First Week of Volunteering in Huancayo

We left Lima and headed to Huancayo by bus to start our one month volunteering experience there. It was a relatively short (7 hours) and comfortable bus ride because we upgraded. The food was relatively inedible so we unfortunately spent the ride hungry. The Disney movies didn´t help Jeremy's enjoyment of the trip either.

Here in Huancayo, we plan to stay for the month of February. We'll be volunteering, staying with a host family, and taking Spanish classes with an organization called Mosoq Ayllu while we´re here (see links at the right for more info).

We spent the first night in Huancayo in a hotel and the next day we were picked up and taken to our homestay. Our homestay family consists of Mosoq Ayllu´s program coordinator´s mother (Aurora), father (David), and brother (Albaro), as well as two other volunteer (Ceri from Hong Kong and Jenna from Australia). We eat breakfast together every morning and sometimes lunch too. They're all wonderful people and just by staying there, we're improving our Spanish skills! The house is within walking distance of the orphanages, internet, the center of town, and some decent restaurants too.

After meeting the family and getting settled in a bit, we were taken on a tour of some of the places volunteers work in. The first was Coto Coto, an orphanage for boys and girls of all ages. We briefly visited the infants and toddlers as well as the children up to age 7. Later we went to another volunteer location called La Ladrilleria. It is basically a brickmaking yard surrounding by the the workers´ dwellings. Mosoq Ayllu has built two buildings to work with the children who live there. It is a very poor area with no electricity and little running water.

The next morning we started our volunteer duties at Coto Coto. We were not permitted to work with the infants because of an illness going around, but we did get to work with the other group of slightly older children. By work, I mean basically spending time with the kids. There are close to 15 kids whom are taken care of by only one adult so they don't receive much individual attention. They are all in need of emotional and social support. At least three of the children have severe physical and mental disabilities. It's difficult to imagine how one person can possibly attend to even their most basic needs. We played with and held the children. It was a lot of fun, but also pretty demanding because the kids are so excited to have someone to be with.

After we finished our two hours there, we learned that the volunteer program at Coto Coto was going to be put on hold until the 15th of February. That would be more than half of our time that we had planned on being in Huancayo volunteering. It was very sad news especially given the fact that volunteers seem to fill many much needed voids at the orphanage. It was no fault of our volunteer agency. There seems to have been some bad blood with another volunteer organization that works there, but that had nothing to do with our program. The reasoning was not clear, but it basically came down to the whims of a new director. It's a shame that services had to be suspended in the meantime.

The following day, after rearranging our schedules, we went to a different orphanage called Inabif. It is a boys-only orphanage serving boys ages 7 and up. Because Sarah was interested in utilizing some of her newly learned special education skills, we began working with a group of six guys with mental disablities. We are working as a team with them. It's been challenging working with them, but fun too. We are working on greetings, hygiene, and sportsmanship and are trying to do a little bit of each every day.

In the afternoon, we started volunteering a girls' orphanage. We are working with 10-12 teenage girls to improve their reading skills. It seems a bit unusual that we are teaching reading in Spanish, especially given the limitations of our Spanish, but so far so good. Many of the girls actually seem to read fairly well. Our focus will be on improving reading motivation and comprehension skills. I'm sure that it will continue to be challenging, but that we'll find a way to do it. Right now, we are focusing on getting to know the girls' interests, making connections with them, and doing a bit of reading instruction. After our hour lesson on Thursday, we played volleyball. On Friday, we played soccer. It was a lot of fun. The girls are really pretty good and playing sports provides opportunities to bond with them.

So, things are starting out well here in Huancayo. As usual, we´re keeping busy, but we're also having a lot of fun! It feels good to be in one place for a bit. We'll try to include some photos in next week´s entry.