It is just over a week now since we were welcomed in to our School in Pisco, Peru. All our induction progammes are completed now and the last week has really been great fun.
It started it off last saturday with an open day with parents, teachers and volunteers. Whatever could be painted was painted, whatever could be cleaned up was cleaned up all to the sounds of South American pop music blasted from the school antenna.
It was great to see so many Telefonica employees make the trip down from Lima to help out. On Monday it was really rewarding to see the children particularly appreciate the new school murals and the volley ball courts new line markings. We still have a lot to do but it was a great start.
Since the earthquake two years ago many of the school families have been displaced inland from Pisco to its suburbs in the hills. We were invited to visit to highlight the poor conditions that the people are living in. There no running water and basic sanitation. The buildings themselves are basically temporary constructions at best with no recogniseable road access.
It certainly highlighted to me the great work that this Pronino school is doing as when the children are here they want for nothing. There is a very good educational programme backed up the Telefoniaca online educational programme Educared. The Telefonica foundation has funded a really good computer room with twenty computers and broadband access. Every morning we work with the children, parents and teachers on the educared programme.
My other classes are sport and theatre. We brought a load of sports equipment from Ireland and England that have really been well recieved. Alex from Leeds in the UK has also exported British Bulldog to South America which they love. It is their new favourite game. We have tried to encourage teamwork in all our games and co operation.
Some of the children come from very disadvantaged backgrounds so we are working on improving their confidence. Other children have problems interacting in general with others. The theatre class has been an excellent medium for the children to express themselves. Monica from Argentina has lots of experience in this area and has brought lots of ideas and games to each class.
We played a blindfold game yesterday where half the children were blindfolded and had to rely on a partner to guide and support them. They idea was to build trust in each other. The children did not know what to make of it at first as it as a new idea and frightening but by the end they loved it. I am realy looking forward to see how these new initiatives progress during my time here.
Our Pronino volunteers are blogging from Latin
America. To find out more about Proniño, head to
http://dnc.o2.co.uk/home/Pronino.To see pictures taken by the team, head to Flickr.
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