Kevin's Return

After seven months away from HOOP I was finally able to return to continue the great work that these volunteers are doing. Every day there truly is a complete joy, but my first day will always hold a spot in my heart. Not only was it great to walk up and see the same kids that I had bonded so much with there waiting for their class, but to hear my name screamed and be rushed at just warmed my heart ever so much. Even some of the parents that I had limited contact with came and said hello with a traditional peruvian kiss and hug. After their class, two of the students that I had especially bonded with, (Jose Maria, And Joel David ) went to the corner store to buy me an ice-cream.

Upon my arrival I was asked to help in the department of fundraising, and I am proud to say that just this week with the help of all the volunteers we raised almost 600 soles. I am ecstatic to be back and hope to help in any way I can.

Me as Santa Claus at this years Christmas Party

Day in the Life of a School Coordinator

So, ever wondered what Flora Tristan’s school co-ordinator gets up to during those sunny, lethargicArequipeñan weeks? Desperate to know the gossip that goes on behind those dark, mysterious, volunteer house doors?  Well. Maybe not…but you’d be loco not to want to find out now…right?

Ahem. So I have been in Arequipa for two months now. This is not perhaps the dramatic news you might expect me to begin with, but I must say, just writing that has surprised me a little…time in Arequipa seems to slip through your fingers as fast as a gringo can guzzle a cold Cusqueña on a sunny Arequipeñan afternoon.

I decided a while back to dedicate twelve of these deceptively fleeting months to the ‘Flora Tristan adventure’ as I like to call it, to the surprise of my friends, family and to be perfectly honest, myself. It actually didn’t become at all real until I was walking through the security gates at Gatwick airport. It was at this point at which I started wondering whether beating my way past the airline bodyguards, back to my desperately sobbing parents (ok, perhaps a slight exaggeration) was a feasible idea. It definitely wasn’t. I’m 5ft 1. So Arequipa it was.

I must say however that since that terrifying day, I haven’t once looked back. I was thrown in a little at the deep end when I first arrived but the distraction worked wonders on my overly-apprehensive mind. The daily Flora Tristan adventure begins with the Simpson-colored ‘Los Canarios’ bus.

Me with some of the girls from class 3
at last month's excursion to the dinosaur park

To the untrained eye this is nothing more than a sweaty, vastly overcrowded, heinously yellow vehicle. To the more skilled and volunteers, however, it is a strategic game- to win you must be patient, stealthy and above all, merciless. Once beating your way out the bus, it’s time for school…in fact; this is the part that makes the (at times) hair-raising journey worthwhile.

I am the lead teacher of Class 3. This is the most advanced of the five Flora Tristan English classes and I must admit I was relieved to find that they really are rather angelic (alongside being quite incredibly talented). As well as the usual reciting of verbs, reading books and trying hard not to speak Spanglish (¿como se espella? is not an uncommon phrase) we also spend a lot of time chatting, laughing and singing; although their love of Korean music is getting a little intense. I have tried hard to convert the class to some English classics (hence teaching them Elton John as song of the month) and although they did deliver a very convincing performance of ‘are you ready for love?’ I am truly gutted to say that Gangnam Style and Justin Bieber shall always prevail.

My students performing "are you ready for Love"
at the assembly in October

Despite our musical differences however, I have exerted my influence over other, more important things and  I am now very proud to say that the phrases ‘that’s not my cup of tea’ and ‘sweeeeet’ are now steadily working their way into the class’s vocabulary instead of the malas palabras that they are so keen to learn.

As each day passes by, I am glad to say, the more responsibilities I am given, the more children I learn the names of (trust me some of them are harder to get your head around than you may think), and the more enriching my experience becomes. Undoubtedly the biggest pleasure, as well as forming relationships with the many wonderful volunteers, has been getting to know my class. And the best part of all…Teacher Emma still has another 10 months to go. CHEVERE.

Katie supporting HOOP back in the UK

I returned from my trip in South America this summer. Back to creature comforts and my friends but also back to work and away from adventure. Whenever someone asked me my highlight – something that could be an impossible question, it was an easy answer. My time with HOOP at Flora Tristan School. The children I met there still pop into my head all the time. Since being won over by original Hoopers’ enthusiasm and admirable determination and work ethic, as well as the children’s chuckles and charms, I’ve been determined to continue supporting HOOP from the UK.

During one raucous fundraiser in Arequipa’s Wild Rover hostel I began racking my brain how more money could be raised and sounded my ideas out to wonderfully enthusiastic Priya. I decided to buy some beautiful Peruvian artisan goods while I was there to sell at a good profit in the UK. I was planning to go to a festival near Brighton the weekend I returned. It has a real hippyish, young family demographic and would’ve been perfect. I met Carmen at a wonderful shop near the plaza on one of my last days in Arequipa. The owner of the shop was a friend of Carmen’s and a keen HOOP supporter. She agreed to give us the goods at cost price to maximise potential profit.

I really felt like a kid in a colourful candy shop choosing how to spend my £50 budget (a kind donation from Pami Loomba) I knew so much of the stuff would be popular at home. My only restriction really was size. I was going to have to carry everything I bought in my backpack for five weeks through Bolivia and Chile so it had to be able to fit in and be stuff that would survive getting squashed! In the end I got adult and children’s stripy trousers, baby hats, baby booties in baby alpaca, pretty headbands and finger- puppets. It was amazing what a huge bag of bits I got for £50 (S200) and I was so excited by the potential I held, and also slightly terrified whenever I worried about losing/damaging/having stolen my bag or any of the contents! Anyway all was well and I arrived in the UK with everything fine, I did curse my ridiculously massive pack at times but all totally worth it!

One of the best things about fundraising for Peru here is how far the pound goes. One of the things that struck me during my time at Flora Tristan was how easily pleased the children were, the value of a sticker, skipping rope or drawing was incredible. This is something I’ve been constantly reminded of by seeing kids argue over iphones etc here! So when I was worried about not raising as much as I’d hoped I’d just remind myself how far even £25 – S100 could go, towards an excursion for example or one of the things on the school wish list like a karaoke machine!

Anyway, the festival I’d originally planned to do the stall at was postponed and with work commitments I could not attend the new date. I started to worry about the summer ending and me missing any sale opportunities. Then a friend told me about Sparkfest, a little Devon family run festival in its second year happening in a couple of weeks. My evenings and lunch breaks were now spent making signs and price tags and preparing raffle prizes, exciting!!

Hollie Nolan, Sparkfest manager, not only let me have the pitch for free but also provided a table and gazebo so I could just rock up and set up my rainbow of wares on the day. The weather was beautiful, as were the golf course surroundings, the stall looked great and I was seeing sol signs in my head dreaming of how much I might raise. However, the festival was very, very small indeed, smaller than I knew and apparently down-sized a bit from last year. I had sold nothing but some finger puppets and a couple raffle tickets in my first two hours and was gutted and terrified of making nothing! My friends persuaded me to move my stall to outside where there were more people and that improved things and, never one afraid to Overcome Obstacles, I pestered just about every person in sight to buy a raffle ticket; I think the smiling faces of the children holding a ‘gracias’ sign on my collection bucket really helped!

People who I spoke to were kind and interested and I managed to raise some awareness of HOOP! The raffle was announced from the stage at the end of the afternoon and the lucky winners had prizes of a meal for two at a local Spanish restaurant, and baskets of South American coffee, chocolate and wine. Though I hadn’t sold everything, and had slashed my prices a bit to make sales, I felt happy and relieved. The people who had bought things had loved them, the people who had asked questions about the Flora Tristan Community and work of HOOP were touched and impressed by what they heard and I had a total of nearly £300! Over S1200!

Some advice I can give to any other Hoopers thinking of doing a fundraiser: As Priya wisely told me, everyone loves a finger-puppet! They’re great fun and good gifts and at only £1 people will buy one just to make a donation. Also I highly recommend doing a raffle; when I was worrying about not selling anything it was a constant positive that I was selling raffle tickets bit by bit. As my friend who recommended doing one told me, the beauty is that you can sell an infinite number of tickets for one (ideally donated) item.

Next summer I would love to do the same thing on a larger scale, like the original festival I planned that has 3000 people – imagine all those raffle tickets! I have the signs and stuff made now so will be prepared for any HOOP event again!! Will just have to ask Carmen to send me some more stock, or preferably return to Arequipa and get it myself! I guess the most important thing is that small efforts can make a big difference and slowly but surely HOOP will go global!

Backpacking through Peru

I'd been waiting for this for a while. I'd gotten a little "travel weary" after nearly 10 months on the road. I was also keen to do something other than just bum around like a typical tourist, taking photos at stuff. I wanted to experience every-day life/living in a different country and try and make a difference to someone’s life (even if just my own).

I had searched around on the internet for some time before stumbling across a small NGO that ran an English school in a deprived part of Arequipa, Peru. I did a little more research on the project; I read testimonies on other travellers’ experiences at the organisation and it was all very positive so I decided to make contact. Straight away I was impressed by the response I got from Priya (the volunteer co-ordinator at the time), it seemed to be a well organised and run charity with reasonable fees and well equipped with a volunteer house. I signed up to teach in the school for a month.

I arrived early on a Saturday morning to Arequipa on the over-night bus from Cusco. A bit dazed and confused after 20 hours on a bus with little sleep I managed to share a taxi to central Arequipa with someone I’d made friends with on the bus. I eventually found the volunteer house from the directions provided and I slowly met my house/work mates as they emerged from their Friday night excesses. After being run through a few things I was finally given a room with a shower which was just what I needed after my 20 hour journey. It turns out this was just as well as I went out later to watch the champions league final with a friend I’d met in Bolivia and then got dragged out kicking and screaming by my new housemates that night to sample what Arequipeñan nightlife has to offer. We went to the wild rover hostel to get some cheap drinks and mix with the passing gringos and then ended up in the extremely popular Déjà vu nightclub to boogie with gringos and Peruvians alike.

Sunday was a struggle after partying without sleeping for nearly 40 hours..... but, after a few cups of tea and a bit of toast from cheap Peruvian bread I was fine. Unaware before my arrival, I had got to Arequipa on the weekend of the monthly school outing. This is where the children who have the best attendance are rewarded with a day out; so a chance for a bit of fun and a chance for me to meet my students. The outing was to take the kids to a local park in central Arequipa where there were large gardens, a lake and some scruffy, depressed looking caged animals. “What’s so special about that?” you might ask, but if you saw where these kids live you would understand what a treat this is. Most of the kids wanted to play football so a 20-a-side game ensued, not easy in the midday sun after the past few days I'd had! I got through it OK and was taken aback by instantly being called “teacher” by all the kids, something I was going to have to get used to!

On Monday I began at the school. It's not really possible to prepare yourself for the experience, even from the journey in. The day begins with flagging down a ropey looking minibus designed for 30 people but is bulging with maybe twice that many, packed in like sardines. You're hurried in by the conductor into a wall of commuters where you have to fight your way in to find a space. You then have to grab hold of one of the hand rails as the driver floors-it through the streets of Arequipa with the reggaeton/traditional/salsa infused music mix blaring from the stereo. As the bus gets further from the centre it gets less-crowded and you may even get a seat. Eventually the road disappears and the buildings become a lot more basic - single-storey tin roofed "homes". The dusty Villa Fontana community lies in the shadow of the Chachani and El Misti Volcanoes and is apparently built on land "illegally" settled on by the residents. The area is basic and is clearly not looked after properly by the Peruvian authorities. The dusty, windswept streets are lined with ramshackle structures and roamed by stray dogs the kids play in the streets or the occasional concrete playground that has been built.            This is where the Flora Tristan English School is based.

The School is in keeping with its surroundings in that it's a basic brick structure with a tin roof. The difference is the brightly painted walls which make for a contrast against the grey, dusty surroundings. There is a working stone quarry behind the school with a large hill that some of the local kids like to climb up. As you arrive at the school there are always kids waiting outside 15 minutes before classes start and kids who don't even attend the school will call "hola teacher" to you as you walk past. Classrooms are basic with not much in the way of modern resources but it's impressive when you think the entire project has been put together solely on donations. The day begins with an hour of English lessons, followed by a second hour of homework help or constructive playtime for the younger kids. The third hour is for "cancha" or playtime or usually more homework help for the older kids. The school also offers free English lessons for adults. I was involved in a mixture of all of the above during my time.

Preparation for lessons is time consuming especially without many resources to use. I was teaching Class 2, the intermediate level students. They generally range from 8 to 11 years old so keeping lessons fun and interesting is a constant challenge. There is a curriculum to follow but it's more of a guideline. You begin to understand that the internet (when available) and your own imagination are the greatest tools you possess to help piece lessons together. The kids are really great and are a joy to teach but you need to keep them focused or you will lose their concentration very quickly. Luckily there were usually only 5-7 students in my class so this was not such a challenge and I could improvise to certain extent as I got to know the kids better. A good level of Spanish really helps, but it's not essential. Besides, my basic Spanish was a source of constant amusement for my students who liked to take any opportunity they could to turn teacher and correct me! As the weeks went on I built up a real rapport with the kids and found that using comedy as a real tool to keep them interested; although it won me a few nicknames including "Teacher Chris Monkey" due to my poor monkey impressions. Although teaching should be enjoyed and the classroom should be a fun place to be there is a serious side to the project which you should not lose sight of. Some of the kids that attend have to deal with quite a few problems and hardships of their own from health problems to financial difficulties. This really hit home to me when one of my students suffered an epileptic fit during one of my lessons. Must be difficult suffering from a condition such as epilepsy when medical support or awareness is not at the same level as what western countries would expect. Luckily for Oscar the charity helps pay for medication to help control it.

Arequipa is a great city to be based. It seems the majority of travellers just pass through here on their way to visit the Colca Canyon. This means that apart from around the plaza de armas you aren't accosted too much as a tourist. There is a pretty colonial centre to Arequipa with many white-washed buildings (it's dubbed the white city due to this colonial heritage). The climate during the dry season is warm and dry during the day and cold at night. The looming presences of both the El Misti and Chachani Volcanoes in the background are an ever-present and impressive backdrop to the city. There's a thriving nightlife in the city where locals, ex-pats and travellers alike mix in the array of bars, clubs and salsa joints. There is also an extremely popular day-club called “Mr Fish” on once a week. This is where (mostly) young well-to-do Arequipeñans go to drink and rock out to the universally popular (in South America) pop-salsa-dance infused reggaeton music.

It was nice to be based in a proper house with proper facilities for a while. After 10 months on the road you start to miss your own space, the option of cooking a meal etc. It was nice to have some regularity too; having a purpose and a bit of routine can be settling. It was also good preparation for the looming return to the UK and full-time work! However, the best thing about it is the other volunteers. I really enjoyed living, working and socialising with the same group of people; from being able to help each other with our work or sharing our experiences of the school to going out to paint the town red (again). It's great to work and live with like-minded people, or even people who just share a passion for something.

I would thoroughly recommend working with HOOP to anyone looking for this kind of volunteer work. They are an extremely passionate and professional organisation who really cares about what they do. You are made to feel so welcome, just like part of a family. It’s a small organisation so you feel empowered so that your work is directly making a difference. Thank you HOOP for the opportunity and for the great memories.

 by Chris Powell

Volunteering just as HOOP kicks off

I’m kind of proud to say “I was there at the very beginning”; when HOOP started, I saw all the hard work that Priya, Julia, Teresa, Li and Carmen had put into this incredible project and how determined they were to set up something sustainable that could really help the Flora Tristan community and I was so proud to be a part of that, so much so I really didn’t want to leave, unfortunately a flight and job commitments forced me to!

I first arrived in Arequipa after 3 and a half months of travelling all over the South American continent slightly exhausted and in real need of food that wasn’t Bolivian; there is only so much overcooked trout a person can eat. It was such a relief to be in a real house again and to be able to unpack my bag for the first time in months (only a few dead bugs in there).

I was told I was going to be teaching class four, the tinies who loved to sing and play. Perfect for me as singing and playing are right up my street! I had no idea really what to expect. Used to the gringo haunts of well known traveller routes and the comparative wealth of the southern countries (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay etc) it was a shock when I got on the tiniest bus in the world packed full of smells, skirts and sweaty men. After ten minutes of standing in a bus that no one over 5’5 could fit in I asked Julia how much further there was to go “oh about 40 minutes from here” was the response. I guess that’s when I realised how far from the city the communities spread and I could start to gauge what the situation was like at Flora Tristan.

When we eventually arrived at the school, more shock, I don’t know how I’d imagined it but it seemed both the same and different. It’s hard to explain. What I do know is that through the time I worked there I learnt to love the school itself. Its colourful walls and pretty pictures, the pictures the class drew that we stuck up on the walls. Both the children and I were proud of our work and it was lovely to see it there every day; evidence of the fun we’d had and the things we learnt.

Class four was the perfect class for me. When I first arrived there would be different students every day, arriving at different times and ranging in size from 20 plus students a day to five or eight. By the end of my time teaching we’d achieved a certain level of regularity, students arrived (more or less) on time and we even got to move to a bigger classroom so we could all fit in.

When I started discipline was a big issue; when you have teachers coming and going it’s difficult to establish fixed rules and a respectful relationship between pupils and teachers. It’s one of the things HOOP is really working on and I think they are taking huge steps in the right direction! We worked hard on our classroom rules and gradually the class became used to me and my ways! I know that attendance, discipline, recruiting for  long term volunteers, working with professional teachers, and implementing strong evaluation methods are all solid objectives for HOOP in making the school better and better. 

During my time at HOOP Teresa and Veronica along with Teresa’s cousin worked really hard on updating and renewing the curriculum so it was age specific and more relevant to the children. The new curriculum for class four is brilliant and so much fun. With the prospect of Dinosaurs and Pirates lesson planning is more fun than a chore. We also re-evaluated our classes and moved our best students up a level; this meant the classes were much easier to teach (mainly for me I think as I now had a much more manageable class size!).

I won’t ever forget my lovely class and their bright smiles; sneaky ways of making me give them the nice pencils to colour in with and their incredible interest in some of the oddest things. (I was frequently asked if it snowed in “my country”).  There will always be bad days, days when you can’t control the class or when someone is misbehaving and distracting others but they are always overshadowed by those bright days, when you all stand up and sing “I’m being eaten by a Boa Constrictor” at the top of your lungs, complete with actions and a sea of bodies on the floor pretending to be eaten by a giant snake.

I loved my time at HOOP so much I stayed until I physically had to leave (even if it meant 80 hours solid bus travel and a few flights to get to my flight home on time!). The HOOPers were brilliant and we had many a fun time in our favourite haunts (Wild Rover, Déjà Vu...). There were some great meals together (Teresa’s family’s Strudel was amazing) and many a youtube session of appallingly great songs from the 90’s as well as some of our reggaeton favourites.  And I have to mention Mister Fish because all HOOPers must visit at least once – after Flora Tristan School it’s the best place ever! If you ever feel like you want to travel to Peru/South America and want to work for something real, that aims to help and develop an impoverished community I can do nothing better than recommend HOOP. I was there when it started and I know their goals and how committed they are. The HOOP team have given so much to getting this organisation going and going in the right direction. I also know how hard it is to find an organisation you can trust and you can most definitely trust HOOP. Its run from Arequipa by a team that are there present and aware of everything going on, a team who are dedicated to their project; it’s incredible and I am so happy and proud to have been and continue to be a part of it.

HOOP out!

Lucy James 

Flora Tristan English School 2011 - Ella looks back

On a very wet afternoon in late January last year, I climbed aboard a little yellow van/bus with a few other volunteer teachers and set off to Flora Tristan English School for the first time. I had been told that for most of the year, Arequipa enjoys beautiful weather and offers great views of the surrounding volcanos. However, as I had only been in Arequipa for a few days, and those during the rainy season, I would have to take their word for it. It certainly seemed hard to beleive as we bumped along the potholed road and watched the rain lashing down outside. After a while, at the instruction of a more experienced volunteer, I pushed my way past a few old women, over the sacks of potatoes that they had brought along with them, and off the bus. We had reached Flora Tristan.

My first impression as we started to make our way towards the school was that the surroundings exactly matched the colour of the rain-filled sky; everything was grey. The dusty dirt road was grey, the little cuboid houses with their corrugated roofs were grey, the dogs that roamed the streets were grey (and even if they weren't really, the grey dust that seems to settle everywhere had made them look that way). But as we got further down the road, bright little faces started appearing round corners and in dodorways. 'Hola teachers!' they shouted to the volunteers that I was with. 'Hola new teacher!' they shouted to me. And then we arrived at the school - a similar size and shape to the other buildings around, but painted in lovely bright colours, and surrounded by children trying their hardest to get through the gates before school time officially started. I think I fell in love right there.

I spent the next couple of months with those beautiful, cheeky, ragged, cheerful children, teaching them what English I could. This was not always easy. When I first started they were divided into three classes, ostensibly by age, although a few younger ones had sneaked into class with their older siblings. There wasn't any kind of structured curriculum and it was difficult to know what they had been taught in the past, so in theory a new volunteer could be teaching the same thing as their teacher the week before. Together the volunteers set a test and tried to get them divided up by ability properly, which made a difference, but the lack of curriculum and continiuty meant that it was still difficult. When I left in March I felt that my class had made good progress, but had no way of knowing whether or not this would continue, or what they would learn next.

Unable to keep away for too long, I returned to Arequipa in November and found that some great progress had been made at Flora Tristan English school mostly due to the efforts of the then volunteer-co ordinator and one particularly dedicated volunteer who had been there for nearly a whole year (very unusual, most volunteers spend anywhere between 2 weeks and three months, but rarely this long). This had meant that there had been some continuity in what the children were learning and their behavioural expectations. When I left again in December, a thorough curriculum had been implemented for the whole year to come, which was a huge step - but still not enough and unfortunately the founders of the charitable organisation that was then responsible for the school were unwilling to pay for what was really needed - a permanent, paid staff to ensure that the community could benefit as much as possible from the resources that the school can offer.

Happily, however, HOOP was formed earlier this year and took over responsibility for FTES with the intention of truly developing the project. I believe that HOOP can really address these issues and create the kind of learning environment that will really benefit the children. They all deserve a little colour in their lives. 

A small NGO in Peru - HOOP makes a start!

First and foremost, welcome to HOOP Peru's new blog!

For those of you who don't know, HOOP is a small NGO located in the beautiful city of Arequipa, Peru. We work with a deprived community called Flora Tristan on the outskirts of Arequipa.

We work with both local and international volunteers who lead and assist in our programmes depending on their skills, professional backgrounds and linguistic abilities. Our local volunteers lead programmes in psychology, social work and leadership workshops whereas our international volunteers lead our english programme, homework support, sports activities and excursions.

Every month on this blog, one of our fantastic volunteers will recount their experiences with HOOP and our inspiring students, the moments that shine, when things get tough and what they got out of the experience.

Learn about the difficulties and pleasures of managing a tiny NGO with a lot of determination, and the no holds barred experiences of our volunteers!

For more information, please see www.hoopperu.org  and our wonderful school blog www.floratristanenglishschool.com