Los Laderas
I think that I ate meat the other day...and I didn´t complain or argue....
I went to visit the community where most of the children at the refuge have come from, saw the extremely horrible conditions that they had been living in, met some of their siblings that haven´t had the opportunity to come to the refuge because either they need to provide support for their family or because sadly there just isn´t enough resource available to house them here yet.
Homes made of deteriorating particle board and cardboard, infants crawling on dirt floors, tuberculosis, distended bellies....I will be posting photographs as soon as possible in a mad attempt at raising additional monies for these poor children.
There were no men at Los Laderas when we were visiting, they are either trying desperately to earn money to feed their families or have abandoned them out of frustration at not being able to take proper care of them. We met with a small number of the mothers that have managed to pull together a strong community of support for each other. They meet and prepare meals to feed the huge number of residents, they teach lessons, they share and support each other in their endless tales of domestic abuse and frustration.
I cried through nearly my entire visit and find it tremendously difficult to share this with you now...
Even with all of this extreme poverty, the children and women walk with their heads held so high, with endless strength and wide open and welcoming hearts.
Once we had completed a walk of the community, we were welcomed back to one of the communal food halls to join them for a lunch. None of us wanted to take the food from them...they struggle to put it on their own tables and to feed their own children...but to not take what was offered to us would have been absolutely insulting and so, I think that I ate meat with them for the first time in nearly eighteen years....
At the end of our visit, we stopped by their chapel and purchased the equivalent to two hundred American dollars worth of their local handicrafts to bring back to the UK and the US for resale at larger cost in order to acquire funds to then be re-funneled back into Project Peru. I will attempt to do it again once I leave...If I can manage to force myself to leave, as we nearly cleaned out their stock of handicrafts with our purchase.
Upon our return to the refuge I went immediately into a meeting with a local Architect, two Gentlemen that will be donating time, 25 volunteers and funds, and a small committee of others to discuss the future development of the site. There are plans to build an additional dormitory space to allow for more children, as well as accommodations for volunteer help, administrative buildings, additional kitchen spaces, and halls for community development and educational facilities. I couldn´t be here at a better time as it seems that my professional skills are greatly appreciated and very much needed right now.
The architectural construction for the site will commence in mid June and amazingly take only approximately two months to complete at which point they will have nearly doubled their potential capacity. Unfortunately, I am under the impression that they do not yet have the required funding required to be able to complete it as scheduled.
I am so excited that I can help them so much and have so many fantastic ideas for the site...Isabel, I am soon going to have my paws on an AutoCAD file for the future development....any interest at having a go at it yourself? I would love your input!
Yesterday was a complete 180 from the day before...Dan, Ibar and I went to the markets to make large purchases of materials that we have observed to be lacking at the refuge, glasses for the kitchen, jars of marmelade, green ribbons for the girls hair (school colours are yellow and green, they currently had only yellow), loads more material for their purse making handicrafts...and the ingredients for the evening treat...Dan, Ibar, and I made the children crepes for dessert after their evening meal. Tiny efforts on our behalf and the appreciation that we receive rips my heart out of my chest.
During our preparation of dessert, mind you we were cooking crepes for about forty, Lucy put on some Cuban music and we danced together with the children, singing and laughing...those that didn´t join in peered by the dozen in through the kitchen window laughing at us. The children are begging me to become their singing and dancing professor, apparently they think I am okay at both. Bless their generous little hearts!
Learning Spanish has suddenly become one of those delicious tortures. You fully understand its possibilities and can taste it on your tongue but its just out of reach. Could it get any more lovely?
This evening we will be preparing a great big party and baking a marble cake to go with it. We are inviting everyone that we have met, all of those that have been so very kind to us and having a bit of a celebration as Daniel, Ibar and I will head out to Cusco tomorrow morning and I will begin my trek of the Inca Trail at that point. I will not be here at the refuge until about the 4th or 5th of May and though I can´t wait to undertake this next adventure I am already heart broken at the thought of leaving the children for that long...
I went to visit the community where most of the children at the refuge have come from, saw the extremely horrible conditions that they had been living in, met some of their siblings that haven´t had the opportunity to come to the refuge because either they need to provide support for their family or because sadly there just isn´t enough resource available to house them here yet.
Homes made of deteriorating particle board and cardboard, infants crawling on dirt floors, tuberculosis, distended bellies....I will be posting photographs as soon as possible in a mad attempt at raising additional monies for these poor children.
There were no men at Los Laderas when we were visiting, they are either trying desperately to earn money to feed their families or have abandoned them out of frustration at not being able to take proper care of them. We met with a small number of the mothers that have managed to pull together a strong community of support for each other. They meet and prepare meals to feed the huge number of residents, they teach lessons, they share and support each other in their endless tales of domestic abuse and frustration.
I cried through nearly my entire visit and find it tremendously difficult to share this with you now...
Even with all of this extreme poverty, the children and women walk with their heads held so high, with endless strength and wide open and welcoming hearts.
Once we had completed a walk of the community, we were welcomed back to one of the communal food halls to join them for a lunch. None of us wanted to take the food from them...they struggle to put it on their own tables and to feed their own children...but to not take what was offered to us would have been absolutely insulting and so, I think that I ate meat with them for the first time in nearly eighteen years....
At the end of our visit, we stopped by their chapel and purchased the equivalent to two hundred American dollars worth of their local handicrafts to bring back to the UK and the US for resale at larger cost in order to acquire funds to then be re-funneled back into Project Peru. I will attempt to do it again once I leave...If I can manage to force myself to leave, as we nearly cleaned out their stock of handicrafts with our purchase.
Upon our return to the refuge I went immediately into a meeting with a local Architect, two Gentlemen that will be donating time, 25 volunteers and funds, and a small committee of others to discuss the future development of the site. There are plans to build an additional dormitory space to allow for more children, as well as accommodations for volunteer help, administrative buildings, additional kitchen spaces, and halls for community development and educational facilities. I couldn´t be here at a better time as it seems that my professional skills are greatly appreciated and very much needed right now.
The architectural construction for the site will commence in mid June and amazingly take only approximately two months to complete at which point they will have nearly doubled their potential capacity. Unfortunately, I am under the impression that they do not yet have the required funding required to be able to complete it as scheduled.
I am so excited that I can help them so much and have so many fantastic ideas for the site...Isabel, I am soon going to have my paws on an AutoCAD file for the future development....any interest at having a go at it yourself? I would love your input!
Yesterday was a complete 180 from the day before...Dan, Ibar and I went to the markets to make large purchases of materials that we have observed to be lacking at the refuge, glasses for the kitchen, jars of marmelade, green ribbons for the girls hair (school colours are yellow and green, they currently had only yellow), loads more material for their purse making handicrafts...and the ingredients for the evening treat...Dan, Ibar, and I made the children crepes for dessert after their evening meal. Tiny efforts on our behalf and the appreciation that we receive rips my heart out of my chest.
During our preparation of dessert, mind you we were cooking crepes for about forty, Lucy put on some Cuban music and we danced together with the children, singing and laughing...those that didn´t join in peered by the dozen in through the kitchen window laughing at us. The children are begging me to become their singing and dancing professor, apparently they think I am okay at both. Bless their generous little hearts!
Learning Spanish has suddenly become one of those delicious tortures. You fully understand its possibilities and can taste it on your tongue but its just out of reach. Could it get any more lovely?
This evening we will be preparing a great big party and baking a marble cake to go with it. We are inviting everyone that we have met, all of those that have been so very kind to us and having a bit of a celebration as Daniel, Ibar and I will head out to Cusco tomorrow morning and I will begin my trek of the Inca Trail at that point. I will not be here at the refuge until about the 4th or 5th of May and though I can´t wait to undertake this next adventure I am already heart broken at the thought of leaving the children for that long...
posted by Rebel at 10:50 AM
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