It’s Friday and I am exhausted as it has been a long week. It took us the cumulative total of 30 hours to get the money into Peru and to buy the computers. If I were to write out all of the different methods we tried and steps to the process, it would fill an incredibly long and boring blog entry. We were in Lima for 4 days and were on our feet, running around and trying to get everything sorted out for about 8 hours a day. In a city like Lima, that is exhausting. After that we had to go to Villa Maria to install the computer lab that was bought with the Davis Grant money. We installed 10 different computers for the Primaria and Secundaria and we start with our classes next week. As things stand, we are giving 3 hours of class a day to the various age groups Monday through Friday in Villa Maria and then we’re in La Libertad for the afternoons. We have planned an 8 week program for each age group and school, starting next week and ending the last week of July. In the first two weeks of August, we are hoping to go on some sort of trip, maybe to Cuzco/Maccu Pichu or La Sierra. I am quite excited to start the activities because today marks the 3 week anniversary of my arrival in Peru and we haven’t had a full schedule of activities because we have been running around so much trying to get the second school up and running. The past week has definitely shown me (and Matt as well, I believe) that there was way too much to do for 3 people such that we have had to cut down on a lot of our involvement in Cieneguilla, in order to be able to get Villa Maria up and running on schedule. It will all be worth it though; next week we start with our project which why we came here and received a grant to implement. Matt, Joseph and I are exhausted because it was a lot of work for 3 people to set up two activity programs in two schools that are an hour apart. After getting more involved in Villa Maria, we’ve realized how very different the two schools are. Size and Context wise one is a school of 60 students from ages 7-14, the other is a school of 540 from 7-18. One is very rural and other is “urban”. Finally, the administrations at the two schools are very different where at VM the director couldn’t be more helpful and at La Libertad, the director is apathetic (at best?) The past week has been an eye-opening experience and a useful guide for future projects with many unforeseen challenges and organizational/cultural aspects to think about. For example, at AC we always used to joke about latino time, but I never really believed in it. 30 hours to buy computers verifies the theory. Matt will write about his and his father’s run-ins with the unwritten rules of proper hosting. We’ve also learned about the importance of communication between all the various groups involved in our project. Such that, on any given day, the schedule for the next week and next 2 months can change 5 times and only one group involved would know about it. Treat others as your would like to be treated is a useful mantra to guide us on communication. On the other hand, such is that nature of doing anything in Peru.
In my previous entry, I provided a context for La Libertad and now I will do that for Villa Maria. Before I put urban in quotation marks because Villa Maria is technically a part of Lima and hundreds of thousands of people live there, but there are no paved roads, no trash service, no metro buses, no skyscrapers or condos, instead there are thousands of huts made of brick with corrugated steel roofs in an area that was only settled 20 years ago by immigrants from the Sierra. Matt and I will post some pictures in the coming days of Villa Maria and its inauguration.
On the happy note, it has been sunny for 5 days of the past week and I have a tan (I am no longer see-through) and I was able to do my laundry today!... unfortunately, we haven’t had internet here for the past week and there is no water in the watertank aka we’re taking bucket showers.
Katie
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