News

Dear Readers,
The majority of the month of March was spent traveling in the south coast of Peru on our way to Chile. We needed to leave Peru and then re-enter the country so we get a three month extension to our Passports, with the ability to extend for three additional months. This gives us a total of six more months here in Peru. We were fortunate to have our friends Laura, Melissa and Kim join us for a week on our journey through southern Peru towards Chile. They brought us many donations, including two used laptop computers, and we shared some fun times on our trip. During this time Alison and I were able to re-focus our goals for the remainder of our time volunteering in Huancayo. We have decided to spend more time helping the orphans with various projects, and less time doing administrative tasks for Tinkuy Peru. We have also decided to modify the role that our non-for-profit organization, The Andean Outreach Program, will play here in Peru. March was an important month of the two of us as we prepare to work on achieving our goals that will have long term benefits for the people here in Huancayo.

The New Andean School for English:

The regular school year started in March for Peru and we saw a slight drop in the student enrollment at the Andean School. Still with 70 students and a large number of volunteers, we were able to maintain two classes in the morning, six in the afternoon, as well as two new three hour classes on Saturday mornings. Our volunteers have their Spanish classes at the school, which is keeping our staff of 4 teachers very busy. Additionally, our adult class continues to meet in the evening.

We are pleased to welcome Tino’s son in law Nilton Tarazona Condor as the coordinator at the Andean School for English. He is handing the class scheduling, students attendance and grades, marketing, and correspondence for the school. He is doing a wonderful job, and has some great ideas for improving the program. Welcome Nilton!!!

We have decided to suspend the renovation project until further notice as Tino works on his long term plan for the school. One of the aspects we have learned in working here in Huancayo is that our ideas are often different from the locals, and Tino is now uncertain of the future of the Andean School in the current location, causing us hesitancy to invest any further money into the current location.

The Aldea del Rosario Infintil Orphanage:

March saw the completion of the Aldea Water Reclamation Project, although to our dismay not as we had envisioned! The cisterns were hooked up only to external laundry sinks, but we are working to have further work done so that they will be hooked up to the houses in the next few weeks. First, the local utility company must make improvements to the main water pipe connections, so that the water supply is improved. We hope to paint the water columns some fun, colorful designs depending on how the money holds out! Lastly, we are hoping on starting the volleyball court project, which we had proposed months ago (politics!) in the first weeks of April.

We have several other projects, which we are doing directly with the kids. Alison has rounded up several kids at the orphanage and has asked them to write their personal stories, which when complete we are going to teach them to type on laptops that were donated by our friend Laura Boyd. Thank you for your kind donation Laura! After all of the storied have been entered into the computer, we will publish a book for the kids and you, our readers, and make a special web-page for them. We also plan to make pillows that the kids can decorate, and this week we made macaroni necklaces!

The Aldea del Fransesca Mayer Orphanage:

As a program, we concentrated most of our activities this month at the Aldea Fransesca Mayer Orphanage. We had our new volunteer coordinator, Elli (Tino’s oldest daughter) working at this orphanage alongside our volunteers, providing many fun and educational activities for the girls. One of the babies, Heydi, had her first birthday and two of our volunteers, Jeff and Amanda had a wonderful birthday party for her. One of the other young mothers was able to find work in a local home here in Huancayo, and has been able to move out of the orphanage with her son.

Our largest project to date, which we are very excited about, is building a playground for the girls of the Aldea Fransesca Mayer. We are very fortunate to team up with our good friend Kathy Greene who was able to raise $600 with the help of the Beloit College Track and Field Team. We have been working on the design for the playground and construction will begin in the first week of April. Please click the link below to see the “winning design” for the playground. In addition to the playground, the Aldea will be adding an obitron, which was constructed by their talented staff who will be helping us as well in the construction of the playground.

 

 

Tinkuy Peru:

March was the busiest month in Tinkuy Peru history. When we returned from Chile, we found 11 volunteers waiting for us in Huancayo, and a college group of 12 more joined us two days later! The family had to purchase five sets of bunk beds, ten new mattresses, ten new sets of sheets, loads of pillows, plates, cups, and silverware to accommodate everyone! The college group was from Eckerd College in Florida and helped us out with our projects at all of the orphanages. Thanks to all of our March volunteers for all of the great help and fun you provided!

With the program up and running and with a big staff, we have scaled back our administrative tasks to focus on working with the orphans. It is great to see the program with more permanent staff to support the volunteers and our programs. We are making progress with the new Tinkuy Peru website which we hope will clarify the program and bring in more volunteers. Click on the link below to preview the index page: