Erick AYP: Scanning, Organizing and, oh yeah, Machu Picchu!

This month has zipped by so quickly! This will be my last full blog this summer because in four weeks I will be finished my time at Mosqoy and flying back to Canada. What a thought!As I pondered what to write about in this blog and looked back on what I did this month, I realized how difficult it is to pinpoint exactly what it is I do. Since my job is to assist Kristina in whatever needs doing to keep the AYP running smoothly and because Mosqoy is still a relatively small organization, every day looks different. So I will try to give you an idea of some of the odds and ends that keep me busy.

Last month we bought a scanner-printer, which we have been without for several months. One thing I have been doing this month is scanning every individual receipt for every purchase Mosqoy has made in Peru, correlating it with the record of the receipts provided by Kristina, uploading the image of the receipt to our organization work website, and filing the physical receipt in our filing cabinet. That has taken many hours of my time. Now all the receipts we have are neatly filed and we have a spare on record. Isn’t that dandy?

But having the physical receipt in a filing cabinet is only helpful if the filing cabinet is organized. Unfortunately, the office at Casa Mosqoy was overdue for a cleaning and organizing. So this month, I tackled this big project with help from Stephanie, the Resident Advisor. Now the office is more or less spotless and very organized. The pièce de résistance was an idea I had to make an alphabetical inventory of every single item in the office corresponding to where one could find it, as well as an inventory showing what should be in what drawer or shelf. Now it is very easy to find anything in the office.

What else have I been up to? Well, I have done my best to help Clara with family interviews. This involves going up to the communities where the students live – I mentioned we went up to Tanccac in my last blog – and talking with each student’s parents, getting to know them and their lives so we can form updates on each student. Sometimes my job is to help Clara with the actual interview or sometimes, since my Spanish is still quite sluggish, I film the interview and the family so Clara can make videos about Mosqoy as part of her communications internship.

One more thing I have been doing is trying to get back in touch with some of our program alumni. I have conducted two interviews with alumni so far and am working on an alumnus questionnaire to help get caught up on what each one is up to.

So now you know exactly the sorts of things I have been doing. There are many other small tasks: editing documents, uploading pictures, designing greenhouses (I will leave that for Stephanie to explain in her Casa Mosqoy blog to come). But hopefully now you don’t think I am just eating good food and going on holidays!

That reminds me, I went to Machu Picchu two weeks ago! And what a trip it was. I signed up for the “Inca Jungle Trek” with Johnny, one of our alumni who works for a travel agency. It was a four day trip that included downhill biking, zip-lining, lots of hiking including a bit on the real

Inca Trail, hot springs and, of course, Machu Picchu on the last day. It was very fun and I did lots of things I will never forget. I didn’t go with anybody I knew but because it was winter break in Chile, there were about fifteen Chilean university students on the trip. I got to make many new friends and practice my Spanish a lot. They were all very friendly, energetic, generous people and I was sad to say goodbye after only four days. There were also some people who spoke English, which made the trip easier. There are too many stories to recount in this blog such as experiencing a torrential downpour under a tin roof and watching the Chileans play billiards with a backdrop of buckets of rain; zip-lining head first over a giant canyon; biking on a road from alpine tundra down into the jungle; going across the Urubamba River in a pulley cart; laughing and joking with friends from different continents; taking a nap overlooking the vista from Machu Picchu; and hanging out at the Sungate at Machu Picchu with my Chilean buddies. All in all, I think it was the highlight of my time in Peru so far.

So that pretty much wraps up my blog. You may not be hearing from me again in this venue. I would like to say a big thank you for your support. Keep tuning in to all of the things Mosqoy is doing in Peru!