2 weeks left?!

Work at the center continues...these past few weeks I have been working on a mural of birthdays for the kids...or "panel de cumpleaños"...I had each of them decorate their own picture frame of construction paper with their names and birthdates, using a lot of the donations I received before I came (thank you, thank you, thank you!) I then took all of their pictures, an event in and of itself, as most of them don´t have pictures of themselves, then glued them into the corresponding frames, and they turned out absolutely beautiful! This week we put them up on a wall in the center, in bulletin board fashion, and I had the kids help me decorate the border...so much fun!



Recycling this past week had the biggest turnout of kids since I started!! We had 7 kids dragging the bags that they had worked hard to fill to the recycling center and in total they earned 40 soles!! That´s definitely a record!!


Another activity that has been recently started with the kids is basketball! About once a week we head over to the neighborhood court to shoop some hoops. After the first game, myself and another of the taller volunteers at the center have formed one team, as all the kids want to be our opponents!! They love getting to guard us, as their way of defense is to wrap us in big bear hugs, pull back on our belts as we drive to the basket, and their most favorite tactic...tickling. It´s usually still a rout though, but we have so much fun and I think the best exercise comes from laughing so hard, or from avoiding the aforementioned methods of defense!

Speaking of exercise, on one occasion of visiting the woman´s house that started the center (usually once a weekend her family will invite me for tea or lunch, they have become so much a part of my extended family), I was asked if I knew some different exercises to tone various parts of the body that her daughters wanted to work on. Now, I think my Spanish has become pretty good as of late. I was recently reading a book where the author described her stay in Italy for 4 months, and her description of learning Italian was exactly how I feel about my Spanish now! Basically, there is a line that is crossed, where speaking begins instead of just translating all the time. I´m talking. Of course, there is a mistake in almost every sentence and I only know about 3 or 4 of the verb tenses, but I can communicate...I can get by. So back to the exercises...I flipped back in my mental file to what I knew about yoga and Pilates, and then the challenge came to put that all into Spanish! So along with a heavy dose of demonstration, I was able to explain exercises such as "saludaciones al sol," "triangulo" and "el ciento"! We spent more time laughing as the women struggled to do the exercises, and their expressions of feeling the burn were priceless!

I didn´t think it was possible, but for you American football fans out there, I was able to watch a Monday Night Football game the other week! I ventured down to the little cafe that has an outdoor "milk bar" that serves the best soft serve here, and to my surprise I heard English coming from the TV! I looked up to see the Titans playing the Saints, and for a moment had a lapse of knowing where I was! For every English statement by the announcer, it was followed by a translation of Spanish, and unfortunately there was no touchdown during the part of the game I saw to know if they yelled "GOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLL!!" in Spanish or not! In related news, I have also been able to see some of the baseball playoffs down here as well! Last Friday´s Red Sox versus the A´s was a special treat as I got to see Manny Ramirez´s 3-run game-ending homer! This weekend is the big fútbol game...Perú vs. Paraguay, and there´s some sort of qualification involved for the next World Cup game, so everyone is gearing up for what will hopefully be a big win!


Home visits continue to be my favorite part of this project, especially now to one town in particular. I wrote previously about El Alto, how we had switched the schedule to the afternoon briefly before realizing how inhospitable the place is after noon time. Well, we have now started work on developing a central therapy room for those that we visit to come to instead of multiple home visits, as the caseload continues to grow there. One of the mothers of the children we visit has graciously allowed us to use a spare room/garage in her home, which is directly in the center of town near the bus stop. We spent all of last week painting and getting it ready, and this past week had our first therapy sessions there! It was incredible having the woman who founded the center down on the floor on a mattress with one of the children doing physical therapy, while I worked at a table with one of the older girls we visit on a sewing activity (written about in a previous entry) and another of the volunteers conducted screenings of children that were being brought in by their moms and dads to see if they could benefit from physical therapy! The girl I was working with on a sewing project was started last week, and she has done so well with it, really a fast learner! All of the materials were more donations (thank you!), and I am having her decorate a tote bag, first quilting squares of fabric together with the machine, then handsewing them to the bag, then decorating it with large plastic funky-shaped buttons. At first she was completely intimidated by the machine, as it was loud and there was a really sharp needle involved after all, but by the end of the session, I had to move the machine away from her as she kept trying to press the button that made it operate without any material underfoot, with a huge smile on her face! Handsewing the quilted squares to the bag was another challenge, as she has a tremor and I made sure to caution her how sharp the needle was. Well, she only stuck both herself and me one time, and she did one whole side independently!! Next couple of sessions were buttons, and being the fashionista that she is, she absolutely loved all the colors and shapes and getting to pick her own designs. The therapy room is a great project and so needed in this particular town, so it´s awesome to be a part of getting it started!


My surfing outing last weekend I am chalking up to "learning a lot." It wasn´t a stellar performance, as the board cracked me in the nose at one point when I tried to go under a breaking wave on it, and I´m still wondering if I broke it given the amount of swelling and pain. But I did manage to catch 2 waves at the very end of my hour and a half out there, so it wasn´t a total loss. Again, I learned a lot. And more importantly, this outing was completely independent of an instructor, and on Máncora beach, which is a huge factor in and of itself as there are so many people usually out on the beach watching the performances of those in the water. Well, they got a good show last weekend...I´m sure there were plenty of "Ouch" and "Oh! That must´ve hurt" statements! Lot more bruises and cuts, but oh how I love this sport! This weekend I headed out into the water again...sans instructor. I had a little bit of a smaller board, so it was much easier to paddle, but I was worried I wouldn´t be able to stand up. The waves were a really nice size, but the current was very strong and therefore difficult to stay in the right spot to catch them. It took me a while to get going, but once I did, I managed to catch every other wave and stand up on every other one after that! After 2 hours, which felt like 30 minutes, my shoulders, arms and neck were ready to quit, so I headed in, feeling so great about my performance this weekend, especially since I managed to avoid knocking myself in the nose as I went under the breakers! There was a certain buzz in the air around town as some of the top surfers in the world were here this past week practicing for the World Surf Championships to be held in Perú at the end of this month. One surfer in particular is creating a mass of anticipation...the women´s world champion surfer is actually from Perú and trained in the waters off Máncora! There is a particular electricity in the air around town as everyone is on Sophie-watch!


So this past Monday was a national holiday here...honoring some sea captain that was crucial in the war between Perú and Chile. No classes on Monday, and Máncora was host to a very large fiesta Monday night. There are several popular cumbia/salsa bands that are from here, and one of the bands, Grupo Cinco, hosted the biggest block party I have seen in my 9 weeks here so far! And in the time I´ve been in Máncora, their music is on every radio, so I already knew some of their songs. Not sure where their name comes from, because there were definitely way more band members than 5, but they put on a show! They filled the central square with I think all of Máncora, and I made it through the gate and into the mass hordes within the square, going with some of the teachers and other volunteers from the center...we had an absolute blast! We salsa´ed the night away and I actually felt like I knew what I was doing!! There were so many people though that turns and things like that weren´t really physically possible, but we still had a great time...even though now I think I can appreciate what it feels like to be inside of a sardine can!



Another fiesta this past week was the birthday of the woman that founded the center. It was her 50th, and a surprise, and another great time had by all. Lots of preparations...I was even commissioned to draw a clown (I think it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself), which is a traditional decoration for all fiestas de cumpleaños here in Perú. I was invited along with several other volunteers, in addition to her 8 children, their spouses, and all of her grandchildren! Needless to say it was a packed house. It was a beautiful celebration though...of her, her work, and her dedication to her family was obvious as toast after toast was made, even the older grandkids got a chance with the microphone! This was also an emotional milestone as well, as this was the same woman I wrote about in one of my first entries that was involved in a very serious bus accident earlier this year that almost took her life. She has fought back hard and has an incredible support network in her family and friends, which was obvious that night. In addition to more salsa dancing that I got to practice more during (!), there was also a piñata...and the first one I had seen in Perú. They actually do it a little differently here...no bat involved first of all! One person picks aways at the bottom of the piñata while everyone else huddles around, waiting for the goodies to drop. First came lots of confetti, and in the midst of all the chaos as people were grabbing for anything they thought was a prize, sometimes someone else´s shirt, hand or something else (!), the grand prize inside was a pair of ladies underwear! In the style of a garter belt at weddings, the woman that runs the center graciously donned the panties over her pants with the aid of her husband, and they danced a song together, laughing the whole time! Definitely a Kodak moment, and the camera flashes were going off like crazy!



Lots of birthday fiestas this month, as another party this past week at the center was held for one of the older guys that attends (same one that hoards all of the plastic bottles he gathers for recycling that I wrote about in the last entry). More dancing, cake and games, as they do for every one of the kids´ birthdays, and he even got a present of a new baseball cap, socks and a pair of sunglasses. When he opened the package, you would have thought he had won a gold medal at the Olympics, as he crossed himself, blew a kiss up to heaven, then raised his arms in true victory fashion! Needless to say he was very pleased with his gifts! See attached picture of the cool dude hanging loose in his new shades and hat (he usually has the best smile, but he was concentrating so hard on doing the "shaka" sign with his hand that I taught him just for this picture)!

So it´s hard to believe I have 2 weeks left here...and only a week and a half left of my project before I leave. I had to buy my return bus ticket this past week...very sad as now every time I see a bus I think that will be me very soon, and I know that I will have a hard time saying goodbye to all the kids and those that have become like family to me. In related news, the new volunteer for the center arrives Monday, so I´m very excited to show her around and orient her to the wonderful place that is the center!

2 Months?!...

OK, so when I left home back in September, I thought October seemed like an eternity away...and now it´s here...wow! So I´ve been pretty busy between the center and just living on the beach in Perú where there´s plenty of surfing and salsa going on!


Work at the center has been particularly focused on the home visits these past 2 weeks, especially since there are 2 new cases in one of the towns the center sends volunteers to. After being introduced to these 2 new families, one of which has a lovely 15-year-old girl that has only advanced to the second grade level, due to an illness she contracted when she was 8. I´m going to be working with her on increasing her independence with activities of daily living (booyah occupational therapy at it´s best!) and also trying to teach her some new skills such as sewing (booyah all those years in 4-H and also muchas gracias to the family that donated the portable sewing machine before I left for Perú!) The second family I met only briefly, and given the long walk to their house through a somewhat questionable section of town, they agreed on coming to the house of one of the already existing home visits, for a group session. But it was also determined that the best time for them was for me to come in the afternoons, so after checking with all of the families that this was ok with the rest of them, it was decided I would visit in the afternoon instead of the morning for the two days each week that I come. Well, no one thought to mention to me the change in weather that occurs every day in the early afternoon. I arrived the first day after changing the schedule all around, and thought I had taken the wrong bus...the town was completely unrecognizable! Given its location up in the hills with nothing really around it in the way of protection from the elements, it is quite calm in the mornings as the sun rises and gently warms the town. However, once it passes noon, clouds roll in, the temperature drops significantly, the wind starts to pick up and there is so much dirt and sand in the air that the people of the town that were wearing shorts and t-shirts earlier in the day have changed into long pants and sweaters and are walking around with scarves over their faces by the time 1:00 rolls around!! The family that we had changed the schedule around for hadn´t even ventured out for the group session due to the weather and were unlikely to do so in the future, so after again checking with all the families, home visits have now resumed their normal schedule...calm, tranquil mornings 2 days a week.


We also had a pretty significant event here in Máncora with the kids at the center...every year the town holds an outdoor exposition along the main road and invites all the schools to set up a table to display either something that they have been working on or that they develop specifically for this exposition. An event slightly akin to what I would refer to as a science fair from my elementary school days. The center´s project was "How to make natural perfume," and also had set up different craft items the kids had done in the past as well as a huge panel of photos and descriptions of all the activities that the center does during the year. Really good networking and marketing opportunity as well! Anyway, two of the children from the morning classes (the little ones) had been recruited to demonstrate the making of the perfume, and after spending a whole hour the day before practicing, they showed up the next morning raring to go! I have never witnessed 2 more natural salesmen...it´s like they were born to work the cologne counters at Macy´s!! We continuously had a crowd around our table, mostly people wanting to buy the different crafts the kids had done. And when the judges approached, the two selling wonders put on their best demonstration ever! The center won first place and are now eligible to compete in the regional competition!! I was so proud!!


We had to celebrate, not only doing so well in the exposition, but also due to the celebration of spring or "celebración de primavera," so we planned a fieldtrip to the beach! Now you might be wondering how this would be a treat for these kids, since they live at the beach, but for some reason, they don´t go to the beach and play like we would expect them to, usually because their parents don´t ever have time to go with them due to working 2 or 3 jobs. So we loaded about 15 kids and 5 adults into a large pick-up truck (for those familiar with my African blog entries, think back to the death ride described during my trips to the Tanzanian Maasai lands)...see picture. However, this ride was much nicer, given the road was paved all the way. We headed up the road a bit to Punta Sal, which I have also described in earlier entries, being what I think is Perú´s nicest beach, where I saw my first sunset over the Pacific with whales jumping out of the water and have seen whales on every subsequent visit there (see picture)! We spent the day digging in the sand, splashing in the waves, playing volleyball and frisbee, and dancing when a one-man band came strolling up the beach. I even accidentally showed the kids how to do an Irish jig, as the sand was so hot that I was hopping around like crazy!! I taught some of them how to make drip castles out of the wet sand and we ate the most delicious lunch of fresh ceviche and arroz con carne y pollo which some of the mothers had prepared. It was a blast and the kids had such a great time!



The kids at the center that come in the afternoons have also been getting a special treat as some volunteers with another organization that has projects here in Máncora have started coming in once a week to do a drum circle! The drums consist of wooden boxes that you sit on to play, pounding out rhythms of salsa, merengue, even "We Will Rock You"!! The kids absolutely love it, and I have been amazed to watch them each week, especially the kids with hearing difficulties, who go bananas because it´s definitely loud enough for them to be able to participate normally instead of usually not hearing what´s going on. I have also discovered that we have some talented little dancers amidst the group, every one of them getting up and shaking their hips like professional salsa dancers. Again I say, these Peruvians were born to salsa!!

Another project that has been developing at the center is the recycling initiative previous volunteers had started with a few of the boys that attend. Currently, we have 7 eager chicos that we have participating in the program. Their job is to collect disgarded plastic bottles, metal, and glass around town and in their neighborhoods, then bring them to the center, where we go once a week with them to the recycling center, where the bags are weighed and the boys receive money based on how many kilos they have. Some examples of the boys participating...one 15-year-old was involved in a mototaxi accident when he was only 8, and as a result suffered a traumatic brain injury, having no short-term memory now, as well as being very impulsive and is unable to plan very far ahead. His goal is to buy a television for his family, but every time he earns any money, he spends it right away on soda and snacks (as do most of the boys involved in the project), so that´s where the volunteers come in. The volunteers keep track of the money each boy earns and saves it for them in what we have endearingly termed "El Banco de los Voluntarios"! Another participant is a 35-year-old veteran of the center, with a diagnosis of mental retardation, who is now pretty independent with his recycling collection, however is a hoarder, and needs someone to go with him every now and then to turn in what he has collected. Last week we went to his house after he repeatedly kept telling us that he didn´t have any bottles to turn in...only to find a mountain of plastic in one corner of his backyard piled up against the fence!! We filled up 7 large potato sacks...see picture of some of the boys with him and his collection! It´s a wonderful program and works on so many different things...not only life skills for the participants but also environmental conservation and keeping their town litter free.







In other news, salsa lessons continue, thankfully improving this past week as I was ready to throw in the towel two weeks ago...my hips and shoulders just refuse to move certain ways that I think Peruvians come out of the womb doing...it seems so easy for them! I have also learned the dance to the local music that is forever playing on the radio here, as the band is from Máncora! Surfing is also going fabulously well...I have 3 lessons under my belt, and as of my last lesson, I have been deemed ready to head out on my own to practice!! It was THE best feeling paddling, catching, and standing up on the last wave of my most recent lesson...all by myself!! The waves were a little bigger with each lesson, and I couldn´t help but gawk at the little kids out running the waves with me this last time...they were absolutely amazing!! I have attached a picture where the wave is actually bigger than the chiquitita surfing it! I do have to say I am so thankful that I am done with blood thinning medication, as I usually have a whole host of new cuts and bruises after each time out in the water!


Last weekend was rather eventful as well due to the unfortunate situation that the other volunteer here became quite sick with a high fever among other things and decided to go to the 24-hour emergency clinic. After spending the night there and the next day, receiving IV´s and having to give so many samples of various things we lost track, she was allowed to go home on medicine to treat the trifecta of illnesses...the Máncora hat trick as we now refer to it. In addition to a parasite she acquired (which happens to most visitors to Máncora), there was also an intestinal infection and some other infection. As I sat with her for several periods while she was at the clinic, I couldn´t help but remember what it was like to be in the hospital in a foreign country, so I was only too glad to be able to pay forward what the other volunteers in Africa had been and done for me. I´m happy to report she is much better now and after recuperating this week, she is ready to head back to teaching English at one of the primary schools here, especially since another volunteer is arriving Monday to help with the same project.

In related news of the goings-on in Máncora, I have now joined the ranks of those that were only supposed to be here a certain period of time and have surpassed that by a long shot, as I had to buy more sunscreen. Now, I know this doesn´t really sound like news to most of you, but if you´ll remember in one of my earlier entries, I described my absolute horror as I saw the outrageous price of the same bottle of sunscreen I had purchased back home for only $5. When I was packing to come here, I thought one bottle would surely be enough for 5 weeks, thinking I would even have some left over. I have eeked out the last possible drop from said bottle however, and given the strength of the sun here and the amount of sunny days (basically every day), I definitely needed to buy more. I think I might have been moping as I walked to the store, even though I had spent several days scouring every possible place that sold the magic substance that is worth gold around here to the tourists, just to find the best price. So I have now paid $15 for a 10-ounce bottle of sunscreen, that will probably be my most expensive souvenir, and one that I will keep even when I have emptied it, also because the label is all in Spanish!

Máncora continues to be new and exciting every week, with the events as of late. We had a minor terremoto, or sismo, here 2 weeks ago. I apparently slept right through it, as when I came down for breakfast the next morning, I was immediately asked by my host family if I had felt the earthquake. I listened as they described how everything was shaking around 11:30 the night before, and later heard as the other volunteer described the same thing happening at her hostel. Later we found out the epicenter was somewhere in Ecuador, registering around a 5.2 I believe. Guess I have built up a pretty high noise tolerance given the major highway is right outside my hostel! We also had a power outage this past week, the most significant one as the whole town was out. As I walked home from the center as the sun was setting, I noticed the street lights that usually light my way were not on, and I entered my hostel to find a candle on every flat surface available, immediately being handed a lit one to be taken up to my room. After dinner (the gas stove still worked), I parked myself in a chair outside the hostel, which is usually so noisy with all the traffic and music from various stores and restaurants along the strip, not to mention very bright with all the lights coming from aforementioned places of business. However on this night, it was so wonderfully quiet and so dark that as I craned my neck back to look up at the sky, I could see the most amazing array of stars out over the ocean...there were so many!! It was so beautiful that I tried to soak it all in, which I´m glad I did, as the power came back on about 8:30 that night, along with the music and lights. I was glad to have the town back that I have become accustomed to, but it was so very nice to have a moment of reprieve and see another side of the place I have been living in the past 2 months!