Another Day in Huaycan

As our fellow intern Rob Collard mentioned on our previous blog, on Friday we returned to Huaycan to commence our next project. Behind Huaycan's community hospital, there is an empty terrain that the director of the hospital, Mr. Victor Garcia has for a long time seen as a possible resource to turn into a recreation area. The problem with this terrain, however is that it is rocky and not well suited for this purpuse. So here is where we, the helpul Peru Ascend task force, came in.

Early in the morning we commuted to Huaycan again and meet up with Mr. Garcia at the hospital to receive instructions as to what exactly we were doing. Before getting to the hospital, however, our fearless coworker Blake Royall, ventured to purchase a milk papaya smoothie from one of those little quiosks on the side of the road we interns were specifically warned to stay away from. The rest of us watched in awe as Blake consumed his papaya juice anticipating for him a restless night with the symptom of "la bicicleta" (the runs) which, surprisingly, never happened.





With the help of shovels, rakes, and pitch forks, we all began to dig up and extract the rocks from the soon to be soccer field. There were rocks of a variety of sizes, and because of their abundance, it seemed like an interminable job to do away with all of them. Although this we did not accomplish with ease, at the end of our hard laboring morning, we walked away from a much more arable terrain for soccer grass. Lucky me, in the midst of all the rocks and dirt, I found a delightful piece of underwear shown on the right.

Because of pending office work, we had to leave Huaycan early and did not get to finish building the soccer field that day. However, this is a project which we will continue to work on for weeks to come.

A Meal and Some Medicine

The work moves on here in Lima. Just this last weekend we ventured to Huaycan to help out with a free medical clinic. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Huaycan, it is an extremely impoverished area with nearly 150,000 inhabitants. The dusty hills are covered with humble homes and elaborate stairways to help the dwellers reach their destinations.

As I was still in the process of calculating how many times I would have to stop and rest before I actually made it to the top, we pulled into the school where the clinic was going to take place. There in the open plaza many children and their parents had already gathered with hopes to receive medical help from some of the local doctors. Prior to meeting with doctor, the local police department put on a presentation teaching the local kids to be healthy and stay away from drugs. There were police officers in big costumes, somewhat reminiscent of Barney, dancing and passing out prizes for those who participated.

A small breakfast was served as the volunteer doctors got to work. Taylor and I helped serve the food as Blake and Diana helped fill prescriptions to the patients. Slowly the massive lines of needy people diminished as both young and old received a meal and the medicine they needed. Many adults wrote letters and the children drew pictures to express their appreciation for the medical aid.

We’re looking forward to our next trip to Huaycan this weekend where we will be helping out at the hospital

On a seperate note, we have some unfortunate news to report. We are no longer having our much anticipated baile due to some complications with the club we were working with. Instead of donating it for the night, they decided they wanted to charge us. It definatlely was a downer but we're keeping our spirits high. But I am beginning to wonder if I’ll ever get the chance to learn to Salsa…

La Vida Buena

Well, life is good her in Lima. We are very busy right now trying to get ready for two major events that we have coming up. Next Friday, the 29th of May we are having a fiesta/dance to raise money for 80 needy children in a city called Huaycan. All the proceeds from the dance will go towards redoing two floors of the building where they meet for school. It will greatly improve the environment of their school and give them a nice place to study and learn. The funds will also assist in the construction of a cafeteria where the children can choose from a variety of menu items for one sol, which is the eqivalent of about 33 cents. We are trying to get permission from the directors of various colleges here in Lima to let us make announcements and pass out flyers about the dance in all of the classes. The fiesta/dance isn't going to be a boring party in a cultural hall, it is going to be in the Pub Voluntarios, which would be the equivalent of Area 51 or another club in Salt Lake.
We are also preparing for a Gala that we are going to have the 23 of July. This gala is one of the main fundraising opportunities for the year so we are really trying to sell all available seats for the night. We are currently trying to make appointments with large businesses here in Lima so we can present our purpose and explain what Ascend's mission is here in Peru. We still need to sell quite a few so we have out work cut out for us.