Gettin’ it done in Los Sanchez

This morning couldn’t have gone better in Los Sanchez. The furniture arrived five minutes before we did. We brought with us a whiteboard with markers and erasers, and two storage shelves. In just a few minutes the women and kids had everything inside the building. After a few more minutes the shelves were assembled and the whiteboard was hung. The man on the right in the photo is Maribel’s brother Luis. He is visiting from Lima and was a big help in transporting items and assembling the storage shelves (and in making a duck disappear which will be explained later).

What a difference from our first visit when the room was empty except for pails and bricks that the kids were sitting on. Now it looks like a cheery, vibrant classroom. I’m sure more organization took place after we left. This project felt good to us. Three months ago there was no school in Los Sanchez and no option for the kids to attend school in another community. Today there is a fully equipped classroom ready to go.

If you take a look at the whiteboard you’ll see the names of the folks who made this day possible. The printing is not perfect, but the boy who wrote it (dark blue shirt) took 15 minutes to get it done and he was proud of his work. So were we. Thank you from them and us.

When things calmed down a bit the president of the parent’s association mentioned their goal of a new school, as she did during our last visit. She gave us a copy of the deed describing a vacant lot owned by the community for the purpose of a pronoei. We have never worked with a group of women more dedicated to their kid’s education than these mothers. These women are not going to let the issue go until either a school is built or it’s proven impossible. They again asked if we would attend a meeting with school officials in the city of Tùcume. We told them we would. I’m betting it won’t be long before we get a phone call from them.

We anticipated a cost of about $700 for this project. The actual was $545.77. The savings came about because of a great job by Karina, the teacher in negotiating with the carpenter and in Maribel getting a reduced rate on the whiteboard.

As we were leaving, the women gave us a variety of food items including bananas, sweet potatoes, papayas, and a duck roasted over an open wood fire. Less than half of that duck made it to Chiclayo. The bananas took a beating too.