Volunteer diaries: An average day at HOOP!

In this week’s blog Misha Zala from the UK gives us an inside look at an average school day for HOOPsters staying at the volunteer hostel.

Like most HOOPsters, I’m staying at Home Sweet Home, a relaxed hostel in the centre of Arequipa. A ‘typical’ day at Home Sweet Home goes like this:

Breakfast is on the roof terrace from 7.30am to 9.30am… guess what time most of us aim for! It’s great here: pancakes, fresh juice and a fried or scrambled egg… probably the best breakfast we’ve had in a Peruvian hostel! Then we fight over the showers before getting ready for the day.

Interns head to the office to start work at 10am. Teachers (like me!), can hang out together at the hostel and plan our lessons – or we head to the office (a 10 minute walk) to print things – but mainly just to distract everyone at HOOP HQ with questions!

On the way, we stop for a chat with one of my favourite people in Arequipa, or maybe the world...  the ‘Pare Man’ on Calle Santa Catalina. He’s part of the tourist police and he stops the cars so we can cross. The journey isn’t the same without a high five or quick song from this guy!

Next, it’s time to grab lunch at a local restaurant or nip back to the hostel. Here, restaurants offer a really good value set menu for lunch! Honourable mentions to the fabled ‘Six Fifty Place’ on Puente Bolognesi (loved by our volunteer Philipp for the lomo saltado and well... it only costs 6 soles 50). The great thing about staying here for a while is that we get to discover all the best secret food places.

After lunch, it’s time to gather the troops to catch the combi bus to school. Always an interesting experience - the first rule of the combi is that... there are no rules! It’s got as many people as they can squeeze on.

We get to school around 2.30pm and set everything up. At 3.15pm, we greet the children, who play and do warm up exercises together. Class begins at 3.30pm where we engage the children in English lessons. Our aim is to show our kids how fun learning can be, through play, games and crafts. The hour usually flies by!

Then the older kids stay back at the school to get help understanding their homework from their morning school. For everyone else, it’s Cancha time at a local playground where we play games and sports. At 5.45, we pack up, marvel at the gorgeous sunset and get back on the combi. We always hope it’s the route that stops near the ‘Churro lady’ on Puente Grau, so we can pick up our favourite snack for one sole!

For dinner, there are tons of great choices like ‘The Chifa Place’ or ‘El Misti grill’ which fellow HOOPster Tom thinks is the best restaurant in Arequipa. But if we’re cooking at Home Sweet Home, that’s when the best comedy moments occur. There’s a kitchen, but with so many volunteers it can get chaotic. I’ve got a Facebook photo-series called ‘Cooking with HOOP’ (Rule no. 1: always use a bread knife to chop onions). Sometimes local volunteer Evaldo likes to cook for us and we love trying local specialities!

In the evening, we might watch a movie in the living room, hang out on the roof or go out for a drink together. The hostel is always happy to let us have guests over if we want a little fiesta on the roof terrace. By the end of the day, everyone is pretty exhausted and heads to bed. For me and my roommate, Amina, that usually involves playing silly games or telling late night stories!

I’m really happy living at Home Sweet Home, and definitely recommend it to future volunteers!

Curious to find out more? Check out our 'Day in the Life of a Volunteer' video.

Volunteering = Happiness

All over the world, millions of people are working hard and giving their time for others - for free! Why? Well, they’re probably passionate about helping others, and they probably want to make a meaningful contribution to their community. But really, beneath these virtuous and benevolent motives, is a very simple equation: VOLUNTEERING = HAPPINESS.

Micha, from Austria - another happy HOOP volunteer!

There are tonnes of academic studies, including one from the brainy people at the London School of Economics, showing that people who volunteer are happier than people who don’t. And it’s got nothing to do with your personal background or how wealthy you are… simply, whoever you are, volunteering has the incredible power of making you happy!

What the research whizzes can’t work out though, is a scientific reason why volunteering should make you happy. So to help them out a bit, I asked some of HOOP’s friends from around the world why volunteering puts a smile on their face.

Julianne Ezra, from England (but an Arequipa resident of two years), thinks enjoying yourself is essential for volunteering. “Earning money is out of the equation so the focus is on enjoying the experience which immediately makes you a better volunteer - you're not just sharing skills, you're sharing happiness. And that's got to be the best thing about it, knowing you have positively affected someone else.”

Chris Kondas with Kenzie and the kids at Cancha time

Chris Kondas, from Ohio in the USA, is a bit of a volunteering veteran (which you can read about here), and volunteering makes him feel so good he feels bad! “Sometimes I feel guilty because I feel so good after doing volunteer work or something for someone who wasn’t expecting it. What you take from the deed is far greater than what you leave.” Well, that’s definitely going to vex the people at the London School of Economics when they read this. But I’ll be sure to give them Chris’ details so they can do some research on him. 

One of our local HOOPsters, Christian Collazons, thinks the happiness that comes from volunteering is simply a good feeling from helping someone else. “I really like HOOP’s slogan, ‘Breaking the cycle of poverty through education’. That’s the only way we can help people to live better lives.”

But there are big personal rewards to volunteering too, says Bianca Berti from Austria: “Helping kids learn English might give them a way out of poverty and it also enriches my own personality through working with the children and seeing their progress and also their struggles.” And our Program Director, Alison, agrees: “You give back and you’re rewarded when you see the difference you’re making with the kids, and how appreciative the families are that teachers come from all over the world to teach in their community. It’s very fulfilling!”

Carol Mitchell from England, who has years of volunteering experience (including setting up an NGO in Uganda!), says: “Volunteering tends to give you back a hundred times what you offer. It develops you, stretches you, relieves you and allows you to really experience things from other perspectives rather than just trying to imagine what life might be like for other people. And then you can translate your newfound experience into other areas of your life making them richer too… But you will never be a know-it-all no matter how long you volunteer, so it keeps teaching you new things all the time.”

If you’ve ever volunteered, you’ll know the happy feeling you get from being part of a valuable and meaningful experience. You’ll also know that you don’t need a PhD in psychology to understand the link between volunteering and happiness. It’s just a simple fact of life. So be happy. Volunteer J

Earth Hour : Just One Hour to Save the Earth!

This week’s blog has been inspired by Earth Hour, which takes place tonight at 8:30pm (wherever you are!)

What Is it?

Earth Hour is a global event where millions switch their lights off and use no electricity as a sign of solidarity for our planet. It’s a great opportunity to take part in something creative without electricity, like swapping stories in the dark, or doing a bit of stargazing! HOOP volunteers will be using the time to get together and play games by candlelight.

Climate change isn’t just an issue for the future, it is affecting us now. Here in Peru, plants, people and animals will be heavily affected, with dry season average temperatures expected to increase in between 0.7°C and 1.8°C by 2020 according to the Peru Support Group, 2014. 

Although Peru is just responsible for 0.1% of global CO2 emissions, it is not going to get an easy ride when it comes to climate change. According to TreeHugger.com, it was the only country achieving the ‘sustainability sweet spot’ in 2007, where it managed to balance high development without heavily consuming resources.

A few months back, Lima hosted the Conference of Parties (COP20), a global climate summit of leaders from all over the world. The outcomes of conferences like this, where climate science meets politics, are going to have a big impact on all our lives, and the future of the planet.

Thinking sustainably

Since Arequipa is bathed in sunshine for 300 days of the year, it is a big opportunity for generating solar energy. Companies like Caja Arequipa are giving ‘green’ loans to small companies who want to be using cleaner and efficient energy.

A solar water heater on the Home Sweet Home Hostel

Not long ago, there was mention of Arequipa being considered as a possible destination for a wind farm project. From living in Arequipa, I see solar panels and solar water heaters every now and again, often on hotels and hostel buildings. So it’s good to see alternative energy sources becoming more of a ‘thing’.

Earth Hour gives us the chance to think about how we can best protect our planet. These days, pretty much everything we do relies on electricity in some way, so going without it, even for just an hour, is a great way to make us think of ways we can be more sustainable in our day-to-day lives.

Get involved in Earth Hour tonight, and think about how you can live more sustainably every day - and don’t forget to share what you get up to!

By Oliver Adams