30-12-2010

Jenny holding her new toy in Christmas Eve.

Alonso received his gift for Christmas and played with Silvia.

Alonso blowing bubbles.

Tía Rosa helped Héctor squeezed zits while Kevin messed around with him.

A new kid, Pedro Paolo, arrived on the first day and was already welcomed by the other kids.

This time of year is so busy that I hardly have time writing a blog entry! The kids are off school, so there are a lot more time to do things with them, and it involves a lot of planning and implementing. At the same time, there´s more time to play with them, which is tiring but a whole lot of fun. Also, it´s Christmas and New Year time, so we have a lot of events as well.

On Christmas Eve, I was playing with the kids in kinder, and I put on English Christmas music (Peruvian Christmas music is kinda … you know …) and danced with them. We had so much fun! They had dinner at around 8pm, which was 2 hours later than normal. The older kids and we went to the church at 10pm and had dinner at 12am on Christmas day! The church service was a bit dull with the most horrific Christmas music ever. Everyone was hungry, bored and tired, but it felt quite nice to be around everyone. We went back home at around midnight, and when the clock ticked at 12:00am, everyone gave hugs to each other, and it was really nice. The Christmas dinner was a big piece of chicken, some rice and some salads. We also had fruit salad for dessert. Although it couldn´t compare to what we would have at home, it was still much better than normal.

The next day, Christmas day, was rather a normal day, as in Peru they only celebrate on Christmas Eve. I wanted to share at least a little bit of what we would have for Christmas with them, but it is impossible to make everything I normal made due to shortage of ingredients, labor and time. So I prepared to make mashed yams with marshmallows for the kids Leticia, Liz and Rosa helped me peel and mash the yams. It turned out really beautiful, and the kids were so excited to see it as it looked really cool. They loved it as well, and kept telling me that it was really tasty.

I have also been doing exercises with the kids. A lot of them were interested in the beginning, but only a handful could endure to the end! Leticia and Liz were the two girls who kept coming for the class. Kevin and I did a tough workout together, and he pushed really hard. It was really funny as we started with six kids, and they left one by one and just left with Kevin. I was so proud of him that he could stick til the end because endurance and perseverance are great virtues. I shared some Milo with fresh milk with him, which is my current favorite drink and told him how proud I was of him.

It has been quite hard lately because the kids realize that I will be leaving soon. There are a couple that already hurt! Milagros was very sad that I will be leaving soon. She told me that next year she will graduate from high school, and she wanted me to be here in her graduation. Héctor, who could be seen as a handful but in reality he is a very intelligent and good kid, thought that I was joking. But then when he realized that it was true, he seriously asked me not to leave. He kept hugging me as we walked back to our rooms after dinner, and he kept saying "No se vaya, tío!" (Don´t leave, uncle). It was really hard, and I told him that I will definitely come back and visit them.