In Pisco the majority of children only go to school for half the day, so PSF funds two Ludotecas (day care centres) where children from the ages of 1 to 16 can come when they are not at school.  The Ludoteca in an area called Alameda was lucky enough to receive a grant from  an English charity, The Mandala Trust, and when I arrived two of the other volunteers, Emily and Brian, had been working on plans to make the days at the Alameda Ludoteca more structured, by having a Project Leader each week who would oversee the running of the Ludoteca. I'd been doing some construction and DIY since I joined PSF, but I jumped at the chance to become the leader for the next week - I have worked at a summer camp in Vermont for the last three years and I love working with children.

At the Alameda Ludoteca we have something different going on each day now: Tuesday is Arts and Crafts day, on Wednesday we have English lessons, Thursday is activity day, Friday is Passport day and Saturday mornings again are English lessons. Passport Day is a particular favourite - each child that comes to the Ludoteca on a Friday has their own 'Passport' and each week a new volunteer comes in and talks about the country that they are from or a country that they have visited and at the end we stamp their passports with the new country. Most of these children have never left Pisco, let alone Peru, but they all wanted to tell us all the exciting places that they wanted to go and visit, and they absolutely love having their own passports!

I've now spent 2 weeks working at the Ludoteca and I just can't say enough how much it means to these children. As I walk down the street to the Ludoteca I often hear my name called out by the Ludoteca regulars, and they rush in with so much excitement to start their morning or afternoon. Some of the children who really stuck in my memory were 10 year old Luchito, who on Pirate Day had the initiative and creativity to design and make his own pirate hat, and Joao (5) who is unbelievably bright for his age and loves to show me his writing skills. Then of course there is Jeremy (9), who particularly loved the 'Bananas of The World' song that I taught the kids and would ask to sing it with me every day - he was always helping get everyone organised when we played games or sang a song.

There are quite a few older kids who come to the Ludoteca as well, the 14 and 15 year olds. Sometimes it's really difficult because there are some activities which don't appeal to them and they can be disruptive, but on Friday they really listened with interest as Carlos spoke about Spain, and shared spanish omlette, and they also love to play Uno! I'm going to try and get hold of some other games which don't need lots of little pieces (which would no doubt go missing!) In any case, it's clear that they love going to the Ludoteca, they don't want to be pthe streets, and in the future it would be incredible to see something more permanent and slightly separate set up for teenagers. Something to help them with their school work, or teach them useful skills that will open doors for them in the future.

Lastly I wanted to say a few words about Vitalina, the teacher who PSF employs to work at the Ludoteca permanently. The children adore and respect her, and she constantly has a smile on her face. Her three children who come to the Ludoteca are I think the politest children I have ever encountered, although in a way she has over 40 children since the Ludoteca children see her as a second mother.  She gives the children the consistency that is not always possible from the volunteers, and she is the reason why they feel so at home there. She can't do it alone though and is so grateful when the volunteers come in to help her keep the children inspired and entertained.

So if you are a new volunteer who is thinking of helping out at the Ludoteca, I urge you to go regularly and get to know these kids, to understand what it is they enjoy and what it is they need, so that even the quietest children open up and join in, and perhaps most importantly to give your own ideas and input so that the Ludoteca can grow.

I´ve spent 3 weeks at PSF and am about to head back to the UK for Christmas.  Out of my 6 months of travels so far 3 weeks is a regrettably  short amount of time.  Out of my whole adult life 3 weeks is only a blink of an eye.  However,  these 3 weeks have truly been 3 of the most incredibly special, funny, hardworking, friendly,  busy, proud, and emotional weeks ever,  and I shall remember this blink of my eye for the rest of my life.

This experience of helping families in need and creating new homes where previously there was only bare ground is one of the most humbling things I have ever done.  The families I helped are so friendly and gracious, and being able to use my own labour and undertake construction tasks I previously had no clue whatsoever about (being someone who is very bad at DIY!), has been sometimes overwhelming, as it shows that if we want something badly enough, we only need to set our minds to it in order to achieve it.  That´s definitely the ethos of PSF, and is how the organization as a whole does such great work for the communities of Pisco - working together in a team with one aim, we really can achieve miracles. 

Much of my time in the last couple of weeks has been working on Erica´s new house in El Molino, effectively a shanty town in the desert where people fled after the earthquake and have been living in terrible conditions ever since.  The government is now in the process of starting to give families here rights to their own land, and many people are therefore having to move their entire house to their new plot.  When I joined the project Erica, her husband, and their 5 children including 5 month old twins were living in two small rooms under tarpaulin sheets which PSF had amazingly constructed in one day as they had had nowhere to sleep that night.  After that, drainage pipes were put in for a future connection to the water supply, and day by day the house grew so quickly as we built a structure of solid wooden frames covered with tarpaulin.  In this way in the future the house can be converted to permanent walls, floor, and ceiling without having to redo the main structure, a concept I found pretty ingenious.  I know I will never again be able to sit at my office desk and staple a document together without thinking of PSF and the staple gun I used to fix the tarp in El Molino which created Erica´s home out of the desert.  Yesterday we finished securing the front walls with bamboo sheets, and the finishing touch was to put in place a clever organic composting toilet, which will make a huge difference to the living conditions and the dignity of the family.

On a lighter note, the experience of getting my hands on heavy duty power tools and feeling like I was in some kind of rock music video was also pretty cool!  I´m still rubbish at bricklaying so won´t be giving up the day job just yet, but it´s still strangely fun to get constantly covered in cement and dust and haul around heavy wheelbarrows  – I guess you have to be here for that to make sense!  I saw how the simple concept of bags filled with earth can create earthquake proof buildings, drank a little too much rum, ate too much cake, and talked endlessly around the nightly PSF bonfire with a wide range of new friends from around the world.  As each volunteer spreads the message to their friends and family it creates a truly worldwide PSF community.

I was lucky enough that my own friends and family gave donations in response to my being here.  In turn I could pass on the good news to José and his family (who Tom and Michaela wrote about last week on this blog) that I can help contribute towards finishing off their house and shop in order for them to start making a sustainable living again, and to live once more as a family in their own brick house.  It´s a wonderful Christmas present for José´s family, including his beautiful daughter and a great friend, Pilar. I´m so looking forwards now to spending Christmas with my own family, but a special place in my heart will remain forever for all the families in Pisco, and for the PSF family itself.  Feliz Navidad!

For me the highlight of our trip around South America so far has been our two weeks volunteering for Pisco Sin Fronteras. We had an unbelievable opportunity to help a very special family, one who we will never forget and will really really try to visit again in the future...

Whilst at PSF I worked on a few different projects, playing with kids in a local playgroup funded by PSF, making toys for Christmas from scrap wood and metal, teaching english to local fishermen etc. But for the vast majority of our time there both myself and Tom worked on a site helping a local family rebuild their lives.

The family was the Hugo family. Their house and small shop had been flattened in the earthquake in 2024. Since then they have been saving to afford enough materials to rebuild but could not afford to pay for the labour. So PSF were there to help, offering highly skilled free labour - US!!!

Jose Hugo (or Papa as I called him by the end of our time there!!) was the head of the family and clearly a man who was working extremely hard to provide for his family and make a future for them. He currently lives in a make shift house beside the site we were building on. The house was made of bamboo and tarp and was filled with, what looked like, things they managed to rescue from their previous home.

He was a man of few english words and our spanish isn´t that hot, but the relationship we built over the two weeks of working for him and his family meant at their end we didn´t want to leave.

Jose was there every morning greeting us with a smile and gratitude that "The Irish", myself, Tom and our leader Emmett (who handed over leadership to Tom in the second week) had turned up again to help him build! Over the two weeks we mixed mortar, layed bricks for all his internal walls, dug trenches and poured concrete for his floors and columns. And generally had a great days craic with him.

His daughter, Pillar, would also be on site helping out were she could and running to her sisters at 2.00pm everyday to pick us up some fantastic lunch made by her sister, Chara and Mum. They even made me a special soup on the day I was sick and Pillar came to the hospital with me to translate the "difficult impatient Cuban Doctor" spanish into "simpilar spanish that Michaela could understand", i.e. she would say a sentence twenty different ways until I got it!!!

To be honest at the beginning of the two weeks I questioned why PSF were helping Jose´s family when there were many families much worse off than them. But the more I thought about it the more I concluded that everyone has the right to a good standard of living. Some might be on the very bottom rung of the ladder and some might have worked up a few rungs through hard work, but they are all still at the bottom of the ladder and still deserve help. Jose had worked extremely hard to save and buy the materials for his house and shop and with them he will be able to provide a secure and better future for his family and I feel very honoured to have been able to help him do that.

Before we left we made a quick dash to the printers to buy Jose a sign for the front of his shop as a leaving present. They named it ´Tienda D´Chin´ after his son who had died when he was only 7. He invited us back to see the finished shop and get some free beer woohoooo!! Hopefully we can make it back some day. PSF is doing great work in Pisco and long may it continue. The drive and enthusiasm of the volunteers there was inspiring. PSF is a great acronym for Positively Shaping the Future.They improve they future living standards for so many in Pisco but also shape the lives of so many volunteers who pass through the organisation.  

Muchas Gracias y Bueno Suerte por la futura...  

Michaela and Tom

I have barely 3 hours left in Pisco and I am sad. I feel like I am leaving the best job I have ever had. It is customary to make a farewell speech when you leave PSF but I really didn't feel up to it this morning so I will say what I have to say here.

It has been over two months since I arrived in Pisco and in that time I have been so touched by the generosity and dignity of the people here. Let me tell you about one of them: Melissa is the mother of 4 young children. She lives close to the centre of town and her house fell during the earthquake. When we first visited Melissa to assess her situation we were confronted by the most appalling living conditions. The pipework from Melissa’s toilet had been damaged during the earthquake over 3 years ago and raw sewage was backing up in four places in her makeshift home. She didn't have a floor, she didn't have walls. Her children had all contracted typhoid. I cannot explain how horrific the situation and the smell was. Two former volunteers Scott and Allan were so moved by Melissa that they donated money from their charity to help her. My interest was tickled on hearing that there was raw sewage involved with the project and I promptly signed up.

We set about finding out where the problem was and after a few days in the sewers Melissa’s pipework was fixed and ready for its first cargo. We decided to lay new pipes for her and to connect her to the water supply. This involved trenches. If you read Ollie's blog you will know the value of trenches. One fine day 13 volunteers arrived at Melissa’s house armed with pick axes, shovels, spades, buckets full of enthusiasm and they started to dig. Trenches were dug, pipes were laid and Melissa had herself some fine drainage. Melissa is benefiting from PSFs Miracle Fund and she is getting a modular home which will be made from pallet wood.

Melissa now has a floor. Before Christmas she will have a home. I visited her today and she is so happy and so grateful.. She wants to ring me on Christmas Day.

And so my time is up, another volunteer leaving. More will arrive tomorrow and the next day and the next. All are important to the people of Pisco and to the community of volunteers we have here. I will miss PSF and Pisco.  So it's goodbye to all the friends I've made past and present. You have been my family for the past two months, and as much as I am looking forward to seeing my own family after almost a year of travelling, a part of me wishes I could stay, but you have to move on sometime. I have laughed lots, worked hard, drank massive bottles of beer and I'm sure later on I will cry.