My Final Blog

I´m sitting here in this internet cafe, trying to come up with the words to express how I feel and I´m realizing that it is not possible. The last 3 weeks have shaken me to my core. The people I´ve met and the things I´ve seen will never let me be the same man as before. I´ve never understood those people who go away to summer camp for a month or so and cry when they leave because they have to say goodbye to people they barely even knew but Friday June 20th 2008 will be a day forever in my memory.


Yesterday´s farewell party was so touching and genuine I couldn´t help but get choked up. The kids were so thankful for the cake and gifts. I wish we could have done more but I know we did our best and I am so proud that we did this trip the right way. The teachers and students of Villa El Salvador gave us cards and little key chains that they made which were worth more than any gift that could have been bought from a store because as my teacher said, "No tenemos mucho pero este regalo es del corazon." (We don´t have a lot but this gift is from our heart.) My teacher delivered a heartfelt speech that brought the whole room to tears including myself, my fellow volunteers, and of course the kids.


I like to think of myself as pretty good at goodbyes. I´ve had a lot of practice in my 23 years but nothing could prepare me for last night when my roomates left. I´ve traveled the world and met a lot of people but it must have been fate that I was put in the same room with Big Mikey, Matt Coseo or Coz, and Brian McWeeny AKA "Miggy". I couldn´t have ever imagined that I would form such strong friendships in such a short amount of time. There is something unique about sharing experiences that no one else will ever understand. I´ve had friends in the Navy, study abroad roomates, and many other acquaintances along the way but for the last 3 weeks these guys have been the brothers I´ve always wanted. I had to put them in a cab at 3:30 this morning and see them off. It was one of the hardest goodbyes of my life. If you boys are reading this...You better believe if the cubs win the world series I´ll be on the first flight to Chicago to celebrate with you guys.


So this is it. My final blog. I want to leave you with a few final thoughts that I´ve taken from this life altering expierence. I found out that if you are too busy judging people, you don´t have enough time to really understand them. No matter what religion, sex, ethnicity, or income level we are, we all share one thing in common: the human spirit.


"Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier."
-Mother Teresa


Thank you to everyone who made this adventure through my soul possible. I will forever be in your debt.

Made it back from the jungle

This weekend was incredible. The rain forrest is an amazing place. It was astonishing to see
a place left in this world not accessable by automobiles. I´ve never breathed air that fresh in my life. The people along the river are so hospitable and friendly. They respect the river that gives them life and treat it likewise. The plant and animal life were so diverse it was hard to believe that I wasn´t in a zoo. We swam with pink river dolphins in the Amazon, fished for pirrahna and ate them about an hour later, treked through the jungle swinging machetes, and layed in hammocks for hours listening to nothing but nature. It was an expierence that I will never forget.

However, I did miss my kids and I´m glad to be back in Lima with them. It was kind of sad to hear that this amazing place is in their own country and the majority of them will never get to see it. A hour and a half plane ride to the jungle might as well be a luxury cruise around the world because their families will never be able to afford it. We did our best to show pictures and tell stories and they were all so thrilled and proud that their country had something that us ¨gringos¨ found inspiring. I only have 2 days left with them and the feeling of abandoning these kids is already starting to creep in. Three weeks is not enough time but I guess no amount of time would ever be enough.

We are throwing a party for them on Friday. We started to make goodie bags for each kid today with pencils, erasers, candy, and balloons. We are not allowed to give money or expensive gifts
so I figured the least we can do is buy some cakes and help them out with a few school supplies. It´s going to be tough to leave them behind but I know CCS is full of unbelievably loving volunteers and it´s comforting to know that another person will be following behind me.

The end of week 2 has been really hectic. I´m sorry I wasn´t able to write more but if feels like I have no free time as it is. The kids are back and we´ve been doing all sorts of arts and crafts, games, and playing more soccer than I ever have in my life.

This weekend I´m fulfilling one of my life long dreams. Myself and 3 other guys just arrived in Iquitos, which is the largest city in the world not accesable by car. Tomorrow we will be taking a boat about 150 KM up the Amazon river to stay in a jungle lodge. Some of the activities we will be doing are, Caiman (like crocidiles) spotting, blowdart practice with some local indian tribes, fishing for pirahanas, and hopefully seeing a whole bunch of amazing plants and animals. The humidity here is thick and I can deffinetly tell that we are in the middle of the rain forrest. The dollar still has some of it´s value here and it´s great to breathe fresh air again instead of the pollution in Lima. I´m guessing since the Jungle Lodge we will be staying at is lit by kerosene lamps, it probably won´t have internet. So my next blog will have to be tuesday afternoon when I get back to Lima. Hopefully I´ll have many stories to tell...To be continued.

Tuesday, Week 2

Most of my kids were absent today for some reason. I asked around but no one seemed to know why. I decided to go help in my roomates classroom of pre-schoolers. We did a little finger painting and made some cards for Fathers Day. I was suprised at how well behaved the younger kids are. The pre-school is a little bit more structured than Deporte y Vida and the two sisters that taught the class had everything under control. We sang songs and introduced ourselves. I introduced myself as "jota be", which is JB in Spanish, and they all really loved it. It was nice talking to the two Peruvian sisters and watching them teach the class. Now I can see why people make the career choice to become pre-school teachers, especially with these poor children.

A few of my girl students showed up later in the morning and came up to the pre-school to get me. They took me down to a small arts and crafts room and we started to sew some small aprons. I worked for 10 minutes trying to thread the needle before a 7 year old girl came and did it for me on her first try. Obviously this wasnt her first time sewing. We worked on the aprons for about an hour before it was time for them to go to school. We will finish up tomorrow.

Starting Week 2

This weekend a few of the volunteers offered up their Sunday afternoon to go to a large house called Casa de Panchita. It´s a place for the many young maids of the Lima upper class to go and spend their one day off. My self and two of my roomates were teaching english to a group of about 10 girls who were anywhere from 17 to 28 years old. We used flash cards to increase their vocabulary and taught them the days of the week, months, and a few things they really wanted to learn, like how to say ¨I love you.¨ It was odd to see women around the same age as myself not having any hope of advancing into a better career than being a servant. The gap between the poor and the rich in Lima is as wide as I´ve seen in the world. It was time well spent and at the end of the lesson we exchanged emails to be able to practice our english/spanish.

I aquired some coloring books and crayons from some people in the volunteer house who were not able to use them and brought them with me to Deporte y Vida today. They were a hit. It was amazing to see such excitement over a simple thing like some crayons and a coloring book. These children don´t take anything for granted and are so thankful to have whatever they can obtain. We colored for hours and I took pictures of the kids. It was hard to keep hands off the camera because they all wanted to look at each picture I took, directly after I took it. I got some heart-warming shots though, and I can´t wait to share them.

Life in Lima

Yesterday was an awesome expierence in Villa El Salvador. Deporte Y Vida and many other schools and organizations conducted a parade through the dirt roads of Villa El Salvador. The theme of the parade was ¨Save the Earth¨ and many of the children built characters and made signs. The idea is to start fresh with the youth of this country and have them influence their parents into ¨going green¨. It was so much fun to march with the kids and I think it helped to have a few Americans along side the youth teaching them ways to protect the earth. I took turns being inside a gigantic head costume with waving hands and a moving mouth. The kids enjoyed it and were really enthusiastic about not polluting. It´s a great sight to see kids out playing with other kids instead of watching TV or playing video games. These kids have absolutely no money for these things so they have to play things like tag, soccer, and hand slapping games, childhood games that I believe are becoming less popular in the U.S.

Today we played futbol again. They don´t let the little girls play and I´m starting to feel like I might be spending too much time with the boys. I´m thinking about buying some arts and crafts supplies or some coloring books to do with the girls.

At the end of only my first week I have so much compassion and sympathy for these kids, it´s going to be hard to say goodbye in 2 more weeks.

Deporte Y Vida

Deporte Y Vida, the grassroots youth center I´m working at, is one of the most amazing things I´ve seen in my short life, despite the abismal conditions. While there is no running water, a lice epidemic, and stray dogs with diseases everywhere, the children´s faces don´t show a bit of despair. These kids come from families who live on less than a dollar a day for a family of four and are more cheerful and happy than any child I´ve ever seen. Let me walk you through an average day:

I arrive around 8:30 in the morning and am greeted with shouts of "Jota Be" and many hugs and kisses. I start off helping with their homework and teaching conversational english. I try to spend as much time with the little girls durring this time because I spend so much time with boys later in the day. I have one little girl who won´t let me out of her sight, Leyola. She has a open sore under her eye lid and her hair is infested with lice but she is the sweetest kid ever. After we finish with classroom work it´s time to head outside to play. I push the girls on the tire swing and help them cross the monkey bars. Around 10:00 the older boys finish their homework and come out to play futbol on the cement pad in the middle of the compound. Their ages range from 10-15. A Peruvian soccer teacher in his 20´s, Eduardo, is present and he organizes the game and acts as the referee. The three best players pick teams and we run "suicides" to see which two teams will play first. The first two teams play for approx 20 minutes and then the losing team switches with the team waiting to play. These kids eat, sleep, and breath futbol. At noon the older kids have to go to school so I walk up to where the pre-school age kids are. All I do with these kids is show them a little affection. Their faces light up when you play with them and they want to show you everything. At around 12:30 the driver comes and picks me up and I have to say "Hasta Manana"

I´ve only spent two days with these boys and girls and I´m already falling in love with them. Hope is in every one of their young eyes and being able to encourage them to pursue school and a better life is absolutely amazing. If one of these kids suceeds and moves out of this shanty town and becomes even a middle-class citizen, I will feel like I contributed to a better world.

Arrived in Lima

So after months of planning, fundraising, and excitement Ive finally arrived. I got in yesterday afternoon at about 3 o clock with the worst case of jet lag Ive ever had. Perhaps it could have been the pre departure party my Mom and Swede had for me but I was in no shape to be communicating with other human beings after an 11 hour flight.



Today was a different story. After sleeping for about 11 hours, and getting teased by other volunteers for it, I felt refreshed and like a whole different man. We toured Villa El Salvador, the community where most volunteers are placed, and I saw REAL poverty. Dogs eating garbage, children standing shoeless in a landfill, elderly parents abandoned by their children, and the funny thing about all this is the people in this village were optimistic. When our van pulled up to the senior citizen center that a few of our volunteers will be working at, a elderly woman who was not even educated enough to speak the local language of Spanish came to meet us in the driveway and did a song and dance for us in the indian language of Quechua. Later, I found out the song was about drinking beer which made me love her even more. We went in to the senior center and introduced ourselves and got an applause after each volunteer stated their name and where they were from.



Tomorrow I will be placed at my volunteer placement called Deporte y Vida (sport and life). Im so excited to meet the class of kids Ill be working with. A few of the volunteers who arrived 2 weeks before us seem like they fell in love with these kids. Its going to be a mind blowing expierence to see hope in the eyes of these kids whose families live on $1 a day.



We arrived back at the home base for lunch and I have to say that spinach soup was phenominal. Our chef named Lucia is constantly cooking for a house of 40 volunteers and does a great job. I tried passion fruit for the first time and I have to say the flavor is great but the texture is a bit...awkward.

Dinner is in 30 min and i better start walking back so stay tuned.
Hasta Pronto.

Anticipation

Anticipation is a common thread in all great things being waited upon. With 51 days left, I find myself not being able to think of anything except the journey that lies before me. It's a level of anticipation un-rivaled from any of my other trips abroad. It's a funny thing this...Anticipation. Often the most memorable expierences in life are the intangibles, the un-anticipated. However, in a few special occasions, a much anticipated event exceeds your criteria. A great movie you can't wait to see. A date with a crush. A reunion with a friend. These moments that bring pure hapiness, when something you anticipated would be excellent surpassed all your expectations and became something special in you. These moments you will remember for as long as your soul remains.

Fundraising Letters Pt. 2

The letters are arriving at their destinations today and I'm overwhelmed with anticipation. Watching my "idea" become reality after countless hours of planning, letter writing, and footwork, is an experience I wish I had the words to explain! However, I don't think a best-selling author could describe how I feel today. I put an important piece of my soul in those 22 letters and mailed them to the most important people in my life. I thank all those who helped me with them, especially my family and girlfriend. Without their resources, criticism and support these letters may have never been produced. Now the time has come to wait...

Fundraising Letters pt. 1

As I'm preparing to mail my fundraising letters, I'm finding myself a little aprehensive and anxious. Aprrehensive that I'm having to ask friends and family for money (which I absolutely hate), and anxious to see how the people I'm so close to will respond. I'm excited to see if one person and his immediate friends and family can improve a community half a world away.