San Marcos

Three hotels in three days-I keep forgetting which city I am in. We took an hour and a half van trip to San Marcos today. It is one of the most poor areas of Peru. Reed Elsevier sponsors a program in two schools here to help adolescent girls complete their education rather than dropping out of school. The biggest issues are home violence (due to alcoholism in many cases), teen pregnancy, lack of encouragement from parents to pursue and education, and potential sexual violence/ abuse while girls travel the two hours to and from school. We met with teachers before lunch, then the health ministry next to San Marcos school. Took some pics for my healthcare practitioner family members. In a town of 51,000 people, there is one ambulance.
After lunch we met with school children. One of Plan's main strategies is to give children a voice and have them help develop and implement the programs in their own communities. They were from 12-17 years old and gave very mature answers. The education system is certainly lacking. The children discussed violence in their homes, lack of opportunity, reasons for teen pregnancy and it was certainly eye-opening. They asked many questions of us. Who do we admire, what the economy is like in the US, who we vote for, how old we are! We asked them what they wanted to be when they grow up, who they look up to (singers like Hanna Montana and Jesus), what they do for fun. Even though I can't speak any Spanish, I bonded with two sweet 13-year old girls (thinking of Emmy!). Have some pics of the kids, but I can't post them here.
Going to dinner soon--traditional Peruvian roasted Guinea Pig!

PS-the pictures load in reverse order for some reason. And, there are dogs everywhere. Apparently, they all "belong to someone."