Final Hours at La Molina...

Friday, January 28, 2011

** La Molina **

Written by: Volunteer Greg

We arrived at La Moilina and were greeted as always by Gorki. We went to the teacher room where he gave each of us a box of candy from his hometown of Arequipa. We also found sweet notes from Claudia, who made our time at La Molina very enjoyable. She is a very special young woman. We next went to the luckuma orchard with Giovanni. It was fun to see the fruits that we have so enjoyed in the ice cream. On our way back to our rooms we observed a group attempting to collect semen from a stallion. It was pretty funny as the horse attempted to have some fun and the handlers kept interfering. It did not appear that they were having much success.

Once we got back to school we headed almost immediately to lunch. We were joined by most of the staff at Idiomas including the gardener and the custodial staff. We were pleased that the rector and two vice-rectors of the University also joined us. The food was pretty amazing as we tried goat, trout and beef dishes. The meal began with toasts of Pisco Sour by Gorki and Arturo and continued with much discussion. It was a delightful way to spend part of our last day.

Upon return to the school we gathered our last classes and spent some time working on our English. We also talked about what the students gained from the classes and what else they would like to see in the classes. We exchanged farewells and received small gifts from several of the students. It was very rewarding, but also sad as we started the process of separating from these very special people.

The final hour was spent with Gorki, Martha and Mari Carmen. We were toasted with Pisco Sours and given certificates, lapel pins and small note pads from the school. We also received personal gifts from Martha. We said our goodbyes and headed out to the van with Gorki at his post and Claudia accompanying us for one last hug and goodbye. It has been two wonderful weeks and as always with GV, I feel that I have received much more than I gave.

Our final drive took 42 minutes, the longest commute in two weeks, but it did not seem long because Jorge talked politics. It has been so good to have Arturo in the van as we have learned a lot from his interaction with Jorge.

A Day of Meetings, Service & Peruvian Dancers!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

** PPA **

Written by: Volunteer Greg

Another morning awoken by a pleasant phone call from our wonderful group leader, Françoise. Usually I am unaware of the day’s events due to a short attention span myself, but this morning I was pleasantly surprised to shake the hand of Bud Philbrook, the Co-Founder and President of Global Volunteers. Bud was a very generous and gracious man. He started off by thanking us all for our support and continued to speak of some global issues and his ideas of improving them. Bud believes that the importance of temporary volunteers is huge, and if only 1 percent of the developed world were involved much of the issues such as 400 million starving children could be immensely improved.

The short trip to the PPA was quickly followed by our time with the 4-6 year old girls. They seem to really be in their own mindset when working on arts and crafts. As I assisted the little ones gluing and coloring I attempted improving my very limited Spanish vocabulary with Violeta, the young girls teacher. She seemed to enjoy this, for she was also trying to improve her English as well.

I later made my way to the 15-year-old boys and played some more soccer with them. They go hours on end in the hot sun playing game after game; their endurance is impressive and far superior to mine. When we finally took a short break, the young boys and I noticed a fair amount of smoke coming from across the street, and realized that the mental institution had a small fire in need of attention. We watched as they put out the fire, and I continued to improve my Spanish, by the boys pointing to the fire, smoke and firemen.

The young men began to open up to me a bit more. Last week they pointed out some of the graffiti to me, and said that it was bad, and they hadn’t a clue that did it. Today, they began showing me it as artwork and also explained their methods of not getting caught. They clearly are in need of more attention, because it seems they are pretty much on their own for the majority of the day, as most staff is focused on the younger ones.

Rosa, who is the president of the women’s volunteer association sat down with us and updated us on some of the current issues. She explained how many of the teenage girls have begun developing some signs of depression.

Dinner was great, and I especially enjoyed the cow tongue. Dinner was followed by a show with Peruvian dancers. My favorite was the scissors dance which consisted of two men dancing with scissors clapping to a beat simultaneously dancing even on their heads!

I went out salsa dancing with Frank, a new acquaintance of mine from the front desk. He has been extremely helpful and even gave me some tips on salsa dancing. I definitely have much room for improvement.

So till next time!

A Tour of La Molina (& More Teaching)!!

Tuesday, January, 25

** La Molina **

Written by: Volunteer Theresa

Quote for the Day: “When ending a day you should never say “I could have”, “I should have”, or “I would have”. At the end of the day you should always say “I did”. ~ Author Unknown


The La Molina team finally toured the campus. Our Guide Giovanni was great. He was from the advanced English class.

The UNALM specializes in agrarian and environmental sciences and technologies. It is the only Peruvian University with a graduate school which offers 6 Doctoral Degrees and over 20 Masters Degree Programs, Environmental Engineering, Forestry, Meteorology, Economics, Biology, Animal Husbandry and Agricultural Engineering are a few of the programs offered. There are many research and extension programs as well.

We visited the Dairy Herd, which produces milk to sell and use for cheese, cream, butter, ice cream and yogurt. We could not resist lucuma ice cream on the spot which tastes liked butter pecan. Thank you Arturo for treating the team. In addition to cows they have goats, poultry, guinea pigs, swine, llama, alpaca and sheep.

We visited the produce and meat market. They also sold herbs and cosmetics. There was a bakery that specialized in sweet potato bread. W e saw a variety of ornamental plants. All these items were harvested or made on campus. Oh well it’s back to class.

The three language classes met today as a group for a songfest. The words to the songs were given out and vocabulary discussed before we met. Marcia borrowed a guitar and led the group of students, staff and office personal in song and the rest is history. Needless to say, a rousing good time was had by all, an event that will be remembered.

All classes continue to work on vocabulary, enunciation and pronunciation. The intermediate and advanced groups worked with idioms and grammar. The basic worked with pronouns and possessives. All classes encourage talking, talking, talking. The advance group is individualizing to help students with letters, papers etc. Our students continue to improve and the teachers continue to be proud of that improvement.

Editor’s Note: Theresa brought 52 magazines donated by her library, with titles such as Horticulture, Scientific American, Popular Science, Horse and Rider Etc. They were so valued by her students! Each student in all La Molina English classes left with 1 or 2 magazines, a gift that seemed to take their breath away. An American magazine would cost a great deal in Peru and are almost impossible to find. Thank you Theresa!

Friday at the PPA!

Friday, January 21, 2011

** PPA **

Written by: Volunteer Kay

Quote of the Day: “It is not the malicious acts that will do us in, but the appalling silence and indifference of good people.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our day began in our typical fashion. After breakfast we met for the sharing of our thought for the day and journal entries as well as taking care of daily living business.

The group at PPA arrived and Dick checked the playground. When that was completed and the leaves were bagged, Dick continued yesterday’s work with his friend. He helped get the scaffolding together, but thankfully he didn’t feel the need to try it out. A new light was installed while never turning off the electricity.

Anne continued taking the toddlers out to play. She began her day with 2 balloons each on a string for the children to hit – one broke and she saw the other being carried off as she returned with 2 other children. Anne shared with us that she doesn’t know what the children are saying so she just says, “Si!” Won’t she be surprised when she receives the bill for 3 college educations from Peru?

Illness struck in the infant area. One little boy had spent the night in the infirmary and was still there. Another boy was taken to be checked but did return. Sue is very impressed with the care the children receive. A volunteer pre-school teacher worked with a 10 month developmentally delayed boy. She volunteers weekly during the summer and did a super job. She said that he receives physical therapy 3 times a week.

This morning, Kay, Kristen and Bea gathered whiteboards and shaving cream to dive into some finger-painting with the 4-6 year old girls. When they arrived, everyone was just starting an outside breakfast, which the girls finished quickly. While waiting for the trash pickup, they taught them the “Hokey Pokey” and “If You’re Happy and You Know It”. The staff wanted to do the Hokey Pokey as much as the girls. There is a real desire on their part to soak up as much English as possible.

After our songfest we brought out the tables and whiteboards. Each girl received a gob of shaving cream on her board squirted with a requested color. For the next hour they played in the cream learning colors in English and covering everything around them with shaving cream.

A good time was had by all except for perhaps Sister Anna Marie who is an advocate of “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”. Kay believes that is Sister’s thought for each day. As you may have guessed, the next half hour was spent cleaning tables, chairs, girls and clothes. We ended the morning in the park.

Even after show and tell by the waiter at the restaurant we were surprised at the lunch we received, but it was yummy!

After lunch, Anne headed back to the hostal, Françoise and Dick went shopping and the rest of us headed back to the orphanage. We were very glad to see Greg waiting for us at the office, as he had been under the weather to be with us in the morning.

We are still “working” on the afternoon Siblings’ Program; however, we did make some “progress.” Only one child was missing. We were all together again in a playground area.

Françoise and Dick returned with chain, boards and other materials to fix the beloved swings – a new project for Dick for the coming week.

We finished the week tired but truly rewarded by the interactions we have with the children and staff.

We are Seeing Progress in our Students!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

**Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina **

Written by: Volunteer Arturo

As we descended from the van at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina Language Center, the director, Gorki, was there to welcome us just has he has every single day we have been working there.

Early in our day we asked that our lunch routine change a little. La Duna and El Gato are the two restaurants on campus. Per our ever so polite request, the administration happily agreed to allow us to dine exclusively at El Gato. We are now able to order anything from the menu. At our al fresco lunch table today various members of our group enjoyed fruit salads with and without yogurt and honey, lettuce and vegetable salad, quinoa soup, pasta, Peruvian dishes such as Papa a la Huancaina and arroz con pollo, as well as ham and cheese sandwiches. We were somewhat surprised to learn that all of the other Global Volunteers teams preferred the La Duna Restaurant that we chose to delete from our repertoire.

In terms of our classes, we are all seeing progress in our students and are thoroughly enjoying our interactions with them. At the beginning level, on the first day this week the students didn’t understand the teachers’ humor and didn’t laugh when they should have. On the second day, the students laughed a little. And today the laughed a lot, especially when it came to the backside of the Hokey Pokey. A true sign of progress! Attendance today at this level was 7 to 8 students. At the intermediate level today students were each given two postcards of Minnesota and were asked to describe them. This generated a lot of language and many questions about the state. There was also instruction in phonics. 16 to 17 students attended the intermediate conversation class and 6 attended the intermediate language skills class.

At the advanced level much of the class was spent reading an article from “Science News” and discussing the impact of global warming on biodiversity in the South American tropical rain forests. Work on idioms, phrasal verbs, and pronunciation continues. 6 students attended the advanced conversation class and 5 attended theadvanced language skills class.

We agreed that all of us would end our last class at 4.45 PM so as to depart promptly at 5 PM. Our tour of the campus is scheduled for 10 AM to noon next Tuesday. We will be picked up in a van upon our arrival. The official letter of permission with the required seal and signatures authorizing our tour of the campus is being processed now. Ours will be an "official" visit.

And so the story continues...

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

** PPA **

Written by: Volunteer Dick

And so the story continues..... after a great breakfast at the hotel we headed to the work site at PPA.

The formal meeting was held in our PPA office and then the daily tasks began. Sue and Anne headed off to work with the babies and little ones. A morning full of smiles, giggles dribble and feedings. Kristen, Kay and Bea started a craft program with the young girls aged 4 to 6 years. About 12 girls were in their charge. Greg Junior, headed off to his 2 hours plus marathon of football in the sun. I tried to fix the swings using rotting rope,

We toured the sites picking up straying children everywhere and then playing games with the 5 to 7 year old boys. Overall a good and hardworking morning was had by all...... and we were ready for the lunch break ... which once again was fantastic.

In the afternoon plans were in hand for the ËNCUENTIO DE HERMANOS program to attempt to get family siblings staying at PPA a chance to get together for an afternoon. Four families had been picked by the PPA management.

1- MOSCOSO family consisting of Jessica 10, Aquiles 16, Alberto 10, and Anna 5
2- TORRES family consisting of Lizaudio 5 and brotherArron 4.
3- FARFAN family consisting of Jefferson 5, Cielo 7 and Rosemary 10.
4- RONDON family consisting of Jesus 6, Maria del Carmen 5 and Claudia 4.

The team headed out to find these siblings only to discover that the daily structure had just been changed. Greg and I were able to locate the two boys from the Moscoso family and we spent the afternoon with these two spirited brothers. Aquiles has a hearing and speech problem but that did not stop us having a great afternoon of colouring, playing ball, dancing and learning a few magic tricks. I think the boys enjoyed their afternoon with us and especially getting one on one care.

As for the rest of the Global staff..... they joined the rest of the school aged approx 4 to 7 years ... and the nuns ... on an outside walking visit to the local recreation centre for an afternoon of sports activities.

Arriving back at the hotel around 5.30 to 6 pm.... some went to shower, some went to rest, and some of us wrote journals awaiting for dinner which tonight was at the hotel.

First Day of Service in Lima!

Monday, January 17, 2011

** La Molina **

Quote of the day: "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." ~ Maya Angelou

The day began with anticipation as we headed off to our assignments with Jorge at the wheel of the van. Traffic didn't seem too bad as we headed to PPA and our group meeting. After a quick tour of that campus and a short lesson in Spanish we left for La Molina University.

Upon arrival we entered through locked gates and were greeted with graciousness by Consuelo, Claudia, and Martha. The campus is beautiful with much foliage and a peaceful atmosphere. Gorki, Maria del Carmen, and Olenka joined us in a welcoming room where we shared a glass of wine and toasted the success of our endeavor and the success of our partnership. In Gorky's welcome he indicated his pleasure in having us on campus. On the table in front of the room were examples of the beautiful produce of Peru; textiles, potatoes (417 varieties), chilis, maize, chicha morada (purple corn), clavo (cloves) and cinnamon. The pepper, aji colorado, a long dark pepper was given special recognition as the pepper used in many delicious Peruvian dishes.

We were given a packet, which included the list of our students, the schedule and the number of our classroom. Theresa and Jan will teach the beginning class, Greg and Marcia intermediate and Arturo and Pat advanced. A walk up the stairs to the teacher room introduced us to our lockers, bathroom, a small kitchen area, and a table around which we will be able to plan our lessons.

Each of our hosts is warm and welcoming. We have a good feeling about the time we will spend here even though the exact work we will be doing is yet to be determined. So much depends on the wants of the students and the degree with which they understand and use the English language.


Martha informed us that our task is threefold:

*provide an opportunity for the students to learn from a native English speaker

*encourage student learning and participation without a final evaluation from an instructor

*provide an enriching cultural exchange


We gathered with the Peruvians for lunch at one of the two restaurants on campus for chicken, rice, salad, and French fries.

After lunch our team took some time to brainstorm possible activities for the first day, which would encourage participation by the students in order to maximize the short time we will have together. Our first class will begin tomorrow - 1:00- 3:00 with conversational focus and the second class 3:00-5:00 and will include grammar, idioms, and other areas that will enhance understanding and proper use of the language.

Before leaving for home, we walked the campus enjoying the beautiful setting and the friendly people. Jorge picked us up at 3:45 and took us home in only 35 minutes, as the traffic at that time was light.

We rested and then met at 7:20 for a walk to the Italian restaurant and good conversation before meeting with Guillermo in the lobby for a short presentation on 2011 Peru.


Peace,
Volunteer Marcia

Reflections from a PPA Volunteer!

Written by Mary Ann Combs

I worked in the toddlers section in the mornings and in the siblings program in the afternoons. I surely enjoyed working with Carmen Montes in the toddlers section! She is a wonderful and caring person who gave the children much love along with needed discipline. We enjoyed getting to know each other despite the language barrier.

I spent my time with a very small (15 pound) 2 year old who had been at the PPA less than a month - and just seeing him make some emotional adjustments each day was very gratifying. He, Sebastian, was rather listless the first few days, so to finally see a few smiles and hear him utter a few sounds felt like great progress!! When you see the children, many of whom have no parents, it puts a perspective on the lives of abundance we have in the U.S.

When I consider how my work with Global Volunteers effects "waging peace through understanding between cultures," I must say: It is truly the only way to achieve a real and lasting piece.

Mary Ann