Wasatch Social Ventures Peru: Spring 2014 Week 6

February 24, 2014

First class with LDS Church

Second Class with LDS Church

This week was very important for the SEED program. SEED's teaching pool has finally been expanded beyond that of workers from Danper, as we have started a pilot program teaching members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Tuesday morning at 8:00, we began our first class. The first class was small and simple as only 13 students showed up. We had them stand, tell us their names and what they expect from the class. We gave them a brief history of the program, and began teaching the first part of Phase 1 from the SEED manual. The class went very well, though we had expected a few more students. To our pleasant surprise, 27 students showed up to the class on Tuesday! We had a very good lesson, and an activity to help them come up with potential business ideas. We spoke with several of the students after class, and really got a feel for how prepared they are to participate and excel in the program.

Construction progress on La Academia

Visit to Lidia, who rents out her cement mixer

Summer students at La Academia

One of the students from our class is Gloria who wants to put in a restaurant in her house. She has already started getting equipment little by little. She has talked with a company near her home, DanPer, and she will soon be getting a contract to make lunch for up to 200 of their employees. Once she gets that contract we're hoping to help fund the restaurant so she can work at full capacity. We did the financial projections and the return would be very good. She also fed us some cuy (guinea pig), and once again proved her expertise as a cook.

On Thursday we held our last class at the plant at Danper. We gave them a basic overview of what we expect them to complete in the next few weeks. We feel we can progress a lot more rapidly just focusing on individual appointments, and getting rid of the Thursday night class gives us more time for appointments.

Mountain scene near Llupa

This weekend we went to the mountainous region of Huaraz for a mini vacation. We went on a hike to a place called Laguna Churup which is about a 4 hour hike. The elevation at Huaraz is about 10,000 feet and the elevation of Laguna Churup is about 14,000 feet. Coming from about sea level to this altitude can take quite a toll. We had altitude pills and we were careful to take it easy and take breaks. We brought a tent so we could sleep out and once it started raining we set up the tent. We actually didn't make it all the way to the Laguna because of altitude sickness but we were able to see many beautiful sites.

Waterfall below Laguna Churup

In the city of Huaraz they were celebrating their annual Carnaval. They had a parade and things which was really neat to see. A lot of people in Huaraz wear very native attire which is quite different than what we are used to. The people were very friendly and we had a great time. We stayed at a little hostel that was really neat. We had a great vacation and are ready for another great week ahead of us!