Awaiting Angels

Peru is a mysterious country to me since I am from Taiwan, Asia. Through my two-year study at USC, I am so lucky to participate programs with USC Volunteer Center. As a group, we were lucky to work with Awaiting Angeles in Cusco. Thanks to Jenny and her family, every of our group members enjoyed the volunteer works and built a relationship with the local school as well as befriended with the kids! For people who would like to know more about Peruvian culture, to get volunteer experiences, and to challenge the self, working with Awaiting Angeles would be a great opportunity!

I cannot even begin to describe what a wonderful experience I had with Awaiting Angels. Unlike other programs where you pay a lot of money that goes towards profit, Awaiting Angels staff members do not earn a salary off of their work. They do it out of the goodness of their hearts becuase they truly believe that children can benefit from caring volunteers. Becuase the program is so affordable, it isn't as structured as other programs. You don't have someone holding your hand every step of the way. However, you do have contact numbers and people to go to if you have problems. I always felt like someone was there for me if I needed something, and I always felt safe. I was able to work with so many wonderful children while I was in Peru, see so many beautiful places, and improve my Spanish. I have no complaints. One word of advice: Be flexible. Awaiting Angels will always try to accomodate your desires, but your volunteer work is always subject to change. Just have fun with whatever you end up doing! Don't stress out. Working with children is challenging, especially in another language.

everything was amazing. Jenny planned everything out for us, the food was delicious, and our host mother was great. I really felt like we were part of the community and got to know the area. Jenny was always looking out for us and was really on top of everything. The work was definitely hard, but incredibly rewarding. I would definitely do another trip with Awaiting Angels!!!

My experience with Awaiting Angels was excellent because it allowed me to work side-by-side with members of the community being served to build a house for a family who had lost their's in the recent earthquake. The work was certainly difficult - it was the most manual labor I have completed in my lifetime. However, we made very substantial progress toward completing the house in our two weeks of work. All in all, I thought my experience was incredibly redeeming, and I would certainly recommend it to others.

Awaiting Angels as an amazing volunteer organization, especially considering that they are extremely affordable for the opportunities and aid they provide you as a volunteer. Not only did our community organizer - who just happened to also be the Executive Director of the organization (illustrating that the people who run Awaiting Angels really take a genuine interest in the well-being of their volunteers and their volunteer programs) - help us out with organizing international transit, she also took the time to give advice about national and local transportation once in Peru, as well as the best way to set up tourist experiences while we were in the country. The guidance from Awaiting Angels is priceless! If living with a host mother named Haydee, make sure to keep close track of your clothes.

Awaiting Angels was a great experience for me. It was a lot of hard labor building the house that we started but it gave me a completely new appreciation for the way people live. The Peruvian life style is entirely different from my own, above all else they cherish family and that's how I felt when I was there, like a member of a large loving family. The family we worked with made me feel like I belonged to them, and as if I was changing their lives as much as they were changing my own. As for the program itself Jenny and Haydee, our host mom, were fabulous and seemed to enjoy hanging out with us. The trips we took were great and really helped us enjoy our time in Peru. There was nothing like traveling to the beach on New Years Day to spend time amongst locals.

My time spent in Peru Health Care: Cusco was amazing. In addition to learning about the local customs and culture, I also got invaluable experience to help me in my career. Being in a foreign country can be challenging, but the support given by the local staff (Jenny) and the family was impressive. I also improved my Spanish speaking skills. This whole experience made me more flexible ad adaptable to changes which would also help in my career. Cusco was beautiful, and there were so many places to visit after work. Next time, I would go for at least a month.

In 2007, I spent 10 weeks in a town called Huancayo in Peru with the company Awaiting Angels. For 5 of these weeks, I helped out in a local ''Wa-Wa'' looking after a group of 16 children, most of whom did not have fathers. During my time there, I spent many hours playing games with the children, helping to feed, clothe and wash them and also helping the older children with learning activities. I can honestly say it was the most rewarding experience of my life and most definitely the best thing I have ever done! Rosa Luz Rojas was the individual based in Huancayo employed by Awaiting Angels that made this experience possible for me. She helped me settle not only in the Wa-Wa but also with my home family, who I lived with during these 10 weeks. Overall I was very satisfied with Awaiting Angels. The price of the program was excellent, my home stay family were kind and always made me feel like a part of their family and thanks to Rosa, I made many friends in Huancayo.

Volunteering for Awaiting Angels was a great experience. I had so much fun with the children and other volunteers. Jenny was helpful in every way and always concerned about how I was getting on. One thing I would say is a must.... Learn Spanish even if its just the basics, it will help so much more. enjoy;o)

I had a great experience volunteering with Awaiting Angels in Cusco, Peru. We had all of the resources and help that we needed in order to enjoy our time there and feel like we were making a difference. Awaiting Angels is an organization that sincerely tries to give the most help where it is most needed. The highlight of my trip was working with the kids we taught. Through Awaiting Angels we were able to have a balance of serving and giving of our time, and seeing and experiencing the wonderful things that Peru has to offer.

The Awaiting Angels organization are fantastic and I would recommend anyone to go for it! I did about 2 months of volunteer work and felt it was all very worth while. I had plenty of support from Jenny who runs the organization and she was genuinely interested and concerned about all the work I did. I went to Peru with little Spanish but Jenny also set me up with some good teachers in both of placements. I stayed with 2 families and they were both fantastic. I was welcomed into the home and included in all family events. When I wanted or needed space I had that as well. Awaiting Angels organize volunteers for all the right reasons and your money just pays for the necessary costs of food and accommodation. Please support them so that they can keep up all the good work they are doing in Peru. Dougal Hawes August 2007

I would like to share with you my experience in with Awaiting Angel. I spent 3 amazing weeks working as a teaching assistant in a primary School in Cusco. The people from the association (Marta) were so friendly, welcoming and helpful. The teachers and all members of the school, integrated me so quickly. They were so welcoming...If I have to tell you about the children of my class, I just loved them. They were all so cute, giving so much affection, tenderness...I was living in a fantastic host family. They were so much caring of me. I felt home in their house and thanks to them, I felt home in Cusco. If you are looking for an association to work with, search but remember that what you will live with Awaiting Angel, will amazing, memorable and that the only you will thnik about after this experience is of coming back and seeing again the people you met. I honestly and sincerely loved 100% o time with Awaiting Angel. I strongly hope I will come back one day. Yours sincerely, Virginie

I had an amazing trip in Peru. I started in Trujillo, the third largest city in Peru, which is in the north and stayed with a Peruvian family. In the mornings I worked in a daycare center with kids ages 1 to 3. Then we worked in an all girls orphanage in the afternoons ages 3 months to 18 years. It was a challenging and exciting experience to get to know the kids and the Peruvian culture. We also had the opportunity to visit Chan Chan, one of the ancient ruins and Huanchaco, a small surfing and fishing village near by. I spent two weeks total in Trujillo. Then I went to Arequipa, the second largest city in Peru, which is in the south. I was there for two weeks as well. I stayed with a family and worked in an orphanage in the mornings/afternoons with kids and in the evenings taught English with a group of British English teachers to the teachers who work for the orphanage. The orphanage in Arequipa was huge. It houses 380 kids from newborns to 18 years. I worked mostly with the little kids ages 1 to 5 which was mixed gender. After age five, the kids are split up into similar age groups and genders. They have 'houses' for these kids spread throughout the city and it is a Catholic run organization. There was a group of Spanish doctors there volunteering as well who visit for the month of August every year. The kids threw a huge dance/party for them and I was able to experience the traditional dances and costumes. It was very interesting to see this! It was amazing to work with the kids. I haven't had much experience in working with children, so it was a challenging and eye opening experience for me. The older ones were so curious and interested to know about us. We were inundated with a million questions and were fascinated once they learned that I was pregnant. Ha! The little ones were as sweet as can be, but were totally out of control. My head was spinning most of the time with them. They seemed so happy to have us there and always wanted to be with us, sitting on our laps, holding our hands, giving us kisses, etc. It was very sweet. Then I spent a couple more days in Lima after returning from Arequipa. I was able to see the Lineas Nascas which are graphic drawings in the sands. It was fascinating to see these as they are still unsure how and why they were created. You can only view them from an airplane as they are huge and they didn't even discover them until people started flying and noticed these enormous figures etched in the ground. It was so interesting, however I spent a large part of the flight with my head in a puke bag, urg. The small plane does all of these twists and turns, so that you can see the drawings! All in all my trip was fascinating and a great experience. I thought the Peruvian people were some of the nicest that I have ever met. I've been wondering if we would be as warm and helpful to foreigners here in the U.S. I thought the food was great. Very fresh and healthy and I was fed well by my amazing families! I'm so glad that I was able to speak Spanish. Neither my families nor the people at the orphanages did not speak English. It was great practice for me to be immersed in the language 24/7, however it was exhausting some days as well. There is still so much I have not explored in Peru, but it was a great start.

My experiences in Peru by Nancy Cushing Sparacio. I wanted to go to Peru. But, I didn't just want to go to a language school or merely travel as a tourist, I wanted to take my ability to communicate in Spanish and use it to get to know the locals while doing some sort of volunteer work. So, I scoured the Internet for possibilities. Being a fairly new teacher I don't have a lot of funds to work with and so I looked for an organization that didn't require a huge payment to volunteer my time and services. It's somewhat of an enigma to me as to why certain organizations charge an inordinate amount of money just to be able to go to a particular country and help out where help is desperately needed. Anyway, I came across Angeles que Aguardan, a grassroots organization located in Peru. The director and founder, Jenny Torres, is a young mother with the desire to help the poorest of her fellow Peruvians. She runs her organization from a home office where she can attend to her young daughter while having the love and support of her parents and the rest of her family. Her parents often play host to the many volunteers who come to Peru with a desire to make a difference and they do a wonderful job of providing clean, safe bedrooms, a separate (but-shared by the volunteers) bathroom with a shower, laundry facilities, and three meals daily from Monday through Saturday. I was able to have a single room, as I requested. Angeles que Aguardan offers its volunteers the following choices of cities in which to stay: Cusco, Huancayo, Trujillo, and Chiclayo. I chose Trujillo because it is located near the Pacific Ocean in a desert climate. Most days were warm and sunny, after the morning fog burned off, and the nights were very comfortable for sleeping. Peru has opposite seasons than the northern hemisphere and therefore it was the beginning of winter when I arrived on June 24th. The average daily temperature range was from the mid 60s to lower 70s. The sun is very strong, but being near the equator, the days are fairly equally divided between daylight and darkness. I first landed in Lima and chose to stay at a hotel that offered free transportation in from the airport. After two days in Lima, I flew to Trujillo. Angeles que Aguardan can arrange to have someone meet you at the airport. Why Peru? Why go by myself to a country in which I had never been before? Well, after I visited Nicaragua with a delegation from my church in 2004, I felt inexplicably drawn to Peru. My ultimate goal was to get a feel for the Peruvian way of life, make a difference in the lives of others and go it alone. I was testing myself and my ability to communicate effectively in a foreign language while dealing with the mishaps that always seem to occur while traveling. I wanted to experience the rhythm of daily life there, get an idea of the history of the nation, and also to listen to the people as they discussed their hopes and fears for themselves, their families and their country. I am fully aware that what I experienced is only representative of some of the people of Peru, since it is a fact that different cultures exist within any given set of political boundaries. I have often studied in other countries and truly believe in the benefits of immersion, but this time I wanted to do more than just study, and volunteering gave me the chance to do something meaningful. I worked in a private orphanage for girls (and boys under the age of 3) run by the Catholic church. I worked with a different age group, mine being the toddlers. It was my job to take care of their basic needs, play with them and show them the love that they craved, while the Sisters running the orphanage could focus on tutoring those girls who were struggling in their studies and attend to the basic operations of the facility. I was expected to work 3 hours daily (Monday - Friday) in the orphanages and had the rest of the time to to take care of our personal needs, check out the sights of Trujillo and its surrounding area, and interact with the locals. Trujillo is located near the desert ruins of the Chimu people called Chan Chan, which is said to be the remains of the largest pre-Hispanic adobe pueblo in Latin America. Another nearby attraction is a wonderful pyramid museum located in Chiclayo displaying an unbelievable amount of artifacts associated with an ancient local population. Another popular destination is the beach at Huanchaco. It's only a short taxi drive away from downtown Trujillo and there is a collection of huts on the beach that sell local crafts and souvenirs. You can also learn to surf from one of the many surfing schools or take a ride on one of the hand crafted boats made from reeds that grow in abundance along the coast. The Moche temples of the Sun and Moon and the tallest adobe structure in the Americas are some other sights that are very popular with tourists. Trujillo itself is a charming city with colorful colonial architecture and the largest Plaza Mayor in Peru with a lovely Basilica. The market area is a short walk from the Plaza Mayor and bargains abound. There you can get clothing, shoes and jewelry at terrific prices, if you can handle the crowds. I learned a great deal about Peru from my host family. They were eager to tell me stories dealing with the history of their country and to describe many of the social issues that plague this country today. Peruvians are very proud and they will tell you that their country should in no way be considered third-world. So, now the question is, 'Was it worth the effort and would I do it again?' Yes, on both counts. I learned a great deal about Peru and its people and hopefully I did some small amount of good where it was needed. In the process, I learned so much about myself. There is no way that I could have gained such insight other than through an experience such as this. My next trip? Guatemala.

Awaiting Angels is a great organization to volunteer through, our host family was extremely hospitable and nice. Wawa Wasi is a great experience, a daycare that could use some good hearted people to help not only educate the kids but to show them affection as well. I wish I could've been there longer! Austin Unterbrink

In May 2009, I was fortunate enough to lead a team of 10 student volunteers to Peru. Our original goal was to travel to South America and participate in a building project that would enhance the lives of children and families within a community. After researching many NGO's throughout Latin America, it became evident to our executive team that the passion and grass roots approach offered by Awaiting Angels could not be rivaled. They certainly lived up to this expectation when we arrived! Each of the ten volunteers have told us that this trip has truly changed the way they see the world. There was not a single moment that any of our volunteers felt unsafe while in Peru. This is mainly thanks to the intricate planning by Jenny & Jorge (The Awaiting Angels team). Jorge was even with us the entire step of the way, ensuring quality in our programming. Overall, I can speak for our entire group when I highly recommend Awaiting Angels to any group, person, or family, looking to travel to Peru and take part in exciting and rewarding volunteer programming.