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
Thursday, 28 July 2011
Lima in a day
Hola hola hola!
We were in Lima only briefly but I shall regale you with our historias chicatitas :)
The weather in Lima was horrid when we arrived, worse than London when it rains. The definition of 'overcast', grey, drizzly and cold. Naice.
We headed straight into town from our hostel which was a little on the outskirts. When we approached the centre we could hear the low rumble of thudding drums emmanating from behind the building facades, turns out we arrived just in time for a mass school festival, complete with traditional dress and music.
Hundreds of schools must have been there, each with their own banners, all the children in military organised group, beautifully bright costumes, it was so great to have seen it (check facebook for pictures!)
Headed straight to Monasterio de San Francisco. No more buying of products off of nuns this time though, only catacombes filled with 25,000 human remains. But nothing too creepy, it was not a ritual burial site or anything, solemente a neat and tiday way to the bury the citizens.
Then some wandering around and headed to the Museum of Art there. Have to hit up a museum anywhere we can. It's like a santuary for travelers. Clean, safe, there's a loo you can use with minimal risk of contracting a disease. And generally a coffee shop too. Bliss.
We saw two Peruvian artists, whos names escapes me now, but I really quite liked them. The first used bright colours with crazy shapes, and lines and things :P It pleased my eyes. And the other guy was like realistic surrealism :P He somehow created realistic light images but using a surrealistic landscape. Hard to explain but was again much funz to see.
So the day was chilled really, a filler day between Ecuador and our final volunteering destination in Huancayo.
Now cue the 7hr 10.30pm bus ride from Lima to Huancayo. Cruz del Sur buses are like planes on the land! :D They have stewardesses and give vaccum packed food (mmm travel food) and safety videos and baggage check. All very swish. Unfortuneatly all the niceties in the world do not cover the fact that I am attempting to sleep, sitting up and that the left side of my body is frozen due to close proximity to window. It was like an all nighter but with none of the fun.
Arrived in Huancayo at 5.45am to be greeted by Eli, one of the founders of CarismaPeru, and whos house I will be staying at for the next 3 weeks.
Eli tells me that there at 8 other volunteers staying with her, her husband Neto and their 3 yr old daughter in their house. A big happy international family. Their house is like a mary poppins house though, people always are emerging from rooms I didn't know existed. Anyhooz, sorry about the poor english and tense jumping, I'll try and stay past for a bit now.
So Eli shows me to my little room: it's a teeny weeny box room cerca Harry Potter the early years :P But I love it. It's a place of my own to escape when I wish. Eli tells me to rest for the morning and to see her in the afternoon to discuss my volunteering. I take her literally and am dead to the world for the next few hours, only to be roused by strange shouts and voices travelling up from the open plan living room below. Hmm, maybe time to venture out and introduce myself to some new peepz :)
bexxxxxxxxxxxxxx
We were in Lima only briefly but I shall regale you with our historias chicatitas :)
The weather in Lima was horrid when we arrived, worse than London when it rains. The definition of 'overcast', grey, drizzly and cold. Naice.
We headed straight into town from our hostel which was a little on the outskirts. When we approached the centre we could hear the low rumble of thudding drums emmanating from behind the building facades, turns out we arrived just in time for a mass school festival, complete with traditional dress and music.
Hundreds of schools must have been there, each with their own banners, all the children in military organised group, beautifully bright costumes, it was so great to have seen it (check facebook for pictures!)
Headed straight to Monasterio de San Francisco. No more buying of products off of nuns this time though, only catacombes filled with 25,000 human remains. But nothing too creepy, it was not a ritual burial site or anything, solemente a neat and tiday way to the bury the citizens.
Then some wandering around and headed to the Museum of Art there. Have to hit up a museum anywhere we can. It's like a santuary for travelers. Clean, safe, there's a loo you can use with minimal risk of contracting a disease. And generally a coffee shop too. Bliss.
We saw two Peruvian artists, whos names escapes me now, but I really quite liked them. The first used bright colours with crazy shapes, and lines and things :P It pleased my eyes. And the other guy was like realistic surrealism :P He somehow created realistic light images but using a surrealistic landscape. Hard to explain but was again much funz to see.
So the day was chilled really, a filler day between Ecuador and our final volunteering destination in Huancayo.
Now cue the 7hr 10.30pm bus ride from Lima to Huancayo. Cruz del Sur buses are like planes on the land! :D They have stewardesses and give vaccum packed food (mmm travel food) and safety videos and baggage check. All very swish. Unfortuneatly all the niceties in the world do not cover the fact that I am attempting to sleep, sitting up and that the left side of my body is frozen due to close proximity to window. It was like an all nighter but with none of the fun.
Arrived in Huancayo at 5.45am to be greeted by Eli, one of the founders of CarismaPeru, and whos house I will be staying at for the next 3 weeks.
Eli tells me that there at 8 other volunteers staying with her, her husband Neto and their 3 yr old daughter in their house. A big happy international family. Their house is like a mary poppins house though, people always are emerging from rooms I didn't know existed. Anyhooz, sorry about the poor english and tense jumping, I'll try and stay past for a bit now.
So Eli shows me to my little room: it's a teeny weeny box room cerca Harry Potter the early years :P But I love it. It's a place of my own to escape when I wish. Eli tells me to rest for the morning and to see her in the afternoon to discuss my volunteering. I take her literally and am dead to the world for the next few hours, only to be roused by strange shouts and voices travelling up from the open plan living room below. Hmm, maybe time to venture out and introduce myself to some new peepz :)
bexxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)