1-10-2010

José Luis wearing his new hamburger tee. He´s showing me his wound on his tongue.

Marcos wearing his new tee too while playing see-saw.

Alonso and Franklin showing off their Power Ranger tees that they love so much.

Lemar´t came with me to eat in the big dining room.

Time flies and it´s October already, and I have been back for almost a week. It was especially quick as I spent a lot of time with the kids. On Tuesday, Tío Alfredo advised me that there were a couple packages that I needed to pick up in the post office, so I went to San Vicente de Cañete that morning to pick them up. It turned out to be the clothes that my sister sent out for the kids. A few months back I told my sister how poor quality the clothing of the kids is, and she immediately gathered a bunch of clothes and sent them out. It took a few months to do so (well, better than the one that I sent before Ieft in January, which still hasn´t arrived), but it was well worth it, because the kids loved them! I spent early afternoon to sort out the clothes as there were various genres. As I was doing that, I thought to myself, "Wow! These clothes are so new!" It had made me realize once again how well off we are in Hong Kong. First stop I took the tiny clothing items to kinder and babies. When they saw the clothes, they were ecstatic! When I showed a jacket to Lemar´t, he took it, hold it in his arm tightly and wouldn´t let go! So that jacket was his! The older boys, Alonso, Franklin and Marcos loved the Power Ranger tees, and immediately took possess. Unfortunately there weren´t many girl clothes and they were a bit disappointed. Then I took the ones for the boys, and Renzo, Francesco and Jeferson were excited to receive them. Next stop, I gave those to the teenage boys. There was an Italian football team tee with Buffon´s name on it, and I gave it to the best football player in the home and one of my favorite teenagers, Benito. Then I parted the rest to the boys, and they were so excited as they thought the quality of the clothes are really good. Finally, I parted those for the teenage girls. There were so many, and so I had Milagros to help me while others came watching. I was a bit biased as I gave a lot of good items to the girls I like a lot, like Milagros, Leticia, Sara and Vilma. But most of them get some pieces. The next days, they were wearing the clothes, and always came to me and give thanks. It´s amazing how easy it is to be happy. Well, I have to give thanks to my sister Teresa, who has a loving and generous heart to send all these clothes to them. I love you, sis!

Since I came back, there has been a phenomenon: Lemar´t has been super attached to me! Everywhere I go and whenever I am present, he needs to follow me. He held onto my hands or fingers so tight that I couldn´t let go! He got really paranoid when I walked off to somewhere and do other things, so I had to carry him around anywhere. For instance, today at lunch time, I took him to his dining room, and I told him I would go to have lunch with the bigger kids, and he wouldn´t let go of me! He was so insistent that a tía suggested that I took his plate to our dining hall and he would have lunch with me there. So we went, and he sat with me and we had lunch together! It was really sweet, and that little monkey could eat a lot! Sometimes he would scream really loudly about something, and I had to quiet him down although I thought he was really funny. The other kids have been really attached to me as well, and sometimes I have 5 or 6 kids around me at the same time. Really a handful, but I love it. I love all of them.

Today, after I cleaned up the therapy room and was about to leave, I saw Francesco crying. So I walked to him and tried to comfort him. I gave him a hug and took him to the therapy room. He hugged me so tight for so long that I realized I haven´t given him much attention since I came back. It was for a trivial reason why he cried, but I guess he´s still just a little kid. There are many things he has yet to learn. I let him play the toys in the therapy room, and he started smiling again. He played the zampoña for a while before we played puzzles together. It was good to finally spend some quality time with him, as every time when I was with Lemar´t or Jhonatan or Franklin, he looked as if he would want some attention as well. But it had been really difficult to give attention to all of them at once. Plus, he is integrating very well and starts to follow the routine well now. I am glad though we got to spend some quality time together before we had dinner.