Contact with HOOP

This morning greeted Peru with cloudy weather and slight rain. However, the warm summer weather is so very welcome, especially after the beginnings of a cold Minnesota winter. After breakfast at our hostel, we met Alonso Martinez, our contact in Peru who works for a nonprofit, Helping Overcome Obstacles Peru (HOOP), to collaboratively discuss our plans for the documentary. Together, we traveled to the Cerro Colorado district of Arequipa, where we spoke for a few hours about transportation in Peru. We spoke passionately about the importance of building strong community relationships and the commonalities of both Minnesota and Peru. We all left speechless and could not stop talking about the wonderful plans we have for this year’s project. After a late lunch, we traveled alongside Alonso and a few HOOP volunteers to visit with the Flora Tristán communities. Alonso showed us the neighborhood and spoke of many stories within the community. After, we returned to the location of HOOP and spoke with some of the community mothers to ask if the mothers would be open to interviewing with us. The process of the documentary feels organic and driven by the voices of the community. Though, as a student documentary team, we face multiple challenges in creating a project all within the confines of a year, there is something we often refer to as “ETL magic” - where there is a bright, sunny break in the clouds, all seems right. Today, although cloudy, held such a magical glow of ETL the entirety of the day, we are absolutely ecstatic for the upcoming days.