Where we are going

So a little information about where we will be going to.  We will be travelling to Arequipa, which is in southern Peru, and we will both be working at a school there through a volunteer program called 'traveller not tourist'.  At the moment we plan to stay for at least a month.  I will try to do a bit of fundraising which will extend our stay there helping people for as long as possible since we will have to pay for accommodation and costs of living.

The school is called Flora Tristan and here is what the website says about it:

"Teaching at our school (Flora Tristan Magical World of English)
We are working with a very deprived community on the outskirts of Arequipa. The community is a group of people who "invaded" a peice of unclaimed land a few years ago. They then successfully petitioned the local authorities to give them legal ownership of the area. Many of the inhabitants are still without electricity and waste water disposal and they have only very recently been supplied with running water. Some of the children go to school, others do not. Some of the children work getting sand and rocks for building materials by throwing stones at, for want of a better word, a cliff on the side of a mountain. Their stones dislodge rocks and sand which falls down. Obviously this is a very dangerous occupation. Due to lack of education and access to contraceptives, there is a high rate of teenage pregnancy in "pueblos jovenes" (young towns) such as Chachani. There is also a high rate of domestic abuse, absent parents (particularly fathers), malnutrition, unemployment, child labour and, obviously, poverty.

Our objectives in this project are to improve the lives of the children there by spending quality time with them, keeping them off the streets and providing them with a stimulating environment and resources which they can utilise to improve their motor skills, concentration, confidence and social skills (and we hope to take some of the pressure off their parents while we are at it!) We teach English as the main source of income in Arequipa is tourism and the majority of tourists/travellers here speak English so we are providing them with a very desirable skill."

Thanks for reading.

Tickets booked for Peru

Me and Sophie have booked our tickets for Peru and I have been busy finding hotels on arrival and generally looking at as much information as I can about Peru.  We will both be updating this blog as we go along but probably more once we get to Peru on the 2nd September.  I will try to keep things short but sweet.


Thanks for reading


Tom