Between us, Petra and I managed to raise approximately £4500 for Azul Wasi - a huge amount of money, so thank you very much for your kind contributions. The donations made to my account came to £1000, and the rest came from a mixture of direct donations to Petra, and donations in lieu of presents for her partner's grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary and renewal of vows.
When the money first started coming in, we arranged for Anastacia, the cook, to have the day off so that she could come shopping for cooking equipment in Cuzco.
We met Anastacia and Carmen Rosa outside of San Pedro Church and headed straight towards the market. Before going in, we came across a well stocked kitchen shop so went in there to get saucepans, a new kettle and some utensils. The owner offered to pack everything up, ready for us to collect later.
Anastacia was a bit reluctant at first, and kept checking whether she was allowed to buy something. We kept reassuring her that, if she needed it, we could buy it. She soon got into the swing of things and started bargaining with all the stall holders. We made our way around the market buying cutlery, new sharp knives, chopping boards, a colander, tea towels, and much more... so much that I can't remember what it was! We had a quick break for lunch, and Anastacia and Carmen Rosa opted for fresh ceviche from the market. As I was heading to Machu Picchu a couple of days later, I decided to play it safe and go for chicken milanesa.
Before getting a taxi back to the orphanage, we headed to a shop selling all manner of plastic good to buy new bins, tubs for washing, jugs, storage jars, brooms and mops. I ran down to the kitchen shop to pick up our parcel and we tried to hail a taxi. Numerous small taxis kept stopping for us - I'm not sure how they thought that we would fit everything in - but eventually a large estate car stopped, and we managed to cram everything inside, even so, Carmen Rosa still had to sit on my lap. The boys were incredibly excited when we arrived, and helped us to unload the car and put everything in the storage room.
Alicdes wanted an event to mark the purchase of the new kitchen equipment, so the next day we took all the boys to Tipon, the neighbouring town, for guinea pig! This is the national dish and a huge treat for the boys. They would very rarely get to eat this (the last time being about two years ago) so they all dressed up in their smartest clothes and we headed out for dinner.
As well as the kitchen equipment and the meal, Petra and I decided to use some of the money to buy some new clothes and underwear for the children. We'd asked all the boys what their favourite colours were and spent a day traipsing round for shops looking for warm hoodies in the same size. We also bought socks and underpants for each boy, new shoelaces, toothpaste, toothbrushes and soap, as well as a new mug and plate each. We packaged everything up in a bag for each boy, ready to take to the orphanage. We also managed to purchase some other equipment for the orphanage including toilet seats, laundry powder.
Whilst out shopping we also found a mattress shop and managed to negotiate a deal on 13 new mattresses, including delivery.
On delivery day, I got in a taxi with all the goodies for the boys, and Petra headed to the mattress shop to come over with the delivery. The boys were so excited when the mattresses arrived, and remade their beds straight away.
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| The saggy old mattresses |
Before we left, we gave all the boys their bags with their gifts inside, they were all so surprised and grateful, and put their jumpers on straight away.
Because we had raised so much money, we were also able to buy new bed frames for all the children, you can see how unsteady their old ones were in the photos. These arrived after we had left, but Alcides sent me photos of the beds arriving.
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| The old, unstable, beds |
We couldn't have done any of this without donations from you, so thank you so much for your generosity. It really has made a difference to these children.
If you would like to donate money to Azul Wasi in future, Petra and I have set up a JustGiving page to raise money to pay for the 'Profe' (guardian/tutor) for the home through LAFF - Latin American Foundation for the Future. Although LAFF supports a few different projects for street children, I have spoken with them and arranged for money raised through our JustGiving page to go directly to Azul Wasi to pay for the Profe. Please visit www.justgiving.com/azulwasiperu to donate.
Money is still needed to complete the new dormitories, and we're looking into ways to raise money for these in the future. If you would like to make a direct donation to Azul Wasi for the dormitories, I can give you the details for Alcides so that you can donate through Western Union.
