Huancayo is this bustling city in the Peruvian highlands, framed by water-washed mountains, the streets filled with psychotic combis (mini-vans exceeding every health and safety regulation for person-carrier capacity) and taxis honking at every junction, person and thing, women walking around with braided jet black hair, bowler hats, long jazz-dance- esque skirts, and multi-coloured blankets wrapped around their backs either carrying children or food, and people on every corner selling an unknown quantity of things made from rice/maize. Your eyes and ears are never bored in Huancayo.
So the story of CarismaPeru! (here's a link for all you keenos, http://www.carismaperu.org/ ), Eli and Neto, encouraged by good friends from a charity they were working with at the time, decided to fly solo and set up their own charity to help the children of Huancayo. So they started with only a few programs, rural english school, a few dedicated volunteers, and from their CarismaPeru has grown into a 30 volunteer-strong organisation, with projects running all over Huancayo and the surrounding towns.
Eli and Neto are themselves amazing. They live CarismaPeru. They share their house, food, time, family and friends with the volunteers. It truly feels like we're working with them and not for them.
My volunteering here consists of morning clinics in a nearby town called Chupaca (I know, Star Wars!) and afternoons alternating between worker kids and the rural english school.
I wanted to work in the clinics because I wanted to experience another healthcare system and I thought that my 3rd yr medical skills might be of some use here. It has been interesting to talk with the doctors and other healthcare professionals about how the clinics run here but on the practical side it's a little disappointing. Essentially it's just like clinics at home i.e. much standing around like a lemon with socially awkward situations thrown in for good measure, but harder due to the language barrier. Funz.
Also the fact that most of the pre-med students of the University of Arizona have descended onto CarismaPeru at this time too doesn't help the over crowding factor in clinics. Patient confidentiality and consent anyone?!
Anyhooz the clinics are actually really well run and quite well equipped despite generally being quite poor. People pay 10 soles (about 2.50 pounds / month) for basic healthcare, but this doesn't include all medications and according to one Dr some ppl can't even afford 1 sole (25p) for antibiotics. Though there's an upgrade version (!) where you pay around 60 soles a month for a more comprehensive healthcare system. It makes you really thankful for the NHS, we're really spoilt for healthcare really. So that's basically the clinic.
So on to the rural english school. This is an after school English club run by Adriana and CarismaPeru. This entails us doing about 20 mins of english and 1hr30mins of playing :P They love volleyball here, I don't know why though as for me it's the most painful sport ever: if I do the pinchy finger move with the ball i break all my fingers and if i do the fist-hit then i have searing slapping pains running through my arms.
But the children are amazing; the moment you step out of the taxi they run up to you and give you massive hugs and shower you with welcome kisses, then they'll lead you by the hand to the classroom to help them with their work. They're so dedicated when it comes to their work, they really want to complete the exercise and get acknowledgment for their work, even if most of the time I'm pretty sure they don't understand what they've done.
These kids are from the local rural area and are quite poor but they are so rich with love and enthusiasm for the time they spend with us. For me it showed that the most enjoyed thing in life and simplest thing to give is time and friendship with other people (awww :P)
I volunteered mon PM till thursday, then on Friday weekend I went to the jungle :D I'll start a new entry to regale you all with tales of la selva
xxx
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