AYP: Computers and Homestays

It has been a relatively quiet two weeks in Casa Mosqoy. The month of fiestas is over, the city is returning to its “tranquilo” atmosphere and filling up with the summer tourists. The Casa Mosqoy and the Mosqoy program keeps on, with Mosqoy 4 students beginning their new semesters and Mosqoy 5 continues to work hard on final projects (less than three weeks left of their first semester!). Mosqoy 3 has completed half of their four modules for their curso de actualización and the house is generally quiet during the day as the majority have found jobs or practicums, or are in class. At night, though, dinner has become a large, loud event once again.

Rudy's the lively one giving peace signs!

As we are a Canadian/Peruvian organisation, we had a small celebration for Canada Day in the house. We bought huge pizzas, and Kristina bought a surprise dessert of pan au chocolat for the students that night (she was going to make butter tarts, but time and ovens were in short supply). Our plan to go out dancing was nixed by exhausted students and volunteers, but as we are in Cusco and fireworks are constantly going off - we didn’t entirely miss out. In other cultural news, we had another successful intercambio with the San Blas School. On July 2nd we ate a delicious local squash meal called “Locro de Zapallo”, and welcomed students from San Blas and the Davis family from Canada. Irene made a beautiful presentation about her home community of Amaru, and we all had a good time when Mosqoy students introduced themselves in English and visitors all introduced themselves in Spanish. An extraordinary effort made by all. We also had to say goodbye to a dedicated volunteer with the San Blas School who helped coordinate this program: Rudy. He is heading back to complete his studies: Safe Travels and Happy Studying!

Mosqoy would like to thank the Davis family for their generous donation of four laptops! The students truly enjoy having them, and they are always signed out. They are also going a long way for the administration of AYP and Qente, who can have specially dedicated computers for the programs. We would also like to thank our generous donor Irene from Brazil, who has also donated a desktop computer for our students. We have ordered the parts and are just waiting for them to come in so we can set up another computer station! On behalf of all the students and volunteers in Peru, a million times thank you.

Beautiful scenery in Ollantaytambo

At the beginning of the month, Kristina travelled to the picturesque Ollantaytambo to have a meeting with the families of Mosqoy. It is always a lovely time to meet and chat with the families of the students. We are transitioning to have them on the last Saturday of every month, so we have the pleasure of visiting the lovely town once more at the end of the July! Kristina also travelled to the community of Qenqo, where Q'ente constructed a community library. It was a successful meeting and check in - Batallion Park School in Calgary completed a vote on where they would like their fundraising efforts to go (hiring a librarian, renovating a space for the librarian to live in, and buying new books with a focus on early readers) and we were able to work with the school director to come up with a timeline. We are looking forward to moving on in this project in September/October and hopefully have a self-sustaining library come next May or June.

We are currently planning a workshop with our partner, Threads of Peru, in the community of Rumira at the end of the month. Tourism students from Mosqoy will help develop the community homestay program. Everyone is excited about the beginning of new Kallpa K’oj projects such as these. Students have been working towards completing their volunteer service hours, as always. Eurelesis went to Huaran to assist Maggie in the monthly meeting there, and Marco hiked three hours to Cancha Cancha to translate from Spanish to Quechua for their weaving association.

Our lovely library in Qenqo!

We would like to express our apologies for any affected by recent flooding or storms. Our students are well aware of and sensitive to the devastating effects of flooding and are thinking of those trying to rebuild.