Playing afternoon

August 22, 2011

Seeds of Hope, Peru
Laura Avram

    Every Friday afternoon, Seeds of Hope ¨quits school¨ and goes to play in the park. This is why Friday afternoon became my new favorite time of the week.    Now, do not get me wrong, I absolutely love teaching, doing all sorts of small projects and working with children in general. However, after what I see on Fridays, I think that an afternoon of play only does wonders in what concerns the relationship between teachers/volunteers and students. (plus it´s a LOT of fun !)    It does create a deeper bond than that between teacher and students to play volleyball or soccer together. It did make me get closer to the kids on roller blades whom I was dragging around and to the kids with whom I was skate boarding on my bottom ...

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Arranging books

August 22, 2011

Seeds of Hope, Peru
Laura Avram

    This morning was ¨one of those mornings¨ - I walk around asking who needs help, but I end up feeling useless because everybody is fine.    After helping one boy with his English homework, I did not have what to do. All the kids where being helped, the food was being cooked ... what were I supposed to do ?    Looking around, I, once again, came up with an idea - arranging the bookcase. Coloring books were altogether with story books in English and Spanish, with dictionaries and encyclopedias, random books (such as my favourites which were either on magic tricks or the Peruvian constitution) and other papers.    Even though today another volunteer and I managed to only organize the first half of the bookcase today, it felt quite productive. We taped all the...

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A great outdoorsy weekend

August 22, 2011

Seeds of Hope, Peru
Laura Avram

     I am going to start this post by saying that it is not related to the kids at Seeds of Hope. However, it is going to persuade you that if you are a sportsy, outdoorsy person, Seeds of Hope, Huaraz, Peru is a great place for you, where you should definitely come volunteer !     On Saturday, we climbed up to 4.400 m, at Laguna 69 - one of the most beautiful views on earth. I will upload a few pictures tonight (I need to get them from the other volunteer I went with - my camera is broken right now), but for now you can take my word for that. I have been to many amazing places, but this was just breath taking and awe striking (... and I...

Laguna 69 - PICTURE NOT TAKEN BY ME (credits to Lindsay Fiddle)

Laguna 69 - PICTURE NOT TAKEN BY ME (credits to Lindsay Fiddle)

Riding through the Andes - PICTURE NOT TAKEN BY ME (credits to Lindsay Fiddler)

Peruvian peasant - PICTURE NOT TAKEN BY ME (credits to Lindsay Fiddler)

Me at Laguna 69 - credits to Lindsay Fiddler

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Tibetan People are Wonderful

August 22, 2011

Lha Charitable Trust, India
neil guidry

Originally came here to Learn . Came back to Help and learned so much more. Kept coming back and learning and helping and growing. Life is so Beautiful !

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My house was broken into last night!

August 21, 2011

 So, as the title says, we were robbed last night. My roommate and I were not at the house, and someone broke in and stole our laptops, my roommate's credit cards and phone, my camera, my external harddrive, my alarm clock, my bookbag with my contact lenses in it (now I have one pair of contact lenses to last me 6 months).. ooof. I'm really bummed. The cheapest way to contact my parents back in Virginia is through Skype, so it looks like we're going to spend a lot of money on phonecalls now. I don't want to talk badly about the program I'm with, but I have to say that I am pretty upset about this, seeing as I mentioned the first day I moved into this new house...

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We cannot ask our students do what we ourselves refuse to do...

August 21, 2011

            This includes taking risks, following your dreams and most importantly following your heart. I’ve realized that much of what I want for these kids, I’ve only thought about for myself. How can I ask of them something I don’t ask of myself? It’s easy to say these things, but if you really think about it, how many of you have actually taken a risk recently? I think we become content in the safe zones that are our lives and we forget to follow our dreams in fear that we will fail. If there’s one thing I’ve learned since working with the students, it’s that life comes down to doing what makes you happy because at the end of the day, there are so many things...

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My time as a volunteer with Childline

August 20, 2011

Childline Uganda, Uganda
Mary Jones

At the beginning of August I began my short period of volunteering with Childline Uganda - an amazing charity doing fabulous work! When I first got in contact with Childline I was directed to John, the director of the charity, who was very helpful and was more than happy to answer any questions and listened to what you'd like to get from your experience with Childline.  When I arrived my accommodation was sorted and I would be living in the staff quarters in one of the high schools Childline works with.  The high school was very happy to have someone new there to chat to and they were great company as I was living in the house on my own.  The charity itself is very organised and I was doing a...

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Last leg of preparations

August 20, 2011

Intag, Ecuador
Ankura Ranade

So I finally got my visas! :) And now I'm all set to leave for Ecuador in a month's time to volunteer with Intag. I am very excited and a little little scared somewhere sometimes. But this fear of the unknown, uncertain is what makes this journey interesting, challenging and highly satisfying.  Now it was time to resign from my job and tell everyone why I am going, where I am going and what I will do. In the Indian context, its not very commonplace for someone to quit a very well paying job, stall a career mid-way and head off to the other side of the globe to volunteer. I got various reactions - my boss called it a "holiday" and told me that it was not the smartest...

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Changing lifestyle, but not so much

August 19, 2011

Seeds of Hope, Peru
Laura Avram

     Today, while at Seeds I thought how different my life is than what it would be if I were at home right now. In fact, I was meditating about that while I was cooking the children snack. (Before I would say - Me ? cook ? no way.) My diet is completely changed (including peculiar fruits I have never seen in my life, purple olives and purple maze etc. ), my sleeping patterns are also very different than usual (which is probably explainable - 7 hours of working with children is indeed exhausting), as well as most of my activities.        However, I wanted to still do some things that I like, even at 3000 m in the Andes, and yeees, it is possible !        For exemple, at the beginning I was really...

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Put Them First

August 19, 2011

Put Them First, Peru
Sarah Doherty

 I am immensely proud of my sister, Emma. She cares so passionately about the welfare of the children she taught in Chiguata in Arequipa, Peru that she has set up this charity to support them, facilitating not just their access to education but also meeting their very basic need for food. I have been a teacher for 9 years in the UK and value the role of education in giving children life skills to make better choices, improving their futures. When I travelled to Arequipa earlier this year, I witnessed first hand how dedicated Emma was to the children, to the school and to the local community and Put Them First is a testament to her dedication. I would encourage anyone with some time to spare who has a genuine...

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