Elizabeth at Aldea

Life at the Aldea keeps getting better. We got a new baby at the Aldea named Fabricio. The cutest thing ever, I just love him. I found out that he has Epilepsy and a few days later, that he's also blind. We went to the hospital for him to get an EEG to see if he's permanently blind or if it can be fixed. However, the doctor never showed. So we left and are going to try again next week. We are still awaiting the arrivals of the new interns. We have their rooms prepared and ready for them. We are looking forward to their arrival. Our days are pretty exhausting, I've found myself the other day, realizing that its been a pattern, everyday a pattern of pretty much doing the same thing. Not that its a bad thing, especially when some days can be pretty "hard-core".

The mornings, while Madi and Allie go to the almazen I go over and help with one of the babies/or two. Last week, we had 2 mornings where it was pretty much a baby sitting party in our house. Also the Aldea has adopted a stray dog. I found him a few weeks ago when I was walking back to the volunteer house for lunch, and asked if he was any ones. He's found his way back in, and now stays permanent in the Aldea, and doesn't leave. Everyone loves him, and the kids call him by the name I chose for him when I found him again in the Aldea. His name is Marco Polo, like the game, but since he's now a resident of the Aldea the kids and I just call him Marco. Its funny though, they always ask if he's my dog, but then I tell them he's my dog friend. Me amigo perro. A lively dog that's fun to play with and is good with the children, friendlier than the other dog.

Madi at Aldea

The kids are great at the Aldea, I love all of them so much!! They love to play, dance, sing and have fun! Along with being very loud and just going crazy sometimes but kids are kids!! Trujillo is so much fun and Peru as a whole is just a wonderful country !! I hope that anyone who can will come and help out at the Aldea!! The food is awesome thanks to the Tias. And everything is going great !!

Changes (Dan)

(continued from Dan's last post)

Now for the big news!

...... I´m heading to Cajamarca! Yes, that´s right, as of tomorrow night, Sunday, I am moving up to Cajamarca, (about 7-8 hours north) to help the kids up there. A pretty big shock to be sure, but it´ll be a great opportunity and challenge. I will be working with the kids at El Bichito, which is a food center run by a woman named Feliciana. In talking with Chris, a great guy I met who worked there with his wife this passed summer, I´ll be helping the kids with their homework, and also with learning activities. I know I´m going to miss the Aldea immensely, but I know that I can do some good in Cajamarca. I also hope that being the only volunteer up there, I´ll be able to improve my Spanish even more rapidly. I´ll let you know more next week about the changes and everything. I´m excited to serve the good people in that pretty city.

This past week, as I´ve been preparing to leave, I´ve been doing some last minute activities with the kids and tias in the Aldea. I´ve been trying to make pizza or bread with each and every house in the Aldea before I leave. I´ve been teaching the tias how to do it, and the kids have been having fun mixing and kneading the dough, and of course eating the final product. It´s fun to share what I know (thanks to Preston and Kelsey for teaching me the cooking skills) and have a great time with the kids. Guadalupe in casa 1, who loves to dance, and great fun grating the cheese and punching the dough until it was ready for pizza. We´ve also been doing a lot of drawing and coloring in casa 6 (the craft house) and it´s been fun to do paper airplanes as well. I love seeing some of the more rambunctious kids like Jonathan or Pedro, get really serious as they prepare their airplanes for flight. I don´t look forward to saying the last goodbyes to the kids. This really does feel like home, and I will miss their smiling faces and laughter. I´ll also miss those at the direction like Eduardo (our stake president), Cesar, Blanca and Estelle in the direction, and so many others too. I will miss the tias especially, as they are so kind and helpful with us and cook for us the great Peruvian food all the time. We just had papa de juan gallina, which is potatoes with this creamy sauce poured all over it. Hmmmmm, so so tasty! Entonces, I´m sorry about the long email... I just need to write more often, and keep them at a better length. I´ll try to do that better in Cajamarca.

Update from Aldea (Dan)

I know it´s been a while since my last email, sorry about that, life´s been particularly busy and crazy here in Peru. So we had a power outage for about two days a few weeks back that was actually a lot of fun. We had a few candles and flashlights that helped during the night, but it was actually great to have the lights off in the Aldea so you could appreciate the stars. It was cool how bright the milky way was, and how much you miss them when the lights are always on. We´ve had a great time playing futbol lately, and I´m proud to say that I´ve been getting better. We had some penalty kicks the other day and I scored on Cesar (probably the best kid here) and then I saved his penalty kick. Yeah, I was proud of himself. It´s great when the all the kids come together and play. Before, it seemed that Cesar and some of the older boys would only play if there weren´t younger ones playing as well, and maybe it´s just the lack of other boys to play with, but everyone has been coming together to play. Just yesterday in fact, we played a marathon game where Cesar´s team beat us 22 to 21. It was in the smaller field/court, but it was still tons of fun. Since I can be a little competitive, it was fun to have a such a crazy game. We´ve also played lots of volibol lately. The tias have been getting into it. Tia Rosa from casa 5 (with the older boys) got some of the older ones to play with the girls, who are really good. Tio Nelson, the handyman of the Aldea also comes and plays sometimes. For the older girls as well, like Ingrid and Antonia, it´s great to have some fun physical activities. Also, I went on a side trip up to the Cordillera Blancas with Asha, as it was her last week. We went on a magnificent 4 day trek called ¨Santa Cruz¨ that was absolutely spectacular. We climbed up to 4750 meters, which is about 15600 feet. At times it was challenging, and the altitude does make you slower, but it was totally worth it. At nights it was freezing, especially since the wind chill was so big, but during the day you had to wary of sun burn. An amazing trip, and a good send off for Asha, who will be sorely missed here at the Aldea.

Fundraising Banquet

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.