Zach's last day at the orphanage.

They made us a going away present. How sweet!

I visited Zach's project today. After doing our math, we figured we still had $153.00 Soles and $180.00 dollars. We decided to get some supplies for the orphanage today, and supplies for the hospital tomorrow. We went to Mega (the local supermarket) and bought:
10 Kilos of sugar
60 eggs
9 liters of milk
15 bars of soap
12 tubes of toothpaste
40 rolls of bread
10 Kilos of oatmeal
3 2L containers of strawberry yougurt
6 kilos of hot dogs
2 kilos of butter
Treats for the kids
Fruits and vegetables
1 whole cake

The cab driver charged us seven soles to take us to the orphanage, the usual price is three soles. We decided to take the cab anyways because we had waaay too much to carry. We were greeted at the orphanage by a storm of children screaming, "Hermanito, hermanito!" Two of them jumped on Zach while the others started helping with the groceries. There was a little girl, I'm guessing she is three, carrying milk inside. My heart felt so content to see the children so happy with food, and to see their excitement as they received our gift. There are many children at the orphanage, they are all extremely loving. I noticed that all their clothes are dirty and they are starved for attention. At every moment of our visit there was someone hanging on our necks. Since it was Zach's last day we decided to bring the children treats. We brought them chocolate wafers, caramelos, and cake. When we noticed the sugar kicking in, we decided to take them outside to play. Zach played with them for a some time while I stayed inside and talked to the lady who runs the orphanage. Brace yourself, this is very sad. Most of the kids who are at the orphanage have been  raped. David, the autistic boy, was found beaten and raped on a street. He was taken to the orphanage by one of the workers and has lived there since. Cezar has also been raped, and Felipe... The list goes on. I had to swallow to hold back the tears. What type of monster would hurt innocent children? My heart breaks when I think of everything these children have been through, and what they're going through now. Last week, Zach had to buy gas for them to cook their food because they had no money. Seven of the little boys haven't been to school in a week because they have incomplete uniforms. The mom of the orphanage was telling me that the most difficult times for the children are Christmas and Mother's Day. She said that during Christmas time the bigger children will just stay in their rooms. She tries to get them out but they want to stay in bed... and they cry a lot.

I cried all the way home. I couldn't help it. It's too much suffering for innocent creatures, they're so little. Zach and I decided that we want to send them Christmas gifts, even if we buy them toys at Thrift Town. We want to do anything we possibly can to make their lives a little happier. Tomorrow we're going to meet the mama at 10:00 AM to buy the children their school uniforms. It is so interesting that the uniforms are going to cost $302.00 soles, and we have exactly $300.00 soles left of our donation money. I guess that's all I have to say for now. Check out our pictures. Good night to you all.

-M

Some of the food delivery to the orphanage.

Ever, 13, son of the mama of the orphanage coming to greet us and help bring in groceries.

All the hermanitos helping bring stuff inside.

The spread laid out on the table.

Cesar and Christiano were pretty stoked

Flabia and Zach enjoying dulces

Sharing dried apricots with David, 17.

Cesar is enjoying some treats, while I'm checking out a hot camerawoman!

Luciano, 5, enjoying his wafers

GROUP HUG!

Soccer outside with Christian, Felipe, Cliber, Ronal, and Mario

Group pictures for last day.

Adios, hermanitos!

Back from Machu Picchu

So, this time I decided I wanted to have fun, to see everything Peru has to offer. Last time I was here I took on two projects, and did my own work on the side. I didn't go to Machu Piccho, Lake Titicaca or Puno. Actually, last time I didn't do much of anything. I'm wondering if that is why I didn't see all the ugliness I'm seeing this time. To say the truth, I am really disappointed. I wouldn't recommend people coming to Cusco for travel. Today alone, we were lied to and taken advantage of about three times. I don't remember these things happening here before. As a foreigner, you walk around with a big dollar sign stamped on your forehead. You are nothing but an opportunity for a quick buck. If someone smiles or calls you "amigo," watch out, they're trying to sell you something for double its worth.

We booked our trip through a travel agency downtown. We were told to wait for the bus in front of a major supermarket here in Cusco. We were there on time, they were late. We decided to go into a coffee shop to buy some coffee while we waited. While we were inside, the bus arrived. The lady came inside rushing us, "Vamonos señorita, por favor. Deja el cafe!" We had to leave our coffee only to be rushed into the bus like cattle. I do not have words to describe the road that we took to get there. I was afraid for my life. If was a dirt road, with no side rails, and no curb. Something straight out of a horror movie. We were at about 10,000 feet above see level, circling mountains to get to Machu Picchu, and the damn driver was speeding. Mr. Fr. I don't know what gives these people the right to risk our lives. Tourists are treated as if they are stupid, people try to fool you left and right. They take advantage of the fact that you don't know, or they assume you don't know how things work, and how much things are really supposed to cost. It's ugly. It's shameful. We went to eat at a restaurant and had 25% of the value of our meal added to our tab for a "service charge," when I asked the guy about it he said everybody charges it. Liar. We went to two neighboring restaurants, people here charge 10%. We went back and he wouldn't give us our money back. It's ok, we're going to cancel the transaction on the credit card. There are people who see things happening and they come and apologize to us, but nothing makes it better. There is no worst feeling than that of being taken advantage of, of trusting someone's word, only to realize they were trying to make a quick buck. What a shame. I hope people realize that this attitude and behavior is not helping them, this is going to drive tourists away. As for us, our suggestion is, if you have the opportunity to travel, go somewhere you'll be respected, don't come here. I feel sad for Cusco and extremely disappointed. We are not sure we want to come back here again, we are that pissed off. We have talked about it, helping people was the only thing that made our stay here worthwhile, the rest of the time we were too pissed off to enjoy ourselves.

We're going to focus on our projects for the remainder of the time here, we have to make a difference in innocent children's lives. We understand that it is not their fault people are treating us the way they are. I know that the number of volunteers in Cusco is going to decline if things continue this way, it makes me sad for the children. Oh well, what can we do? I hate to see all this ugliness, can't wait to be back home.

-M

Another big day tomorrow

Well, we're both feeling better. I woke up with both nostrils clear and Maysa's still semi-sleeping. Yesterday we added to Tuesday's purchases to the tune of 288kg rice, 100kg sugar, 50kg oatmeal, and 192 liters worth of evaporated milk. We hired Rafael, the same taxi driver that took us home from the plastics store, and make two trips to a place that sells in bulk. It was tricky, as we had to find the best prices, buy and transport all of the food to our host house in a limited time frame, as Rafael had to pick up two of his daughters from the hospital and take one to school. We managed to get all of this in two trips in his cab that's about the size of a Hyundai Accent, but a little smaller. Can you say spacious?

Just your typical Cusco cab ride

The lady who sold us the goods was a bit of a pushy businessperson, but Maysa found out why while I was taking the first car load to our house with Rafael. The lady said that it isn't uncommon for volunteers to buy a few bags of rice, then ask for a receipt saying that they bought much more, so they can get more money. Okay lady, that's great, but that's not us, so don't be a jerk. An additional obstacle was that the street is being repaved in front of the store, so Rafael had to park his cab about a block away. A boy from the store loaded bags on a dolly, while I hustled sacks of food to the cab and Rafael loaded them up. Maysa wanted to get pictures of this, but we didn't want to keep Rafael from his daughters, so we rushed and got it all finished just in him for him to pick up the girls.

Our friend Sr. Rafael

Once we had all of the stuff unloaded in our living room, we started making bags to distribute to the families in the pueblo. Using measuring cups, we tried to get about 5kg of rice, 2kg of sugar, and a kilo of oatmeal in each. After finishing about half of the rice with Maysa, I had to go to my project at the orphanage, and our housemate Sam, a volunteer from Brussels, Belgium, helped Maysa for 3 hours. They got all of the bags of rice, sugar and oatmeal made, and put them into larger bags that we can hand out to individual families. Maysa and Sam assembled 56 "care packages" yesterday. Awesome work. We still need to get some more oatmeal, and might grab some pasta to give to the families as well. We also are saving some of the stuff in bulk to donate to the school and leave in their pantry.

Food we bought on Wednesday

Crunching the numbers to see how much money we have left. Some for our projects, none to spend on us!

The first bags of rice

Getting some bags knocked out

Sam helping us get ready

"That's a lot of food!"

Sam and Maysa putting everything together in the big bags

All in an afternoon's work

Today, we're going to take the remaining money and buy an electric hair clipper and hair scissors so the teachers can cut the kids' hair at the school, instead of having to take them into Cusco. We're also going to buy a blender for the orphanage, so they can blend up fruit and make juice so the kids get more nutrients. We're also going to try and find a good deal on a photocopier to take to the school, so the teachers don't have to make the trek into Cusco to make copies of the schoolwork to give to the children. After we get done with purchases today, we're going to finish the 10 remaining bags that don't have oatmeal, and get the clothing we're taking ready as well. Then, we should be ready to be picked up by the Alcalde tomorrow morning at 7 to go and make our drop. We're very excited to see all of the work coming together, and will let you know how it goes. Ciao!

Productive sick day

It's 10:30pm and neither one of us is feeling too hot, so this'll be a quick one, with more to follow once we're closer to 100%. Still reeling from the weekend trip to Puno and Lake Titicaca, we went downtown and found some good deals on things to take to our projects. A household necessity type store and a store specializing in plastics are right next to one another, and when we told them the type of work we were doing and the quantities that we wanted to purchase, they were able to discount the prices a bit for us. For the hospital that Maysa and Jasmine work at, we purchased 3 massive containers of baby wipes, which the hospital doesn't have. They don't even have toilet paper at the hospital, and since the children they work with have special needs, they all wear diapers, and the nurses are cleaning them with moist pieces of cloth. For our rural community project, we began our purchasing. We will be putting together care packages for individual families, as well as taking one big delivery to the school we visited. At the general store, we bought 100 bars of bath soap, 100 bars of dish/laundry soap, and a dozen more tubes of sunscreen for the schoolchildren that we got at a very reasonable price for being in Peru. At the plastics store, we bought the bags for the care packages, 150 notebooks for the school, and tons of pencils and colored pencils. That's all I can remember for the time being. We left the plastics store out of a side door just as most of the downtown kids were getting out of school, so finding a cab was very trying. However, Maysa flagged one down, and with the promise of a few extra soles (about US$1.35), lured him into helping us load the stuff as well, as it was pretty heavy. Even better, on the way home, Maysa recruited him to drive us around to buy the rice, oatmeal, quinoa, powdered milk and other supplies we're buying tomorrow morning, and at a very reasonable cab cost. Tomorrow, in addition to the rest of our bulk purchasing, we need to get in touch with El Alcalde de Yaurisque to arrange when we can go out and make our delivery later this week. Well, we need some recuperative sleep, but we'll have pictures coming and a more detailed update soon.

Much love,

M&Z

Maysa got sick

I am laying in bed while Jasmine and Zach are out at their projects. We visited a community on Tuesday. Here is Cusco, people always like to offer their visitors something to eat. If you don't eat, they get offended. While on our visit we were offered food twice. The first family offered us steamed white rice with a fried egg, and an onion salad. The egg yolk wasn't cooked all the way. When the food was placed in front of us, Zach and I just looked at each other with an expression of "Oh shit!" on our faces. We ate it and guess what? I got sick, Zach didn't. It seems like everything I eat goes right through me. I felt very weak today, I guess my body hasn't been absorbing any nutrients from what I eat. We were walking around the museum and I could barely stand up. We went to the pharmacy and bought some ciprofloxacin. Here, antibiotics can be purchased over the counter. In addition to that, I was given no instructions on how to take it. Good thing I have my resources, I looked the antibiotic up on my drug guide and I'll be on it for five days. Hopefully I'll start feeling better soon.
We've been researching agencies who will take us to Machu Pichu and Lake Titicaca, hopefully we'll have pictures of those places up soon. As far as our side project, we are waiting for Alcade WIlbur to contact us with a list of donations the community was going to make for us. Hopefully, we'll begin distributing donations next week, that's what I'm really excited for. I'll keep this one short, I'm going back to sleep until Zach and Jasmine get back. Hugs and kisses for everyone.

-M

Projects in full swing

Hi everyone, sorry it's been so long between updates, we've been quite busy working on projects, side projects and getting accustomed to the way things are done here in Peru.

Tuesday morning, we began a side project in the morning. Maysa and myself went while Jasmine worked in the hospital project in the morning. We got picked up at 7am by a man our papa calls "El Alcalde", Wilbur.  Alcalde means mayor, and he's not the mayor of Cusco, but all we can tell is that he has a huge heart, desire to help those with the greatest need, and some sort of connection to Cusco's regional government. Our drive was over an hour out of Cusco along a newly opened road, through a mountainous countryside to a land where it looks like time has left behind. The people work on hillsides, cultivating potatoes and anything else that will grow. In a meeting we had on Monday morning with Wilbur and our papa, Wilbur said he seeks out the poorest of the poor, those who have nothing, as his primary emphasis in helping the local and regional communities. We visited a few of these families. The first house we went to was that of a man and his son. His son is 9 years old, and so malnourished that he looks to be about 5 or 6, and is so lacking in nourishment that he can hardly speak. The boy did have a small radio and was very proud to show us that he knew how get music on it. The man and his son very some of the most humble people we've ever met, and we're going to bring supplies to them this coming Monday, when we return with Wilbur.

Us with the man and little boy in front of their house

We were posing for a picture and the pigs got up, startling the little boy

Their water supply

The man and boy with one of their dogs

The next woman we met has a husband in the hospital recovering after a surgery, but has no money to pay for his medications. We're hoping to get a list of the ones he needs tomorrow, so we can purchase them for her and bring them to him in the hospital.

Then, we sat down for a meeting with the community leaders of the campesino, and some engineers from the regional government while they discussed projects to put bathrooms in every household, and make their water system more efficient, as there are households in the community without water. Wilbur said if the locals can find a way to make sand for the adobe to build the bathrooms, that the government would buy it from them as part of the material cost. The proposed project cost is 413,000 soles, or about US$153,000.

The next family we visited was a few minutes walk off of the dirt road that runs through the campesino. They don't have ready access to water, and have to travel up into the hills and bring water back in buckets. The inside of their home had a small fire pit going, sooty walls, and almost no visibility. The man we took photos with was both physically and mentally disabled. He has some sort of neurological condition that prevents him from speaking well, he is physically unable to walk, very thin, most likely malnourished, and suffers from severe mental retardation. I'm getting shaky just revisiting the scene in this post. What I feel for this poor man I've never felt before and can't describe with words. When we go back on Monday, he'll have the clothes off of my back if that's what he wants. Thinking about it overwhelms me with grief.

Their home

Inside of their house

Their supplies for cooking

You can only see this stuff because of the flash. It was so dark inside the household. The walls are black from the soot, there is a constant fire going to keep the house warm because it gets so cold up here.

This man lives in the house and is very ill. He was scared, and wanted Zach's clothes. We'll come back next week and bring them warm clothes, food, and supplies.

The rest of the family. The woman to Maysa's left was crying when we left. She was very sad, but appreciative that we are going to help them out.

The outside of their home.

Our final stop was the primary school in the community that our papa, Cirilo, designed as the lead engineer. The children and teachers were very happy to see us, all of the preschool and kindergarten kids came up to us and shook our hands in greeting. We spoke with the teachers to get some idea of their needs, and they said the most pressing need is a photocopier. To make copies of the children's schoolwork, they have to travel over an hour to Cusco. Also, one of the teachers said they need hair clippers and scissors to cut the children's hair at school, so they don't have to go to Cusco for haircuts. They are compiling a list of other needs that we should get either today or tomorrow, so we can purchase supplies for them over the weekend.

With the kindergarten kids and one of the teachers

The slides in the playground were donated by other volunteers

First and second graders with Wilbur "El Alcalde"

Third and fourth grade class

The 6th grade class. Next year they'll be at another school.

Check out the Peru album on Maysa's Facebook for more pictures of the school and the rural community we went to.

The name of the hospital that Jasmine and Maysa are working at is called Hospital San Juan de Dios, and the orphanage I work at is called Remar. The orphanage is one of four run by the same people. There's a rehabilitation program for men with drug and alcohol issues, one for young school girls, one for teenage girls, and the one I work at is predominately orphaned schoolboys from 5-14 years old, but there are a few autistic kids, one child with downs, three girls, the mother of three of the kids and two other women that help. Yesterday I brought them 4.5 kilos of laundry detergent, which Roxanna, the mother and head of the house, told me will last approximately three weeks. I also gave them each a children's vitamin, which I plan on doing every day I volunteer there. Today I need to bring some food though, as they might not have had enough food for dinner. There are two girls at the orphanage volunteering with me, but from different programs. One is from Toronto, the other I think is from Germany. They don't speak hardly any Spanish. Oh well. The kids seem to like me, but there is so much need.

Off to the market to pick up some food for my project today. Take care everybody!

- Z

Projects Day One

Interesting day today, I had a "what the f am I doing here" moment. It is so frustrating when we come here as volunteers and we feel like people are just trying to rip us off all the time. I guess it is to be expected, Cusco is a tourist town after all. When we walk into a store we get charged double the price of what the locals get charged. Jasmine and I visited our project today, we had to go out and buy lab coats because we forgot to bring ours. The lady at the store charged us 30 Soles for a lab coat. We knew she was ripping us off because she had a smirk on her face and wouldn't look us in the eye. I told Jasmine in Spanish, "Let's go to this other place where I bought supplies last time, I'm sure they'll be cheaper." The lady was visibly upset and lectured us about the different quality of products. Well, I told Jasmine, "I don't care if I have to pay the extra cab fare, I will not allow this woman to do this to us, this is stealing." SO we left to go to the other place. Turns out I couldn't remember where the place was, I asked the guy in the cab if he would take us home, he told me yes, but charged us double the price. When I told him that wasn't fair, he told us we could get out of his cab. That is when I had the "What the f%$# am I doing here" moment. We stopped a guy down the street and he told us he would take us to the medical supply store for a "propina," I said yes, what else could go wrong? On the way I complained to him, I told him we were volunteers, that we came here with an open heart to help people but that everyone just saw us as an opportunity to make a buck. I told him I was thinking about not coming back to volunteer. Well, he helped us find the store, wouldn't take a propina from us, and he went in to ask for the price before the clerk saw us. Take a guess of how much we paid for the same lab coats? 18 Soles each. We bought two for 36 Soles.
It is frustrating to try to help people when you're getting ripped off. Today I am thankful for Jasmine and Zach's presence. When I complained to Jasmine about the whole thing and about never wanting to come here again, she told me not to worry about those people, we are here on a mission and we have to think about the children. She told me that she believes in Karma and all we can do is our best, if people choose to take advantage of us, then they will for sure pay for it, but still she wished them well. She told me that she is blessed and I am blessed, that money comes and money goes. Jasmine believes that we are always blessed because we have a kind heart. She wants to do so much more. She wants to help many children. After talking we concluded that in life what makes us happy is loving one another and helping others. We wouldn't be happy if we had the opportunity to help someone and didn't do it. Jasmine said we are all brothers and sisters and if we each just did a little bit the world would be a better place. We should be thinking of the children anyways. Zach arrived right after our talk, I am so proud of him. First thing he said to me was, "Don't touch me!" When I asked him why, he said he had children hanging on him all afternoon. He was reeeeeeaaally dirty. I'll let him talk about his project, but what he told me and the difference he is making and will make with his mere presence is so amazing to me. I'm glad I have them to support me on this difficult day.

-M

Made it to Cusco!

Picking up where we left off. After the coffee shop, we were able to check our bags and go into the terminal to wait for our flight. Since we were 3 hours early, we were finally able to get some life-saving sleep. It felt absolutely phenomenal to get horizontal for an hour or two. We had a nice flight from Lima to Cusco; it has to be one of the most beautiful plane flights on the planet. The Andes sticking up through a sea of clouds, and you can see small towns next to rivers that wind their way through rough and unforgiving terrain. Flying over the Rockies in no way compares. Coming into Cusco, you kind of have to circle around to get the right landing angle on the runway, and the views as you do so are amazing!

We landed and met up with Ernesto and Kayla (sp?), coordinators from RCDP, our volunteering. We chatted with them while we waited for Maysa's friend and fellow nursing student, Jasmine to land about an hour after us. We eventually got all of the luggage loaded into cabs with people who knew where they were going, and drove through the city streets to our host house. There are a few places where things fit together quite nicely, but the issue you run into with planning your city to look like a puma, is that you generally just have to get in where you fit in. Suffice to say I'm used to slightly more structure. Upon arrival, we met our host 'mama', Maria. She is a lawyer, teacher, and houses volunteers regularly. There's also another volunteer from our program from Denmark in the house, as well as a student from Kentucky finishing up a study abroad program. Our accommodations are simple, yet sufficient. We drank tea, ate fresh bread and butter, and finished up with some chocolate caliente as Kayla and Ernesto gave us an orientation to the programs. The effects of 11,000 feet above sea level can be felt immediately, and eating and drinking definitely helped me avoid coming down with jet lag/altitude sickness. Following our meal, we got our luggage to our rooms, and immediately slept for 3 or 4 hours, until Maria woke us up for lunch. It was a potato and green bean dish served with rice, and we drank hot, fresh apple juice to go along with it. Following lunch, we decided we needed to get up and move around a bit, so Maysa, Jasmine, and myself took a cab into the heart of Cusco, La Plaza de Armas. After picking up some necessities and stopping at a lounge for a drink, we grabbed a cab back to the house and ate a quick dinner. This was followed by our first showers in a few days...cold, but very necessary. I think I'm still a little wiped out from travel, so I'm going to turn it over to Maysa.

-Z

Zach skipped over the part where he got shocked in the shower. I shouldn't laugh but it's a kind of funny. There are two bathrooms (that we have access to) in the house. It is just Zach's luck that he chose the one with no hot water. Being the spoiled Americans that we are, Zach decided to try playing with the knob to get hot water, zap! Hahaha! I prayed before I got in the shower. When you are somewhere this cold, with no heating system in the house, you HAVE to pray for hot water. I'm not sure, but people might have heard some alleluias coming from the bathroom just down the stairs. I played with the knob enough to get decent pressure AND hot water, yeah baby!

All joking aside, it seems like we already have some projects in view. Our Peruvian mama seems to be a very kind-hearted person; she collects donations here in Cusco and helps some very needy children. She started telling us about her work with laborers who are under fourteen years of age. She has started a campaign to raise awareness and to educate parents about the risks of putting children to work at such a young age. She told us about children who work in the landfill, where they collect garbage that they might use to make crafts and sell. She is concerned about these children's future, but mostly she is concerned about all the diseases they are being exposed to. We are very aware in the limitations that we have in our work, we do not believe that we will change the system in three weeks, but we can prevent the spread of infection on some level. I suggested that we donate gloves and masks to these children, so that they can be protected while they work. Our mama is saddened by the fact that they will continue to work, but she welcomed my suggestion. Tomorrow our mama is going through our donations with us to see which of the children's clothing she can bring to her charity. On Monday we are going to visit the clinic Manco Capac, the one I volunteered at in 2010. I am hoping one of their representatives can accompany us to wherever it is that they buy their supplies wholesale. Hopefully, we will be able to get a microscope for them, if not, we will at least supply them with protective equipment such as; gloves, gowns, masks and goggles. We're thinking about buying gloves and masks for the working children at the same time.

As far as our projects, it has been confirmed, Zach will be working at an orphanage for boys, and I will be at a long term facility for children with special needs. One of our program coordinators told me a little about the place. She said that all of the children are severely handicap. She told me about a little boy who has no arms or legs, but who enjoys drawing very much. Last time she was there, she sat with him for an hour and held a crayon to his elbow so that he could draw. I am looking forward to it. I told her about my work with the severely handicap children in our school district, I hope I am well prepared for the job. I am not scared of it, but there is a certain nervousness in knowing that I will be working with people who have nothing. I am ready to give them all my love, but I am a little nervousness about my emotional pain as I witness all that. I hate to see people suffer. Lastly, depending on how Monday goes, we might visit another orphanage on Tuesday, we have to be careful in the number of projects we take, we don't want to make promises we can't keep.

Zach and I are going to make some tunes now, he'll snore to the right, I'll snore to the left hahaha
Hasta tomorrow's entry! Good night!

-M