Real benefits of the kids' medical insurance in Perú...and clay!
Numbers of vols have slowly been reducing for the Christmas period, and there are now just 3 of us! But that hasn’t stopped everyone working like crazy!
Lessons continued on Children’s rights so as to educate the children and make them think about their responsibilities & rights, the classrooms have been decorated with all their fine work!
Doing an exam in 1° & 2° is slightly more challenging, just in terms of getting them to understand the concept of an exam, more interactive work & testing has been taking place. We’ve also been recapping on the body parts in English to check that the children remember them, so far so good, with a lot of reinforcement by the vols. In 3° & 4° they did an English exam, with most doing pretty well, but Marisol & Alexander were the champions! 
We’ve been traipsing all around both communities lately putting up posters advertising our schools and the fantastic benefits they bring, so as to enlarge our Maldonado & Triunfo families in the new academic year (starts in March), as well as planning our summer school during January & February, so as to ensure that the children have consistent lessons, a safe place to be and receive a meal every day.
Unfortunately, Lourdes, 4° Maldonado, had been suffering with stomach pains, and it turned out she had a perforated appendix! The quickest journey into Arequipa and an operation later, and she’s recovering well, apparently if we’d been a couple of hours later she wouldn’t be with us today. We spent a lot of time with her as her parents (it’s a complicated family story) were away. As of this weekend she should be able to go home.
Elias, 1° Triunfo, managed to trip and head butt the steps in the playground causing what can only be called a hole in his temple! 4 stitches later and it was as if nothing had happened! When you ask him how his head is, he asks why!!!
The quick and effective action we took to help Lourdes & Elias is very much thanks to our medical/health fund from donations from previous volunteers, so on behalf of Lourdes & Elias, THANK YOU.
Continuing on the health theme, Elizabeth’s (teacher) husband is a Dentist, and he very kindly came to the school and examined the children whose parents had given permission. About 27 teeth were extracted and quite a few of the children need further work. Only Celia (6°) had no cavities or other problems! So the ongoing battle of getting the children to brush their teeth every day continues!
Luz our cook at Triunfo has been changing her menu for the children recently, so as to vary it and keep it nutritious, the kids are wolfing it all down! 
Triunfo also held a pet day as Maldonado did a few weeks ago. 5° & 6° was chaos with dogs, kittens & rabbits.
At Maldonado grades 1° & 2° were recently evaluated again by the Ministry of Education, and on the whole they did themselves and us proud! Maldonado also recently came into Arequipa to display some of their work at an educational fair.
The Ministry were so impressed that we’ve had to send some photos of their work to them, and they may be published in an Educational magazine next year!
We recently celebrated birthdays at Chiriguana Inicial, but before that the children showed us how good they were at maths. They’re able to correctly do basic double digit addition & subtraction! Fingers crossed they’ll be joining the ranks of 1° at Maldonado next year.
Art has taken a Christmas feel! 5° & 6° have been making Christmas cards for their families, Yeni (6°) went all out, and her card was amazing! 
3° & 4° were let loose with clay (you can imagine the state of the classroom afterwards!), and have made nativity scenes to take home for Christmas. They absolutely loved it, and all of them did really well.
The Inicial at Triunfo had their graduation photo taken last week (those that will leave for 1° in March), one of the cutest things ever!
If you'd like to continue being involved, either come back out (!) or click on the "Phoenix Perú Donations" tab on the left - this coming year we are expanding, with more kids, more food and more comunities, so every little helps through the GVI Charitable Trust, with 100% coming into the field!
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