Volunteer Activities

The last couple of days have gone by quickly. With all the new volunteers arriving over the weekend, it has been pretty crazy. And for a group that is technically older than most that we’ve worked with before, there is WAY too much DRAMA. Fortunately, our room is located in sort of an annex that is mostly used for storage and we only have two neighbors over here. Good place to escape the turmoil.

Yesterday we got to see what a full day looks like at Los Martincitos. We served breakfast – sardine sandwiches- which I could barely stomach in the morning, did mounds of dishes, served lunch and washed more mounds of dishes. In between the meals, the eight volunteers worked with different groups of abuelos. Some helped in physical therapy, others in the craft room or the literacy program where they teach Spanish since most of the abuelos speak Quechua.  Larry chopped and chopped and chopped vegetables for their delicious looking lunch. I was in the game room and wanted to play musical chairs, but got snagged to bag dried beans into individual serving size bags and spent much of the morning in the storeroom with a scoop.

Today I did home visits with Sister Jackie again. I just can’t bring myself to take pictures of their homes. It’s not as bad as I expected, but I can assure you that you would rather be dead than live where they do. Crumbling walls, dirt floors, no real roof and often no electricity. Forty percent of the population in Lima lives on less than $2/day for a family of four. There’s no heat in the homes and they are cold and damp since the sun comes out only a few months of the year. I didn’t realize that Lima is actually a desert. And Villa El Salvador is built on a gigantic sand dune, so very little grows there and it is very dusty and dirty. I’ve had a headache most of the time from the dust and the diesel fumes.

So for a change of scenery, we went back to the mall this afternoon. It’s about a 15 minute walk from our house, across from the university. It is very American-the stores, restaurants and brands are almost all American. We counted seven gelato places. Since there is no Thanksgiving to get in the way, all the Christmas decorations have been up all month, which seems very strange. But they are planning a special Thanksgiving dinner for us on Thursday minus the cranberries and pumpkin since those don’t grow in Peru and apparently aren't available.