Yanamilla Primary School update 10

This is my last update on the school, as I´ve decided I need to draw a line under this project - it´s been incredibly frustrating this time, and I don´t think the school really deserves to be helped any more, not until they decide they want to do more to help themselves! There are a huge number of very poor people in Ayacucho and some of them are really working hard to improve things for themselves, and these are the people I want to work with in future.

After another very slow week last week, with just a little progress made, Marisol and I went to the school´s closing day, pretty sure that they hadn't finished the work, but with just a tiny bit of hope that they had ... and I´m afraid we were right. A bit more work had been done to the floor, with the first layer of concrete down, but the work was not finished - a second chimney was still to be delivered and fitted, all the painting was still to be done, no table or shelves had been built, and no windows fitted, and so we were pretty disappointed! We'd been told it would all be done in three days easily and that the parents would then clean up the playground area too.

And what was worse, as I do think the kitchen will get finished in time, so money not wasted ... was that the parents just ignored us and so did the teachers. None of the promised cleaning up of the playground had been done either - in fact the parents had done no work whatsoever in the two weeks, nor had the teachers done anything to encourage any cleaning up of the school, so we just left in disgust. I just walked out as I really couldn't cope with it, and Marisol told them what she thought of them and that she was not going to work with them anymore.

I hope the money we spent on materials for the new kitchen will eventually prove to be money well spent, but I must admit this has been a most disheartening and frustrating project, and if I ever do this kind of thing again I will find people who really want to get involved and who relish the opportunity to use a donation to make some really positive changes. I also think that it would be better to work with an organisation here, as doing this on my own most days was way too much of a challenge!

So sorry that this is a bit of a sad ending, but time to move on to other things, and let's hope they are more positive


Work in progress, December 2008


The sink outside - not quite the right way to use it, but at least water now connected!

Christmas in Ayacucho

This was a very low-key Christmas! On Christmas Eve I spent some time at Los Gorriones, playing with the kids and handing out some of the goodies that our contributions had helped to buy for poor families in the neighbourhood - chickens (live ones!) and other food - rice, milk, paneton ...

Late afternoon I went to the main square to join some other ´gringos´ for some carol singing in English - this bemused the locals, but we drew a nice little crowd! We were in competition with a live nativity scene parading round the square though, so I´m amazed anyone stopped to listen to us really!

Then back to the hostal for yet more hot chocolate and paneton with the carol singers, and things quietened down after that as there was nothing else to do. I walked round the centre a bit to see the Christmas lights and things were buzzing with all shops still open and packed until about 9 o´clock. Later, a lot of people were at home with their families for more hot chocolate and paneton and getting ready for the mad firework frenzy at midnight. I managed to stay awake until just about midnight, watching the fireworks from my window.

On Christmas Day I went back to Los Gorriones - in the morning the children and senoritas exchanged Secret Santa presents, though none of them were a secret so I didn´t quite get it, but it was nice! And I was very touched to receive a Peruvian rucksack from Gil as a thank-you present!

The children were very well behaved and played happily with their presents - they´ve actually received a lot of presents over the last few weeks and Gil has only allowed them to keep a few each - the rest got collected to give to other children who have none.

Our contributions helped fund the Christmas lunch - meat, which only happens on special occasions - three pigs, plus some turkeys that had been donated. Then lots of potatoes, other vegetables, and the ubiquitous corn. It was a tasty Christmas meal, and the first one that I´ve eaten with my fingers! I had suggested some cake or dessert too, but nothing materialised, so I reckon they probably felt that was too much and will spend the rest of the money on other meals over the next few weeks. The children certainly tucked in and enjoyed the meal!

Christmas meat the day before ...

The Christmas meal

I then left the children to play with their presents, and enjoyed a quiet all the way back down the hill to the hostal. I normally take the bus, but it was such a lovely sunny day, and it was downhill - my lungs can cope with that!!

Chocolatada for 500 children!

Yesterday at Los Gorriones was the day of the chocolatada - when the home invites children from the neighbourhood to join them for fun, chocolate, paneton, and presents. It is something of a tradition and Gil doesn´t even have to advertise it - they just seem to know! Gil collects donations and presents for this during the year ... and some of our contributions helped towards this too.

When I arrived at 2 o´clock, there were already about 50 children outside the gates, and I was pretty much mobbed trying to get in! By 4 o´clock when the gates was opened there were hundreds of children eagerly waiting to get inside. All the tables and chairs were cleared from the patio and the Los Gorriones children sat around the edge, and then the rest of the children were let in slowly. There was a whole routine - get hand stamped, then get shown where to sit ... otherwise there would have been Peruvian chaos!!

Then the fun started, with a clown warming up the crowd with dancing and games. And hundreds of cups of chocolate were poured and paneton distributed. At the end, the childrern queued to receive a present - probably the only one they´ll get this Christmas! There must have been 500 happy children - quite a sight!

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best for a great 2009! It would be lovely to hear from you! Hazel x

Los Gorriones

At Los Gorriones on Gil´s birthday ...

Los Gorriones (‘the sparrows’) is a home for children who have special needs or have nowhere else to go – for more information see website link on right-hand column. I visited the home a couple of times when I was last here, and met Gil and Chantal, who set up the home – they moved here from France about 6 years ago, specifically to come and help children in the poorest part of Peru. Very sadly, Chantal died of lung cancer last year and now Gil is running the place on his own, and so it’s a very sad and tough time for him.

The children are very special, and it also takes a special amount of patience and determination to work here! I’ve been helping out two or three afternoons a week and I’m starting to get to know the children and the routines now.

Gil employs permanent local staff and there are also a number of volunteers who come and go, but with 27 children to care for, he has his hands full! Gil relies on donations to fund the home, and receives some regular support from an NGO in Belgium, but there’s no funding from the social services here in Ayacucho, though there is now talk of paying for three employees, so fingers crossed.

Gil rents out a small house, but it’s far too small – many of the children have to share beds, and apart from the four bedrooms, there’s only one communal room, and it’s very small. There’s a little kitchen with a wood fire across from the house, and there’s a covered patio outside which is great when it’s warm and dry, but wet and cold days must be a bit miserable inside. There’s no sign of any hot water source (other than the fire); no washing machines or fridges, and there’s only one proper toilet, though several other holes in the ground – all very basic, but clean! Gil is hoping to build a new house in the next year or so if he can collect enough money. He’s been given some land, so that’s a start.

There’s a lot more information about the home and the children’s backgrounds on the Los Gorriones website (see link on right-hand column).

The children are divided into three groups, each with a set of ‘senoritas’ who come and look after them in groups on a shift basis, and the volunteers are assigned to a group on each shift.

There’s ‘Los Lupes’ (‘Lupe’ is the name of one of the first handicapped children who was looked after here) – these are the severely handicapped children. There are six children in this group and they need the most specialist care and attention – they can all hear, but only one, Maria Jesus, can see ... and only one, Eberson, can talk and walk a little, though he can’t see. I’ve only worked one full shift with this group, and I must admit I found it very tough – partly because you don’t get a lot of information from the ‘senoritas’ as to what to do and asking lots of questions in Spanish is quite tiring – especially when you don’t have the vocabulary for nappy changing, etc. Also, you have to carry and lift the children and I wasn’t really strong enough to do it well. But I enjoyed talking to Maria Jesus, and trying to get her to respond with an ‘hola’ and when she did, it was very satisfying! And Eberson is delightful, he talks continually, and loves strumming his guitar and getting cuddles!

Eberson got very excited when the guitarist came to visit ...

Annette, reading to Diego who is blind

‘Los Pequenos’ (the little ones) are aged 3-8. I’ve spent most of my time with this group. Really this group is for up to 5-year-olds – but Fermin, who’s 8, has stayed in this group. He looks more like he’s 5 and has a mental age of 3. Fermin doesn’t speak, and his favourite activity is eating – he tries to eat anything he can get his hands on so he needs constant supervision. He also likes to walk around a lot and loves rucksacks - he gets very excited when he sees mine, but when we tried to put it on him, he keeled over! Fermin’s story is heart-breaking – apparently he was shut away in a room for about 6 years with no clothes and hardly any food as his mother didn’t know what to do with him. It’s hard to know how many disabilities he was born with, and how many were caused by such an horrendous start to life. Little Cristofer is the baby of the group – he was born smashing his right side onto a nightclub floor and cannot use this side properly, and never uses his right hand. He can walk though, and he’s starting to speak now. Then there’s the only girl of the group, little Sheyla, who has mild cerebral palsy; she can walk a little, but has trouble speaking. She loves attention, and we’ve spent quite a bit of time together colouring – she loves colouring flowers, and now I’ve managed to move her on to fish, but not much else. And that then leaves the ‘terrible trio’ – Sergio, Freddy (who calls himself Fleddy as he can’t pronounce his ‘r’s), and little Luis – they are a handful, but I love playing with them. They are a lot of fun, until they start fighting! I’ve taken ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ to read to them – well I have to make it up in Spanish, and they know they story now and tell it back to me – funny hearing my Spanish being repeated by real Spanish speakers! And they love the caterpillar puzzle that came with the book and ask for it whenever they see me. They also love playing with Bear, and like his cuddles and the way his nose twitches.


Luis with Bear

Cristofer in his cot

Luis and Fermin

The ´terible trio´having an unusually quiet moment just before bed

But it didn´t last long!

Sergio and Freddy tackle the puzzle ...


Sergio took this photo!

The last group is ‘Los Grandes’ (the big ones), and the biggest group, of 15, but as they are older they need less supervision. Though you can really tell that they lack parental love and attention, as they are really quite demanding of individual attention. They range from age 6-20, but all but one are still at school. Sabrina is 20 and has chosen to stay on at the home and helps too– she’s a little deaf and has mild learning difficulties and probably couldn’t live independently. All the other children are still at school, so a lot of the work in the afternoon consists of supervising homework, and then playing with them once they’ve finished – they come and go, and sometimes just do their own thing. I’ve taken colouring activities – spot the difference, dot-to-dot, etc. and they like these; we’ve also had a go at making Christmas decorations, but the little ones wanted to join in too and I got a bit mobbed. The ‘senoritas’ don’t help out much – they tend to leave us to sink or swim; not very collaborative! Though are a couple of lovely exceptions, and I try to work with Nancy or Rosa when I can.

Abel and his work of art

More colouring and drawing ...

When the guitarist came to play ...

The home provides a safe and homely place for these children and I am so impressed with the work that Gil and Chantal have done here. But Gil desperately needs funding to keep it going and to have any chance of achieving his dream of building their own home. Unlike the school, I have faith that any money I leave here will be used wisely and so I’d like to contribute some of our money towards running costs and the construction project before I leave. I’ve also given Gil some money to fund a special Christmas meal for everyone at the home on the 25th, and to buy some food for about 25 very poor families in the neighbourhood who Gil tries to support. More on this once the money has been spent!

Promocion 2008

When 5-year-olds finish pre-school and are ready to start their 1st year of primary school, they have a party called ´la promocion´. It´s a big thing here to finish pre-school, and there was a party for the 5-year-olds at the school this Thursday. It took most of the morning to prepare and then carried on until early afternoon.

There was a presentation of framed school photos and I took photos of each child receiving their photo and will print out for them. I even got to present one, but I didn´t feel dressed for the part and the photo didn´t come out too well!

And there was food - lots of jelly and mazzamorra morada (more jelly, made with black corn), crisps, sweets, and a huge cake donated by someone. And some clowns came to entertain too! Lots of the children came dressed up in their best clothes - quite impressive and somewhat bemusing, considering they can´t afford pencils for school ...

I was asked if I could donate a ´pinata´ and I used our contributions for this - it´s a parcel of sweets and presents that gets hung up and is then bashed to pieces to get all the goodies out - great fun was had by all!

SOS Children´s Villages visit

I work for SOS in the UK, and just by chance I came across their Ayacucho office in my first week, so I went to introduce myself. In Peru they are called ´Aldeas Infantiles SOS´. They are keen to have volunteers, and although I´m not sure I´ll have time to help much, they arranged a visit for me and Sharon, another volunteer, who funnily enough also works with me at the language school!

SOS has two programmes in Ayacucho, one where they look after orphans, and one where they work with families in poor areas to try to keep the families together to prevent having more orphans.

Last Thursday, we visited some of the areas where SOS works with families, with a very nice coordinator called Rosa. Rosa works in very poor communities to identify families that need support, and then works with them and other charities to set up ´casas hogares´(sort of community centres) for the young children to stay during the day, so that the mothers can go out to work to earn enough money to be able to feed their children. Several of the women I met were single mothers, and without this support they would not be able to go out to work. The community centres usually have a nursery, a place for children to play, and a kitchen. SOS funds the food for lunch every day, and works with the parents to organise them to take turns to work in the kitchen and the nursery; also to build the centre in the first place. I could do with some SOS help at the school!!!

The centres are closing down for two weeks over Christmas so it´s not good timing for me to be able to help. But we´re also hoping to visit where the orphans live sometime soon, so maybe we´ll be able to help there. In the meantime, we´re helping in the office from time to time - last week we spent a few hours splitting up huge bags of sugar into kilo bags, and packing chocolate and milk into Christmas parcels to give to all the parents who´ve been working in the community centres.

For more details re SOS Children´s Villages and Aldeas Infantiles, Peru - see links in right-hand column.

Yanamilla Primary School update 9

It´s surprising what you see at this school! One morning I turned around to find a child asleep on a bag of grain, and a sheep along with a dog wandering around!



Then later that same morning, towards the end of the class, grain was spread all over the tables to cool down and dry out over the weekend. I think it had just been ground and the next step was to separate out the good bits ... not sure, as my Spanish wasn´t up to the explanation!

The classroom is sometimes also used as a classroom, but I must admit very little teaching goes on. This could be because it´s the last week of term and not particularly typical, and there are signs of work on the walls. But I´m not sure time is always very well spent. School starts at 8, and when I get there at 9-ish, kids are still arriving, wandering round the playground, and class has sort of started. Then at 10 there´s a 30-minute break, when the kids all go out into the playground, if there aren´t wandering around there already. And this week, straight after break there have often been very long teacher meetings, so guess what, yes there´s more break for the kids! You´d think the teachers would meet during break, but not here ...

In the 5-year-old class they´ve been working on colours and numbers up to 20 all year, and some know them quite well and others are lost. They really like art activities though, and this one kept them in the classroom!

The classroom is also used for eating lunch, which means food gets all over the desks, books, floor and there´s usually a fairly big mess to clear up afterwards. They often get something that looks like big brown kidney beans and they have to remove the skins, so they get everywhere. Hopefully they are very nutritious as otherwise it´s a really silly choice of menu!!

I must admit I´ve delayed posting this entry as I´ve been waiting to have some positive things to say. There have been times this week when I lost the will to carry on! Part of the problem is just the way things are here - it´s a bit of a culture shock. And I was hoping to work with Marisol, but she´s too busy and I hardly ever see her so I´m all on my own and it´s not much fun!!

We had a meeting with the parents last Saturday and Marisol did a great job chairing. Only a handful of parents spoke other than the presidente, and several went to sleep - Marisol reckons they´ve got parasites too. We agreed that the priorities for improvement in the school were the kitchen, toilets, rubbish, and to cover the playground with concrete to stop all the dust. I agreed that with our contributions we could help with the kitchen, as the local government is supposed to be dealing with the rest, though true to form nothing is happening. Marisol is on the case, but getting pretty fed up too.

We agreed that if I use our contributions to fund the materials, the parents would organise themselves to do the work. Things started off well with agreement at the meeting that an improved kitchen would be a very good thing. We decided we´d use a spare room on the other side of the school, much nearer to the water source, and big enough to also have a little dining room for the 4- and 5-year-olds who have lunch here. I arranged with the presidente of the teachers´association to meet on Sunday morning to go the various shops to get quotes on the materials we needed.

In Peruvian time-keeping tradition, we finally met up at about 4pm, when most of the ironmongers had closed - it was Sunday afternoon afterall! We did manage to get some prices though, and the presidente assured me by Monday morning he´d have the full quote ready and that he´d meet me at 9 the next morning at the school to start work.

The last few days have been a bit of a nightmare! On Monday the presidente didn´t show up and the quote didn´t materialise, which meant that I couldn´t go and buy the materials. There were a few parents hanging around, and another man had been sent to start work, but he didn´t speak much and when we tried to get him to start preparing things, he said he didn´t want to and didn´t have any time ... I´m still baffled as to why he showed up at all! So I wasted a whole day and left feeling pretty frustrated thinking that if nothing happened the next day, as I´d been assured it would, that I´d pull out and find another project to support. I didn´t come here to do this on my own!

On Tuesday the presidente made an appearance and he explained that the parents were going to raise money by having some kind of food event at the weekend to pay for him and some workmates to do the kitchen. When I asked for the quote he said he was working on it right then and showed me a half-completed scribbled list. He´d also lost the list we´d made on the Sunday! After a few hours of hanging around, I gave up on the quote and managed to persuade him to come with me to buy the materials, as I had a rough idea of what it would cost and knew it was within our budget.

We managed to get most things from one shop and they agreed to deliver the next day - sand, cement, stucco, pipes, taps, sink, etc... and we found a chimney and a stove in another shop. At least the day wasn´t wasted, but no workmen showed up at the school that day, so no actual work on the kitchen itself in two days! And we only have this week, aarghh! You´d think they´d grab this opportunity and get on with it, but I don´t think they have it in them!

Working on the quote ... the one that is yet to materialise

Buying the stove and chimney ...

Wednesday, I dragged myself back to the school, and this was the worst day so far ... I arrived to find no workmen, no presidente, no parents, and what´s more all the children and teachers were leaving the school as they´d been invited to a private school for a chocolatada. They hadn´t told me about it and I wasn´t invited, and had to wait for the men to arrive anyway, also for the materials to be delivered at 9.30. None of the teachers came to ask if they could help, they just left. I sat in the playground on my own for about an hour, looking at the dust and rubbish, wondering what I was doing here when nobody else seemed to care! Very depressing. By about 10.30 two men and the presidente appeared, and by 11 the materials finally arrived. Then a bit of work was started - filling in the holes beneath the roof with stones and mud.

But I must admit I´m feeling a bit better now (Friday) as work has continued Weds-Friday with the same group of men who seem to be doing a good job, as far as I can tell - don´t know much about adobes! And we now have water connected, pipes and sink are in, and an adobe kitchen worksurface is nearly finished. When I left today, they were going to cover the walls with stucco and start on the cement floor. Also some adjustments are needed to where the stove will go, as they hadn´t made a big enough hole for the fire, and we need two stoves for the big pans to heat the water. So we´re not going to finish by end today, but work is also planned for tomorrow, and I´ve been told that parents are going to come next week to clean the playground and rubbish area. So fingers crossed that I´ll have more good news to report when I go back on Monday ...

Arrival of the materials

Filling in the gaps under the roof

Coca leaf and chicha break - they have a lot of these!

Chocolatada at Pokras

A ´chocolatada´ a is the traditional thing to do here in the run up to Christmas. And they´ve started this week. It´s basically when people get together to make a big communal pot of hot chocolate, cooked over an open fire, and then you usually drink it with panetones. I was asked by some of the people who work here in Manthoc (the charity for working kids) if I could contribute towards a chocolatada for the children in Pokras, a poor area above the city. I paid for the chocolate from the contributions, and I was invited to join in.

I was told to go at 8 in the morning which seemed a little early for hot chocolate! But now that I´m getting used to ´hora peruana´I got there about 9 and they were still sorting out where to make the fire. Kids were gathering though, and about a hundred were expected to attend. I only had an hour to spare, and in that time the fire was built and the pot of hot water gradually warmed up, but so slowly that I didn´t get to see the adding of the milk and chocolate or the final result! Never mind, I´m sure there are going to be other opportunities!

9th December, Battle of Ayacucho

This Tuesday was a holiday in Ayacucho, to commemorate the victory at the Battle of Ayacucho in Quinua in 1824, and independence for Peru. As there was no school, I went up to Quinua with Cassandra who´s staying in the same hostal, Wilber who works in the hostal, and a couple of CCS volunteers. Quinua is a 30-minute scary, bumpy bus ride into the mountains above Ayacucho.

Just above the village there´s an obelisk commorating the Battle of Ayacucho. I had visted this place before, but this time it was packed with people, who had all gathered to watch the re-enactment of the battle. We sat around for an hour or so in true Peruvian style, with no idea when anything was actually going to start. And in the middle there were two groups of young lads, half of them dressed as Peruvian soldiers in blue, and the other half as Spaniards in red. They too were sitting around for ages, waiting for something to happen. Every now and again some soldiers on horesback turned up and they all stood up and chanted´Viva Ayacucho!´,´Viva Peru!´...

Eventually there were some speeches and ceremorial stuff at the obelisk and then the Peruvian soldiers surrounded the Spaniards and marched them off and that was it! We were all hoping for a bit more of a battle!

There were lots of stalls set up for lunch and the locals were happily tucking into chicharrones(fried pork), mondongo (tripe stew), and cuy (guinea-pig) amongst other things that I couldn´t identify. It all smelt very nice, but I´m looking after my stomach and decided to skip the experience and play safe!

Yanamilla Primary School update 8

It´s nice, finally, to be able to write another update from Ayacucho. I´ve visited the school a few times now, and I´ll be helping with the five-year-old class every morning for the next few weeks until the end of term, when summer holidays start. As well as giving the teacher a welcome hand with about 25 wild kiddies, it´s also a good way to just spend time at the school, to get a feel for what it´s like there day in day out ...

It´s been so great to see the completed and painted wall with my own eyes! Even though I´d seen lots of photos of progress after I left - the mural, the tiles on the top, the main gate, etc. - it was still so good to see the kids playing in the playground, with the playground equipment in place, little gardens outside the classrooms. It´s a more wholesome place and it actually looks a bit more like a school now, with an entrance and an enclosed, safe space for the kids to play.

There are a few more improvements too - there´s electricity in some of the classrooms, and more of the classrooms have chairs and tables. And I think there are more proper windows too; only a few seemed to be taped up with plastic or blocked in with adobe bricks. And both the cupboards that we donated two years ago are still there and very much in use!

The US marines came earlier this year (not entirely sure why) and they built two more classrooms. They also added two new latrines. The older latrines are in a sorry state, and although I haven´t yet ventured too close, it looks like they are all blocked up and could do with a clean up. But it´s better than before as at least all the latrines have doors now and there´s somewhere for the kids to pee, other than right in the middle of the playground, though that habit hasn´t gone away entirely!

But there´s so much more that could be done. There´s still just one water source, a tap now on a wooden platform so more practical than when in the mud. But it´s a long way from the kitchen on the other side of the school. There´s still no proper sink, as the materials we bought for the sink got stolen before it was built. If we do any more work while I´m here, we´ll have to find a way of getting the materials used and fixed to something before anyone gets tempted to take them home!

The kitchen seems to be an obvious place to improve, and we have a meeting planned for this Saturday (second time date has been changed!) to discuss how we can improve the school with the parents - I only want to help where they think help is needed, and with their involvement. But at the moment the kitchen, which is used to provide the state-funded hot drink for all the children at break time and lunch or all the five-year-olds, is just a dark, smoky room, with a fire on a muddy floor.


Inside the kitchen

The kitchen is the room at the end of the classroom block - pots outside as too dark to see inside

Outside the kitchen - sheep on left and dog in rubbish behind!

The whole school could also do with a big clean up - most classrooms now have rubbish bins which is an improvement on two years ago, but all the rubbish goes into the corner of the playground where there was once a pit, but it´s brimming over, and unfortunatley it´s right next to the kitchen - great! Kids still drop rubbish in the playground and I seem to be the only one who bothers to tell them not to! And there are loads of dogs wandering around the playground because the school gate is left open during school hours. And of course the dogs love all the rubbish that the kids drop - who can blame them?!I´ve been chasing the dogs away with exaggerated expressions of horror, hoping that somebody might realise that it´s not nice to have them in the school. I think the kids just think I´m a bit mad, especially as my other obsession is with the rubbish bins.

Lunch being served from the floor outsdie, dogs looking on ...

There is a very general problem with sanitation in this area and it´s not just in the school - there´s rubbish everywhere, animals roaming about eating the rubbish. Not enough of the children wash their hands properly before they eat. CCS has been working with another NGO specialising in public health and they´ve been giving the children medical examinations. The results are just in and 78% of the children in the school have parasites. They can get free medication from the local clinic, and at the meeting on Saturday Marisol will tell the parents all about it and encourage them to take their children to the clinic and talk about how to prevent it happening again. But with all the rubbish lying around and dogs everywhere, the problem isn´t going to go away unless there´s a huge change of lifestyle. Marisol wants to work with the local government to get them to come and take the rubbish away and although the mayor has agreed to help, we are yet to see any action ... it´s a bit of an uphill struggle!!

The rubbish in the street about 5 mins´walk from the school - don´t fancy eating lamb or beef here!