Day 5: Puno

We woke up on a Friday. Not the best night’s sleep: suffered from a bit of a headache. Most likely from a combination of bad sleep and altitude. It is easy for the body to become exhausted at such a high altitude. We went to the dining hall for breakfast where we saw all the girls moving about, setting the tables and serving, or sitting down waiting. The orphan girls were so cute and sweet. Most of us in our group either couldn’t speak Spanish or could only speak a little (Father as the one exception), so our ways of greeting them were simply, “Buenos días” or just a great big smile :D They totally loved having us there. They always talked and laughed amongst themselves, glancing over at us, and then smiling really big. Then they would turn away and laugh and smile some more. As soon as we walked in the room every time for meals… all eyes were on us.

The whole week breakfast was basically just bread, jam and tea. I was beginning to get a little weary of the lack of nutrition we were getting in Peru. After breakfast we visited the Mary Bloom Center.

The Mary Bloom Center began in 1994 by Fr. Bloom while he was serving as missionary in nearby Ilave and is named after his mother. It is a crisis pregnancy center as well as a tutoring center for children and teens. The crisis pregnancy center provides medical services to pregnant mothers, as well as courses in love, chastitiy, self-esteem, and natural family planning to pregnant mothers, married couples, doctors, midwives, and nurses. The center also provides medicine, food, clothes, scholarships, and school supplies. In Puno and nearby outlying areas staff at the Mary Bloom Center assess whether children are at risk of dropping out of school. If so, they are invited to attend daily tutoring help at the Mary Bloom Center during the school year. A Catholic summer camp is arranged for them while the children are out of school. click here for CNA article on Mary Bloom Center

Here is a picture of most of our group with the staff at the Mary Bloom Center:

Giving the staff supplies we brought from the States

The following are some pictures of the Mary Bloom Center:

Something I found interesting was often how nicely the Peruvians would dress… by the way they presented themselves, no one would ever know they were poor, yet their living conditions were awful. I suppose with so little money in the culture we live in today, body image would be top priority. And American culture is definitely seeping into cultures around the world. It’s so sad that cover girls are on billboards everywhere modeling a clothing or makeup product, in a poverty-stricken country.

Something else that was quite noticeable were the ads. Ads are not all that different in Peru then they are in the United States. However, if the ad had a woman on it, it was without a doubt, almost always a white female. Not so sure dark skin is as coveted down south as it is up north.

After the Mary Bloom Center we walked around town. At one point there was a procession right through the streets. At the front was a coffin held up by about four guys. Apparently it’s not uncommon for a procession through the streets of town to be done during a funeral. We also visited Father’s favorite bakery, which as the week went by, became our favorite bakery as well. The reason for this we very soon determined was how American it was. In other words, we liked it so much because we felt at home. Well, later we learned the bakery (Ricos Pan) was where the high class of Puno would go. Shows how dramatically different the social classes are in Peru vs. America.

The rest of the afternoon was free time, and Nonna and I just sat out in the sun, reading. We were in Peru at the end of December and beginning of January which is summer in South America. Due to the altitude in Puno though, it’s actually much cooler. Anytime we told anyone we were on our way to Puno they would always rub their arms and exclaim, “oohh mucho frío!” I finally asked Jorge whether it was really as cold as people said it was, since it didn’t seem possible for it to be colder than the north. And it definitely wasn’t. In fact, when it was sunny with little or no breeze, it felt just like a Seattle summer. This was mainly because of how strong the sun was at the altitude we were at. This also meant we needed to be really careful about sun exposure. We unfortunately found out later (and the hard way), this is really difficult to do.

While we were sitting in the sun in this little spot at the orphanage...

...four of the girls asked us if we wanted to play volleyball with them. I understood what they were asking! I was so proud of myself! The Spanish class I took during the fall quarter before leaving for Peru really helped me communicate with the Peruvians, obviously on an extremely basic level, but nonetheless it proved to be very helpful.

Later in the evening we had a group meeting to discuss Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday when we would be directing the first days of the summer camp for the tutoring kids at the Mary Bloom Center. Nonna and I were going to be the main directors which came as a bit of a shock to us both since we weren’t expecting so much responsibility. We bounced around some ideas and put together a tentative schedule for each day. We had the weekend (and pretty much the weekend only) to plan each day’s activities, along with sometime in the afternoon to discuss the next day’s plan. Planning and implementing 4 hours for three days is more challenging and time-consuming than it looks, even if it’s only three days.

My advice to you after this experience: don’t take for granted the directors and coordinators of events you attend no matter how short the events are!