Big Brother in Trujillo - Gracias Skip!

It has been more than a month without updating our blog and the reason is that we were working during this period, working as a volunteer which is very rewarding.

Almost 5 weeks ago we arrived in Trujillo and it has been an amazing experience. We are living in the volunteers´ house; around 15 people live/sleep there plus 10 who also usually hang out there (the house works as an office). On the 4^th day of our stay we had to cook to all of them (every Thursday there are “family dinners” -  1^st was ours; 2^nd  Italian; 3^rd Israelian – Hannaka; 4^th Spanish - in order to try different cultural dishes since volunteers come from all over the world.

Skip (www.skipperu.com) is a British NGO that works with families and kids from Porvenir, Rio Seco near Trujillo. This village is really poor and its population of 140k almost doubled in 10 years, a lot of families emigrated there from the mountains. Skip has education programs (English, communication, math, arts, sports), psychology department, talleres (women get together in the school to make artesania – are sold later to shops), and Micro credit.

During the week we help in the micro credit department, where we, together with an Israeli, are trying to get things organized (now the NGO is going through a transition period as the last micro credit coordinator left). Here we got the chance to do some house visits to the families who borrow money (Business loans –kiosks, buy/sell used clothes, sell wood, sell menu del dia; Emergency loans – medicine; Construction – construct a toilet/room) and see the basic conditions and extreme poverty they live in (people live in houses with dirt floor and made of adobe instead of brick). We also got the opportunity to go back to a classroom but this time supporting the kids´ education in Mathematics (secondary) and Arts and Sports (primary). The experience of teaching and helping these kids has been really nice.

Murta and Paulo are known among the kids to be brothers (sometimes twins) with one difference –“ Murta no tiene poto (ass) y Paulo si”.

Sometimes coordinators have outdoor activities ideas and on the first Saturday we went to Huanchaquito with the kids to clean the beach. Another day we went to sell some calendars/chocolates to the beach/mall and also went to a volunteer fair in the downtown.

On the weekends we get together in Huanchaco beach to enjoy the day and surf a bit.

Regarding food, Peruvian food is …delicious! they have this yummy Menu del dia which brings a tasty soup, a second plate and a drink. Additionally, we do not remember how often we eat ceviche but probably every 4 days. For a snack, we always go next door and buy an apple or chocolate pie (thanks Lizzy and her mother for this opportunity eheheh). Mango and Maracuya pisco soar chi chi chi, really good!

Another curiosity of Peru, traffic! The priority goes to the bigger car, and (never seen before) the car entering the roundabout is the one with the priority.

On the second week, Ada (volunteer) who has Portuguese classes, invited us to her classroom. We end up in a University classroom with ~30 students speaking Portuguese (Brazilian ahahah) and making conversation with us, questions about our countries. Some of them invited us for dinner and we had a great time speaking Portuguese with local Peruvians.

During our stay in Trujillo, Murta went to Chimaca, the world´s longest wave. It was a full day of unbelievable lefties, long long waves that made him really happy.

We leave Trujillo really happy with this amazing experience. We met extraordinary nice volunteers and the work with the kids was touching. Thank you SKIP!!

We leave with the will of staying longer, but Paulo´s sister and Erick and Ana are waiting for us in Cuzco!