Fun with Chocolate and Balloons

This week has been all fun for the loan recipients. We offered a Chocolate Making (and filling) course and a Pinateria (working with balloon decorations) course. Both of these courses offer the women an opportunity to learn something new where they can form a small business from their new skills. Apart from generating more income, women can also save money with these new skills. One of our participants is celebrating her daughter's 15th birthday (Quinceanera - the biggest birthday party in a young girl's life here in Peru) this Saturday. Instead of spending between $40-80 on decorations for her party, this loan recipient can do it herself. Furthermore, she can make the chocolates for the party too, since she came to both courses this week!

We definitely had kiddos hanging around the classes this week. For our chocolate making class the kiddos helped us clean the spoons and bowls. During our Pinateria class the kiddos wanted to take the flower balloons home. Since we still have another class today, our balloon garden will blossom for the afternoon and then we will 'cut' the flowers and let the kiddos go home happy with their flower balloons.

Paz ~ Nora

DiscoverHope Newsletter Summer 2009

Dear DHF Family,
Just wanted to write you to encourage you to enjoy our DHF Summer Newsletter. If you aren't on our newsletter list and would like to be, visit www.lendhope.org and see the sign up area on the bottom left pane.

Enjoy the beauty of the weekend, MM

Butterflys in Business

Today is Corpus Christi, a holiday that no one told me about - until just recently on Monday. I thankfully only had to reschedule one activity, our leadership workshop, that was scheduled for tomorrow. The past two days we didn't have to cancel any classes - actually we had a record number of women at our class - 25! DHF held a Earring Holder class - very HOT right now, everyone is making them, selling them, buying them. Our women love making jewelry and this is a natural skill for them to learn how to make earring holders; a presentable and decorated butterfly that holds their jewelry creations. Many of our women sell jewelry from their homes or little tiendas. If they have a better presentation of their jewelry, we can only hope that sales go up. The women and their daughters loved this activity - it was a hit! I hope their butterflys translate to improved presentation and sales.

Paz ~ Nora

House Health Tour

So I am in my almost full swing of work here in Cajamarca. It feels good to return and jump into a moving schedule instead of a empty week. It was a lot of work to set up classes for this month before I left in May, but I organized the schedule to continue as if I wasn't even gone, which makes things easier on this end.

On Saturday I went with our health partners GyC to take 20 of our families on a House Health tour. The families that are participating in our health project were invited to visit families that participated in a similar project that recently ended in March. You could call it an interchange of ideas (which sounds better when you say it in Spanish). We had families of the previous project share with families in the current project their experiences and what changes/improvements they made in their houses including; the new mud and brick stove, organizing their kitchen items, seperating parent and children's bedrooms and creating animal cages. Good stuff that makes for a healthier household.

We visited 7 families homes. Inbetween the visits we ate bananas, drank IncaKola (the bubble gum soda drink of choice here in Peru) and talked about how beautiful, clean and organized the houses were that we visited.

Just as we wove our way up the mountain, we wove our way back down. The roads we took were made for smaller vehicles, but our driver managed to transport us through the endless curves and bumps just fine. It definitely made my heart skip a beat as we curved around the mountain and on each turn the mountain seem to drop off just a little more.

Safely we arrived back to Cajamarca for lunch time. The women enjoyed their 3 course meal that was prepared for us at a little restaurant. Hungry and Happy. I could tell the women were motivated to take the new ideas, exchanges, and motivation back to their houses. I hope to visit some of their houses this month to see what kind of motivation turns into action.

Paz ~ Nora

Landed, Well, and in Gear

I madely it safely back to Cajamarca on Wednesday after an extremely long, exhausting travel agenda. I was restless to land, but anything but full of rest. I think I have caught up on my sleep now, and I am just taking it all in again. Cajamarca feels familiar, but still a little distance. I don't feel like I have culture shock when I return here, but do feel like I need a couple of days to adjust my own being to the smells, foods, routine, and other little daily things. I have gotten the mini report from a couple of loan recipients and my Afider co-workers about how things went according to plan (except for 2 cancelled classes), but that they missed me and when am I coming back?

Now, I thought I had told everyone June 3. Maybe I did, Maybe I didn't, but Nora's arrival was a hot topic this week. In part I definitely feel loved and needed when I hear this. On the other hand I would love to hear that the women feel so self-confident and strong in their organizational skills that they could just keep running the show without me. That to me would feel like success; I was able to put loan recipients on the road to sustainability.

Next week we start classes for this month so I am sure I will receive a more complete report of the end of the month activities through chit chat at our classes. Actually, before the first class this month our Health partner GyC is taking our 30 families on a home tour up in the mountains tomorrow. They are going to visit families that participated in a similiar project with GyC earlier this year (the one Maggie and I went to visit in January). So, I'll join them on their home tour and come back with a full report.

Paz, Nora

Welcome to Cajamarca...Almost

This is just a short entry, although I have plenty of time. I am traveling back to Cajamarca from my wonderful biking, family reunion, BBQ with brats, summer wedding and graduation vacation. It was lovely.

Welcome back to Peru. Last night I entertained myself by watching the welcome video Peruvians show you as you weave back and forth while waiting for your turn in the immigration line. One of the tourist recommendations was to avoid getting into taxis if the taxi driver is shouting-yelling at you to use his service. I thought, I am in Peru. Then I thought, Thank Goodness, I am leaving in the morning so I don´t need to worry about taxi drivers shouting at me.

Well, it is the morning and I am not leaving for Cajamarca quite yet. I am currently living in the Tom Hanks world - the world where he gets stuck in an airport. My arrival into Lima last night happened only after a long delayed flight. I was exhausted, but anxious to get on my Cajamarca flight early this morning, so I rallied all night pounding away at my laptop with some past months DHF documents and catching up on the podcasts I still hadn´t listened to. When I went to check in this morning I had a little surprise at the check-in counter. Your flight isn´t leaving until 3pm today. They gave me a breakfast voucher, but what I really want is a bed. Any bed, really.

Good news is that I will be in Cajamarca today. Not-so- good news: it is taking a really long time.

Welcome back to the Peru adventures folks!
Paz, Nora

Summer of Hope

Dear DHF Family,
The Summer of Hope begins!

Can you believe June is already here? Nora is on her way back to the mountains of Peru after two weeks of joy with her family in friends in the Midwest, and a well deserved rest! We are excited to see how the women at our site in Cajamarca carried on without Nora’s Presence, as we are training a generation of local women leaders so that the community can truly have sustainability in the future.

DHF is busy working on creating our own sustainability as we grow and mature. The inner-workings of a nonprofit are indeed a winding road. Of course, the entrepreneurial culture of Austin makes this a truly inspiring place to share with so many other stimulating people building their field of dreams. Speaking of exciting people, back in March I was invited to a photo shoot for Giving City Austin—an online guide to doing good in Austin directed by an amazing community leader, Monica Maldonado. Monica recently finished the latest issue of GivingCity Austin called The New Philanthropists, and DHF is grateful to be included in this issue with so many incredible leaders. Click the Philanthropists link above to see DHF on page 22; the entire is tremendous and worth reading.

June marks the beginning of our “Summer of Hope” initiative, including several exciting projects:
We are beginning our Summer Supper Circles series. This is a low-key way for people all over to help lift DHF’s foundation and contribute to our projects they love. The idea is simple: host some friends, serve a simple meal, talk about what is important to you (including DHF), and change the lives of the women we serve. Click the link above to open the document and read more. Our goal is 20 suppers, and we’d love to have you join us as a host!

With the generous help of Thinkstreet here in Austin, we are working on a new logo and website launch, culminating in an end-of-summer Austin party where we celebrate YOU and let you have a peak at our new “look.” We’ll let you know the launch date.

We’re also moving along in our Building Homes of Health project and wanted to share some of the Health beneficiaries’ profiles with you. See some of the beautiful and humble families we are working with.

We’ll be launching the DHF Seeds of Hope Society during the summer, so stay tuned. This is an opportunity to join the Society and make a multi-year pledge to DHF to help us pave the path for the future. On June 13, the Board of Directors will gather for a full day to talk about the long-term vision for DHF. We’ll make sure you are apprised of our journey and what the vision for DHF look like.

May the sun shine on you during these days, MM