The Awesome people at the Parish, Santisimo Sacramento, Piura, Peru

The people on my trip that have influenced me the most aren't the people that I help everyday, but rather the people that assisted me through all my stay here at Piura, Peru. These people are kind, caring, funny, and extremely hardworking. Everyday, they stay up late to help us to plan for the next day's mission. They are always ready in the morning to serve us and bring us to our project site. They never complain about their long hours and they truly love what they do! Here are some pictures of the people that I work with and love!

Fanni, the school principal of Madre del buen Consejo

Fanni is awesome and has provided us valuable insight into the school Madre del buen Consejo! She has a great sense of humor and knows a lot about everything, really!

With Juan Carlos

Juan Carlos helps to manage the wireless networks in the parish, and also helps out the missionaries' daily activities such as purchasing supplies for people, bringing people to different places, and managing the electronics at the school.  He's a great guy to hang around with and definitely cares about his work.

With Johnny

Johnny is the multitalented electrician at the parish. He wired all the routers here. I've been working with him for the past couple of days to improve the system installed here at the parish. He learns extremely quick and has taught me many things about wiring and electronics as well! In addition to all of these talents, he also plays the guitar with great mastery and often plays it during mass!

Kitchen staff,  Fatia, and I peeling carrots

 Everyday, the kitchen staff work extremely hard to prepare enough food for 72 missionaries as well as the staff at the parish! They're really kind, and they make delicious meals! Fatia, student nurse from Marquette University is multi-talented and extremely good at cooking as well!

From left to right: Edith, Reyna, Karina and Ginet 

Edith, Reyna, and Karina are all amazing social workers that somehow remember a humongous list of families and manage groups of missionaries! They're all amazing and they love the work that they do. I'm very grateful for their dedication and hard work. They really connect the families that we provide services to us. They explain concepts very clearly, and never hesitate to help others!

Last but not least is Ginet, the mastermind of the whole operation! She call me nachito!. Ginet plans the missionaries' activities for the day. She also coordinates with the families and other places such as the school, boy's and girl's orphanages, and makes sure that everything is working smoothly. In addition to all of these responsibilities, she has to pick up missionaries from the airport and drop them off there as well! Still, she finds time to be funny, amazing, and talks to us missionaries often to make sure that we have a fulfilling experience. Ginet's the key that makes the whole missionary program run, and without her expertise, I'm sure that the parish would go into some kind of chaos!

I'm very grateful for all the work that these people have put into the parish! Without them, this trip would definitely not have been the same, and their hard work ensures that everyone has a good time and that the parish runs smoothly! I haven't covered all the people at the parish yet; I just haven't gotten their pictures! I'll update this post when I have their pictures later! (Missing: Alcira, Victor, and a whole bunch of people!)

A Day at the Beach

Since the parish doesn't do work on Sundays, I went with the group from St Ann's parish, Texas, who just arrived yesterday, to spend a relaxing day at the beach. An hour's drive from Piura, the beach has a resort directly next to it and several fisherman as well. Along the beach houses were bags of sand to prevent the ocean from eroding away the house's foundation.

The beach!

Fisherman going out to sea to catch fish

 While exploring the beach, I saw tons of tiny snails in the sand. What surprised me was the lack of garbage on the beach. Usually, I can see tons of broken glass, but the beach was really clean and amazing.

Me playing in the sand 

And having fun :)

Sitting with the group from St. Ann's

We bought our lunch from the resort, and it was extremely delicious! I totally didn't expect an assortment of raw fish in lime juice to taste amazing, but I really enjoyed this dish.

Mixed Ceviche 

 At the end of the day, I got really sunburned, but I enjoyed this trip to the beach since it was a way to unwind. Since the beach is relatively close to Piura, and since some of the families from the villages visit it as well, it was nice to know that they could relax once in a while and head to the beach to unwind and forget about their troubles!

Distributing Solar Lights

Camping is our family tradition every summer. We would always bring solar lights to light up our camp site and tents. It is convenient and it is our back-up light for torchlight. Most of the time the rangers would organized some activities for the kids at their main camping site in the evening. We always managed to locate our camp site after the activities because our camp is always lighted. We would then turn them off before we go to sleep. So, I decided to bring solar lights to Piura, Peru. This is a pilot project of utilizing solar light as a source of lighting for the poor families. This green energy is very safe and Piura, Peru has abundant sunlight. My main objective is to help the poor villagers to have some source of light in the evening, so that both the children and adults can do some activities in the evening. If this pilot project works, I will start a program called Bringing Solar to Peru.

Together with Michael, we went to the outskirts of Piura, Peru to a small village called La Piedra to deliver solar lights to families that have no electricity. Many of the families are extremely poor, and all of them could not afford to pay for electricity. Although there are power lines outside all of their houses, many of the houses either utilize kerosene lamps, which are dangerous because they live in bamboo houses, or lanterns powered by batteries, which are equally dangerous because of their questionable method of disposing said batteries. In addition they have to purchase kerosene or batteries which left with little cash to spend on food and education.  In total, I visited 11 homes to deliver snacks and solar lights. 

Families have lights but cannot turn them on because  they do not have money to pay the electricity  bill.

Instructing families how to use the solar light with Michael, my awesome translator.

Teaching families the different ways the lights can be used.

The following are some pictures of me and the families that I visited. From these pictures, you can determine the conditions that they live in every day life. I am humbled that they share their stories of their life with me. Their hospitality and kindness despite their conditions are definitely extremely commendable. In fact, the lady at the last house I visited cried because she is overwhelmed with happiness.  Her house had no electricity or way to see at night.

Delivering solar lights to this family. The house is in darkness even during the day that the children have to stay outside the house for their activities.

You can see that the houses needed constant state of repair because it is made from bamboo.

Most of the families that I visited consist of parents (mom and dad) and 4 children.

Majority of the homes have mosquito netting. This is the main equipment to protect themselves against mosquitoes that causes malaria.

They are utilizing solar energy to dry their clothes.

This is the "living room" of the entire house.

T-shirts !

Michael and I handed out t-shirts from the parish to the adults. Even though we had an entire box of t-shirts, only for the adults, we handed the entire box of t-shirts in just one street of a single village.

Distributing t-shirts to all the adults of the families that we visited.

Wow, I didn't realised that there are so many adults just in one entire row of houses.

The reactions from the village clearly elucidate the fact that the villagers appreciate missionaries' help in the the village. They really touched my heart and I really want to help them as much as I can. Hopefully I can bring more and better solar lights next year so that the villagers can have light at night and be able to walk around their houses, and also give them hope that everything will improve, one step at a time.

I am very grateful to have this opportunity to experience and see for myself how these folks struggle to make a living. Reading them from books and National Geography doesn't even come close to the description of their way of life. I sincerely hope that my meagre gift will bring some happiness in their daily life. I truly belief that my solar light project will make an impact in their life.

Bringing Technology to Madre del buen Consejo

 Today, I visited the school to analyze the the teachers' technological needs. I also visited one of their English classrooms to find out the dimensions and see if it would be compatible with the two projectors that I brought down. The English teacher was amazing and kind, and offered me a chance to help teach their English class for the day after I had gathered all of the details concerning the classroom. I really enjoyed this opportunity as the students were willing to learn and extremely bright. I'm sure that the technology that Ms. Burson will be bringing down later will be put to good use.

I manage to pick up  some courage and introduce the phonetic method in teaching ABCs.

Thanks to my preschool teachers who drilled all the sounds through singing.

I held meetings with the teachers from elementary, middle, and high school while the students were at recess. These meetings helped me to assess the status of the school and the teacher's requests for items. Most of the problems the teachers encounter occurred because of lack of supplies. For example, although the teachers needed to print out worksheets every day, printing them out was a problem because of the lack of ink in the printers.

They explained that because of the lack of wifi in the schools, they could not readily create lessons or show videos to their students without previously preparing it at home, which is a hassle.They further explained that having Internet access would definitely be an asset since they could access textbook recommended resources to enrich their students' learning experience. 

Finally, the Internet would ease their teaching because it would eliminate a virus problem. Since the teachers have to transfer files from their home computers to the school computers, their USB's occasionally get infected. To prevent this, having school issued USB's and laptops for the teachers would work.

Interviewing some of the teachers at the school with Pedro from St. John Baptist, Oklahoma as my translator.
Thank goodness, Pedro is there. He is awesome.

Interviewing Elementary Teachers

Interviewing Middle School Teachers

Interviewing High School Teachers

I'm really glad that the teachers' needs align with the supplies that we brought down and the future supplies that Ms. Burson is bringing down. Both the students and teachers have tons of school pride, and to put it in the English teacher's words, "we'll improve step by step, and we'll be great in no time!"

The students are very interested and curious in what I am doing; particularly one middle school girl. 

I manage to teach and show her different ways of using words; simple functions like copy, choosing a different fond and other fun stuff....

Then, more students wanted to experiment with the computers. I really wanted to show the students there, how computers can enhance their learning skills and make a better persentation than normal writing using pen or pencil on papers.

Teaching and showing Mr. Julio how to set up and use the projector with the laptop. Now, he can project his worksheets, powerpoint and other materials on the wall. This definitely safe tons of paper and tons of trees......

Demonstrating and teaching the teachers how to back up and restore hard disk.

Both of the teachers will then use their knowledge to restore and maintain the laptop that they have at their school.

 Fun facts about the school, Madre del buen Consejo.

 It is a school from Kindergartner to High school (All in one compound). The school is surrounded by high walls.  Inside the school looks amazing but just outside, you will see piles of  sand/soil everywhere. I don't really know whether there is a construction going on. The place that caught my interest me is the door. It has a hugh door and within is a smaller door  for people to move in and out.

I just like to go in and out of this door. It's just like a play house.

High walls surrounding the school for security?

Looks like there is a construction going on. But where... ?

Drop -off area for the students. It really bring back old memories.....It's just like when I was at Elementary school.

Analyzing the wifi at Madre del buen Consejo

Today was an extremely eventful day!

I continued to diagnose the internet at the school and see if it could be remedied. Right now, the internet is provided by a private individual, not a company, that restricts the access to the internet to only 5 computers. Therefore, I could not connect any of the laptops that I brought over to the internet. However, the principal and computer teachers of the school are currently looking into the situation to see if getting internet from a company(Nextel) is possible.

Trying to figure out everything about the school wi-fi. The password, bandwave, router, monthly cost and signal limitation...

Connecting ethernet cable to the school main wi-fi router.

With the help from Juan Carlos, I manage to log-in to the router.

Connect laptop to school wifi; no internet connection. Connect using ethernet cable; no connection.   Why? Seems  that the router is MAC address filter that only allowed 5 designated connections! 

Showing the installed application to Julio with Pedro (man in black) as my translator. A real-life translator beats Google Translate.

I also configured many of the programs, such as Audacity and Skype, into Spanish, continuing the process that I started yesterday. However, since the computers do not have the Service Pack 1 update for Windows 7, which is a common problem yet to be remedied by Microsoft for many laptops, the operating system as well as programs such as Microsoft Word will have to remain in English.

Afterwards, I tried to set up linked gmail accounts for the teachers through Google apps for Education, but due to the cost and requirement of the apps, I was not able to set up gmail addresses for all of the teachers.

The computer lab

On the way back from the school, we had to rush two high school students from the school to the emergency room.  They were having heart problems and trouble breathing. It was extremely scary at that time since I had no idea what was happening. We were just about to leave the school, and the student nurses from Marquette were there too. Through their expertise, we were able to rush these two students to the emergency room without any further incident.

Delivering computers and investigating wi-fi connectivity at Madre del buen Consejo

Today, I travelled to Madre del buen Consejo to deliver all the computers, mices, projectors and computer speakers. The school students looks like the private elementary school that I have attended. All of them wears a uniform (teachers as well as students). Most of the students are from the poor family that could not afford an education. Some of the students are sponsored by the parish, Santisimo Sacramento. The school is about 1.6KM from the parish.

The school trip was tons of fun, and I really enjoyed seeing all the schoolchildren as they invited me into the school! The entire school came out to welcome us and it was very exciting. They performed several songs and dances as well that added to the fun.

The school students performing Peruvian folk dance.

The first time ever in my life that the entire school: students, teachers and principal welcoming us to their school. They even made a huge banner with all of our names on it.

I felt like a VIP (very important person)

Posing with some of the school students who are interested in learning American football. All the equipments are donated to the school.

Here we are ....doing the Tango with the students.......

We join in the Peruvian welcoming dance.

Last photo session with the entire school before we head off to start our mission.

After the introduction, I got to know several of the kids and took pictures with them. They were all very excited to see us as well!

The grandmother of this student ask for a photography session. I am so happy to have a snapshot with them.

My main objective is to bring technology to the school at Piura, Peru. It would be great if the school teachers can facilitate better teaching pedagogy through the usage of computers. It would make the lessons more fun and interesting. Hopefully the students will be more engaged and will continue their education to higher institution.

I am fortunate to have Michael, Rustin and Thomas helping me to unload all the equipments that we brought for the school.

Setting up the computers at the computer lab under the watchful eye from the director of the school.

The Physical Education teachers is very interested in computers. I  am showing him all the  softwares that are in the computers that we just brought in. I am using Google Translate to communicate with everyone. The wonder of technology..........

I am checking and trying to see whether there is any wi-fi connection at the school. I realised that the wi-fi is only for 5 computers at the school.  4 are at the administration building and 1 is with the Physics teacher.

Time to go back to the parish. All of us jump to the back of the truck. That's our transportation in Piura, Peru.