More links and To Dos

Useful sites we've found along the way:
Hotel San Antiono Abad - where we'll stay in Lima
Trafico Peru - where we booked many of our one-way flights
South American Explorers - for information, discounts, and ideas
Update:
Lisa has asked the South American Explorers if they can contact the school in Peru as we have had extreme difficulty in getting a response. At this point this is the element of our trip that concerns us the most.
On the fun side, we've got a DVD that shows off our students at HMS and will be bringing some ASL/English/Spanish dictionaries along to hand out. Lisa has also decided to acquire some small gifts to share with the staff at our school and our family host at Lake Titicaca. To share a bit of New England she thought maple sugar candy would be fun. I also need to remind myself that we should bring some HMS pens that our principal had made and contact Alice about the story-telling DVDs...

Volunteer work

While in Cusco we really want to volunteer with children at an orphanage specifically for the deaf. There are many programs for the deaf in Peru. Lisa has a few contacts and we've found sites that talk about deafness in Peru and even sites that directly provide contact information for schools in Peru like the CPAL program, http://www.cpal.edu.pe/ . Unfortunately, at this point none of the programs we've contacted in English or Spanish (thank you Rebeca and Ariel!) have responded. There is a program we can definitely visit, but there the children are multiply handicapped and we were hoping to find a school that mirrored our own here in Boston in order to set up a long term relationship. So now we're doing our least-favorite part: waiting.
If anyone knows of a school in Cusco or Lima that would be willing to let us stop by for a day or two, we'd love to hear from you!

Cusco Spanish School

We have a school: Cusco Spanish School in Cusco, Peru. After looking for a program that could accommodate our narrow window of opportunity for Spanish lessons, they seemed to be the best bet. We'll be there from July 20th to the 25th taking classes for 4 hours a day. In addition to the Spanish courses we'll have the opportunity to learn some Peruvian cooking, dancing and do a bit of volunteering in Cusco.
To see more information on the programs the Cusco Spanish School offers, check out this website: http://www.cuscospanishschool.com.
Every day we make a new commitment the trip seems a bit more real. Buying the tickets was a start, particularly since we hadn't received the monies from Fund for Teachers yet. But now we have a school, a really cool video camera, a blog, and most importantly FUNDING! As we progress on filling our busy schedule in Peru we are also scrambling around to put together examples of what happens at our school so we can share with the students and staff in Lima or Cusco. The goal is to have several DVDs of our students reading stories in ASL (American Sign Language) and then record the Peruvian students telling stories in their Sign Language, be it Spanish, Peruvian, or regional.
We tend to think of our students as being "in need" as they attend a school that receives Title 1 funding, but we will be bringing supplies with us for the students in Peru. Often students there don't have the basics like pencils and notebooks, so all the room allocated in our bags for souvenirs on the way home will be filled on the way down with school supplies.
There will be more on our preparations later, but the reality of the end of the school year here is still a priority, however much fun it is to procrastinate while thinking of Peru!
¡Adios!

Selecting A School

And the winner is... not yet known. We found a school, which will not yet be named, and are hoping they can accomodate us for the dates in July we requested. All the other reservations, activities, etc depend on our course dates, so stay tuned to see what happens next!