I had the fortune to spend a week as a Volunteer at WAVES for Development in Lobitos, Peru, and here is my chance to reflect on it. I went to Peru with few expectations, an open mind and an open heart. I could not believe how much of a profound experience it was for me.

One needs to fly to Piura, take a 1 hour and half bus to Talara and a 30 min combi through a dried up river and a desert to arrive to Lobitos. Once you arrive to the WAVES house the immediate warmth of the WAVES stuff surrounds you and one can feel immediately at home.

WAVES has a tremendous impact on the community, well beyond the surfing aspect. WAVES provides FREE english classes to the elementary and middle school of Lobitos. English is a compulsory subject at school in Peru and WAVES takes the burden and cost to provide these very needed classes. My experience at a school was great. I was helping the English teacher (WAVES staff) Alicia, during her class. The kids were well behaved, eager to learn and take in as much as possible. It does really make you stop and think looking at those kids. Those kids might not have the greatest things in life, but are incredible happy and all smiley (an happiness that doesn’t come as close at what I see at kids in San Francisco where I currently resides). It really makes me wonder, if we are missing the point on how we should really live our lives.

I also helped Dominic on the site where the new volunteer house and WAVES Community Educational Surf Centre will be. I cherish that day. I had the most interesting architectural discussions I have ever had and learn lot from him. People like Dominic is what makes WAVES a great ngo.

The best day I had volunteering was during the surf class taught to the kids of Lobitos. Till this day, I think that was one of my best days in Peru and in general in my life. We all went down to the ocean with surf instructor Seth, Jackson, Alicia and myself with 8 kids (around 7-8 years of age). The excitement of these kids was palpable. At the beginning of the lesson the kids along with the WAVES staff went around the beach to pick up garbage and put in a bag that was properly disposed at the end of the class. In this way, the kids learn the importance of taking care of the environment. After giving a short lesson on land, Seth and Jackson took a board and a kid each and went into the ocean. Alicia and I were responsible to pick up the kids at the end of the surf. Some of those kids are not really good swimmers and it is fundamental for adults to be there to pick them up. One of the kids managed to catch the wave and stood up. He saw me at the end of the surf and instead of jumping in the water, jumped on me and I caught and hugged him. He couldn’t stop laugh (full of joy and life) and I couldn’t be more grateful for that moment.

WAVES also involves Lobitos teenagers in working in the surf shop. Some of them shoot pictures for surfers that come to Lobitos, some others, with the help of WAVES, are becoming certified surf instructor and some others, after learning to surf thanks to WAVES, became so talented that even are participating on local and national surfing event sponsored by WAVES.

WAVES also helps improve living conditions for the inhabitants of Lobitos. They are helping with building their house floors. Increasing the level of hygiene in those houses. All these great work are an impact in Lobitos. The community loves WAVES volunteers and are extremely appreciative of their work. I went to wish goodbye to the family living opposite to the WAVES house (which also run a beer shop) and the old lady running the shop couldn’t stop hugging me and blessing me. One of those moment I will cherish forever too.

I left Lobitos with a sad heart but thankful to have met so many great people in such a short time. WAVES would not be possible without the incredible work of Dave, Tali, Seth, Kate, Alicia, Jackson, Dominic. Truly incredible people that I feel privileged to have known.

If anyone reading this post is still wondering if go to Lobitos to volunteer, please I assure you, you won’t regret it, leave fear behind and go to Lobitos with an open heart and eager for adventure!

Baci
Serena

‘THWACK!’

The unmistakeable sound of an open palm hitting bare flesh proceeded one of those aching silences which always ensues once a child receives a bump out of the blue or in this case a smart slap to the face. I hadn’t seen the fight brewing as I was leading the kids back from the beach and chatting to a little grommet called Noe at the time. I hadn’t seen Kenghi kick Alexis in the back and had only turned once the latter responded with an open palmed right hook.

The silence was slowly filled by the bubbling gurgles of Alexis’ sobs. Kenghi, clearly shocked, was silent with his back turned and his head in his hands. As I walked back I got to Alexis first. His crumpled face was bawling through snotty tears and I knew that his sobs were not from the back pain he blamed them on. His broken and red face took me back to the intense feelings of shame, guilt and anger that I had once felt at his age, getting into irrational fights with my mates. Karen, one of the local kids that assist in the community surf program, got to Kenghi and started walking back with him. I was really grateful for her help and that I had a local person with me. I had suddenly been hit with a realisation of what I was doing and, for a brief moment, it dawned on me how out of my comfort zone I was, dealing with a group of kids whose backgrounds I had nothing in common to relate to and who all looked to me to take control and establish order on this situation!

I had a brief conversation with Alexis and, after calming him down, we managed to get all the kids back and into the house. With some strong encouragement we avoided them using all our water for showers, stopped them from trampling on our front garden, kept them out of the kitchen and far from the risk of chopping their hands off with our knives and somehow fought neoprene for long enough that, eventually, we had eight fully changed wet haired, salty faced, tired and stoked little Lobiteno grommets ready to go home.

Surfing gives us great friendships, hence we can help to create a supportive social network for young Lobitenos.

I hadn’t forgotten what had happened though. It had been playing on my mind and I was certain that we had to cut it out. In the water, behaviour is never an issue, mother nature sees to that pretty quickly. But this community surf program is not just about being in the water its about solidarity on land, cohesive fraternity and mutual support. With this in mind I got all of the kids together and sat them in a group outside of the house.

‘Look guys, we all know that there was a fight on the way back from the beach today and I want to talk to you all about it a bit.’ I said, praying my Spanish would hold out. ‘You guys have been coming to class for a while now and we have created a group. But not only that, we are a group of friends and even more, we are a group of surfers. We have to help each other, not fight each other. If somebody does something to hurt you, you mustn’t hit them back. You must come and talk to me and we can solve the problem sensibly.’

I looked around and looked at quiet and humble young faces. To ensure that I was understood, I asked, ‘Who can explain to me and the rest of the group what I just said?’ The usual hands shot up, I waited for the meek, creeping paw of one of the shier kids and got him to recount it, which he did successfully. ‘Good’ I thought, something is sinking in, now for the hard part!

‘Kenghi and Alexis, I want you to apologise to each other and shake each others’ hands.’

Silence.

‘Kenghi?’

No reaction…

‘Alexis?’

Nothing…as I looked between the two of them I could feel my inspirational speech drifting off into a long forgotten past.

‘Right, well we are all going to wait here until you can look each other in the eyes and say sorry’, my last ditch attempt seemed pathetic, hopefully they didn’t realise my threat was empty!

To my relief Alexis slowly stood up in the centre of our circle, conspicious in his humility, and quietly but sincerely muttered ‘Disculpa’, his little hand stretched out in tentative armistice. Kenghi looked at me with the corners of his mouth turned up into a nervous smile, and I stared back, expectantly. He also stood up and replied uncomfortably but audibly, ‘Disculpa’. The two shook hands. At this point I lost my head, I started applauding and grinning stupidly, handing out high fives and the like. I brought them in for a group hug and then sent them on their way with Karen to their homes in Primavera feeling like I had dodged a bullet.

Some shakas and high fives after a good session!

It didn’t hit me until later when I was talking to Pepe a.k.a “El Diablo”, another local who works as an assistant to the community surf program, that this little story is in someways indicative of the lifeblood of what we are doing here at WAVES with the surf program. Pepe said to me,’ Si, Seth, es chebere, no es solamete sobre el surf, estamos ensenando…como…’

‘…Sociabilidad?’ I finished his sentence.

‘SI! Esa! La sociabilidad!’

Surfing is great. Its fun, its healthy and it makes for really good photo opportunities for marketing campaigns. Brilliant. But we’re not saving the world by getting kids stoked on surfing, far from it. What we are doing with the community surf program, however, is giving a small group of kids a few hours in the day when they socialise with their peers in an organised atmosphere and develop new forms of peer to peer relationships. If we can rub off a bit of friendly compassion and social responsibility in the process then all the better for it.

‘group hug’

Again, here’s the link.  Please direct any questions to mhughe6@clemson.edu.

It all began for me when we enlarged the size of the waves house front garden, using crushed bamboo canes, and a variety of recycled wood from the waves land to create a perimeter fence shelter young plants from the strong winds and the local dogs from digging them up. A couple of choice bits of wood were used as support poles to hang a hammock from, and a rustic bench was mounted on the fence to complete the seating out on the step. We then moved on to build a trellis in the form of a wave for passion fruit to climb, providing well needed midday shade on our well used step, not to mention plenty of home grown passion fruits when the season comes around. Some of the team then traveled to Sullana to get compost, seeds and a few new plants. Upon returning we prepared the some flower beds with the compost, wood chips (sourced from a lumber yard in Talara) and local soils to create a fertile mix to nurture the new seeds and plants, and to propagate the already existing ones. A few larger trees were also planted expanding the greenery out from the Waves house., which will eventually grow large enough to give shade to the ever expanding garden.

four months later

Now a few months on we’re seeing the positive results of our work, and a lot of watering (reused water from the Waves house), the passion fruit climber has almost fully covered the Trellis and is in the process of attaching itself to our over hanging roof, recently starting to flower and bear fruit. We have three varieties of pepper plants, basil, Thai basil, rosemary and even a water melon growing there now (just to name a few) which we can use in our cooking or in providing seeds to help cultivate waves site. Birds and butterflies such as the Danaus Plexippus and the Oasis Humming Bird have been visiting the garden bringing a refreshing touch of nature and color to a rather arid area. Another benefit that has come from developing the front garden has been that it has seemingly inspired some of our neighbors to start small gardens of their own, some of which we have managed to help out with seeds to start of with.

the first round of passion fruits is on its way

our spicy hot chilli peppers

UPDATE:  Thanks to everyone who came out and supported the Green-Go Solar Event in Seattle!  Congrats to all the winners and many thanks to the sponsors.

For the last two months I have been teaching English in the Lobitos Primary School.  I teach grades Primary First through Primary Sixth (children ages 5-12). The year has been quite eventful so far, with the first week of school perfectly coinciding with five days of downpour rain (the only five days of the entire year, mind you), two all-village parades, Earth Day, the anniversary of Lobitos (a multi-day celebration), and El Día del Niño.

My students have worked hard to learn colors, shapes, fruits, and common local foods.  I try to fill my classes with as many fun, hands-on activities as possible. So far this year some of my favorite activities have included ABC Bingo, colors and shapes with a ‘Quick Draw’ coloring competition, fruit vocabulary with a take on ‘sharks ‘n minnows’ (English Bulldog), and food vocabulary.

The kids love diverging from their normal classroom routines, and it’s really gratifying for me to be able to sit back and watch as they teach each other the English words and grammar necessary to keep their games moving quickly.  After not knowing what to expect from students coming from a wildly different background to my own, I am quietly confident about the progress that we’re going to make together over the next year.

-Kate

First grade throwing the shaka!

Lobitos Day Parade!

While we like to celebrate Earth Day everyday, it’s nice to do something a little extra special to celebrate Earth Day. A growing tradition in Lobitos is the Recycled Clothes Contest in primary and kindergarten judged on creativity and amount of recycled materials used. Organized by WAVES Environmental Education instructor Sonia, with the help of Irene, WAVES Administrator.

• Nick Coty
  
• Maegan Hollister
• Michelle Nance
• Monique Pomahatch
• Wilson Gomez Alvarez

We are excited at the caliber of plans and ideas that each of these people possess. Learn more about a couple of the finalists who have created fundraising pages on StayClassy.  I encourage you to support either or both in their efforts before the May 31st deadline!