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