The first volunteers stay at the Casa Hogar del Sol volunteer house

by Leander Hollings

Pierrick and Maryline from France

Pierrick and Maryline from France are friends of Gopal from

Mysmallhelp Nepal. They had heard that Mysmallhelp is also supporting

projects in Ollantaytambo, Peru. Whilst travelling around Peru they

decided to come and visit the small small town of Ollantaytambo to

give their small help for three days.

They worked with the Paucarbamba community members helping to build

Cuylandia, the future guinea pig breeding and training centre for the
flood victims of the sacred valley. They helped by digging the
foundations of the protective wall. They also spent one day with the
families who lost their houses in the January floods in
Huayroncoyocpampa and used picks and spades to start cleaning the land
so that they can build new houses with stronger foundations. It is a
long and tiring task they have to handle if they want to stop living
in tents !

Maryline also joined Carlos and an american team who went to visit
shools in Pachar and Tastayoc providing dental health care to the
children.

Everywhere their "small help" was warmly welcomed by the people they
worked with, and the almuerzos were always good moments to share with
the communities and to learn more about the places they were visiting.

More Volunteers Help with Cuylandia

10th June 2010, Thursday

On Thursday June 10th, 8 volunteers from Loki arrived at 11am at the Ankapachar land and were taken in the back of a truck up to the Paucarbamba land where 950 more adobe bricks have been made. The Casa Hogar del Sol team together with the volunteers worked hard for 3 hours to move 500 of these bricks the new land. Lots of muscles aching the next day!

A big thank you to Loki Hostel, for donating 250 Soles to Casa Hogar del Sol for the cost of hiring the vehicle for moving the bricks for the day.

There are still 10,000 bricks to be made for the Cuylandia building. Watch this space!

Volunteers Help Build Cuylandia

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Volunteers helping build Cuylandia

On Thursday June 3rd 14 volunteers from Loki Hostel and Real Mccoy Cusco got together with the staff of Casa Hogar del Sol to make a human chain. Between 11am and 3pm the volunteer worked in 2 teams collecting stones of different sizes which will be used in the building of Cuylandia.

Human Chain of Volunteers Moving Stones

Despite the heat, the day was a great success and resulted in new friendships as well as 2 large piles of stones which will be moved to the Cuylandia Project in the very near future. Watch this space!

Harvesting Wheat

14 volunteers from The Real McCoy and Loki went to the new site in Ancapachar to help clear the land on which Cuylandia will be built. Splitting up into two teams, the volunteers started harvesting the wheat from the land with hand-held sickles and piling it up ready to be taken away. After a break for a delicious lunch the volunteers continued harvesting and, by the end of the day, had cleared nearly all the crop from the site - leaving it almost ready for the building of Cuylandia to commence.

Helping Hands

Thursday 20^th May

Ten volunteers from the Loki Hostel in Cusco came to help load and unload 1400 adobe bricks which were transported from Paucarbamba to the new land in Ankapachar.Despite various problems (including telephone signals being down and flat tyres) all of the adobe bricks which had been made by the Paucarbamba community during the past week were moved safely to the new land. Members of the Paucarbamba community also gave their time and energy to make sure that the work was done on time.

New contract for the “Cuylandia” project

We are pleased to announce that the Paucarbamba arriba community of 25 familes have all confirmed that they want to join the new contract with the Casa Hogar del Sol for the “Cuylandia” project. In addition, a further 20 families from the nearby Huayronkoyoccpampa community have also confirmed that they would like to be involved if we can confirm that funding is available to continue the project.

Below you can see photos of some members of the Huayronkoyoccpampa community receiving gifts of emergency survival blankets and torches from the Casa Hogar del Sol.

A contract is being drawn up for Carlos Gibaja the president to sign on June 10^th on his return from Brazil.

Each member of the new contract will be responsible for providing 260 adobe bricks to help with the construction of the Cuylandia training centre to ensure that this project can move forward to help rebuild the lives of as many flood victims as possible.

Cuylandia is moving home

13th May 2010

Over the past week the problems of jealousy between the upper and lower communities of Paucarbamba have escalated. It has been decided between the Paucarbamba community and the Casa Hogar del Sol that the Cuylandia project most be moved to neutral ground.

As you can see from the photo of the Paucarbamba upper community below. They still really want to receive our help and are extremely disappointed that Cuylandia will not be built on the community land. They have therefore offered to provide the remaining 7000 adobe bricks at no cost to the Casa Hogar del Sol. This will enable us to recuperate the money lost in levelling the community land which is now not going to be used.

Volunteers from Loki hostel and other friends of Leander came to help move 2000 adobe bricks to the new land, which is situated just outside Pachar (between Paucarbamba and Ollantaytambo).

A new contract will be drawn up in the near future to include all family members from the Paucarbamba upper community that still want to be part of the Cuylandia project. In addition, the Casa Hogar del Sol will be inviting members of other local communities that have been affected by the floods to join the project, with a maximum number of members being set at 35 at this initial stage.