Re-direction

Greetings!

I had a personal blog about my trips to Cusco, then realized that truly, Soles for Soles is at its core personal; and I can't seem to separate the two.

From now on, I'll be updating "Cusco Costello" with any Soles for Soles updates.

Please, continue to follow this adventure-- as its starting to take off once again.

Regards,

Sara

Thanks!

A special thanks to the Delta Zeta Lamp, who published a brief story about Soles for Soles, and linked to our baby blog!

See the blerp here: Alumnae News from the Delta Zeta Lamp

Updates Since August

• We had an incredibly successful wrap up to our Peru trip. More updates on the details can be found on my Cuzco blog, "Cusco Costello". 
• Highlights:
• Over 300 pairs of socks were given, at least one pair per child at San Martin, and one pair per child at San Juan de Dios. 
• Lectures given at San Martin proved to be successful, if in no other way, teachers got interested in autism and gave the subject a little thought.
• I was able to arouse curiosity and answer several questions.
• Home visits with my children with autism were enlightening, and difficult. Each mother had vaguely similar stories that were heart breaking. Details about each home visit are also on the "Cusco Costello" blog.
• Pictures from the trip:

• Kevin Ayres gave an awesome presentation at a conference at San Juan de Dios in Peru. I was fortunate enough to translate his slides, which covered the basics of functional analysis. I'm hoping the presentation was well received, and aroused more curiosity among professionals in Cuzco.
• I took a semester off from fundraising. It has been exactly one year since I left Cuzco, and a little more than a year since fundraising for Peru commenced. Since then, we've raised $2500 through t-shirt sales, youtube videos, benefit concerts, and amazing donations from close family and friends. 
• Planning for Peru 2011 has begun. 
• When to go and what to bring are the major questions. 
• Fundraising brain storming has begun. This year, we're hoping not to depend on straight donations.
• Personal crafts and photographs are being sold on etsy in my shop. See current products in Sara's Etsy Shop. 
• Another t-shirt campaign is also in the works. Ideally, we will rally a local vendor to print the shirts at cost. Possible designs are pictured below.
• Another badass benefit concert is also in the works. Hopefully, Chris Averitt, Yo Soybean and Sam Sniper will be able to participate as contributing artist.
• I also bought a Ukulele. I plan on learning rap songs, with my own accompaniment. $5 will get you a video of an acoustic and offensive song. Email me for details, and with requests.
• Got an idea or want to participate? Shoot it my way at either Soles for Soles or my personal email.

• Follow us on twitter for more updates! SoleNotASoldier or SaraCStello

Leccion

Gave the first (and maybe only? hopefully?) autism lecture yesterday. I was floored by their respect for me. 30+ teachers came, all asked questions and listened attentively. My spanish was atrocious, so I suppose they had to listen attentively.

I hit some key points-- what is autism, what causes their behaviors, are they at fault, what is self-stim, what is reinforcement, when to use punishment, and why punishment doesn't work. One of my favorite points that seemed to blow their minds was that each behavior (self-stim, SIB, etc) had a function, and to understand and teach your student, you must figure out why they engage in some behaviors. I also spoke about designing curriculum that will benefit them when they leave San Martin and gave some examples. Today, I'm being called around to help individual students, which will be interesting.

Day 2

Rocking the chucks in Cusco.

The Great Sock Drop

Sock drop was a success! We have over 100 more, and just the pre-k left to see. That means that every child who attends San Martin will receive at least one pair of socks! Can you imagine?

Thank you! Hopefully these pictures can express more than my words.

And... we're back.

The flight departs for Cusco this evening at 6:50pm, and will arrive at 8:00am tomorrow morning. Long night of layovers in Miami and Lima, but well worth the cause.

Katherine Nelson and Kate Boring are joining the adventure. Stoked!

Thank you for your donations! I am going on support alone, (with my own funds for fun money) and we actually have to check an extra duffle for all of the socks donated (300 pairs!).

You all are making the world better. Pics to come. The hostel claims free wifi... we'll see about that.

Besitos!