Pen Pals

The Peace Corps has a program called “World Wise Schools” in which Peace Corps Volunteers write monthly letters to classes in the US about the country where we live and what the culture is like here, what we do here, etc. I write monthly letters to several different classes in the US and back in September I had one of my classes write letters to a Spanish class that I correspond with in San Diego, California (my sister in law is the teacher!). The students in San Diego responded to the letters that my students wrote them and we received a packet of letters from them which was VERY exciting for my students because none of them have ever received a piece of mail in their lives. The closest place to receive mail is in Huaraz which is 4 hours away from Huallanca and you must pay to have a postbox, so obviously receiving mail is a luxury that most people in Peru don't have which is why this was so exciting for my students. They each had their own letter addressed to their name and they were SO excited to open their very own letter that came all the way from the US. Receiving not only a piece of mail but a special letter from a student their age in a foreign country was a very big deal to them. The mail system is very slow here, and it was a process of at least 2 months to send the letters and then receive their responses, but it was all worth the wait to see the look on my student’s faces when they received their letters :)

My students wanted me to take some photos of them to share with the students in San Diego :)

They also wanted me to share some photos with them of what Huallanca looks like :)

Our cute little Huallanca nestled in the mountains of Peru. 

Our high school.