Arriving back in the UK

Today, at a toddler Christmas party we were singing a rather cute song to the tune of ‘Old MacDonald had a farm’. It goes ‘The donkeys were there when Jesus was born, EI EI O, etc’ and the children were asked to contribute animals. Now most of them gave the normal stable animals and we had pigs, cows and ducks. But Benjamin decided to contribute ‘llama’, which was quite funny, and even funnier when we got half way through the verse and had to decide what noise a llama makes ...... Unfortunately the main thing they do is spit! Our friend, Neil, who is vicar at the Anglican church was leading the singing and very gamely led the children with a spitting noise to finish the song!!! I don’t think most of the other parents realised where Ben has just come from so they must have wondered why he came up with ‘llama’.

This is just one of the amusing occurrences we have experienced with the boys arriving in England. They do ask some funny questions at times. To start with, Sammy couldn’t understand why he needed to wear a coat when the sun was shining. In Cusco, when it is sunny it is always hot. It is cold there at night but we had forgotten how cold it is here in the daytime in winter! We have also noticed how dark it is in Britain at this time of year. And then, when the sun does come up, why does it always stay so low?! In Cusco, the sun always seems to be straight overhead, apart from the brief periods when it rises and sets. It is generally a very bright place, although we never get light evenings.

The evening when we first arrived at Heathrow there were two things that struck me very quickly. The first was that everyone was speaking English! Very obvious of course but you do get used to hearing Spanish all the time and although our language is OK we don’t always pick up every word as we’re passing people in the street for instance. The second thing was that I couldn’t find a bin for the toilet paper in the loos!

During our first week we spent a few days with Roland’s parents and then a few days with mine, which was an excellent way to start our time at home for several reasons. Firstly of course we were keen to see them straight away, but also with them both living in small villages it was easier to get used to being in the UK again in that environment than a big town full of big shops and other things we don’t have in Cusco. I was very happy to find that autumn, a season that we haven’t experienced for 2 years, had just about hung on long enough for us to see! This week we were all excited about seeing a hard frost with the countryside all white and crisp. The seasons are so varied and beautiful in Britain.

At the end of our first week we went straight to the Latin Link conference near Birmingham where it was great to see several of our friends who have also recently returned from Peru.

Back at church in Eastbourne I had tried to prepare myself for the fact that the kids there would look a lot bigger, but I was totally taken aback by how much a few of the young teens had changed in less than two years. Some I hardly recognised. We were overwhelmed by so many people excited to see us and about 100 invites for meals (well, not quite that many, but lots!). Benjamin has now stayed in the crèche on his own for 2 Sundays, even though he doesn’t know the leaders, and that is a miracle considering how shy he has been up until now. He is still quite rude to them sometimes – ‘I’m not doing that!’ he will say with a very grumpy face, or ‘I’m not talking to you!’ but after a few minutes he seems to make friends rather than progress to a high pitched scream like he used to do in these situations! The cars and trains definitely help – he does have cars and trains in Cusco but he’s not used to such a variety of toys and is very chuffed with all that is on offer at various groups we have been to.

We’ve been very busy so far with health checks, vaccination appointments, presentations to prepare and give, friends and relatives to visit, review meetings with Latin Link and our church, my parents Ruby Wedding Anniversary party, Christmas cards and letters to write, a bit of work to do with Sammy (he missed the last 6 weeks of school), some fun things with the boys (swimming, soft play, playground, seeing their friends)..... so we’re looking forward to a rest at Christmas with a few days with Roland’s parents and then a week’s holiday in Devon with all of my family. January is looking less busy so we will get a chance to think over all we’ve been involved with during the last two years and plan for the next two!

Opening of the new club room at the Mountain and the house in San Blas

Last week was a busy week with the opening of both the new club room at the mountain and the house in San Blas! We are really chuffed that both events could take place before our trip home to the UK. The event at the mountain included a distribution of clothing to local families, including some more of the jumpers from the knitting project, a performance of songs in English by the children from the club, music from our church worship group and a meal of spaghetti bolognese for all the 120+ people who came! We were very pleased that nearly all the children brought at least one parent with them. A big thank you to everyone who has contributed money, labour, and other resources for this project. Here are a few photos of the event, plus you can click here for more.












San Blas has already had a number of guests and it is still an ongoing project, but with the completion of the painting of the guest rooms now seemed a good time to invite our friends round to see the place. It was an informal afternoon with snacks and a chance to look round. Next year we will have to have another opening event for the cafe area! We have a big team of volunteers coming to stay after Christmas so we are just sorting out buying extra beds before we leave so that Jed and Jaime will be able to host them. Again, here are some photos, plus you can click here for more.

October News from the Mountain Project

Work continues on the club room and toilets and although progress has been a little slow we are excited that it’s all now coming together. As you can see from the photo, the ceiling is nearly complete and the wood floor is nearly finished too. Pastor Americo has also decided to knock through a side wall so that we can have an adjoining office and storage area which will be so helpful. In the bathroom, the pipes are all in for the toilets, sink and a shower and the tiles have been put in.

We are planning to have an ‘opening’ event on 22nd October when the children will sing some of the English songs they have learned and we will have an exhibition of some of their art work. We hope lots of their parents will come. That week we also hope to complete questionnaires with the families in order to help us decide the priorities for work in the community next year.

These last few weeks we have been holding the club in the Pastor’s house as it has been windy and, at times, wet and cold, making it difficult to continue outside. It is a little cramped in the house, but often some of the kids play volleyball outside, or take part in the sports challenge programme I have put together for them in the undercover area. Our themes for English and the Arts and Crafts have been ‘Food’ and ‘Families’.

Volunteers recently have come from the USA, Canada and Germany, and in addition to the language schools ‘Fair Play’, ‘San Blas’ and ‘Amauta’, we have started working with ‘Maximo Nivel’. We have enough staff now to continue until a couple of weeks after I leave in November. We’re a little unsure what will happen over the last part of term and summer holiday period (Dec – Feb) but Pastor Americo and Mary are planning something special for Christmas and a holiday club in January, so there will at least be something, even if not the daily club. I already have some enquiries about people wanting to come and work with us next year!

Another positive development is that the Bible Club on Saturdays has been going a lot better. I have helped the girls with resources and ideas and we have begun to use some of the money raised in the UK for help with nutrition (donations given as part of the jumper project) to give them a healthy snack each Saturday.

For more photos of the project click here.

More pictures will follow soon after the room has been painted and we have had the opening event next week.

Sammy's high altitude training and a few other pics

He's been on so many planes he decided to learn to fly one!

Sammy starring at the church Anniversary

Sammy, with his friend Abraham, dancing to a Doug Horley track at the Church Anniversary.

A House in San Blas!

If you've read our latest (August) newsletter, you will know something about the San Blas house we have been hoping to acquire, with our friends, Jed and Jaime. If not, here's a summary of what this is all about!

Part of what we do here in Cusco is to host visitors in our house, and part of our vision is that people who stay with us, and also volunteers who work with us at the mountain project, may return home transformed in some way as a result of their experience in Cusco, with a better understanding of the lives of the poor and the Christian faith in action. We also like to host other missionaries who need a break! Many guests give donations for staying with us and this year these are already helping to pay for the completion of our clubroom at the mountain project and the building of toilets alongside.

Our friends Jed and Jaime, with whom we have been meeting up each Friday evening, have a vision to start a café that can serve as a place for meeting foreigners, for live music (Jed is a musician) and for discussions and Bible studies (maybe like an Alpha course, for those of you who have experience of this). Their vision is also to host short-term teams and encourage people into mission, and with any café profits, to support a project which benefits the poor.

Recently we were discussing how we might work together and support each other. We were considering obtaining a building we could share, where they or we could live and have guests, as we do now, and start the café as more of a breakfast room and coffee shop initially. The idea would be that we would oversee the guest room part, where short-term teams and volunteers, as well as mission visitors, could be accommodated, and they would concentrate on the café part.

Amazingly, a few days after coming up with this plan, through a friend I heard of a property that sounded very interesting. The property is a beautiful old colonial style house around a small covered courtyard just behind a shop on San Blas Plaza, exactly the area of town where Jed and Jaime have been looking for so long and where we had been house-hunting last year. It’s just 5 minutes walk from our current house.

Well, after working through all the details of the contract and discussing for hours amongst ourselves how to make the property work as both home, guest rooms and cafe, we have the house! We have agreed to rent it for 2 and a half years initially, but obviously hope the landlord will agree to another contract after this time.

Jed and Jaime have moved in initially, although we may swap over next year. They are sorting out some re-wiring that needs doing in order for them to have a kitchen suitable for a cafe, and together we will be repainting most of the interior. Unfortunately you can't get landlords to do much here with rented properties, but on the other hand at least labour and materials are quite cheap.

So what is the house like? We think it's really beautiful, and once it is done up as we want it, it will be fantastic. It is a colonial style house with 2 storeys built round a patio. There is a wide entrance 'tunnel' off San Blas Plaza leading into the patio. The ground floor consists of the patio (this is covered with a glass roof up above and will be the main cafe area), kitchen, a bedroom and three toilets (2 with showers).

Upstairs are 6 bedrooms (2 for the family living there and 1 for a private lounge/office/play room, leaving three double/triple rooms for guests) and a wide balcony overlooking the patio where there is space for a lounge furniture. There are also a couple more showers and another toilet.

The aim is that as families we will both raise some additional financial support to pay the rent. This will ease financial pressure on the cafe as it gets going and will enable us to use all donations given by guests for our projects with the needy here. The cafe will also be donating to projects once it begins to make a profit. The most impressive project with kids I have seen recently is one where a Dutch lady has started a hotel (in fact three hotels now!) and uses the profits to pay for a lunch programme for 500 children! The hotels are simple but attractive and each one has a similarly simple but attractive children's cafe attached. Malnutrition is a huge problem in and around Cusco so she and her staff are doing a fantastic job. If you're interested, have a look at her website: www.ninoshotel.com/

Anyway, this, among other things, has really inspired us. We believe that a relatively small investment into the cafe/guest room project will be multiplied through cafe profits and guest donations and enable us to have an ongoing source of funding for work with the needy.


A goal for next year is to fund a lunch programme to complement the homework/activity/English club we have started at the mountain. We do not anticipate a shortage of guests as we already overflow in our current house. And the cafe should do well as although there are stacks of places to eat here, there are very few that really know what the foreign tourists are looking for (it's almost impossible to persuade them that you really do want milk in your tea!!) and there are very few that have such a great location.

This venture is quite a step of faith for both families, but one that we are sure God has led us to take and that will expand our work here in many ways.

If anyone would like to help with set up costs or rent, come and volunteer, come and stay as a guest, send us a short term team, help with the outreach and Bible study aspect of the cafe, etc. please let us know!

Holiday in Huaraz

We have just come back from a weeks holiday, two days spent in Lima with friends, and then four days in Huaraz, a town 8 hours on the bus north of Lima. It is quite a journey to get there, with the flight to Lima and then the bus journey, but the boys are used to travelling! They slept a good part of the way there, with the journey being afternoon and evening, and then we got a night bus back.

Our main reason for going to Huaraz was to visit several Latin Link friends there who are all part of a project centred on a children's home. They also work with street boys, have set up workshops to provide work opportunities (Roland went last year to help with the business side of these), and run a lunch club and after school club - this was something I was keen to see in order to help with our mountain project.

So we spent some of the time with our friends, both socially and looking at various aspects of the project, and some time exploring the local area - amazing scenery as Huaraz is near the foot of Peru's highest mountain.

We found a lovely hostel to stay in with a breakfast room with the most amazing view and a big fireplace for the evenings. Being up in the mountains the town has a similar climate to Cusco with hot days and cold nights at this time of year. The boys sleep in the room with us when we go to hostels which doesn't always give us all a good night's sleep, and they can get rather over-excited and over-tired on a holiday like this, but overall we had a good time.

One of the highlights was playing with the children in the home. At one point I was reading stories in English with Sammy translating into Spanish! We also went on a fun day trip with them and several of the older girls were so good looking after our boys.

For photos of our trip click here.

Pictures from the children's club at 'The Mountain'

A view from below up to 'The Mountain' house where we hold the club.









Toilets are being installed next to the clubroom which will be a big help. At the moment the children have to go upstairs to the main house.











The guinea pig farm up above the house is finished and was opened last week. There are 60 guinea pigs so far but the stock needs to be built up to 3000 to make it a sustainable money-earning project!







Some of the children painting the papier mache models they had made. The art and craft activities tie in with the English we are learning - the last couple of weeks we have been learning words to do with the weather and the landscape. Prior to that we learned about parts of the body. Our first couple of weeks we learned animal names.










One of our volunteers from Holland with some of the children. So far we have mainly had volunteers from Holland and the USA. Some of them have brought funding generously donated from friends and family back home and this has enabled us to start buying books, toys and games for the project.





Some of the children playing volleyball with the new net bought by one of our volunteers. Fridays we do lots of games and sports with the children.







One of our smallest children with her big sister. We are gradually buying puzzles, books and toys for the little ones. Our next big project is to finish the ceiling and walls of the room, which will be funded by donations from people who have been staying with us over the last few months. Then we will be saving up for the floor - a wood floor will make such a difference to the room.



For more photos click HERE

New Children's Club at 'The Mountain'

We are now a month into our new children's club at 'The Mountain' and we have been really pleased with how it has gone. The club runs each afternoon Tuesday-Friday with an average of 20-30 kids each day. The age range is rather large - 2 year olds to 13 year olds - but there is a core of 6-10 year olds so we focus more on that age group in our planning. Those with homework bring that along to do and we give help where needed. If they don't bring homework, or when they have finished, we have various art and craft activities available, and then we do half an hour of games and songs to teach English at the end. It's been nice to see lots of children both at the club and in the street wearing the jumpers that we gave out a few weeks ago.


Many of the children come from homes where their parents are not there to care for them much - they work long hours and some have alcohol problems. We have one little family of 5 where the eldest girl, Marycielo, 11, is looking after the younger four. We have another little girl, Maricarmen, who sometimes leaves early from the club because she looks after her elderly grandmother while the rest of the family are at work or school. She says to us that her granny often cries and she has to go back and see her. Maricarmen is 5.


The club is staffed by volunteers from a couple of language/volunteering organisations in Cusco. This is a great opportunity for the volunteers to be able to work with disadvantaged kids in a structured and supportive setting, and the kids love to have the volunteers with them, but it does have it's challenges as I try to co-ordinate things! Volunteers come for anything between a week and a month or more, some with experience of working with children and some not, and with varying amounts of Spanish! It was the idea of our Pastors, Americo and Mary, to work with overseas volunteers on the project, and I have really 'inherited' what they started in March. I also enjoy working with the volunteers but my biggest challenge at the moment is making sure I have 3 or more people to staff the club every week. I could do with a couple of more permanent staff really, either foreigners or Peruvians who live here, so I'm looking into how I could recruit local volunteers.


We're also trying to get funding together to finish the room where we meet as it's really in a rough state. We have some good tables and chairs, bought by the volunteers that came in March, but the floor is just mud which restricts what we do, particularly with the younger ones. I'd love to get some proper pre-school games and equipment and focus more on the younger ones who are a really neglected age group here in poor communities.




The Pastors are continuing to look into funding for the lunch programme that they want to start too, which, if successful, would certainly lead to a large increase in kids wanting to come to the afternoon club. We need to put in the kitchen first and equip the dining room, so that project is probably still a while away.

Family News - June 2008

Benjamin

Benjamin, apart from a couple of tummy bugs, has been doing well. He looks as though he is shooting up in height and is chatting away non-stop. He has been eating well ever since we stopped his cows milk. He is very attached to a Barney soft toy dinosaur he had for his birthday and now also to a monkey that we bought him at the agricultural fair the other day. He now has Barney, Monkey, Dogger, Dumdy Bear, Winnie the Pooh and Rabbit is his bed at night and there isn't much room left for him! He is also very attached to his little friend, Joel, and his other friends from toddler group. Two of his common phrases at the moment are 'more Joel house' and 'Joel house today?' I have just begun to take him to the two year old class at Sammy's school once a week to see if he will settle in for a couple of hours without me - the idea is that I help a bit with English in one of the older classes while Ben plays with some little friends. We'll see - he's very clingy still!

Sammy

Sammy is also growing fast and eating lots! He also had a tummy bug and had to have a week off school but is fine now. His Spanish is getting more sophisticated and he is beginning to learn his letters. He is generally very good with his little brother, although there are frequent arguments over toys. He still loves playing and riding his bike in the park opposite with the neighbours' children. He is beginning to look forward to our visit back to Britain now and still remembers lots about home even though we left before his third birthday.

Jenny

With the boys both being ill we have been rather exhausted as we were up in the night so much with them, and I've not been 100% either. However, there have been some highlights in the last month or so. Today was Inti Raymi in Cusco, the re-enactment of the Inca winter solstice ceremony on a huge scale with hundreds of participants dressed in colourful Inca costumes and thousands and thousands of spectators. It is said to be the second largest festival in Latin America after Carnival in Rio. It is amazing to just be able
to walk 10 minutes from our house and see things like this! Last year we watched the procession and some of the ceremony (from a distance) up above Cusco. This year we managed to get a spot in a cafe with a balcony in the main plaza and watched the part of the ceremony which took place there. Work-wise the main things for me has been starting up the afternoon children's club at the mountain. It has been really rewarding so I hope we can get enough volunteers to keep it running each week.



Roland

Roland has continued to help the micro-finance project move forward and has also been helping UK charity Tox Box to find a source of Peruvian hats, scarves and gloves. A family who live on the hill above us have been able to knit what is required. He also continues to advise our friends Rachel (with her card project) and Jed (with his business plan for a cafe here). He has been doing really well with going running regularly for the last few weeks and we've finally been able to try out the new running track.

More Jumper distribution

We have visited 3 more communities and distributed jumpers and hats sent out from the UK. The children all seemed pleased with their new items and hopefully they'll keep a bit warmer as the nights begin to get very cold, particularly at the higher altitudes.

One community we visited was Pumacancha which was tucked away amongst the peaks about 12 Km up a dirt track at an altitude of over 12,000 ft. Many of the children have a 2 hour walk to school.

Photos of this community and the children with their new jumpers in a couple of other communities can be seen by clicking HERE

Slideshow of some of the areas in which we work.

The Knitting Project - updated (see link to photos)

The Knitting Project

Last year, during the very cold weather in July and August, I mentioned to my mum that the children living in poor communities in the mountains above Cusco were at risk of illness and even death and that there were clothing collections to provide them with warm clothes. In some areas it is not necessarily much colder than Britain in winter but the issue is that no one here has central heating and the poorer houses don’t have proper windows, so basically it can be as cold indoors as outside. Of course, in the really high areas it is well below zero at night.

My mum had the idea of asking people she knew in the UK to knit jumpers to send ready for the cold weather this year. The project started small, but has grown to the extent that we already have over 300 jumpers with more promised! Many thanks to all the knitters, the people who collected children's jumpers from various sources, and also to our 'couriers' who have carried jumpers in their luggage to save on postage costs!

Some jumpers have already gone to the region of Peru hit by last year’s earthquake, where a couple of short term teams from Latin Link are working at the moment. Most of the rest we are planning to distribute in May. Some will go to the two mountain communities, one of which is where our pastors have their house and where we are working with the children. There is also a third community even higher up which we hope to visit. Some will go to children in the hospital, many of whom come from outlying areas. Already I have given away three knitted teddies to children in the burns unit. The mum of one of Sammy’s friends runs a big travel company here and helps out some of the communities from which her workers come, so we hope to go with her to one of these to distribute jumpers. We have a number of other contacts as well, so with the large number of jumpers we have, and that are still to come, I would imagine we might follow these up as well.

Update: We have just been to distribute some jumpers in the mountains. For photos please click here

If you are one of the knitters reading this, thank you so much for your support of this project. We realise that some of you knitted the jumpers a long time ago now and must be wondering if the children have received them. Apologies for the delay – it has taken a bit of organisation to get them all here. Now we have a large number of them we will be able to sort them out and see how many we need for each location. There are still more to come so if anyone reading this knows someone coming to Peru who could bring some, please contact my mum!

More news and photos will follow next month, so please come back to the blog at the end of May!