1. Introduction
From 12 to 25 July 2007
we did voluntary work for the Aldea el Rosario, an orphanage.
Through the Incas del Peru we got in touch with the Aldea El Rosario. We found out about the Incas del Peru because of a flyer we found in a hostal in Lima. The Incas del Peru introduced us in the Aldea and helped us whenever we had questions. This report is written for the use of Incas del Peru.
The director of the Aldea, Dr Ruben Hugo Paredes Longobardi asked us to provide him with an Excel sheet regarding stock management from 31 December 2006 until 30 June 2007. This Excel sheet needs to contain all stock objects and all mutations per object per user per month.
To perform this assignment we mainly had to work on a computer. Besides that we also had to consult the director and Sra. Amelia Herquinigo Cardenas. Sra. Amelia is in charge of the inventory and she provides the stock items to the houses (´modulos´) and divisions.
Luckily our work was not restricted to the main assignment only. We also visited the Aldea many times. A few times we joined the children with sport events and fiestas.
2. Working days
Wednesday 11 July 2007
Together with Rosario from the Incas del Peru we walked to the Aldea El Rosario. The director was not there but Rosario introduced us to a couple of children and showed us some houses where they live. We talked about what we can do for the Aldea:
- process the papers in the sheet of ´utiles escolares´ of the modulas until 30 Junio 2007.
- process the ´nota de pedidos´ 2007 of all the modulas and divisions (except N07.A.13 – A07.A.31: only the articles with a dot behind the name).
- process the ´comprobantes semanales´ weeknumber 24 and 25 until 30 Junio 2007 and change the dates (Friday) of all the other comprobantes.
- in the end, when every thing is typed in the sheets, she needs to check every article (the quantities on 30 June 2007 are according to the inventory of 30 Junio 2007?)
Working hours: 9
Computer work 20.30pm – 21.30pm
Visit the Aldea 10.30am – 13.00pm
14.30pm – 19.00pm
Other 09.00am – 10.00am (color book, saved files on cd)
Thanks very much and bueno suerte!!!
Jeroen Cremers & Debby Coumans, Holanda
crecou@hotmail.com
Natasha Fanshawe
Just as I was about to give up job hunting in Lima after a month of looking, I came
across an advert in the Hotel España and that’s what brought me to Huancayo. I will
never forget my 4 months work here and would like to thank everyone at Incas for making
it possible for me to work in Peru. Hopefully the experience will lead to future jobs
in the country of my birth and therefore a very special place for me.
My first impressions were of a very disorganized but interesting boss with too many
new and exciting ideas to think about! For the first two weeks it seemed I was working
24 hours a day without a break but there was so much to do I didn’t want to stop. With
the main part of the job being doling out tourist information to anyone who would listen,
my first assignment was to accompany a couple of interesting American art collectors
around the local craft villages looking for weavings of both pictorial and geometrical
design and large, intricately carved gourds that caught their imagination. I interpreted
for them and the local artisans, getting involved in complex discussions on the quality
and type of materials used and the different kinds of natural dyes, such as cochineal or
Andean leaves and flowers that turn lamb and alpaca wool all shades of red, green and
yellow. As a result, I already felt very involved in my job and with the local people.
(I later learnt what the cochineal parasite looks like and how to find it attached to
the ´tuna´ cactus, and bored all future tourists with this information.)
Another of my early jobs was to greet a group of elderly British train spotters, all
with names like Bert and Rex, on their arrival from Lima by way of the highest train in
the world. They had paid vast sums for the privilege as it has been closed to the public
for a couple of years now, although it is difficult to understand why. One of Lucho´s
many local campaigns, and one in which I have become vaguely involved, is to get the
train running again thereby providing a significant rise in income for the train company
and local Central Andean businesses. The train group finally arrived at 1 in the morning,
after a long day of steam trains and photo-taking of the beautiful views along the way.
We delivered them safely to their hotel in a hilariously long convoy of taxis and gave
them a tour of the steam train sheds at Chilca train station. Felizmente, the train still
runs from there to Huancavelica.
The day at the Casa de la Abuela when we forgot about the vegetarians while we tucked
happily into our carnero al palo (spit roast lamb), sticks in my memory as a funny moment.
Lucho and I ended up running to the market at the last minute looking for trout and any
kind of salad ingredients available.
As I settled into my job, things got less hectic as the low, rainy season settled in
and Lucho prepared for his yearly trip to New Zealand. In the hostel I continued to tell
the tourists about the walks in the beautiful Mantaro Valley and occasionally accompanied
them to Hualhuas for the weaving, San Jeronimo for the filigree silver jewellery, Cochas
for the carved gourds, various ancient fridge ruins on the tops of hills, Ingenio for
delicious trout and Torre Torre each time falling more in love with the beautifully
cultivated Mantaro Valley.
My role as supervisor in the Casa de la Abuela was made easy for the most part by a
good team in Gloria, Nilda, Birgit and myself. My role in the office as coordinator of
the tour agency, Incas del Perú was made fun by the presence of Cinthya and in the
evenings of Andrea and Rocío, all 3 of whom I hope will remain great friends. I
coordinated countless Spanish courses with Natalya, a highly recommended language
teacher by all her students, for all levels of students from very, very basic to
impressively advanced. Various walking trips were also organized to Huaytapallana
before the bad weather got really bad.
Probably the most interesting and rewarding work for me though, were the trips to
Huancayo´s local prison at Huamancaca, an area almost untouched by civilization on the
other side of the river. The boys inside are interesting, interested in us and have an
amazing ability to produce the most wonderful crafts from carved bone to weaving and,
recently, with the help of courses provided by Incas del Peru, alpaca jewellery and
carved gourds. Many a fun morning has been spent there. I assisted in the jewellery
course organized by Lucho and organized the carved gourd course just recently for a few
of the guys. I will miss them.
The Central Andes offers something for everyone and I´m proud to have been a part of
the lives of the locals and to be able to share that with the visitors who have come this
way.
Jessica van der Straten
Work done: Teaching English
Where: A Local Orphanage in Huancayo
I knew from the beginning, when I asked for this volunteer position, that this was
what I wanted to do.
During my language course I went to visit the Aldea once with Lucho. I found it was
quite big. There were(are) about 80 children there. The children live in homes all with
an alphabet letter, A to J. The children are divided in to groups of about 8 to 12 kids
with a surrogate mother. Some homes are mixed, some contend only boys or only girls. The
majority of the children were girls. What I noticed at first was that the kids were
poorly dressed with half broken shoes and clothes. But it is a governmental institution,
so there is not a lot of money. But later when they went to school, their uniforms
looked splendid.
The work:
The first day was kind of terrible. I arrived there and it was a total chaos. I had
made a time schedule that was based on 8 groups of 10. I asked if they could please make
me those groups, all more or less of the same age, and different sexes. One way or the
other they were not really capable of doing that. And I ended up with a couple of kids
just picked out of their houses. Not very handy.
One of the rooms available was appointed to me. For that classroom I had made some
signs, posters, and drawings. The poster were about the verbs, to be and to have, the
parts of the body and forms like circles etc. then there were signs on things like the
door, the window, the floor etc. And the drawings were of simple things like the sun,
the rain, a tree.
So the first group. I started with presenting myself, as well in Spanish as in English.
Then I asked them to present themselves with their age. After they did that, I started
pointing out the signs, and letting them repeat that. It was rather a chaotic day.
And so was the whole first week. I ended up with a list of the children’s names,
ages, and education to make the groups myself. The list explained me a lot about the
children’s reaction. For during the lessons when it became a little hard, a lot of them
just stopped talking, or went crying, all kind of reactions occurred. But the list showed
me that half of the children had not completed primary school.
At first everybody was very interested in ‘ La Señorita de Ingles’ and what she had
to bring. But when they found out it was hard to learn English they were gone. What
happened was either one of the reactions described here above, or they would start making
up lies to not have to come. That was rather demotivating for me. It happened only once
that I arrived in the morning and that there was actually a whole class waiting for me in
the classroom. On the way I learned that this was typical behavior for them and not much
of their fault. What they learn in school, are just facts, they only need to remember
things. I noticed that within the Aldea they were approached in quite authoritarian way.
And I assume that is also the way the schools work here. They seemed surprised by me just
being me and either laughing then yelling at them. So learning something totally new and
with another approach, has been very hard for them.
While teaching I found myself with three major problems.
First of all, I had to motivate them. I tried to do this by laughing about faults or
mostly reactions that were made, giving strange examples, just keeping things light, as
well as singing songs with them, accompanied by gestures to remember better.
Second problem was to get them thinking for themselves. They tend to be lazy, "I can
not do this, this is to hard for me." So when you ask them a question where they have to
think, those are the answers you get. For example I tried to get them to figure out for
themselves what was the meaning of ‘good’ by writing down this:
Buenas Dias--Good Morning
Buenas Tardes--Good Afternoon
Buenas Noches--Good Night
And then asking them what they thought was the meaning of good. Well of course they
didn’t think anything. So I tried to explain that buenas was a constant factor, and so
was good….maybe they meant the same thing???!!!!
Anyway, I taught them first to present themselves.
My name is...
I am...years old.
I live in...
Then followed the questions to those answers.
What is your name?
How old are you?
Where do you live?
Only this was already a lot. Actually this was the hardest part. Once they knew this,
they got some more confidence in themselves and their English course was becoming a
little more interesting again. But before they remembered this, I think it took a least
a month. But hey, they knew.
The next sentence was:
How are you?
This was very hard, because it is so similar to how old are you. Also they learned the
numbers up to ten. That went very well, and they even wanted to know more!
Then I started with the colors. I connected them to words with the same initial letter
so that it would be easier to remember and good for their vocabulary too.
Red rose
Blue Sky
Green grass
Yellow Sun
Pink pig
Orange orange
Purple flower
Black box
White Snow
Brown bear
Grey mouse
During one of the games we played they also learned some animals. I basically gave
them a whole list and they had to guess the animal that was hidden in the points I had
written down.
I would put for example: ------- on the board and they would have to call letters
and if they were good I would put them on the right place, other wise I would start
drawing my drawing of a hanging man. If I got to finish the drawing, otherwise they won.
Very easy, and amusing.
Another game we played was with a ball outside. You make a big circle and give
everybody a animals name. Then you stand in the middle and call the name of the animal
and they have to catch it. To make it harder you can make translate it, first Spanish
to English then the other way round.
Both the games and the song I taught them were very motivating for them.
In the end I taught them as well, I like/I do not like, together with the colors, but
I am not sure if that has really gotten a place in their mind, for they have not really
been practicing that a lot.
Also I gave them a list with: mrs, mr, etc…boy/girl, grand father, father, son,
brother, and all the female forms.
Not only the children have been learning. I have learned a lot as well during those
two months. I learned about the mentality here in Peru, I now know how blessed I am with
all that I know, and that I have the ability to think for myself, and through that make
my own decisions. I think that one of the only rich nesses you can have in this world is
to know and to love. The children there were so hugging, and begging for attention,
something I have never missed, and it made me sad to see that. But I hope I have been
able to achieve something for them, to motivate them, and to give them a little
confidence in themselves that they can do and learn a lot. I think at least for a few
I did. When they went to school, they were having English classes, and they came to me,
to know more, to compare that was very nice.
Difficult as it has been at sometimes, I look back on it as a great experience!
Birgit Stoberock
Mi trabajo con INCAS DEL PERÚ
Antes de venir a Huancayo yo no sabía mucho sobre mi futuro trabajo como voluntaria
con Incas. Tenía una mirada a su página web, pero desde Alemania es muy difícil imaginar
como será. Esperé de encontrar un lugar donde pudiera aprender algo sobre el trabajo en
el turismo, pero no tenía ningún idea preciso.
Pues, llegando a La Casa de la Abuela, todos fueron muy amables conmigo, aceptándome
directamente casi como miembro de la familia. Los dos últimos meses se pasaron tan
rápido, que no me di cuenta que ya se ha terminado mi tiempo aca con Incas. Disfruté
cada día, mis días libres igual que mis días de trabajo o el tiempo en Lima. Lo que me
gustó más fue la gran variación en mi trabajo, el trabajo en la oficina, la traducción
de la página web, la enseñanza del ingles, de la computadora y del internet, el tiempo
en La Casa de la Abuela para hablar con los turistas, dándoles todas las informaciones
sobre las caminatas y otras actividades en el Valle, las excursiones al penal y los
proyectos con los prisioneros y los días pasando en Lima para dejar las publicidades de
Inca en los hostales, hablando con los turistas sobre Huancayo y el Valle Mantaro.
Pero tan importante como el trabajo fue toda la gente que encontré, todo el personal
de Incas con quien he pasado muchas horas muy divertidas, con Cinthya, Andrea, Natasha,
Rocío o Mariela en la oficina o La Cabaña o con Gloria y Nilda en la Casa de la Abuela.
Nunca voy a olvidar a la Abuela, siempre de buen humor y siempre riendo o las frases más
escuchadas de los turistas: "me voy mañana," y después se quedan otra semana.
Muchos de los turistas me han dicho que para ellos La Casa de la Abuela es algo muy
especial, todos se sentían muy cómodos. Creo que eso fue por varias razones: la casa
misma es muy cómoda con todos los lugares para relajarse. Mucho funciona bien porque
hay una gran base de confianza entre los empleos y los turistas. Pero también creo que
es muy importante que hay voluntarios en la casa que sepan hablar inglés y español para
explicar y dar todas las informaciones a los turistas. Eso les ayuda también de encontrar
directamente a las otras personas en la casa.
No puedo contar todos los Calientitos y Pisco Sours que hemos tomado, juntos con
turistas o empleos, todas las horas que hemos pasado en el jardín, en el balcón o en
La Cabaña. Había muchos días trabajando con mucho sueño, pero no quiero perder ningún
momento de esos dos meses.
No había casi ningún incidente durante esos dos meses que no me gustó. Hay algunas
pequeños aspectos que yo cambiaría, por ejemplo de enseñar a los empleos como hacer el
mismo trabajo más eficiente y en menos tiempo, pero creo que en eso soy demasiado
alemana!
Ahora mi tiempo con Incas se acabó, no puedo creerlo y ya sé que voy a extrañarlo
mucho. Pero espero que pudimos quedar en contacto. Y en un año ya volveré!!!
Sé que ese tiempo siempre me quedará en memoria como una gran experiencia y como un
tiempo inolvidable! Muchísimas gracias por todo!
Stuart Armor
A Local Orphanage in Huancayo
As soon as I stepped through the door I realised my decision to help out the orphanage
was going to keep me in Huancayo a lot longer than I had planned. To be greeted by so
many happy welcoming faces, despite what we in the West would call adverse circumstances,
was another example of our own somewhat misplaces priorities. It transpired I would end
up spending 3 wonderful weeks here.
A lifetime’s involvement in the Boy’s Brigade was certainly invaluable for trying to
keep the demanding children entertained, but a career as a bank manager was hardly the
ideal training for my new found roles of glazier, English teacher, and playground
repairman. Over 30 windows were replaced using the most rudimentary tools without
losing a single pane of glass, something Mike (my fellow volunteer) and I are justifiably
proud of. That, and repairing the swings using some old chain, a few tyres and a local
welder, will be a lasting reminder of the time we spent there. Sadly, so may be the
incomprehensible mix of Scottish and English accents the children may have garnished
from our valient attempts at teaching English. Hearing little Nicole say "give me five"
was a heart warming moment.
Knowing we had made a small difference was most gratifying but it wasn’t until our
last day did we truly appreciate just how much that small difference meant to everyone
concerned. The hearfelt warmth and gratitude we received from the children, the "mothers,"
and the 2 nuns in charge of us both is something that will live with us both for a very
long time.
Thanks for giving me this opportunity!
Mike Bradley
A local Orphanage in Huancayo
I had been travelling for 10 months or so when I managed to make it to Huancayo. The
journey had not been much fun; my stomach was in a state of some turmoil before I had
boarded the bus, and frequent use of the ´bano´ on board whilst the bus zig-zagged up
and down the mountains left me bruised as well as ill. Getting to Casa de la Abuela with
the comforts of a stationary bed and bano, gradually brought me back to some good humour.
I was getting accustomed to the zoo-like atmosphere at the Casa (a parrot that attacks
your feet, a crippled jungle bird that willingly submits to petting and then pecks you
when you stop, a kitten that uses tourists as mock-prey and target practice, and a
benign, but hopping injured dog) and thought that I might use the extensive local
knowledge of the proprietor to investigate volunteering opportunities.
Lucho had contacts at the Aldea Infantil ´El Rosario´ Orphanage, and as soon as I
demonstrated an interest to help he whisked me up there to meet the Madre (the Nun who
runs the orphanage). The visit was somewhat inauspicious - Lucho was spat at by a Down´s
syndrome boy before we had even gained access to the compound, and as soon as I set foot
inside, I was accosted by a disturbed boy who clung to me the whole time we were there.
Despite my misgivings and fears, I managed to pretend that I could cope, and the fact
that the Madre spoke no English, and I only very basic Spanish and somehow passed muster
to be allowed to work there.
I wanted to spend about a month helping the kids - long enough to actually achieve
something, and still give me enough time to see other parts of Peru. In truth, I also
wanted to see whether I would be able to cope with the kids, and make a difference to
their lives.
On my first day of ´work´ I was fortunate enough to meet another volunteer, Lydia,
who had been at the orphanage for about a month, and even more fortunately spoke English
and Spanish, as well as her native French. She had been teaching the kids English, some
French and various crafts. We decided to make a timetable of activities, with me taking
the lead in teaching English (being my mother tongue) and computing, as I had found that
they have two old but functional (well once I had fixed the mouse on one of them)
computers that didn´t seem to be well utilised. I had also planned to teach some sort of
car mechanics (being a car designer and tinkerer), but was thwarted by an absence of
tools. I was also appalled at the state of some of the facilities at Aldea - many of the
windows were broken or absent (including those in children´s bedrooms - and it gets very
cold at night in Huancayo), some of the electricity sockets were just bare wires poking
out of walls, water poured into some of the buildings through the walls when it rained
and the swings and see-saws, although very colourful were partly out of commission for
being too dangerous.
I sat in on an English lesson that Lydia gave, to get a flavour of the task, and found
it quite depressing. The kids were very keen to fool around and half of Lydia´s time was
spent trying to keep (a very loose) order on things. The kids also were really poor at
pronunciation and although some of them knew quite a lot of vocabulary, presumably from
lessons at school, their ability to form sentences and say them seemed very deficient. I
focused on pronunciation when I took lessons, to try and help them get a flavour of how
English sounds, although I quickly realised that English is incredibly inconsistent from
a pronunciation perspective (just getting the numbers across from one to ten was a big
challenge!)
Just after I had started helping at Aldea, another traveller expressed an interest in
volunteering and Stuart came up to help. We hatched a plan with Lucho´s help to get some
old windows that Lucho had from the Casa to get them cut and installed. It took us some
time to get the 40 or so panes of glass cut to the right size and longer to clean it and
then install in the buildings. We didn´t have quite enough glass for all the broken
windows so we bought a few panes ourselves, used wood for store rooms and resorted to
taping cracked panes in non-critical places.
We were thanked at the time for our efforts by the kids and their surrogate mothers,
and were treated to a wonderful lunch at one of the mini-children´s houses after
replacing some windows, although it was only on the last day at Aldea did we get a sense
of how appreciated our work had been.
While we had been there, occasionally Stuart with his digital camera, and I with my
video camera, would take some images of the kids. During an activity afternoon, the
phrase ´Joven, tomar me foto!´ (Young man, take my photo) would become permanently
etched on our brains, as we were assailed for many hours to take all manner of different
combinations of children and staff. When we rigged up a computer to show the photos on
our last day, the kids were clearly delighted with their images. We had brought (again
from Lucho) some soft drinks and after we decided to do a tour of the ten kid´s houses
to say our final farewells. We had estimated that it might take half an hour or so, and
after an hour and a half of receiving flowers, presents, refreshments, food and many
tears and thanks, we left truly humbled by the experience.
)
)
First we made a sheet per modula/division. We showed it to Rosario before we went to the Aldea. Then we discussed the sheets with the director. He would like a more specified overview per article (all the ´ingresos´ and ´egresos´).
But the director wanted to give this price later in the day to the house which was best decorated for Liberation Day. We also gave the children a table football game in name of Lucho / Incas del Peru.