18-8-2010

Jhonatan and Marcos happily played in the ball pool with my tickles.

This is taken in the third day of Francesco´s arrival. He looked so timid!

My baby played the swing with me.

José Luis and Lemar´t made silly faces.

The twins were marching together!

After a long weekend in Lima, due to the fact that I had to deal with the troublesome things, I managed to make it home on Monday evening. The next day I took the snack to school for the kids. I haven´t done it for a long time, and it was really nice to see them in school and feed them. Afterwards, we went to pick up the kinder kids from kindergarten. Like I said, I haven´t done it for a while and I was away for four days for my weekend off, and when Jhonatan saw me he pulled a desperately "miss me" face, opened his arms and asked me to hold him and sat with him! I was really touched and I hope he realized that I missed him so much too by hugging him really tight and gave him tons of kisses. Lemar´t, on the other hand, refused to sit with me. I realized that he was kind of mad at me because for starter he always felt a bit jealous when I am with Jhonatan, and second I went away for a few days. Of course, he couldn´t be mad at me for too long. We reunited in the afternoon at therapy and he was already all over me. Also, after lunch when they were going back to their room, Franklin insisted on holding Cristina´s and my hands to walk back. I believed that he felt as if we were his parents, and I am glad he can have this sense of security with us, if only for a few months.

Today at 6pm, we had an earthquake drill because there have been a few tremors in Lunahuaná and we need to be prepared. We did in the dining room as well as in our room, just to make sure we have covered the various environments that we could be in. The kinder kids were really scared as they thought something had happened, and of course we assured them it was ok. While we were in the middle of it, I heard someone crying in the room below mine. It turned out to be Francesco, who is a new 9-year-old kid just arrived yesterday with his 4-year-old sister. It was one of the most horrible things ever happened as he kept crying and saying "mama", and we couldn´t stop him from crying. I figured that he got really scared from the drill and it made him miss his mom badly. Then Tía Laly brought his sister, Angela, to the room who was also crying as well. It was just terrible, and she didn´t like anyone to be near her and constantly tried to get away. It was about time for dinner, and Cristina, John and I decided to bring the soup to the room for them and us so that they can have a cozier and safer environment to dine in. Also, we played some cartoons for them to see while having dinner so that they were distracted from the terrifying sentiment. Francesco finally calmed down a bit and we encouraged him to eat and watch the cartoons, and he sat quietly shortly after. Angela was a bit fussier and continued to cry, but she kind of stopped and started on and off. There was a moment that I enjoyed very much the time we all spent together, which kind of felt like a family. Just before we finished the movie, the power went off again. So we tried to put them to bed as they started to fuss again. Angela was still crying, so I put on some soothing music for them. While I was arranging the music, John played shadow games with Francesco and Cristina tried to calm Angela. Finally I found a song that made Angela fall asleep fast, and Francesco was happy and secure in bed, and we kissed him goodnight. When these two kids arrived yesterday, they looked so ragged and rough that it was a big contrast against the kids here who have lived in the home for a while. They cleaned up good today even after one day, and it was really good for me because sometimes we forget where these kids came from. Even though they don´t have good quality clothing and accessories, at least they are clean and properly groomed now. It makes me feel how important it is for them to have the basic needs as well as our love and care.