PPA Family in Peru

I am in Peru with Global Volunteers, an organization based in the US that covers programs in about 25 countries. Our volunteer group is #66 for Peru and we are a small group. Kelly and I are from Colorado and Pauline is from Chicago. Kelly was with us for a week and Pauline and I are two weeks. Edith is our team leader. She is the most amazing person. She's just 27 years old but has the wisdom of a much older person. She has the most wonderful laugh. I want to capture it on my video so that I can bring it back with me to cheer me up when I am down. She is always so positive and upbeat. She does so much for the children with so little and she cares so much for them. She is a real gem. I can't begin to describe her. You can see from the photos that she is small in statue (shorter than I am) but she has the biggest heart. The PPA is a very large campus that was built at on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The view is primarily blocked by trees and fences as it would not be safe for the children. I have included a few photos of the buildings, the dormitories, the kitchen, etc. just to give you some idea. The property is large and there are numerous buildings so maintenance and upkeep are costly. Sometimes the Global Volunteer groups do maintenance work such as painting and plumbing. GV helps where and when they are needed. Sometimes they have to help buy food. The price of food is going up and the children didn't have bread for several days until GV pitched in to help pay for it.

I am including photos of two of the little girls we work with each day here. One of them is going to be adopted by one of the previous volunteers. She has been working on it for about six months and Edith says it will probably take a year. There is an adorable little boy named Joseph who is an orphan. He is so bright and sweet. His eyes could melt the ice queen in to a puddle of water. He needs to be adopted. I wish I knew someone who could adopt him. Edith says she would adopt him if they asked her to but then she would not be able to work. She clearly loves him and wants him to have a good home. She helped care for him a lot when he was very small.

There are many programs that can't happen at PPA unless there are volunteers. This group being so small we could not cover everything. The children ask Edith to bring more "visitas". She says she will bring more and the children as her, "will they love us?" There are programs helping with the 6-12 month old children in the mornings and the afternoons, art therapy in the afternoons with the 3-5 year olds, taking children with physical therapy needs to Tonito Silva, Hospital care, Sibling group play, dulces suenos (sweet dreams) in the evenings and helping out with English in the afternoons for the older kids. There are also maintenance and building projects, painting the nurseries (Steve Martin and his family came this summer and he painted a giant Horton on the playroom wall). Think about volunteering for the children of Peru or if you don't think that is for you, go to global volunteers website and donate money - you can designate for Peru or you can let them use it for all their programs. But the children need you. Even a small amount can help - $10 would probably feed a couple of children for week or buy some diapers or other supplies or help pay for bread. Please think about it. Please go to www.globalvolunteers.org/sponsorship

A little bit about me

Here are a few photos of me here in Peru. My roommate Pauline is in two of the pictures and our "guide" from this past weekend is also in one of the photos. I think from looking at the photos I may be losing some weight. At least it looks so to me. I got something from the seafood last week and I couldn't eat for about a day. I have been really, really careful about what I eat ever sense then. On Saturday when we were traveling I went for 12 hours pretty much without food. When I did eat it was a terrible chicken sandwich. For dinner, I was afraid to order off the menu so I just ate spaghetti. Tonight was the first salad I have had in over a week. It was delicious - lettuce, apples, raisins, and shredded chicken with balsamic dressing. You have to be really careful about eating lettuce or salad at most places because they may wash it with tap water. The water here is really not safe to drink. They have a very high level of cholera. They talk a lot about what is good and bad for digestion which means they must have a lot of problems because of the water and the food. They also eat their large meal at lunch and eat very light for dinner.

Edith says she is very careful about eating in Cusco and the Machu Picchu area. So I will probably be starved by the time I get back. Maybe I will lose a few more pounds. One of my pairs of jeans is way too big right now. I have to keep pulling it up. I wonder if I will go back to eating US portion sizes when I get home.

Nazca Pottery

The is one of the local potters in Nazca. He is making pottery designs that are exactly the same as his Nazca ancestors. He does not change the patterns or add anything new. He keeps the tradition alive. The clay is a mixture of clay and sand - about 60% clay and 40% sand. The sand makes the pottery more porous so that it will retain the color better. In these photos he is making a small pot with two little funnels at the top joined by a handle. They used these pots to hold water and tied them around their waste when they had to carry the water a long distance. His potter was really beautiful. After he finishes hand making the piece (no potter's wheels), he will dry is slowing in the shade for a day or so. Then he will paint it will paints made from the ores in the area - iron, copper, etc. Then it is dried some more before it goes in to the "kiln". They don't used a closed oven kiln. There is an open topped oven. The pieces are stacked in the bottom and old pieces of clay are put on top of the new pots to made a top for the oven. There is room for wood underneath and wood is also piled on top of the clay. The wood above and below the clay objects his set on fire. They have to maintain a certain temperature (without a thermometer) for 8 hours (I think is what he said) then they let the wood burn down and the pieces are carefully pulled from the fire to cool. Here are some photos of the finished products including some very interesting fertility mugs (you will see what I mean).

The Nazca Aqueducts

The Nazca people have built more than 40 underground water canals to carry the water from the Andes to the valley.. Even if it never rains in Nazca water descends underground from the Andean Cordillera towards the sea. The aqueducts are 3 to 6 meters deep. These photos are of the breathing holes that were built down in to the aqueducts. They were used as clean outs. They are very strong and have survived many earthquakes.The Nazca culture (often spelled Nasca) flourished in the Nazca region between 300 BC and 800 AD.

Nazca Lines

On Saturday afternoon, after driving for six hours down the cost and over some of the mountains to get to Nazca, we took a plane ride to see the Nazca Lines. It was difficult to take quality pictures out the window of the airplane. These photos are of the monkey and the hummingbird. The monkey has nine fingers and his tail resembles the design of the aqueducts in Nazca that route the underground water from the Andes to the valley so that they can grow food in this barren desert. This area get very little rain throughout the year. The Nazca Lines are thought to be some sort of agricultural calendar. Some of the straightlines correspond to the summer and winter solstices. There is also one design that is called the astronaut. This has contributed to some theories that the lines are runways for UFO's and their were aliens in the area. I think the agricultural/astronomical calendar is much more likely. The nine fingers of the monkey represent the nine months that there is no rain in the area, as well as the growing season. The area of these designs covers 500 square kilometers. It covers a large desert area between Palpa and Nazca.

Ballestas Islands Sanctuary

These are the Ballestas Islands just off shore from the town of Paracas south of Lima. This island is home to thousands, probably millions of birds, some Humbolt penguins and sea lions. As we pulled toward the islands in the boat they appears to be dripping with white icing. Of course, this isn't icing, it's bird guano (poop)! Over the period of seven years the guano builds up to a height of about 10 meters or roughly 30 feet. Peru brings in 300 men for 3 months to clean the islands and collect the guano which is highly prized as organic fertilizer. Chile actually tried to take the island from Peru because they wanted the guano for themselves. Who knew poop could be so valuable. We had to keep our hats on for the trip because poop was dropping all over the place. One little boy without a hat got it right on top of the head. They are just entering the spring when the sea lions will have their calves. There is a beach called maternity beach (see video) where all the mothers go to have their babies. In December their will be more than 2,000 sea lions on this small beach. It was hard to catch the names of the birds because much of the tour was in Spanish. Their are terns, boobies, gulls, etc. Many of the same birds I saw in Alaska - I think perhaps they migrate but it was difficult to ask. We also saw a starfish called the sun star fish that is only in South America.

Lima Snails

We were walking back to the hostal from dinner one night last week when we looked down and these snails were all over the side walk. A few of them had been smashed by people walking along who didn't see them. Apparently they live in the grass beside the sidewalks and come out on to the sidewalks in the evening. People eat them here too. It is better than guinea pig!