1 week left in Lima!

May 26th

Today was a really interesting day for the whole group. We were picked up by Dora and our translator in the morning and got to go to a school called MANTOC. It is a school for working children and adolescents. We had a presentation on how the school works. It´s really interesting because it has so many different aspects. They have a work kitchen where the kids go once a week to learn about cooking and they sell those goods. In the kitchen, they learn math in their baking and where the products come from, ect. They have a whole part where the children take part in all aspects of the school such as organizating physical education, publishing a newspaper, being a liasion with the community. This all teaches great organization and leadership skills. The program was very different... but it needs to be because it is providing an alternative education for working children. These are kids who would otherwise not be able to attend school.. because they have failed a grade, they are too old to enter regular school, they are too poor or because they work. They allow children an education so they can continue to work because otherwise they wouldn´t be able to attend school.

The school has had lack of funding in recent years. They went from 4 full classrooms to 2 this year. This is because Peru has now risen, based on international standards, to a ¨less poor¨country and therefore, foreign aid from NGO´s is dropping. The thing is, the government isn´t giving any money to schools like this. In fact, with the new election taking place in the next few weeks, they said that no presidential candidates are making any promises for schools for working children. They simply want to eradicate children working. This does not seem like a good plan because for so many families, having the children help work can provide up to 45% of the family´s income. They provide no alternative for these children, simply saying they should be in school. The reality is, they wouldn´t be if it weren´t for schools like this one who provide an alternative way of learning. The children who come through MANTOC can advance onto secondary school and often, have great results because they have been taught such great life and organizational skills. MANTOC also provides the space for children to come and prepare food to sell to pay for their secondary fees.

It was a really educational experience to be in that school. We got to visit the grade 2 class and see the kids. They introduced themselves and said what kind of work they did. One kid juggles! And they were all so nice and polite, greeting us with the customary Peruvian kiss on the cheek. We all really enjoyed the visit and had a lot to think about afterwards.

At school, the work is always coming. We worked on roof which is entirely finished now! We started the painting and the kitchen is now a lovely shade of yellow. Things with Miguel have also been a lot better... much better communication and lots of joking (with the language barrier, a lot of jokes are on him).

We went out for dinner and a bunch of us tried Tacu Tacu, which is a sort of rice with beans and chicken saltado on top. Later, we all huddled together to watch Shawshank Redemption.

May 27th

The time constraint is starting to be felt all over the work site now. I´ve never seen us work as hard as we did this week. I painted the remainder of the next room yellow and did the touchups in both rooms. Miguel mixed the paint for the outside and we were all skeptical.. but now that we´ve rolled a couple of walls, it is a decent shade of burgandy. The doors they had at the school were too small (also resembled a school locker, as Leah pointed out) so Miguel is now building wooden doors. The progress is amazing and when I look at the building, I´m pretty proud of what we´ve accomplished in 3 weeks. We have 4 more days of work left and then a fun day on Friday. We still have an entire room to do so that means, putty, sanding, priming and painting. It´ll be busy but that´s the way we like it anyways.

We also had a visit from the Mayor of Villa Maria and a rep from the Ministry of Energy and Mines. They were very happy to see us and it appears they are going to help us buy the electrical supplies we need. Miguel did say that they come every year and rarely help so we will see how that goes.

After work, we were all excited it was Friday. We went out for a dinner on Pizza Street and then some of us went to a little cafe after.

1 week left in Lima and that seems crazy. We´ve got most of everything planned for Cuzco, we are staying at Los Ninos and our trek begins on the 6th. I can´t wait!