El Carmen, Moyocupe and San Antonio projects completed

We made a brief trip to Tùcume this morning to see if the classroom furniture for El Carmen, Moyocupe and San Antonio had been picked up and if the teachers were satisfied with it. There were no complaints. The Moyocupe classroom is indicative of the other two schools. Shelves had been assembled, whiteboards mounted, and the room was dominated by shiny new chairs and tables. The teacher, Lucy Lopez said she was very satisfied with the carpenter’s work, and went on to talk about how important the furniture is for her and the kids. She said that beyond providing organization, personal space for work materials and comfort, the furniture adds a formality and legitimacy to the teaching/learning process that is sensed by her and the kids. We hadn’t thought about that. It makes sense.

The project costs for the three schools were:

El Carmen  

4 tables & 8 chairs - $229.60

2 shelves – 47.59

1 whiteboard & markers – 50.49

Transport – 29.65

Total - $357.33

Moyocupe

4 tables & 6 chairs - $202.27

2 shelves – 47.59

1 whiteboard & markers – 50.49

Transport – 29.65

Total - $330.00

San Antonio

2 tables & 12 chairs - $223.34

2 shelves – 47.59

Transport – 15.41

Total - $286.34

None of these projects would have happened without the support of Chris Raupe, Clif Brown, Judy Berkow, and the Alice Cool Foundation. Please accept our sincere thanks and the thanks of the villagers. They know who helped them.

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We’ve covered a lot of villages and a lot of territory in the Tùcume District in the past two years, and thought that maybe there are some readers who might be interested in where these villages are located in relation to each other. This is a map that I began constructing some time ago. I keep adding new villages to it as we discover them. I have no idea how many more villages there are in this area. The southernmost road from Tùcume to San Antonio is asphalt. The others are mostly goat trails. The map covers only the eastern portion of the Tùcume District. The western portion is nearly twice as large with possibly three times as many villages. We’ll be visiting one of those villages next week.