Almost a week in Peru

I´ve been here for almost a week, but it feels more like a month. Huancayo is a relatively large city in the Central Andes - I´m guessing there are around 200,000 people. Aside from the two other volunteers here right now, I have only seen one other person who looks like a gringo. There are a number of hostels and hotels but given the way that most people react to me, I´m guessing there aren´t many non-Peruvian tourists visiting Huancayo. People often stare at me, and they seem particularly perplexed by my Chaco sandals. Despite the fact that it gets pretty warm during the days (70-80) degrees, everyone dresses like they are expecting it to snow. Yesterday when I was buying water in the center of the city, a man followed me out of the store and told me that Huancayo was too frio (cold) for sandalia´s. Or at least that´s what I think he was trying to tell me. Either that or he was trying to tell me it was too cold in the North for sandals. He wanted to keep talking to me about what I was doing in Huancayo, the US etc. and bought me dessert in a cafe. In the hour or so we talked, the only information I was able to gleen was that he is a lawyer; just took a vacation to Ecuador with his friends; has two children, 6 brothers and sisters; and one of his sisters lives in Maryland. It´s very interesting to try and talk to the people and learn about how they live, but it´s difficult to know how cautious to be. In general, I feel pretty safe, but both the family and the volunteer organization have made numerous comments about being careful of thieves trying to steal $$ or our passports. Very few people carry bags or purses, and when we were shopping downtown last night, Natalia (asst. director of the volunteer organization) seemed concerned that someone might try to steal the hiking shoes that the other volunteer had just bought.

The volunteer organization (YACHAYCUY) is very small, and right now there are only three other volunteers. They work with a language school and teach English classes to locals, but most volunteers split their time between an orphanage and a school, both of which are located in rural areas surrounding Huancayo. They also have an outreach program to provide resources for indiginous children that either live in the streets, or whose families are very poor. Someone had been letting YACHAYCUY use a room in a building that they have, but they decided to sell it, so now YACHAYCUY is trying to find the money to rent a room before Christmas for the children to use. There is also a dentist and a doctor that help by providing care to indigenous children. One of the biggest initiatives right now is dental care and personal hygiene. Most of the children don´t have running water and thus don´t brush their teeth. The room that they were using before it was sold had running water that the children could use to brush their teeth, wash their hands etc. They are also trying to educate the children about nutrition. Many of the children eat a lot of candy because it is cheap, and they don´t understand that it isn´t good for them. This causes substantial health problems given the lack of dental care they receive. YACHAYCUY wants to provide toothbrushes to the children but so far they have only been able to afford 3000 of the 10,000 or so that they need. It´s sad to think about the large number of people who can´t afford something so basic as toothbrush.

I am currently the only volunteer fluent in English, and so far all that I have done is teach English and grammer to middle-class locals. I have also helped many of them prepare for interviews and exams that are in English. It´s been very interesting, but at the same time it´s a little frustrating because I was told that I would be working on health care initiatives. I am hoping that I am able to get involved with that aspect of the organization soon. I will likely work on developing their marketing and philanthropy efforts to help them get donations for health care supplies, and also develop materials to educate the community on preventative medicine and nutrition. We were supposed to go to the jungle today and one of the main purposes of this is to provide health care to the people living there. But the trip has been delayed until tomorrow because of mudslides. I´m excited to see the jungle and this particular area of the jungle is only just starting to be visited by tourists, so it should be a good time to see it. We are leaving tomorrow night, and returning Thursday.

Thanks everyone for all the messages so far; it´s great to hear from everyone at home!

Angie