My first week here was both exciting and exhausting.  I arrived late at night on Monday the 18th.  Both Luz and Yrma greeted me at the airport.  We were all so excited to see each other and it felt good knowing that we were only a few weeks away from beginning Light and Leadership’s programs.We couldn’t have been more fortunate with our schedules.  Luz normally is gone all day, Monday through Friday from noon until 10:30 pm, attending classes at the University of San Marcos.  However this past week, the students had a one-week vacation.  This left us so much time to start preparing everything for both our programs and volunteers.

The week was filled with purchases in preparation for June.  Luz, Yrma and I traveled all over Lima to purchase the necessary items. We bought bed frames, mattresses, dressers, a kitchen table, a stove and a fridge for the volunteers.  We purchased tables, chairs, white boards, and a large bookcase for our programs.  We still have more program materials to purchase, like books in Spanish for both kids and adults to fill our library.

I’ve definitely been learning more and more about “how to do things” in Peru.  For example, “en efectivo” means you must pay in cash.  This is true for Internet service… I was surprised at the idea that I couldn’t pay automatically with my credit card.  Instead, there are payment centers in different districts, there is one in Ate, where you wait in line to pay all your bills at once.  So once a month, I’ll make the trip to pay for internet, electricity, water, etc. All in cash! I don't think I've used cash so much in my life as I have in the past week.

Our first volunteer arrives May 29th and after that, we will welcome four additional volunteers to spend the next few months with us.  We have also recruited a volunteer from France who is working with a micro-finance association in Huaycan.

We call him “Chocoloco.”  The first reason being that he called “Choclo,” Peruvian corn, “chocoloco.”  It was quite amusing and therefore his nickname was born.  We discovered it was even more fitting as he is obsessed with chocolate, which in Spanish can be shortened to “Choco.”  Ha. This name was his destiny I suppose…  He’s living in our house until August or September and has been a welcomed, although unexpected, addition to our team.

On June 6th, we are planning an inauguration celebration, where will invite several of Huaycan’s officials and community leaders, along with families from Zones Z and R.  On June 7th, we’ll begin our programs with English and French language classes.  Stay tuned for more!