I hit my 2 month mark yesterday and have been spending a lot of time thinking about all that we have accomplished here. When I first arrived, I thought I was going to change the world (as any volunteer would hope to do). It didnt take long for me to realize that for me to do that is basically impossible. I realized that in order to change the world, you have to change peoples lives one by one, and that is exactly what we have been doing. I hope that as I am here volunteering, the people I am helping will want to do the same for others one day. Service is contageous, and I cant get enough of it! This project update is long overdue. The following are projects that I personally have been working on. There are several others run by other volunteers as well.
* * WARNING: This post has zero photos, but will tell you a lot about what I´m doing.* *
Piano Classes: I have been teaching piano since I arrived in the middle of May. I will admit that I was not super excited about teaching because 1. I am not a good teacher, 2. Its even harder to teach in Spanish, and 3. Im not even that good at piano. It was hard for me to see how my time teaching them would actually be beneficial if I wasnt even that good myself. My perspective soon changed when I realized that I was being selfish and stubborn because I dont have to be the best teacher or pianist in the world to share a simple talent that I might have. It humbled me and made me grateful for the opportunity that I had growing up to take Piano classes. Along with that, I am not necessarily here to have fun and do things that I really want to do, I am here to serve and do the things that the people need. We teach piano in the church because there are a lot of people there that want to learn. In meetings on Sundays, hymns are sung to a cassette player because no one knows how to play. We started lessons from ground zero and have had 30+ people come at least a couple times. Not all that come are members of the LDS church either, which makes it even better! We are constantly inviting everyone we meet to attend classes. I am amazed at how fast the students are learning. They come prepared and energized every week. The best feeling ever is when they finish a song (yes, they can play songs now!) and are so excited! They smile and clap and feel so accomplished. Sometimes starting that fire in someone is all we really need to do in order to motivate them to work hard. Feeling accomplished in something as simple as playing the piano will help them realize they can be accomplished in other areas as well, in things that they can do to help their community.
Orphanage: I have done several things with the orphanage. The orphanage we go to is also a school and every Tuesday/Thursday afternoon, we spend a couple of hours attending/running their PE class because the teacher never shows up. Its kinda sad. Actually, its really sad. I think I have seen him there maybe twice in the last two months. I also teach Piano with another volunteer, similar to the classes at the church. The other more difficult project, is coming up with an after-orphanage program. As you know, once orphans turn 18, they have to leave. But what do they have? I dont imagine they have much of anything. No money, no where to go, not much/not very good education. We are trying to team up with the government because they are willing to give anyone that is able to come up with a program for these orphans a grant (of quite a bit of money). Ive been searching for ideas and have felt very passionate about trying to come up with something because I know that it is needed, and it will be of long-term benefit. We want a program that teaches orphans how to get real jobs instead of selling drugs or getting involved with prostitution. We want them to get an education. The first step for us is getting approval for the grant and then putting our ideas to the test. Obviously, this is not something that can all be done in 4 months time. Luckily, HELP International is hoping to have volunteers and interns through the entire year, and not just in the summer. The plan is to get it started and provide the ideas and information so that future volunteers and continue to carry out the project and make it effective. If you have any ideas, please comment here or shoot me an email at zoe.theobald@gmail.com. Your ideas are appreciated!
Soccer: Soccer has just started to pick up a lot lately! Here is the backround: Basically, sports arent offered to girls here. Opportunities arent exactly equal between girls and boys because girls are expected to grow up to be mom´s and cook. Sooo...we started a girls soccer league! Equality right?! We are working with 8 different school and have gone to coach/run practices at 6 of them over the past 2 weeks, and will continue going until we leave! I will tell you that working with 30-14 year old girl is not an easy task (but we arent going for easy here). We had our first tournament last Saturday! It was fun to watch the girls enjoy themselves. One of the girls from one of the teams plays/practices (Im not sure which one it is) with the National team and she is only 12! We are hoping that providing this opportunity for the girls will spark an interest in becoming really good at soccer. The orphanage is one of the teams and there is a girl, Andrea, that I really want to be adopted! Sadly, she probably won´t because she´s already 13. She is super athletic and I can see her going far with a sport, even if all it did was get her into a University to get an education somewhere in the US or wherever. She is so adorable. Anywho, we have practices on Wednesday and Thursday every week and tournaments every Saturday! At the end there is going to be a winner and we will provide them with a trophy! This is something that will happen every summer. The best part about it is that the only thing they want help with is coaching. They dont want our money, which is struggle we have run into with other people. Some people think we just have loads of money to hand out, but thats not exactly the case. We have what people donate. I´m sure other non-profits have issues with that as well. We are HELP!
ICPNA: This is one of the top English Institutes in Peru and we spend a couple hours twice a week communicating with the students in the classrooms. Sometimes the teachers basically make us takeover! Usually Justin Bieber is a topic of choice, and Taylor Swift, and boyfriends. Almost always. Its basically expected now. Anyway, this is another place I visit frequently.
Centro de Salud Pachitea (Health Clinic): I know, I know, Im totally not a medical student or anything near one, but I really enjoy helping out at the Health Clinic. We originally started helping with a mosquito project that I explained in a previous post. More recently I have been working in the Emergency Room weighing peope and taking their blood pressure. I learned how to take blood pressure here, pretty cool eh? Along with that we get the occasional pesron with their head split open or even last week when a girl came in unconscious! Ok people, I definitely have a greater appreciation for people in the medicial field! It is sad stuff. Most recently, we started working in the office where they keep all their patient papers in files. The folders are falling apart and there isnt enough space for all of them. They have wanted to change them out for a while now, but said they never have the time. DING DING DING. This is where we come into play. We started refiling all of their patient documents and putting 20 in a folder instead of 10 to create more space. I love this project because I know its something they need and will hopefully be able to be more prductive and efficient with better folders and a better numbering system. They have had the same folders for about 15 years. Thats a really long time people. Its a huge project that will take a lot of time, but I really do think we will be able to finish by the end of the summer. 4 week count down! Ready, set, go!
End of Summer Event: This one Im really excited about! As many of you know, Im studying Business/Venue & Event Management at BYU so this project is right up my alley. I thought it would be nice to have some sort of event at the end of the summer and invite everyone that we worked with. My thought was partially so we could see how many people we helped (to put things into perspective), to say one last good-bye, and also to show each group some of the other things we did this summer. My plan is to have food (thats a given) and tables to showcase each project and what happened in the past 3 months. HELP International just started sending volunteers to Peru 2 years ago so it is fairly new and not many people know exactly what we are all about here. I think this will be good advertisement for HELP International to the people in Piura. Many of them have no idea we do other things than work with them on soccer, or at the orphanage, or whatever it may be! More updates on this later...because I plan on having more things at the event.
It´s been a really successful summer so far and I´m excited to see what happens over the next month! I love and miss you all. 4 more weeks!
