Journey to Peru: The building of a day care centre
Reach Out to Humanity is founded on the principle that every person has the right to their basic human needs being met regardless of race, gender or religion. Our aim is to uphold these ideals through initiatives in disadvantaged areas throughout the world.
Well, we are finally finished. The planning that goes into projects of this nature often begins years prior to the actual start date of construction. In that sense, even though we’ve only been here three months, it feels like such a long time coming.
On the day before the opening of the school, at the end of our mad rush to get everything painted, cleaned and ready, the community directors threw ROTH volunteers a lavish feast as token of their genuine appreciation. When I say lavish feast, I mean a three course meal complete with ceviche and Inka Kola.
They had all pooled together whatever money they had to offer us such a memorable gathering. They also said a few heart-felt words that will not be soon forgotten. We were incredibly touched.
This was only the beginning of the celebrations that continued the following day, complete with ribbon cutting and champagne bottle smashing to really inaugurate the place. Aside from all of the celebrations, it was hard not to swell with emotion when watching roughly 90 or so children run around the place with sheer joy. They marvelled at everything from the three different accent walls in our classrooms, to the new books and play mats they would soon enjoy.
These children.
The reason we did it all.
We’re now on our way home. Coming in the New Year: A few retrospective videos of the incredible, unforgettable experience we just went through, building a day care in Peru.
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Category : Uncategorized
Tags: Construction, Day Care, Humanitarian, Lima, Luya, Peru, Reach Out To Humanity, ROTH, Volunteer, work
With the inauguration of the day care centre being a week from Monday, things are down to the wire. Members of the community, our workers, and our volunteers have pulled together to help us with this final leg of the project. With our budget tighter than we had originally anticipated due to the struggling Canadian Dollar we have had to cut back on a few things in order to deliver our promise to the children of Luya. In an act of extreme generosity, devoted members of the community have been putting in seven day weeks and countless overtime hours in order to see the project through. Never have they asked to be compensated for their additional hours. They consider their additional time as a gift to the future children of their community.
It is beginning to set in that we only have a week left with the people whom we have had the opportunity to work alongside of for the past three months. My personal favourite is the man that sells us half-melted chocolate bars from his wood cart right across the street from the site. His unmistakably Peruvian attire and consistent supply of ‘Sublime’ chocolate complete with a hug and a smile has been an invaluable resource to us all. I have really started to feel at home here. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to our newfound friends. Especially since I can’t even begin to imagine when I will get the opportunity return and see them again. The Peruvians have showered us with warmth and friendship that is not soon to be forgotten by those of us lucky enough to have been on the receiving end.
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Category : Uncategorized
Tags: Construction, Day Care, Humanitarian, Lima, Luya, Peru, Reach Out To Humanity, ROTH, work
Written by
alannah
November 24, 2008
In a time of frantic economic instability, it is refreshing to see how people who live in a disadvantaged area of the world adapt themselves and contribute to the greater good of their community. We’re witnessing sacrifices being made every day. Almost all of our foremen, tradesmen and labourers took a pay cut to work on our site because they realized the positive consequences to their actions. They have repeatedly made references to their work being for the children and their future. Many of these men have children or grandchildren who will benefit from the fruits of their labour.
The community of Luya is desperate for basic employment in order to simply sustain itself. Yet it believes in this project, in this dream, and it is coming together, pitching in wholeheartedly with little afterthought of financial compensation.
I wonder how this idea can be more difficult to grasp or adopt in the more developed world. Without monetary incentive, does our vision become foggy? Are our ideals thrown out of the window? How do we justify not coming together to help our neighbour, not contributing to our own community, wherever it may be?
All pitching in!
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Category : Uncategorized
Tags: Aid, Children, Day Care, Humanitarian, Lima, Luya, Peru, Reach Out To Humanity, ROTH
When I got back from Seattle this week I was pleasantly surprised to see not only that the outer windows have been installed but that we welcomed a new puppy to the site! Should all go well, Oreo will be making the long trek back to Vancouver where he will finish off his later years in the comfort of a new family. Maybe it’s his grave malnourishment that evoked an overwhelming amount sympathy. Perhaps it was his uncanny ability to endure the parasitic relationship he maintains with over 100 fleas that call him home. Whatever it was that drew one of our volunteers to him it once again proves the age-old adage that ‘love is blind’.
Though I am absolutely thrilled to know that he has found a great home, it sort of got me thinking as to why, out of any of the hundreds of puppies in the slums, does he get to live out the rest of his dog-years flea free while so many others get left behind. Was he just at the right place at the right time, doing the right thing? Why would I have had the opportunity to be born into a good family with means to feed, clothes, and educate me while so many others do not? Is this the way the bell-curve drops? Ignoring the whole genetic lineage thing, couldn’t I have just as easily been born in a different environment? What responsibilities, if any, do those ‘lucky’ enough to be born into privileged conditions have towards those who are not so ‘lucky’? I find it difficult to ingest that despite having done nothing to merit the things I was given as a child, that for just being born to the people in the place I was born to, I got a leg up in the world.
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Category : Uncategorized
Tags: Aid, Construction, Day Care, Dog, Humanitarian, Lima, Luya, Oreo, Peru, Reach Out To Humanity, ROTH, Stray
When I think about the incalculable hours that have gone into building this school and how many children in this world still need access to education, I can’t help but sometimes feel a little discouraged. Looking around the slums it’s easy to feel like you could spend the rest of your life building homes, schools, and clinics without ever even loosening the unforgiving grasp that poverty has on its prey. I know the battle must be fought. I just wonder if we’ll ever win.
On a few memorable occasions I’ve been labeled as ‘idealistic’ or ‘naïve’. As much as I resent these comments, I understand where they come from. One can make a very strong argument for why things will never change, why there will, as there always have been, those without food, water, shelter, health care, and an education. This is the way the world is and, one could argue, the way it will always be.
It seems that throughout human history there have been some people for peace and others for war. There are those who plant trees and those who uproot them, those who give life and others who take it. Over time I have come to conceptualize this delicate dichotomy as what I perceive to be a giant scale. I have to keep reminding myself that we have the choice to decide which side we are going to be on. This choice is even more evident for those of us who have had the privilege of growing up in the so penned ‘developed countries’. I don’t think I can change the world… but I know I can do my part to maybe, hopefully, tilt the scale, if ever so slightly, in favour of life, health, and peace.
View when arriving in Lima from the North.
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Category : Uncategorized
Tags: Children, Construction, Day Care, Health, Humanitarian Aid, Journey, Lima, Luya, Peace, Peru, Poverty, Reach Out To Humanity, ROTH, Slum, Youth
I remember opening my first bank account at the Bank of Montreal in 1992. I could not have been older than 7 years old. It never ceases to amaze me how what seems so common in the western world is untangible to so many living in the unforgiving grasp of poverty.
All of our transactions here in Peru are cash. This requires an immense amount of calculation and forethought. The thought of myself as a much less scientological, much more afeminite Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible comes to mind whenever a trip to the Scotiabank in Lima is in order. Following a series of sketchy events withdrawing money in a local branch we have decided from now on to take our transactions to a much busier branch where ‘gringos’ go slightly more unnoticed.
Rule 1: Lucho enters the bank with only one gringo… should he be flanked by more than one gringo he will automatically emit an aura of dollar signs to any and all dubious characters.
Rule 2: The more people waiting in the car the better. Those on ‘keeping sketch’ duty must be alert and hypervigilant while at the same time keeping an extremely covert and nonchalant cover.
Transactions from our bank account in Peru can only be made in US dollars… An odd concept considering that the Peruvian currency is in Soles. Though we are given the option of ‘buying’ Soles from the bank at what can be considered a ridiculous price, we tend to opt for the more accurate rates of the ‘money munchkins’.
Rule 3: Know your ‘money munchkins’. Always use the same person so as to establish trust: You’ll give him steady business and as a result he won’t hand you counterfeit bills or try to short change you.
Rule 4: Know your escape route. Take every single side street, detour, and decoy necesary to avoid being followed. This is easy to do given that every main road in Lima is being repaved simultaneously in anticipation of the APEC convention. One more car meandering the normally quiet neighbourhoods of Pueblo Libre doesn´t kick up much suspecion.
Rule 5: No amount of money is worth fighting for.
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Category : Uncategorized
Tags: Bank, Banking, Children, Construction, Currency, Day Care, Exchange, Gringo, Humanitarian Aid, Journey, Lima, Luya, Peru, Reach Out To Humanity, ROTH, Slum, Youth
We’ve arrived in Peru safe and sound! Alannah and I have been running around all week meeting community elders, pricing materials, signing leases, negotiating contracts, organizing volunteer arrivals, and desperately grasping at any Spanish we think we can manage to store in our memory for rapid retrieval. With the first shovel supposed to go into the ground on Monday, September 15th, we were shocked to discover that the site has a 25-meter difference in height from the one end to the other. Our volunteers will start arriving this weekend. I hope they’re into digging…
The slope!
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Category : Uncategorized
Tags: Construction, Journey, Lima, Luya, Peru, Reach Out To Humanity, ROTH, Volunteer
