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This week we spent painting and upgrading two libraries in eastern Lima, near Chosica, in the neighbourhoods of La Campina and Santa Cruz.  We were working with La Semilla, and it turned out to be quite a week!

Before

Before, one of the libraries was covered in graffiti, and the other was in okay condition but sharing a building with other facilities in need of repair.

Before: Library in Santa Cruz

Before: Library in La Campina

Welcome

La Semilla welcomed us with open arms and even put on a little presentation for us!

Bienvenidos Voluntarios Canadienses!

Day 1

We started off at Santa Cruz, the two-story building, where the plan was to paint the interior and the exterior, as well as build a fence around the back so that the kids could start planting a garden.  The plan was to start off with the fence first so that the cement could dry overnight, and start with the base coats on the building.  Things never work according to plan in Peru!  The materials for the fence weren’t there yet, so we had to go straight to painting the building.

Sanding

Painting

Hard at work

Day 2

When we arrived this morning, the fence was already mostly built!  The expert we had hired to help us had brought in a bunch of his buddies and they had the thing mostly constructed!  What a surprise, but it was probably a good thing since it could have been too much work for us if we had to do it all ourselves!

Decorating the inside

Building a fence

Mural on the inside

Butterflies

"Slow down! Children are studying"

Day 3

We finished up quickly at Santa Cruz and hopped on a bus down the road to La Campina, where we started again at the beginning: sanding, painting, and making sure that the exterior was dry enough for our mural the next day.

After: Library in Santa Cruz

Back to Basics

Beautiful blue

Day 4

Day of the plague.  We had an unexpected setback as everyone got sick!  By the end of the day only 10 people were left healthy enough to work!  Although we were a little short-staffed, we got the project done!

After: La Campina (part 1)

After: La Campina (part 2)

Goodbye

On the final day, we were planning on going on a weekend trip so we only had a half-day at the placement.  To our surprise, La Semilla had a whole closing ceremony planned, which was very heartwarming and there were more than a few people tearing up!