The situation in Peru and around the world changes every day. The measures are tightened up again and again to guarantee the safety of the population, which is of course a pitiful but good thing. What consequences this has for our volunteers and students, you can read here!
At this moment, there is a lockdown in which no one is allowed to leave his or her house. Need some groceries? That may only happen between 6 am and 8 am. And also in the evening, a loud alarm sounds to warn people that they have to go inside. It’s like we’re suddenly playing in a movie.
So the lockdown also means that our volunteers and students have to stay at the project. However, this is not a disaster, because this way they can perfectly dedicate themselves to refurbishing the project. The orange and white class have already been given a new layer of paint, all outside walls have been thoroughly polished and a new playhouse is in the making.
Also the borders are still closed. This means that our students, who were called back by their schools, cannot yet return to Belgium. However, they are well informed on a daily basis about the state of affairs by the embassy. They are currently looking for a solution to bring all Belgians who are stuck in Peru back to Belgium. They will probably do this with government flights departing from the air base in Lima. So for the students of Oye LENA it’s just a matter of time and patience for more news about a possible repatriation from Cuzco.
The local public health department is closely monitoring everything. They go all over the village of Curahuasi to check everyone and collect data. They give a phone number that everyone can call when he or she feels symptoms and this way they can come to help immediately. We found this very clever and reassuring! This way we can keep the number of victims in Curahuasi at zero.
As you can read, everything goes pretty smoothly. We use our time to do other things and keep a close eye on the measures we take. For our students it is just a matter of waiting and enjoying the time they can still spend here.
Oye LENA 