MySmallhelp Cusco

Well, my time here in Ollantaytambo has come to an end, I taught my last lessons yesterday at Rumira school. Last week was a bit of a strange one because of the strike. The schools were closed Tuesday to Thursday because of the roads being closed, which meant no teaching. Last Saturday a group of Canadian tourists arrived in Cusco with one of the project´s founders, Mama Sharon for a tour of the Cusco area. Carlos, the president of the organisation, runs a tour company called and was running their tour. Our role was to take a group of ten children down to the airport to greet the tourists. When the tourists arrived we held up a banner greeting them saying, ´Welcome Mama Sharon´, they were each presented with a flower by one of the children and we all got on a coach to go into Cusco for lunch.

On Sunday, it was a day off from working and I went for a walk up in the hills behind Ollantaytambo with Henry, the cook who is living with us at the moment. The views were stunning but we couldn´t find a path up the mountain so ended up scrabbling up what felt like an almost vertical slope (if it had been a ski slope, it would have been a black run!). I felt quite nauseous at the top, not sure if it was altitude sickness or fear at the steep inclines on either side of us at the top!

I have taught lessons in schools in Tastayoc, Paucarbamba and Rumira this week. All of them seemed to have learnt some English since I´ve been here..running up to me when I arrive at the school and asking ´What´s your name?´.

I have tried to teach them ´How are you?´this week but this seems to be a bit more challenging! I ate soup with the children in Tastayoc this week as we arrived just as they were eating. This food is provided by the project and gives the children one good hot meal a day.

In Rumira this week we managed to get Libertad, a seven year old neighbour into school. She has not been going to school since her last school kicked her out for some reason (from what I can gather it has something to do with her dad not being around to sign some papers…). She usually hangs around the streets or knocks on the volunteer house, looking for something to do all day. Although all children in Peru are intitled to education, the schools in Ollantaytambo said there was no room for her and she would have to wait until the beginning of the school year (April 2011) it was really great that we were able to get her into school in Rumira. However, it is not a solution in itself as Libertad now has to either catch a bus to school which will cost 2 soles a day, or walk for 30 minutes to get there, along a dusty road. She´ll have to go on her own because her mum won´t take her. Libertad´s mum struggles with alcohol and  doesn´t seem that interested in Libertad´s education. She had initially agreed to go with us on  Monday to Rumira school however, when we went round at 8am we were told she had gone out and left the 3 children, (one is only 2 years old). Libertad had become reluctant to go to school and had to be persuaded. Having spent 3 days in school now this week, Libertad is loving it and we´re hoping that her mum will be able to find the 2 soles she needs everyday to get to school, but already this week Libertad has come knocking on our door in the morning asking for her bus fare. 

Leander went up to Tastayoc on Tuesday with the Canadian tourists to take part in a baptism ceremony. Godparents baptise children here and it is an important role to be a godparent in a child´s life. It was a lovely occasion and the people in Tastayoc prepared lamb for the tourists, cooked especially underground!

Last night I cooked a traditional roast chicken dinner as a farewell meal in the house, so all that´s left to say is good luck to Leander with her work on the project and thank you to everyone in Ollantaytambo for being so welcoming!

“I arrived on the Paskay project in Ollantaytambo 6 days ago and have been busy getting orientated and finding out what the project is doing in different areas. Ollantaytambo is a beautiful place and I have been made to feel so welcome by Leander who has really made an effort to involve me in Paskay and encouraged me to decide for myself the best contribution I can make in its early stages of development. On Sunday I visited Paucarbamba (one of the areas that Paskay is trying to help following the floods) and collected local villagers in a minibus to take to Cuylandia, the guinea pig rearing training centre. The villagers were all really keen to come and many, dressed in traditional Peruvian clothing, ran out of their homes with pencil and paper ready to take notes – they´re taking their learning very seriously!

At Cuylandia I met Nelida, the agronomist who is running the guinea pig rearing training sessions. She is one of the salaried workers for Paskay and does an excellent job not only running the sessions but visiting the families in between sessions to check on their progress as well as keeping track of accounts and adminstration for Paskay.

On Monday I went with Nelida and Leander to Tastayoc , a rural community in the mountains above Ollantaytambo where the children have been supported with their education through the building of a greenhouse to provide fresh vegetables to eat in their kitchen. We observed a lesson taught in Spanish and Quechua ( the children´s mother tongue). The teacher there was keen for me to teach some English and I plan to return to Tastayoc for the following three Mondays to teach a two hour class.

We took with us to this school, a girl called Lurdes. She is 18 years old but because of her physical disabilities (she suffers from brittle bone disease) and family circumstances (alcoholic parents), has not spent more than a week in school in her life. She is really keen to read and write and was excited to be in a lesson at T’astayoc. Since then, Leander has visited the school in her village, Rumira and made arrangements with the teacher for Lurdes to begin attending school full time. In addition to this, Paskay are sourcing an electric wheelchair for Lurdes to enable her to become more mobile. These improvements will completely change Lurdes life as at the moment she sits alone for most of the day in a rural setting.

On Tuesday, myself and Leander worked on the Paskay website which Carlos wants to get up and running as soon as possible so people are able to see the work that´s being done here.

Today, Wednesday, I´ve been on a river clean up organised by the Council office here. After the floods, the river is still in need of attention and we filled around 10 big plastic bags with rubbish! This afternoon we were lucky enough to go to see a traditional Peruvian dance competition at the local high school in Ollantaytambo. The costumes were beautiful and the dances were energetic in the heat of the afternoon. I felt really privileged to have the opportunity to see it. Tomorrow we´re taking one of the girls who missed out on the dental mission to Cuzco to have her teeth checked and we will probably be staying over in order to make contact with fundraisers and to gather some resources and materials for my first teaching lesson on Monday!” Vicky Armstrong

On Saturday 27 August the second training day took place at Cuylandia.

The “socios” all learnt about the technical skills needed for the rearing, feeding and nutrition of their guinea pigs.

At the end of the second topic, they played a little game to test that the members had listened and understand what had been taught in the training session.

Knowledge about the nutrients and type of foods that the guinea pigs need is fundamental information that relates to if the guinea pig business will be succesful or not.

At the end of the training session it was taken as conclusión that the main part of the members were satisfied and happy that they had received another training session and that it was an extremely important topic for them to help them with improving their methods of raising guinea pigs as a businsess.

It seems that somehow I am now the “madrina” (fairy god mother) of the first new house which has been built in the Huayroncoyocpampa community. It had this honour because as a “gringa” I am seen as someone that will bring them luck and hopefully abundance.  Norma lives with here husband Alberto and 2 children Kevin and Carola.  They lost their home in the January floods and have been living in a tent ever since.  I met Norma’s family in January when we first brought volunteers to the community to help with the salvaging materials operation

I kindly accepted their request and the celebration continued in true quechuan style. We were served a delicious meal of steak and pasta (which is also traditional food for when a new house is built). The new house has had to be built on the same land as the previous one as they have no other land and there is nobody has offered them anywhere else to live. There was a hope that the local government would be providing the whole community with land for relocation but unfortunately this has not yet been provided. The family were struggling to survive in their tent because of the extreme temperatures and therefore chose to take a loan to be able to afford to live in a house again.

Normas family and many of them like them are urgently in need of support and would be very grateful for any small donation you might be able to give to make a difference to their lives.

As you can see from the photos I was presented with 2 clay bulls (for good luck) and a cross decorated with flowers. This was placed on the roof of the house for good luck and I then explained how it was an honour for me to be the “madrina” of their house and although I won’t be able to afford to give them my own money I would do my best to try and find support from other people around the world that really want to do something to help other human beings in need.

On Sunday 15th August, all 21 “socios” of the Cuylandia contract from Paucarbamba were picked up in a mini bus to visit the Cuylandia training centre for the first time. The community members were all excited about going to their centre and to learning more about the project. The first training session was run by guest speaker Richard, who has had experienced setting up similar businesses for the international charity World Vision and other organizations.

Richard motivated all of the members by explaining that by thinking positive with a clear vision of where they want to go they can all really make their small businesses work. They just need to put effort in to looking after the animals and following the guidelines of the CHDS agronomist, Nelida.

The initial training session began at 10am and was followed by a practical session building a “galpon” – guinea pig pen with room for

30 guinea pigs. The “socios” learnt about guinea pig rearing as a business and the best type of guinea pig homes for industrial rearing.

Once the guest guinea pigs were in their new home the training centre was decorated and the party began!

Over the next 2 weeks Nelida will be visiting each of the 21 families to supervise the building of their guinea pig pens near to their homes.

A big thank you once again to Desana Giving for donating an additional $3000 to the Cuylandia project to purchase the materials for the store room/training centre which was built by the Paucarbamba community members in just 10 days!

Dear Mysmallhelp trustees and friends,

As you all know the Casa Hogar del Sol is urgently in need of funds to raise money to continue the Cuylandia project here in Peru.

I am writing to see if anyone would be able to help us with fundraising by donating funds directly to sell books through the volunteer house and other networks here and abroad. Many people have been interested in purchasing the book that Meg designed on Blurb  and sent to us here in Peru. Unfortunately it is extremely expensive to get these books out here and therefore near impossible to be able to sell them and make a profit on them here.

Cristian and I went to visit a printer shop in Cusco on Friday  to find out about costs of printing the book which Megan printed on blurb. We were told that they could make the book in even better quality for a minimum of $5 per copy (if we print 1000). They showed us other printing materials that they have produced for organizations such as World Vision.

Cristian would really like to print a photo book about the Casa Hogar del Sol projects to help raise funds and raise awareness of our work as well as his photography. We have found out that the minimum print run of 200 copies would cost about $7 to print here in Peru ($1400 in total). I believe that we would be able to sell the book here for about $14 making 100% margin.

Printing the Casa Hogar del Sol photo book will not only help Casa Hogar del Sol to raise funds but will also help Cristian with his photography career (which is part of our project aim).

Please can you let me know your thoughts and if anyone would be interested in ordering some of the books to try and sell during the run up to Christmas.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon

Kindest regards

Leander

Thank you Carlos for sending us the designs for the training centre. The BIG question is what colour are we going for!!

Thank you once again George and Kathy for your continued support. The bricks arrived yesterday and the volunteers are coming back tomorrow to help with the construction.

We should be on schedule for the inauguration and starting the training with the first 19 families on Saturday 14th August. Fingers crossed!

With love to you all

Leander

Monday 2nd August 2010

A lot has been going on in the world of Casa Hogar del Sol in Peru over the past week. Last Thursday we had a further 5 volunteers visit us from Loki Cusco and we managed to move the last 500 bricks from the Paucarbamba community. We now have the first group of 19 families which will be receiving guinea pigs and training from the Cuylandia centre (due to start on Saturday August 14th). The community members nnw have enough bricks to complete the perimerter wall and the building of the actual training centre will start tomorrow tomorrow.

The head builder has estimated that it will take one week for the workers to complete the building so we are estimating 2 weeks!

3000 more bricks and building material need to be bought to build the training centre and George and Kathy from Desana Giving http://www.desanagiving.org/  have kindly offered to donate these. A big thank you to Desana Giving goes out from the Casa Hogar del Sol Peru team and the Paucarbamba community members.

The 10 day dental campaign has started in partnership with Odontologos Fronteras and Desana Giving.and the  17 volunteer dentists have so far treated about 500 patients.  All of the dentists are sleeping and eating in the (3 bedroom) volunteer house in Paucarbamba and travelling to community schools each morning to work 8 hour non-stop days!

A volunteer Australian Podiatrist (David) was found at Hearts Café and has joined the dental campaign this week. He has been measuring up for shoes which are going to be distributed during the Christmas chocolatada campaign with Desana Giving.

A big thank you to everyone for their big help this week!

An Ilkley aid worker is hoping to set Peruvian families up in business after their homes and livelihoods were washed away in devastating floods six months ago.

Leander Hollings, pictured, is appealing for £14,000 to establish a training centre which would enable residents in the Cusco region to rear guinea pigs for the domestic and international markets.

Emergency relief has now subsided after torrents of rain washed away roads, crops and thousands of homes in January. Rivers burst their banks causing landslides to block vital routes of communication and tourists were filmed stranded on the Inca ruins of Macchu Picchu.

Leander, who runs the charity Mysmallhelp, helped set up a volunteer house to provide food, shelter, clothes, dental care, building materials and school supplies.

Now working as a director for the charity Casa Hogar del Sol, she said: “We don’t want to “give” anymore without helping to create businesses and income for the flood victims.

“Our dream is to set up cuylandia, a guinea pig rearing training centre, and accompanying guinea pig businesses for at least 25 families before the end of this year.”

Leander’s appeals for flood victims in January were boosted by a £10,000 donation from Fair Trade coffee company Peros. Casa Hogar del Sol is also supported by Ilkley’s Happiness Centre and the town’s pop up charity shop Ayni, which sells Peruvian goods.

Leander added: “We are still urgently looking for funds to keep the project going on an ongoing basis. We are also looking for volunteers to come and work with us for a minimum of one month, ideally with basic Spanish.”

Details of how to make a donation can be found at mysmallhelp.org.

It has been an extremely busy week for me and the Casa Hogar del Sol team. The Loki volunteers have now increased their visits to twice a week (Tuesday and Thursday) to help us to move the bricks to Cuylandia as quickly as possible. We have worked hard to move more than 1100 bricks this week to the new land and the wall is gradually going up.

This week Loki have donated sugar and rice to one of our partner schools in Pachar and a further 250 soles towards the truck hire. A big thank you once again to everyone at Loki for their continued support.

The children at Paucarbamba enjoyed their first English class on Thursday with me. They each received an exercise book and wrote down their names and the teachers name together with the word English and they remembered the numbers and the way to say “What is your name?”

which was taught to them last week. They loved playing word games outside with their new ball and were sad when the class had to end.

Paul and I took Lourdes to Cusco for her first trip to look for ways of improving her life, including possibilities for wheel chairs, work and education opportunities and a possible new home.

We have been to visit the directors of schools in Pachar, Chilca, Patacancha, Phiry and Ollantaytambo who have all signed contracts to confirm that we can use their schools as locations for the upcoming dental campaign.

Watch this space!