{"id":870,"date":"2016-10-08T16:35:01","date_gmt":"2016-10-08T16:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/myquickbookkeeping.com\/?p=870"},"modified":"2017-05-30T18:10:15","modified_gmt":"2017-05-30T18:10:15","slug":"arriving-in-arequipa-and-hoop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myquickbookkeeping.com\/tailwind\/?p=870","title":{"rendered":"Arriving in Arequipa and HOOP"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><p>I have received a wonderful welcome to Arequipa and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hoopperu.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">HOOP<\/a> family.\u00a0 What an amazing group of caring people.<\/p>\n<p>My first week at \u201cwork\u201d has been most enjoyable and fun (yes, I am doing accounting!).\u00a0 I am working with some very bright local people who are appreciative and eager to learn.<\/p>\n<p>I have had the opportunity to learn more about the work <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hoopperu.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">HOOP<\/a> are doing, and am amazed at the extent of the positive impact they are having improving the lives of disadvantaged children and their families in the Flora Tristan community on the outskirts of Arequipa.\u00a0 In addition to running the school for local children, they also provide free English lessons after school for anyone who is interested, and have a social worker to assist the mothers with challenges such as parenting, and supporting each other within the community.\u00a0 They are attempting to engage with the fathers also, building community with activities such as football (soccer) games.\u00a0 I am really looking forward to visiting next week, and will definitely share more then.<\/p>\n<p>My opportunities for exploration have been somewhat limited so far.\u00a0 However, getting lost on the way to the plaza to get coffee in the morning resulted in some spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and volcanoes.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-71\" src=\"https:\/\/kerrysmithies.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/10\/pa060005.jpg\" alt=\"OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA\" width=\"3216\" height=\"2144\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When I did accidentally encounter the plaza trying to find my way back to the office there were amazing views over the city and a reasonable cup of coffee.\u00a0 This has become my morning routine.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-66\" src=\"https:\/\/kerrysmithies.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/10\/pa060028.jpg\" alt=\"OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA\" width=\"1858\" height=\"2738\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Arequipa is at an elevation of 2328 metres, fortunately, other than waking a few times the first night to take some deep breaths, I have not been impacted by altitude.\u00a0 As a comparison, Whistler mountain is only 670 metres high.\u00a0 Hopefully this will bode well for my future travels to Cusco and Machu Picchu.<\/p>\n<p>One of the things I love most about travelling is walking around a different place and absorbing the smells and sounds and feeling a part of the surroundings.\u00a0 Arequipa does not feel like the large city it is.\u00a0 There is a lot of noisy, smelly traffic, however, the people on the streets do not appear to be in a rush.\u00a0 Perhaps just as well, navigating the sidewalks is a task in itself!\u00a0 \u00a0The buildings are made from sillar and some are painted bright colours.\u00a0 There are many \u00a0rooftop gardens, that appear to be an oasis from the traffic, and provide some shade and greenery in a very dry desert landscape. \u00a0Our rooftop at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/soulguesthousearequipa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Soul Guest House<\/a> is a peaceful place to watch the sunset.<\/p>\n\n<p>I am very much looking forward to sightseeing this weekend, and will post up some pictures next week.<\/p>\n<p>Adios\u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have received a wonderful welcome to Arequipa and the HOOP family.\u00a0 What an amazing group of caring people. My first week at \u201cwork\u201d has been most enjoyable and fun (yes, I am doing accounting!).\u00a0 I am working with some very bright local people who are appreciative and eager to learn. I have had the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myquickbookkeeping.com\/tailwind\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myquickbookkeeping.com\/tailwind\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myquickbookkeeping.com\/tailwind\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myquickbookkeeping.com\/tailwind\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myquickbookkeeping.com\/tailwind\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=870"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/myquickbookkeeping.com\/tailwind\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1497,"href":"https:\/\/myquickbookkeeping.com\/tailwind\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870\/revisions\/1497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myquickbookkeeping.com\/tailwind\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myquickbookkeeping.com\/tailwind\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myquickbookkeeping.com\/tailwind\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myquickbookkeeping.com\/tailwind\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}