Our time at San Nicolas by Avalon & Manon

We’ve been on San Nicolas Urraca for 4 weeks and it was a great experience!

We started at the 21th of July and our final day will be tomorrow.
The last few weeks were great. Everyday when we came in, the kids gave us a kiss and a big hug, so cute! Luisa is great as well. She is always very friendly to her volunteers.
We played a lot with the kids and helped them with their homework.
We’ve collected some money in Holland and we spend it on the project. We bought a washing machine, a copy machine and together with Kathy we bought a see-saw. We hope that they will have a lot of profit of it.
As Kathy already told, we have done a lot of activities with the children, during their holiday. It is so nice to see how happy the children are with something that is actually quite normal for us.
This week we had a normal day at Monday. We just played and helped the kids with their homework. On Tuesday we went to the park, we wanted to go last week.
It was really fun! The kids enjoyed it very much and so did we!
Again there died a woman in the community, so it wasn’t possible to get in the hall today. So we went to another small park. We played football. We, against the boys and we did quite well actually! We played with a Frisbee as well. It was a really cool day again.
So tomorrow will be our last day and we are going to miss this project so much! All the lovely kids and off course Luisa.

New volunteers: good luck, but you will definitely enjoy your time at San Nicolas Urraca!!

Avalon Veldstra and Manon de Koning

Vacaciones!

The kids this past week have been on their holidays, so we, the volunteers, decided to arrange an array of activities for them to enjoy and also to cheer them up after Gaëlle, Olivier, and Elodie's departure (who, by the way, have done an AMAZING job on this website and deserve a huge San Nicolas style "GRACIAAAAAAS'').

En la semana que pasada los chicos habían estado de vacaciones entonces nosotros, los voluntarios, decidieron a arreglar una selección de actividades para divitirse y también animarse los niños despues de la departura de Gaëlle, Olivier y Elodie ("gracias" a ellos tenemos este sitio de web maravilloso).

Monday
On Monday, sadly, a lady in the community had died and the hall was being used as a wake, so we had to change our plan to make masks as we just didn't have the space or resources. So we decided to change to Friday's activity: the park. The kids were thrilled so we set off only to discover that the park was closed on a Monday. So we headed to another park which we though might be open but unfortunately that too was closed. However, the kids took it on the chin and our quick-thinking Dutch volunteers, Manon and Evolon, bought the kids icecreams which was a nice treat to end the day.

Tuesday
On Tuesday we had a but more luck and went to the zoo which, thankfully, was open. The kids ran all over the place, screaming with excitement. We witnessed all sorts; a puma fight, some slightly over-affectionate bears and a box full of turtles! By the end of the visit the children were thoughroughly worn out and we got the bus back to San Nicolas.

Wednesday
Wednesday we had a sligthly more relaxing visit to a cinema, owned by a very nice Danish lady who kindly oblidged to have 20 children into her filmhouse. We walked along Avenida de Sol until we got to Plaza de Armas and all the kids behaved impeccably on the walk. We arrived and gave the kids 5 options of films to which the reply was "KUNG FU PANDA!", which was, although I hate to admit it, a very funny film. We bought the kids cola and popcorn just to add to the authentic cinema experience. Afterwards it was pouring with rain so we decided to abort our plan to walk home and catch some taxis. When we arrived back the kids were practising their kung-fu moves, which was adorable!

Thursday
Unfortunately, because I got a bit soaked trying to hail a taxi on Wednesday, I was ill on Thursday. However, the school was very lucky to have Stéphane, a French history teacher, as a volunteer who gave a talk on French and Dutch culture and history, which I hear the children absolutely loved (or maybe they just love Stéphane!).

Friday
Today we had rearranged our mask making which really surpassed all my expectations. The kids are so inventive and artistic and they really thought outside the box when it came to mask making. Naturally all the masks were beautiful and I was so proud of the kids! Then we had a goodbye ceremony for Stefan which was really nice. The kids had put together dances, songs and skits which I think Stefan really enjoyed - he even joined in at one point! Then we all had some Inka Kola and biscuits, and then gave a sad goodbye.

Well done kids! Goodbye Stéphane!!

Lots of Love,
Katy xx

The creation of a facebook group

It is with great pleasure that we announce you that a facebook group has been created : San Nicolas Urraca.

You will find a short summary of the association, its activities, as well as pictures taken by previous volunteers.
You will also be able to invite all your friends or contacts to join this group. We hope that this new communication support will be of great help for the project, especially in recruiting new volunteers or visitors. If you help us with a little "word of mouth", the association will probably benefit from a larger support, even worldwide !!!

Concerning the previous volunteers, feel free to upload photos, post a comment or your past experience !
Do not forget that you can have your 15 minutes of fame : send us a picture and a small paragraph about your experience in Peru and in the association San Nicolas Urraca and we will post it for you on the blog !

We are counting on you !