Countdown to Peru, Kickstarter Fundraiser, and Pisco Sours

Our big announcement is that we finally know when we are heading to Peru: August 2015. Even better, our projects this summer will involve designing and implementing sustainable water filters and an exciting photo project that we will explain below.

We are also excited to share that we ordered our first round of Project Suyana T-shirts--you can look forward to plenty of group pictures once the shirts come in!

Did you see Pisco Sour in the table and get excited? That's perfect, because in the month of April we there will be a promotional Project Suyana drink available for a short time at Sava's: The Pisco Sour.

Gaze at that delicious drink above. Now imagine enjoying it with friends as you support a student-run volunteer organization on campus!

This summer we are getting creative with a photo project. What is it? In Michigan we buy/acquire a number of cameras and a travel-size printer. We ship these to Peru and pass these on to groups of children, teaching them a little bit about photography in the process. After we let them go and take pictures of whatever they desire, we print the pictures for them.

^The kind of camera we will be using^

That being said, if you are reading this and you have an extra camera that you are no longer using, we would be happy to take it off of your hands, and it will go to a good cause.

Finally, to help finance our trip and the costs of the cameras and printer, we will be setting up a Kickstarter Campaign (whoa!). Look forward to more soon...

Love,
Project Suyana

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The trip starts now!

Happy to say we have some new recruits since our last update! Shout out to our new, enthusiastic members...Taylor, Nafisa, Henry and Sonia. To everyone who tried out there dancing shoes with us during our salsa night, feel free to show off your new skills. You guys were great! Thanks for all your hard work enduring the cold selling hot cocoa as well our recent hat sale in Mason Hall.

                                         Sonia looking super cute selling hats. 

We can't wait to get more hats from skilled ladies in Peru. Look for our hat sale next November with lots of new handmade alpaca hats and gloves. This is our favorite fundraiser because of the beautiful hats as well as the opportunity to support the indigenous community. 

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A Brand New Year for Project Suyana

Welcome Week has already passed, Festifall is around the corner, plans for next summer are already in the works. This year Project Suyana is composed of younger faces. Now that many of the alumni have graduated and moved on to their successful lives, our group is due for some growth.

One of the things we realized immediately was the need to shift Project Suyana from a group that travels to Peru every summer, to more of an open family that engages in cultural events and activities with the opportunity to travel to Peru during the summer. 

How does that work?

We have been busy. Our work has taken us all over the internet, culling fun facts about Peru from About.com to scheduling the familiar hat sale, to sketching out ideas for attending dancing lessons and watching Peruvian documentaries, such as this one: http://vimeo.com/86746447

Not only that, but we have also been looking for the next stage of the project. 

This upcoming summer we anticipate as being the last one where we install clean burning stoves for families in Peru. What's next? Networking.

We will seek out mutually beneficial partnerships with other groups. We can't wait to learn all about water filtration and natural gas incubators and make it work in Peru!

The following academic year holds uncertainty, but also a lot of excitement. We'll be posting updates of our fundraisers, cultural events, Spanish practice, and everything in between.

Saludos!

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Relatable News Stories

After going on Project Suyana's trip to Peru, I find myself scanning the news for stories about humanitarian aid projects in Peru and about clean burning stoves around the world. Today a friend sent me a BBC News story about clean cook stoves which can be found here--http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24204668. Even though this is a short article, it's a good reminder that poor cooking conditions are still a huge problem around the world and projects like ours are helping. 

This reminded me of an NPR story from October of last year. I encourage everyone to read or listen to it, found here--http://www.npr.org/2012/10/13/162719126/one-child-one-laptop-and-mixed-results-in-peru. The story discusses a project that gives children in rural Peru laptops, hoping that these will be helpful in a classroom setting. The author looks at this laptop project in Lacachi, a small community outside of Lake Titicaca (although I've never heard of Lacachi, the words used to describe the setting sound eerily similar to how I would describe Huanuscuro, the community where we work). Even though the children of Lacachi have laptops, some are broken or need software updates, some have disappeared, and none of the computers have internet access. This brings up a larger point--when aid groups start new projects, the organizers must be sure that the proper foundation is in place for the projects to be beneficial. They should also check up on the communities to make sure no problems arise months later, once the aid group has left the country. 

A photo of Huanuscuro--probably similar to what Lacachi looks like

Project Suyana strives to create a lasting effect by returning to the same community every year and reevaluating the efficacy of our projects. When we arrive in Puno each summer, we examine our stoves from previous years before we begin building new ones. Have there been any problems with our stove design? Can we improve our old model? Are people even using these stoves? These are all questions we ask ourselves at the beginning of each trip. 

Maybe you have stories to share with us. Have you read any new articles about humanitarian aid projects in Peru or clean burning stoves? Leave us links in the comment section!

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Quickly Catching Up

The summer flew by faster than we anticipated, and now we have a lot of catching up to do! Sorry for not giving everyone an update during our trip. 

To accommodate our constantly fluctuating schedules, we decided to go to Peru in May this year instead of our typical July/August trip. Our time in Puno flew by, but we still managed to get a lot done--here's a brief summary of what we accomplished.

This year we had 6 students go on the trip--Michelle, Michelle (yes, two Michelles!), Andrea, Natalia, Sam, and Michael. We returned to Huanuscuro and found out that everyone was busier than we anticipated. May is harvest season, so everyone in the community seemed to be just as busy working on their land as we were building stoves everyday. We managed to install about 30 stoves, matching how many we built on our 2012 trip.

We also went back to teach English at the "Institución Educativa Primaria Intercultural en Puno". The kids were excited to see us back in Puno and we were able to help them continue learning the basics of English. 

We'll update with another post with everyone's favorite trip memory. Check back soon!

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Fundraising and Trip Preparations Update

After hosting our most successful hat and glove fundraiser to date in December, we've started to focus our attention on the summer.

Most notably, we've set some concrete travel plans! This year, we've bumped up our departure date to shortly after school lets out on May 6th and will be returning a month later on June 6th. Even though this is a smaller window of time than we'd normally like to have in Puno, we've already commenced plotting the most efficient approach to continue our clean burning stove initiative. This includes possible collaborations with fellow UM student groups BLUElab and M-HEAL as well as longer stays with our friends in Huanuscuro in an attempt to minimize the lengthy commute to the campo. As always, we'll be staying with Fredy for a majority of the trip and — although our main focus will be on the stoves — we will continue to maintain our connections at the school, the hospital, and the orphanage, as much as time allows.

In preparation for the summer, we will be making a big fundraising push to raise money for project costs while in Puno. This will include a Bake Sale on March 22 from 9am-4pm in Mason Hall, and our annual Art Show on April 5th and 6th from 10am-4pm in the Pond Room of the Union with a preview night at Sava's on April 4th. If you or anyone you know has art they would like to donate, please contact ps@umich.edu. Any and all mediums are welcome.

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Keep On Cranking Out The Cocinas!

After working on the clean-burning stove project for the past three years, we've become fairly accomplished builders and can regularly install two to three new stoves each day.

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Days of Independence

In addition to the various projects we undertake throughout our trip, we also have a unique opportunity to immerse ourselves in many cultural experiences.

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Fun In The Campo: Dress-Up Time, The Photo Phenomenon, and The Godparent Craze

While spending a substantial amount of time in the rural countryside of Huanuscuro (or as we simply call it, "the campo") during our past three trips, we've been constantly conscious of the relationship we cultivate with the local people. Aware that we're outsiders encroaching on their land and disrupting their demanding daily routine, we've taken particular caution while establishing our presence in the community.

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A Superstore Opens in Puno: Does an increase in the availability of some resources justify commercial expansion?

What happens when a giant megastore opens up in a town that has always been supported by small, local shops and street vendors?

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La Rinconada: Medical Care for Miners at the Top of the World

It's become a running joke among Project Suyana members that each year Dr. Ivan says he'll take our group to La Rinconada – a mining town about 4 hours from the city of Puno – but it never happens. This year he kept his promise and a simple overnight trip to "The Highest City In the World" proved to be an eye-opening experience for us all.

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A La (Nueva) Escuela

Although teaching is never the main focus of our trip, we all agree that exposing Peruvian children to a culture apart from their own (at the very least) and gaining knowledge of the English language (our ultimate goal) is time well spent.

This year, Dr. Ivan suggested that we visit a new boarding school – where Peruvian children advanced in learning are specially placed in – to consider teaching there.

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Back In Puno (Take 6)

Between changes in membership, various fundraising efforts, a gradual shift in identity, and constantly evolving methods to help our Peruvian friends, it seems like Project Suyana is an ever-changing entity. But above all this, there remains one constant – a summer trip to Puno.

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Fundraising and Activities Update

While life goes on in Puno for the majority of the year, we always keep our Peruvian friends in mind while we're back here in the States.

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Mass Meeting Fall 2011

Please like our new facebook page!

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Cocinas (Continued)

The bulk of our time, energy, and effort this summer went toward the continuation of the Cocina Project.

Despite our established presence in the Huanuscuro area and success in construction last year, we encountered several roadblocks in building clean burning stoves in the campo.

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Greenhouse Repair and Planting at Orphanage in Salcedo

The word orphanage carries some heavy baggage along with it. In the States, the concept of a place where children live absent of parental support and guidance is hardly a hopeful thought.

However, during our time in Peru, we encountered an excellent example of how youth can still thrive even after they no longer have contact with their mother and father.

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Daily Routine

Between the school, the orphanage, the campo, the market, the internet cafe, climbing mountains, riding in boats, floating on islands, and playing fronton, it's nearly impossible to say that we have a "typical day" and we certainly don't have a hard and fast schedule to follow.

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A La Escuela

Ask any teacher. Working with kids is equal parts rewarding and exhausting. But like anything in life, having a plan and some patience will help maintain positive energy and productivity.

This sums up our experiences at El Colegio San Jose, the grade school we've been teaching at. It sits on the shore of Lake Titicaca and students from as far as the Uros Islands attend.

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Last Stop: Puno

When traveling, it’s easy to fall into the mentality that the destination is the only thing that matters. However, when a multi-day journey awaits you, it’s beneficial to adopt the mentality that the journey is just as worthy of reflecting upon as the destination itself.

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