Mothers Day in Peru

An eventful week in Arequipa saw Mother´s Day on Sunday and a school excursion to the zoo on Saturday. In the weeks leading up to Mother´s Day, companies put up billboards and advertisements loudly reminding us of all we owe our mothers and to show our love by buying their cell phones. Children even received a day off from school. Commercialism aside, Mother´s Day is an extremely important holiday here in Arequipa.

In Flora Tristán, mothers raise their children nearly single-handedly. Most of the fathers of our students are miners and leave home to work for weeks at a time. When they come home they can be found on corners and in front of their houses, drinking. The mothers are left to cook, clean, impart moral guidance, and generally raise the children on their own. Some even have jobs outside of their many activities in the home. Many of the mothers of the students in Butterfly class, ages 3-6, take courses while their children are with HOOP. They take personal finance, health, and English to try to improve the lives of their families.

Because of their immense responsibilities, the mothers are greatly respected as pillars of the community. They are kind, caring, and tough as nails.

At the zoo excursion, one of the mothers brought me and another volunteer lunch. A kind gesture to be sure, but it is made all the more thoughtful when she has five children at the zoo with us who need to be fed as well. Even more touching were the extra plates she made for two other volunteers who came by just to say hello.

The kindness is balanced by their tough love. The approach to child rearing in Flora Tristán can seem cold to us Westerners at times. Jodi, a volunteer with the Butterfly class, told me about a time when one of her students tripped and fell in class. As he was crying, Jodi scooped him up and brought him over to the group of mothers that wait nearby. She hesitated as she approached, since none of them seemed to react to the bawling toddler. She let the child walk to his mother, who put a hand on his head and quieted the crying. Jodi was amazed at this reaction: when confronted with an upset child, even when we know they are not hurt, our first reaction is to comfort. This mother, and most of the mothers of Flora Tristán, toughen their kids up from a young age.

The mothers of this community are challenged with the near-impossible task of raising large families by themselves and they succeed with a gentle smile on their faces. We are proud to work alongside them, and they deserve all the credit they get.

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Written by HOOP Peru Volunteer Lead Teacher David Accame

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

To learn more about HOOP Peru please check out our Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus and Facebook:

https://twitter.com/HOOPPERU
https://www.facebook.com/HOOPPeru
http://instagram.com/hoopperu

Seeing the Forest for the Trees

Volunteers that come into organizations that work with poor communities, like Flora Tristán, will always have preconceptions. They may be positive, like the desire to fix perceived problems and change the world, or they may be negative, like taking pity on a community because of their economic status.

When faced with new cultural and socioeconomic realities, these preconceptions unconsciously guide our understanding of the communities we are trying to help. We understand the situation within our own framework of judgements or ambitions, and this blinds us to the true nature of the world.

When I began my first experience as a teacher with HOOP, I saw my class as a group of students. I gave lessons about English to a group of students and they learned as a group of students. As my understanding of them as individuals grows, so too does my understanding of Flora Tristán - it is no longer just a dusty town with underprivileged families. It is a beautiful community, full of curious minds and kind hearts. Preconceptions of the developing world prevent outsiders from seeing the individual greatness that thrives within this world.

Ruth playing with the local wildlife

No matter where you go, children have similar traits: curious, social, energetic and unsure about the world but eager to learn. I see my students do things that I remember from my own childhood, 4,000 miles and a decade apart. This week in class, one of my students, Gianpier, drew a heart on the table with the names of another student and a volunteer inside: “Jharol + Elizabeth”. I had to scold him for writing on the table, but I couldn’t help but smile on the inside.

Gianpier and Joel David exploring my phone

On another day, two girls were fascinated by a beetle they found on the ground before class. We had a fun lesson about beetles - what they eat, their diversity, whether or not they could eat a dog - but I walked away with a striking realization: as I was teaching them about them biology, I was also being taught the Spanish words for beetle, plants, dead things, and more.

My own preconceptions as a college-educated teacher from the United States blinded me from realizing how much these children have to offer. Although it is slightly cliché, they teach me just as much as I teach them.

Simple, everyday events like these remind me that these children are individuals with their own interests, motivations and experiences. As I learn more and more about the realities of the so-called “developing world”, my preconceptions are being revealed as misconceptions.


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Written by HOOP Peru Volunteer Lead Teacher David Accame

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

To learn more about HOOP Peru please check out our Twitter, Instagram and Facebook:

https://twitter.com/HOOPPERU
https://www.facebook.com/HOOPPeru
http://instagram.com/hoopperu

Welcome to Arequipa

Hi there! I’m David. I am a volunteer teacher with HOOP and will be in Arequipa for 2 months teaching English in the Kangaroo class (the second highest level). In this blog I will be describing my experiences with HOOP and the beautiful city of Arequipa.

I arrived in Arequipa early in the morning and spent the day adjusting to the altitude. Arequipa is 2,335 m (7,661 ft) high, which is enough to leave you winded after climbing a flight of stairs. Taking it slow for the first few days will help you with the altitude immensely, along with Sorojchi Pills or mate de coca and drinking LOTS of water. Luckily, the views of the volcanoes surrounding the city and the perfect weather make relaxing very easy.

The views are hard to beat

Although Arequipa is home to nearly a million people, walking around the bustling city has a sort of small­town feel to it. Restaurants, hostels and shops line the stone streets wherever you go and the Plaza de Armas (the main square) is always full of locals and vendors. The buildings of white volcanic stone that the city is famous for gleam in the strong Altiplano sun. Once outside the city at the project site in Flora Tristan, however, the scene changes dramatically.

After a 30­-45 minute ride on the combi (small buses that run just about everywhere in Peru) out
of the city center, the paved road turns to dirt and the plaster buildings become fences of
stacked rocks around thirsty dirt yards.

The HOOP school itself is a modest building with a corrugated tin roof and 4 classrooms,
although what the building lacks in splendor it makes up for in spirit. The students’ smiling faces
greet you at your classroom door every day, quick to laugh and eager to learn. Every one of them
is sweet and bright.

The HOOP school

After just one week of teaching classes I have already grown to appreciate the strong sense of community and partnership between HOOP and the families of Flora Tristan. Despite having little themselves, the students’ mothers put together fundraisers for our organization to support us.

My adventure HOOP is just beginning, but I already feel at home with the other volunteers and in the city.

Written by HOOP Peru Volunteer Lead Teacher David Accame

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

To learn more about HOOP Peru please check out our Twitter, Instagram and Facebook: 

https://twitter.com/HOOPPERU 

https://www.facebook.com/HOOPPeru

http://instagram.com/hoopperu