Little Libraries and our Trip to Sarhua :)

This is in the plaza at Sarhua.  The sun is very bright but you can see the traditional dress in the statue of the man and woman 

  **To support the new libraries and stock the shelves with books, you can donate at this wishlist  on Amazon!  Thank you!  **

Noe has gotten to go to Sarhua a few times with his work (they go monthly), and we decided that the kids and I (and Gemma), would accompany him so we could see what they do there.  Puriyninchik's objective in Sarhua is two-fold.  One, they are starting a library.  Sarhua (and many neighboring towns), not only do not have a library, but they don't have book stores.  So, inevitably, the children don't have any books in their homes.  That is hard for us to understand.  My kids had 100s of books at their disposal at home and 1000s at the library.  I always gave them a book they wanted for Christmas and it really wasn't anything special.  They liked it, but it's not something they got excited about or looked forward to.  

This is the center of Sarhua - the main plaza.

So, to imagine these little towns with no children's books, and the kids only get to read books when Puriyninchik takes their little traveling library to the town, is a foreign concept to most of us.  The kids eagerly await the arrival of Puriyninchik and look forward to the next time.

The second objective, is to provide some short sessions with the kids to encourage reading and literacy.  It's like a non-religious VBS :)  Three 2-hour sessions over a two day period where they read a book to the kids, discuss the book, play a game, do a craft and then, (their favorite part), they get to just sit and read the books.  

I was surprised to find out that here, in Ayacucho, there is also not a children's library.  Puriyninchik is  trying to start one here as well.  Very few cities in Peru are lucky enough to have a children's library.  In a previous post, I mentioned that the prices of some items here surprised me - some things are cheaper than I imagined, some things are more expensive.  Books, especially children's books, are more expensive.  It's hard for many of us in the US to buy a $15-$20 children's book...here, it's impossible.  Most of the good, hard back (durable), children's books are 50-75 soles each.  No family is going to pay for that.  Are you asking yourself right now - "how can I help?"...well, I'll get to that at the end ;)  

First, a few things I learned about Sarhua.  It's very cold in the evening when the sun goes down (40s?), but gets up to the 70s in the afternoon.  The houses are mostly made of dried mud/brick and the floors are mainly packed dirt or wood.  

Paul noticed some bricks drying in the sun a few blocks from the plaza.

A local family housed us while we were there.  And another family gave us breakfast when we arrived.

This is Brandon - his family served us breakfast and he let us hold his baby bunnies :) 

The bunnies were so tiny they fit in the palm of your hand!

This is the house we slept in - it was obviously meant for shorter people. lol.  We had to really duck going up the stairs as well as when we entered the room :)  But we were very happy with the rooms and grateful for running water (at least during the day) and electricity (no wifi and no signal).  

We got two adjoining rooms - Ella and I slept here.

These were tricky :) lol.  You really had to duck to make sure you didn't hit your head on the ceiling.  Gemma was scared to death of these stairs 😂

Sarhua is also known for their "tablas" and their dress.  The poncho Noe is wearing here is hand made.  We saw a woman walking around making one - also pictured.  I asked her how long it takes to make one poncho and she said around 5 weeks.  I didn't ask how many worked on the same poncho or if 5 weeks was for one person.  If you get up close and see the detail it's pretty amazing.  we asked about buying one and they are around 800 soles!  For the amount of time spent making one - I can see why!

they are very warm!

The spool is out of the picture on the ground...but she's holding the thread in her hand

everyone - boys and girls, men and women - also wore these hats around town.  They had flowers in them.  we were told that flowers in the front mean you're married, flowers in the back mean you're single!  although, if you look at the pics of the kids, they're mixed. lol

We didn't go see the tablas de Sarhua this trip, but here's an image I got off google.  They're quite beautiful! 

Now that you have gotten to know Sarhua, I'll tell you about our mini-VBS :) 

I got to help plan a few of the games/crafts with Noe for this trip :)  Since I didn't get to do a VBS the last few years, this helped me fill that void :) lol.  Their theme was "traveling, foreign lands, and accepting others".  The first session was just a few hours after we arrived.  Oh, the trip took about 3 hours and we got to drive through the winding, curvy, nauseating mountains again 😝😷 Every time I go through the mountains, I say it's my last time lol.  Ugh.  Beautiful views, but since I don't want to open my eyes, I don't enjoy it much ;) 

But I digress ;) In the first session, Yessenia read the book, Noe and I taught the kids "Red Light, Green Light" (which they LOVED), and the kids and I (and all the adults), taught them how to play mancala.  First they went out to collect rocks, then we showed them how to play :)  I wanted them to make something that they could actually play with at home.  They enjoyed it! 

Red Light, Green Light

Yessenia reading the book - you can see one of the library shelves behind her.

Mancala!

me teaching a small group

We rested some in the afternoon and then went back for a second session in the early evening.  Noe read his book about a Sapo (frog) and so Paul showed the kids how to make an origami frog.  It was harder than we thought, but they LOVED the end result!  :)  They wanted to make more :)

Paul showing/teaching the kids how to make a sapo

Noe reading his book.

making their froggies jump!

And, as I mentioned above, during the session the kids got about 20 minutes to read the books that Puriyninchik brought.  

the portable library shelf that Puriyninchik travels around with.

Our night was interrupted by extremely loud music right next door 🙈 Evidently people in Sarhua like to party. lol.  It went on until 3 in the morning so we didn't get a whole lot of sleep.  Our last session was at 8am and I got to read the book!  It was fun to be in front of little kids again 💗  Then we taught them Heads up 7Up.  they didn't really like that game - so we went outside and played Red Light, Green Light again :)  We also told them that we were going to give them a snack that kids eat in the US - for school, at parties, etc.  Carrots and dip! lol.  I really didn't think they'd like it as they don't normally eat raw carrots.  They also don't have Ranch dressing here so we gave them mayo - but they loved it! Most of them had seconds!  lol

Enjoying their carrots and dip!

Ella was making an origami crane and some of the kids who didn't want to play the game crowded around her begging her to make them one :)  

Yessenia encourages the children to write their own books and express their own voice.  If they present her with a book they've written, then she lets them choose from a box of donated books.  A book for a book :)  These are the four children that wrote books the last month and the books they chose to take home! 💚

Overall, despite the lack of sleep and having to get up at 3:45am to go, we had a great time!  One revelation I had while I was there (as did the kids)...that really had nothing to do with what we did...came at night while we were in bed trying to sleep.  Ella and I said - we miss our house and amenities in Ayacucho.  It was really a big deal because it was the first time that we missed Ayacucho and not the US.  There are times in Ayacucho when one of us will say we miss something from the States.  But this time, we missed Ayacucho 💜 After a month and a half here, we are starting to feel like it's home.

I mentioned above that you could help with Puriyninchik's goal of starting 3 little libraries.  There are 2 things you can do to help.  One could be done now.  It costs around $750-1000ish to start a little library and have enough books to get started.  Sending cash directly to them is difficult but you could send it to my paypal and I could pass it along (noeylaurie@gmail.com).  The other way to help is to buy actual books on their Amazon wishlist which would be sent to my parent's house in NC.  The kids and I will bring those books back to Peru when we go home to visit for Christmas.  https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3NQS2O5CSQ5ZJ?ref_=wl_share

 They go to Lima and buy some books - but many (many) books can't be found at all in Peru, so we have set up the wishlist for them :)  

Thanks for following our journey and experiences here in Peru!  Until next time, here are a few other fun pics of some animals we saw wandering around Sarhua (and a few random pics) :) 

everyone seemed to have sheep - probably to make the ponchos - and they would pass through the plaza throughout the day

there was a pack of donkeys that just wandered around the plaza.  we have no idea who they belonged to!

But evidently donkeys can climb stairs!  

beautiful, mighty rooster :) that woke us up at 5am after the music finally shut off lol

This little cutie just stole my heart.  She was so freakin' adorable.  she was so tired sitting there eating her snack lol.  She told me I could take her picture :)  She was at every session and almost always paid attention!

Noe serenading the kids while they wait for class to start

on the way home :) 

En Cristo,

Laurie and the Juarez family