9-2-2011

The kids showed me that they had washed their hands.

Julio and Marcos were playing dogs and horses.

Lemar´t pretended to be a dog biting Claudio.

Claudio pretended to be a dog as well.

Me and Ayita.

"It´s the end of an era, Ryan!" said John, my roommate in the past year who left today. Indeed it´s the end of an era after he has left and I will be leaving soon as well, and there are the new volunteers here. After we all took a photo together, we said goodbye to John and got him on the bus. As we walked back, our driver Jhonatan hugged me really tightly from behind while Kevin grabbed my right arm tightly as well, saying "we have to captivate him." It´s always hard to say goodbye, especially after developing such relationships with so many people. Like I said to the kids at our farewell party, there have been ups and downs in the past year, but it´s just because we are a family, and families have to deal with the goods and the bads as well.

In the afternoon, I was just supposed to have therapy with Jhosmelyr, but the kids kept asking me if they can have therapy. So I decided to do two group sessions with them, and they were so excited that they could be in therapy. The older kids also have been really intimate with me, often giving me hugs or wrapping around my arm or hugging me from behind. I really have no idea how I could deal with my leaving.

On the other hand, the fashion design project is going really well. I found out that we have a little sewing machine at the home, just that there´s no needle. So I asked Brígida to get the needle from Lima last weekend, and it´s working really well and helping tremendously with the progress! I taught Héctor to sew, and he has so much fun using the sewing machine. I really love when I see them work and be interested in something useful. I do hope that there is more stuff like this for them more often. It´s not just developing skills, but also helping them to boast up their self-esteem, self-confidence and learn to be creative and perseverant.