Welcome to our 9th update from Huancayo Peru. We hope everyone is enjoying the warm summer weather in the northern hemisphere. We are heading into our 10th month in Huancayo and we are starting to prepare for our exit. After many ups, downs, triumphs, and tears, we have decided to leave Huancayo in July. Alison has been accepted to attend the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and she starts classes this fall. We are sad to be leaving the people and the work that we have become so attached to but we are looking forward to the next part of our lives. We have already received donations and strong interest in our Andean Outreach Program. We plan to continue to our support work here through the funding of improvement projects with the Andean Outreach Program.

We are happy to announce that Tinkuy Peru has a new long term volunteer from England named Russell Jenkins. Russell is excited about continuing our work as well as starting work his own. This is Russell’s third trip to Huancayo and he plans to stay for one year. Russell is passionate, talented, knowledgeable, and we know his presence will benefit the people in Huancayo.

With July being our last month here in Huancayo, we plan to write one more update that will conclude our work on the ground here. We are going to travel around South America before returning to the United States.

The New Andean School for English:

The biggest news at the Andean School is that it has finally moved to a new location that we are confident will be its home for a while. Tino, Nilton, Jesus, and Eli have invested a lot of time and money into the new space and we are proud of them. The new school contains a reception area and promotional class room right off the street. The second floor contains seven classrooms, a large waiting space, and two new bathrooms. Tino has painted the exterior of the building and has purchased a computer for Nilton to coordinate the school.

In the first week of June, Nilton held a decorating competition amongst the volunteers for the school’s inauguration party. Having all of the rooms decorated with all of the donated educational materials really helps the space feel warm and welcoming. Alison’s room was by far the best and she was the big winner.

In addition to the new space, Tino has put a lot of focus into the teaching and marketing of the Andean School. Russell has put together a curriculum, there is a local Peruvian teacher for every class for consistency, there is now a course book, and Tino has put together a new radio commercial and a television interview to promote enrollment in the school. You can here the radio commercial, with Terry, Marea, and Tino, by clicking the link below.

The Aldea el Rosario Infintil Orphanage:

We have spent the last month at the Aldea Rosario painting the cement columns for the water reclamation project and finishing the writing project with the kids. We have ten stories from different children that live at the Rosario. Each story is anonymous and portrays the lives and experiences of the tough times that these kids have to go through. The book has stories in Spanish as well as English and it also has many photos. You can view the book by clicking here.

The water reclamation project has been finished for almost 2 months but we decided that the cement pillars were just too cold looking in the orphanage. We primed, painted, and then designed characters for the columns, and also made plaques for all the people who worked on the project. Among the character designs we added flowers, bees, butterflies, monkeys, cats, buses, and two cartoon kids with a ruler to measure height. Please click the link below to see the final product for the water project.

The Aldea del Francisca Mayer Orphanage:

June was an up and down month at the Francisco Mayer Orphanage. The final touches to the playground were finished with the construction of a large concrete tables and benches. We paid for the materials while our good friends Carlos and Adel donated their time and expertise to construct the table. The only part of the project that we are still waiting for is the installation of the donator’s plaque. We have selected a nice stone from the Mantaro River and the plaque will be installed the first week of July. We will include the photos in our July update.

We were also happy to help the Francica Mayer in a few other ways in June. With volunteer donations, we fixed all of the broken windows in the Orphanage, fixed the bathroom lights, fixed two kitchen blenders, bought cooking knives, bought eating forks and knives, and we are helping to pay some medical expenses of one of the girls who had a nasty fall at her school. We would like to thank Darren Rowland and Erin Mitchell for there donations that made all of these improvements possible. Please click the link below to see our donations and the final photos for the playground:

We are sad to report that we have had some problems with the leadership at the Francisca Mayer this month. After all of the work we have done out there, the Director and his wife have told us as well as Tinkuy Peru that we are not organized enough and that they prefer some of the other local programs to Tinkuy. After a long and heated talk with them we are still permitted to work out there. The incident has hurt our confidence with the leadership of the Francisca Mayer but we are still committed to helping the girls out there.

Estudial Prolivalente por Niños Especiales:

June was a monumental month for our work at the Prolivalante School for kids with special needs. Alison resigned from her English classes at the Andean School in the first week of June and joined Terry in working with the deaf and special needs students. Along with Terry and Alison, Russell from England and Sarah from South Africa have joined up in the volunteer efforts out at the school. Russell has a knowledge in British sign language and Sarah is a special needs expert in South Africa. They have been working with us in the classroom and they also held a special information session with the hearing impaired staff to improve some of the methodology in teaching the kids here.

We have also started and finished our first Andean Outreach Program (A.O.P) project at the Prolivalente utilizing Russell as our project manager in Huancayo. With A.O.P. funds, we decided to repair a swing set in the Prolivalante playground. We gave the money to Russell to manage the project with our friend and master builder Adel. We are happy to report that Russell has done a great job and that we will be working with him very closely in the future to implement other Andean Outreach Program Projects. Please click the links below to see photos from the new play ground.

Tinkuy Peru:

June went by quickly for the Tinkuy Peru volunteering program as we had a high number of volunteers from New York, Texas, Dublin, South Africa, and many from England. As mentioned above, Tinkuy Peru welcomed it’s newest long term volunteer Russell Jenkins who will help manage the school and improvement projects.

Tino was so busy in June that we almost never saw him. He his about 60% complete on the construction of his third floor and new first floor bathroom. He has taken in two orphans to launch his orphan training program. These two young adults have left the orphanages for various reasons and are in need of further training before they are out completely on their own. The program is called the Niños de Tinkuy and it has a bright future as an independent orphanage and training program. Tino also has a support staff that is now up to eight people and we are seeing good progress on all fronts.

The Andean Outreach Program:

With the Andean Outreach Program still in its infancy, we have lots of news to report. We have collected almost $1,200 in donations in the past 4 weeks and hope to get more once we are back in the USA and focused on it. We have partnered up with many great people all over the world who want to help make the program a success. Darren Rowland will be our Australian Director. Darren has a great passion for helping in Huancayo and is responsible for over 70% of the program’s current capital. Russell Jenkins will be our Director in Great Britian as well or Huancayo Correspondent until spring 2007. Russell has an extreme passion for helping the people here in Huancayo and has a great knowledge of how to implement improvement projects. Miguel Arauzo and his wife Tara will be our East Coast Directors in the United States. Miquel is from Huancayo and Tara has almost one year of volunteer experience here in Huancayo. They have started their own non for profit with the same goals that we hope to partner up with called the International Center of Social Support or ICOSS. We can visit their webpage by going to http://icoss2006.tripod.com . We are excited about all of these partnerships and we are confident that this program will have beneficial impact on Huancayo’s future. We hope to update the Andean Outreach Program page once we get back to the United States.