Teaching Update

After a month here, we've taught some interesting subjects to our grade school kids. We've done nutrition, hand washing, dental health, and organic vs inorganic trash. It's been really fun and we've done some cool activities like skits, games, and songs. Here are some pictures from the past few weeks.

Neil and some of the girls from our classes during recess. 

Neil as Luis the Loro during our dental hygiene skit. 

Neby teaching the kids how to use the hand washing station.

Neil and "Sr. Banana" during recess.

Neby and Detti super excited before we start
teaching for the day.

New additions

We're introducing 3 new elements to our blog:

1. The Neby/Neil Files: a group of unflattering pictures of the group. The name comes from our two members with the most pictures in the file
2. The Detti Quote Wall: so we all say dumb things, some of us more than others. This is the place where we're gonna showcase these gems. Named after our own accidental-funny guy Detti.
3. The Asia Sassometer: self-explanatory 

Hopefully this will liven up the blog a bit :)

Peru and Politics

Tomorrow is the 2011 Peruvian Presidential Election and we've noticed some serious differences between US elections and Peruvian ones. First, voting is mandatory for all Peruvians: if you don't vote, you get a sizable fine. Second, there is a national law that you can neither buy nor sell alcohol (to prevent rowdiness and protesting?). For non-Peruvians, this low-key sucks because all the clubs and bars are closed. But as my host mom explained, people drink in their homes so I'm not sure if the law is truly necessary, but who am I to question customs?

Aside from the cultural differences, there is something quite distinct about this election: the choice of candidates. First there's Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of the past president. Problem is, her dad was involved in SERIOUSLY shady stuff, including death orders, sterilization of thousands of women without their consent, lying about being born in Peru, and he quit his presidency after hoping a plane to Japan. Now people feel like they can't trust Keiko because she was acting First Lady (after her dad kicked her mom out) and there are countless campaign posters of Keiko and her dad. This is the first choice.

The second choice is Ollanta Humala, the socialist that plans to do the whole Robin Hood thing: take from the rich and give to the needy. Or as Niloy says, he's Hugo Chavez round 2. There's also fears that his proposed policies will cause foreign businesses to withdraw from Peru. Needless to say, tomorrow's gonna provide interesting conversations over the next couple of weeks.

Occoruro: Take Two

Komal and Niloy listen to Laura as she explains how to do the surveys. 

 We started this week off by doing some health surveys, so 2 groups went around door-to-door asking people to answer a variety of questions pertaining to their health and any changes that they've noticed since ProWorld's arrival. The students that did the surveys said that it was a great way to meet villagers, even though some of them only spoke Quechua (an indigenous language that sounds more like Japanese than Spanish). The rest of the week we focused on doing the telas for the alacenas. Despite bad cutting jobs, needle stabs, and sewing mishaps, this ragtag group of Dukies finished all the required telas and they look pretty good, if I do say so myself. But by the end of the week, some of us were looking to do something a bit more physical. Cut to us digging pits. The pits are part of the micro-rellenos project, which provides a space for the community to separate its organic and inorganic waste. So these pits have to be 1 meter wide by 1 meter long by 1 meter deep which doesn't sound bad, but as we soon found out, it's the 1 meter depth that really gets ya. There were 2 groups working on two different pits, but the other group had a local man helping them so they naturally finished their pit and started on another. We on the other hand spent 4 hours digging half of one pit; guess it just proves that it really helps to have someone who knows what they're doing. Next week we're gonna continue with the micro-rellenos, greet the new Iowa kids, and start the cuy (guinea pig, which they eat here) cages.

Also, tomorrow's Monday which means we'll be teaching. This week's lesson: hand washing.

Kavita working on telas.

Tom and Detti at our morning meeting in Occoruro. After
getting off the bus we wait for the community leaders to
come and tell us what needs to be done that day.

Teaching...

We taught for the first time this morning. Did I mention that we taught 4 classes of first graders. As you can imagine it was difficult. More soon

Beginnings in Cusco!

Hi everyone! Asia did a good job of talking about the work we've been doing, so here are just some pictures from what we've been doing since we got to Peru.



The past week, we went around Cusco with the Urubamba group. Here are pictures from Cristo Blanco and some Cusco ruins. The view from Cristo Blanco is incredible - you can see the entire city.



Walking around the ruins was amusingly tiring because of the altitude, but the scenery was amazing. We also went on this legit rock slide.














Below is the Cusco group forming "Cusco," minus Neby, who refused to get in the picture .. ^^ Here we are again on our way to our first day of work, looking very excited! Again minus Neby, who was unfortunately sick at the time.











Happy Birthday to Niloy! We built an alacena in a house full of super cute cuys. The village we work in is very picturesque, and everyone is really nice. The large corn is called choclo, which we got as a gift from the woman we built the alacena for.









Finally, here are some pictures from the museos Jordan, Neil, Detti and I went to yesterday: Regional History, Contemporary Art, and Chocolate -- yep, a chocolate museum!











Tomorrow we'll be going out for ceviche, so expect some excited posts about that. This weekend, some of us will also go shopping in Molino, and then all of us will go to Urubamba to hang out and have a bonfire.

Thanks for reading!
Jina

First Week in Occoruro

 So tomorrow marks our first official week working in the rural community of Occoruro. We've been doing some really great projects like building alacenas (shelves on which families can place their pots/pans/dishes to keep them off the dirt floor) using barro (mud/hair/straw combo) and adobes, constructing clean burning stoves, sewing the curtains for the alacenas, and finished lining the eco-refrigerators. The town is truly beautiful (it's surrounded by gorgeous mountains) and the people that we've met so far have been amazing. I can't wait to get to know the townspeople better and to continue to make a positive impact in the lives of others. Next week we start teaching in the schools and having health charlas in Occoruro. We we we we so excited :)