughing. They technically are not identical twins, but they sure look a lot a like. It took a few days for me to tell them apart. Both of them share the favorite food of sweet potatoes and bananas. Eating dinner with them is so funny because if one gets up from the table, the other will grab food from her plate and just laugh while she's eating it. They each love the attention of teasing. I love it. It brings lots of laughter to this place. Both are responsible as well. Whenever the Tia asks something of them whether it's to drink their milk or shine their shoes, they do it without complaints. Sophia's favorite color is yellow and Fanny's favorite color is red.

More will be coming!!--Natalie

P.S. Pictures attached are as follows: 1) Alfredo with bowl 2) Miguel sitting 3) 2 year old Lewis and I

Meet Kevin (Chris and Kimball at El Bichito)

We have had a crazy 1st week! At first it took some time for the kids to warm up to us, but now we think they are getting used to the program. The first activity we did only 7 kids stayed but by the end of the week 30 participated. The first day we went around telling them why we had come and how long we were staying. One of the first kids that warmed up to us was Kevin. Kevin is a great kid. He has a great spirit about him. He's 12 years old and he is in 6th grade. He is really bright and takes a lot of initiative in the activities. We found out from Feliciana that his father abandoned him and his mother works far away. He lives with his grandparents and comes to center every day after school. For one of the activities we had the kids draw what they wanted to be when they grew up and Kevin drew himself as the Presidente de la Republica, or the President of the Republic of Peru. It was so awesome to see the kids imagining what they wanted to be. Some wanted to be singers, other policemen. I know that Kevin has great potential and we are excited to help many more like him.

Homework with the kids (Chris and Kimball at El Bichito)

Hello Team,

I just wanted to email letting you know we are alive and well. Thanks for helping us get all set up. Obispo Rebasas is awesome! He is one of the nicest men I've ever met. He helped us get set up with la hermana Ruby in Banos he also helped us get our bags that TACA had lost and he also took us to the supermarket el Quinde to get some things.

Today we went to el Bichito and met Feliciana and her sister. We helped with lunch and also introduced ourselves to the kids. We let them know why we are here and asked if any would like to stay after to get homework help. I wasn't expecting much the first day but 7 kids stayed afterwards for help. There were so many, we couldn't help them each individually but Kimball with her awesome tutor math SAT skills combined with my Spanish, we were able to figure it out. Also I helped four kids, Kevin, Rocio, Rosemary, and Mavali with reading. Hermano Rebasas says we should focus a lot more on reading with the kids.

Tomorrow we plan to get with some of the same kids to do a drawing game (and continue with homework). Also, the best experience we had so far was with Feliciana's son, Alvieri, who is only 6. He is soooo motivated to study. We helped him for like an hour and half doing all his homework after the other kids left. By the end he was really understanding his math homework. He loves to draw and is little bit of a perfectionist, he would erase any crayon pencil outside the lines! It was really great to feel we helped him in so little time. We have pics but we´ll send you a more detailed email next week for the blog.

Thanks so much,

Chris and Kimball

This Week (Dan at Aldea)

Hello all!

I wrote this sweet long email that just got completely deleted... AHHHH!

This is probably going to be a quicker version of it. Right now I am in Huanchaco, a smaller beach town just outside Trujillo. (The Aldea where I live is about 30 minutes into the mountains from Trujillo) We stayed last night in a small cheap little hostel with some other gringos, some from the US, Holland and Canada. There are so many more gringos in this town than in Trujillo or near the Aldea. Monday and part of Tuesdays are going to be our weekends normally, where we can go to town and get on the internet. Mondays and Tuesdays are the days when the kids at the Aldea are too busy with homework and school is longer, so we don't have as much time with them. Saturday and Sunday are the days that we have the most time with kids.

Yesterday I ate ceviche for the first time which is mostly raw fish with lemon sauce and other seafood. It's a favorite of many of the kids in the Aldea, and they have it everywhere here in Huanchaco. It is tasty! Probably my favorite thing so far. But then again I love all the seafood.

We had a fiesta on Friday done by a local christian church where they did a bunch of songs and dances and a puppet show. It was great, and the kids, especially the younger ones had a blast. It is still really difficult to manage so many young kids and they do go nuts easily. They're great, just rambunctious. This past week I ate in casa 10, which is full of girls, except little Alfredo. He's 4 years old and his sisters are in the house. The Tia in the house, Gloria is amazing with the kids, and helps me with my Spanish.

I am going to get a star chart for the southern hemisphere because the stars are great but unknown. There is so little light pollution when the skies are clear. We're also going to get a hotplate to cook eggs and stuff on in our own house from time to time. Our stove has no gas to it, and it would be great to have. I am also getting a panflute or a charrango (a peruvian guitar) so that I can play in our newly formed band, "Lost in Aldea." We have already sung a cover of "Hey Ya" by Outkast and a version of "Let it Be" that I changed the words to as a going away for our two English roommates Beth and Georgia who are leaving the Aldea after almost a full year.