Another week in Arequipa!

Because school has been in swing for two weeks now, my days have a sort of routine to them. In the morning, we all get on the bus about 8:50. Some days we are serenaded by a band, which then goes around selling little pieces of candy.

Me and my friend Sarah have began making our way around the bakeries sampling chocolate cakes, "pudding" (kind of like a dry bread pudding), and mil hojas (flaky pastries layered with manjar, which is kind of like caramel. It is the orange part on top of this cake).

Since we are all tired of eating out where we are served potatoes, rice, and meat with every meal, we decided to go to the big market about 30 minutes away and stock up on veggies. I wish I took a picture of all that I bought! I spent around $5, and I bought a head of broccoli, 4 tomatoes, a clove of garlic, 5 potatoes, 8 carrots, about a pound of a delicious cut of meet, and an onion.

Wednesday night, our friend and fellow volunteer Yohan invited us to the bar where he works because there was a reggae concert that night. The club is called "Circus" and it really look like a circus on the inside: umbrellas covering the ceiling, everyone wearing ridiculous hats, and the walls are all bright yellow, red, or blue.

The music wasn't too awesome (basically peruvian version of Bob Marley songs) and we had to get up early, so around midnight, we found ourselves buying street hamburgers. She cooked it really well, and it had tomatoes, lettuce, and little french fries on it along with ketchup and a spicy sauce.

My lesson plan at school this week was origami! The kids had a lot of fun with it. First we all colored our squares, talked about geometric shapes, and folded! Some of them memorized how to do it and could do it by themselves, which was really cool.

Friday was a special occasion! Since Chris and Kenzie bought shoes for all of the kids at the school, we had a party to celebrate those shoes and their last day. Me and Sarah were in charge of making the fruit salad, and we had quite a nice expereince with it! At the market we had to buy 30 bananas, two pineapples, and 15 mangos, and then we had to carry it all back to our hostel. Then commenced the 2 hours of fruit cutting!

We had a big assembly in the middle of the school and then we handed out the shoes. The children and mothers were really excited!

To say farewell to Kenzie and Chris, we all went out to a chocolate cafe (very fancy and modern, and they always play music like MGMT, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, Beatles, etc.). Since they are known for it, I had a coffee beer, which was quite interesting!

The evening was spent packing for my trip to the Colca Canyon, which left at 3:30am on Saturday morning. That blog soon to come!

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Written by HOOP Peru Volunteer Lead Teacher Morgan Lehr

See how you can get started volunteering with HOOP Peru here.

 To learn more about HOOP Peru please check out HOOP's Twitter and Facebook:

https://twitter.com/HOOPPERU
https://www.facebook.com/HOOPPeru

First Week of School and Rafting!

This week has been wonderful. The new volunteers arrived the week before, and now we have quite a few! There is Joanne from Australia, Yohan from France, Erick from Peru, Kenzie and Chris from Ohio, Dina from Canada, and Claire from Australia. Everyone comes from different backgrounds and is of different ages, and it's a great group.

As I have talked about in another post, the HOOP NGO primarily runs it's own after school english classes for children in the impoverished area of Flora Tristan outside of Arequipa. Here is a picture I found on HOOP's website.

However, because this is the southern hemisphere, school is not in session, and we are running a five week long summer program. We have four age groups ranging from 5 to 15 years old, and each day, the groups rotate between art, dance/music, sports, and english/getting their feet measured. The last class is a result of Chris and Kenzie bringing money they raised in the States to buy new shoes for all the kids! Monday was the first day of this summer program. Natalie who was with me for our Machu Picchu trek had decided to volunteer with me for a week. I was given the youngest group, and luckily, Natalie was there to help me in my classroom. Usually, we have between 8 and 13 students.


See how you can get started volunteering with HOOP Peru here. 


The kids had a great time and we had everything you can imagine: puppets in bathing suits, princesses, kings, zombies, vampires, dogs, and baseball players.

The class runs from 10am to 11:30am, and then we take the kids out to the basketball court/play area for a recess that goes until 12pm. The court has basketball hoops, soccer goals, and a seating area on the left side that says "A las drogas dile no" or "Say no to drugs."

They are definitely a wonderful group of children, and very mature for their age. For example, it's not abnormal for a three year old to walk home from school by himself. Also, the siblings take extraordinary care of each other. They try to ask for the supplies in English, and they always call me "Teacher". I am really enjoying leading a classroom and the challenge of teaching art lessons exclusively in Spanish. Even though it's not a purely educational or academic program, it is clear that these kids need some kind of formal activity, and they definitely enjoy it!

I have been told that I can tell how much fun they are having by how often they ask to take bathroom breaks, and so far out of the whole week, I've only had 2 students ask!

After a solid week of working at the project, I have been relaxing this weekend. Saturday, I was fed up of eating potatoes, rice, bread, and meat for every meal, so I went to the market and bought apples, bananas, papaya, a pineapple, and mangos. I could easily eat a mango every day!

Today (Sunday), I went rafting! Jose Luis, who works here at my hostel and helps out Brad with HOOP, invited me to go with some people from his NGO, INTIWAWA. Here's our group! (I'm fourth from the left)

This is the last day that the river is open until the rain makes it too dangerous until March. My boat had Julian, Anna, and Carlos the guide.

It was REALLY fun, about level 3 or 4, and the landscape around the area was absolutely gorgeous. It looked like something Disney World would have created with flowers and waterfalls and grass surrounding the shore.

Towards the end, there was a really huge rock that our guide said we could jump off of. It didn't look too high, but I climbed up to the top, and it is definitely higher than a 3 meter diving board. I was already up there, so I figured I might as well jump! Here is me, terrified, while the guide is pushing me towards the edge.

Rafting was amazing, and I would definitely do it again if I could. A lot of people have been telling me that going to Lima and even Puno is kind of a waste of time, so if I don't end up going to those cities, I will use my weekends doing more adventures like this.

Every day the city is more beautiful to me, and usually I like to go walking just before the sun sets. It's hard to believe that it has already been 18 days, and that there are only about 18 to go, but I can't wait to see what other adventures I can find for myself.

Written by HOOP  Peru Volunteer Lead Teacher Morgan Lehr

See how you can get started volunteering with HOOP Peru here.

To learn more about HOOP Peru please check out HOOP's Twitter and Facebook: https://twitter.com/HOOPPERU https://www.facebook.com/HOOPPeru

First day in Arequipa and an explanation of what in the world I am doing here

To begin, I would like to explain how I came to be in Peru.

As you all know, I spent last January roaming Chile and studying Spanish there. I saw so many amazing sites and met some incredible people, and I knew I had to travel again. When I got back to the states, my friend Tc urged me to look on Omprakash, a site with reputable volunteer opportunities all over the world including the cost of living. I immediately fell in love with HOOP (Helping Overcome Obstacles Peru) and proceeded to hassle every college student I knew to come with me and volunteer. When it seemed that everyone had plans for winter session (and my friend Ro found an even more amazing opportunity to study abroad for a semester in Spain), I decided that going alone would have to suffice, and applied.

To say that the HOOP staff has been incredibly supportive and accommodating would be an understatement. They explained to me the realistic goals of their projects and how I could contribute as a volunteer. They helped me figure out where to stay and even more importantly, made me feel comfortable and empowered as a young woman traveling alone in a foreign country.

With my mom's help, I booked my flight. I also applied to UD's Honors Program for an enrichment fund award, and fortunately was given money for transportation, one of the largest costs when traveling.

While in Peru, I will be teaching arts and crafts (and English) to children of various ages in one of the outskirts of Arequipa, a shantytown called Flora Tristan. A HUGE thank you to everyone that donated supplies to me! I have already met many volunteers and people in charge of the school, and I am very excited to begin working there. My other goals for this trip are to venture to Cuzco/Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca, Colca Canyon, and maybe a Volcano.

There is also lots to see and do (and eat) in Arequipa (Ah-re-keep-uh)! Today, I met with Brad in the office at 11 to talk a little more about the project, and another volunteer, Robert, met me there. He gave me a tour of the city, pointing out some of the more historical and little known facts.

This is the Plaza de Armas, a few blocks from my hostel. The green christmas tree is made of sprite bottles!

There are many buildings on the streets that have gates in the front that open up to courtyards like this that have offices or shops inside of them. This courtyard houses the museum where Juanita, an Incan Mummy resides.

This right here, my friends, is fried mashed potatoes with a teeny bit of ground beef and onions on the inside. I will be eating more very soon.

This river is apparently what divides the touristy part of Arequipa from the more residential (and affluent) part. In the background, you can see two volcanoes, El Misti and Chachani. I would like to hike one of these or Pikchu Pikchu, which is not pictured.

There are many monasteries, cathedrals, and nunneries such as this one below.

To end our journey around the city, we stopped in a restaurant and got papaya juice. He knew I am scared of the water, so mine is with milk instead of water. It was good, but I don't know if I'll ever really like a fruit juice/milk combo served at room temperature.

After resting at my hostel and planning my trip to Cuzco later this week, I met up with some people to go to a cafe. Here, I got a frozen strawberry lemonade and chicken sandwich with tomato, fried potato straws, and mayonese and aji sauce (a creamy spicy sauce made from peppers). We finished the night with a few rounds of ping pong and a short walk back home.

Written by Morgan Lehr


See how you can get started volunteering with HOOP Peru here.

To learn more about HOOP Peru please check out HOOP's Twitter and Facebook:

https://twitter.com/HOOPPERU
https://www.facebook.com/HOOPPeru