12-8-2012

Rufino was doing his drawing for the competition.  Eventually he co-won the most popular award.

A creative Superman dance by Leticia, Milagros, Vilma and Carmen won 2nd place.

Rafael and Jorge did card tricks, which won over the audience, as well as the judges, becoming the winner of NPH-Peru Busca Talento.

A collaboration dance of "Thriller" co-won the most popular award.

Jose Huari won the junior category of the drawing competition.

Erika, 15, won the senior category of the drawing competition, with her amazing super professional drawing!

Me presenting the winner of the talent competition to Rafa and Jorge.

Today is the end of school vacation.  It has been two weeks full of events.  After our trip to Lima, we volunteers had been preparing a talent competition “NPH-Peru Busca Talento”, and the children actually have been preparing their talents for the past two weeks, including singing, dancing, magic, antifacts, arts and crafts, etc.  We had been viewing their hardwork in the past 2 weeks, and they really surprised us by their works!  They are just incredible, and it really shows that no matter what backgrounds we came from, we are all blessed with certain talents that God gave us.  

Yesterday, I was part of the judging panel, and it was so difficult to decide who did better because there were so many good talents!  For example, Erika’s drawing was so professional that it could be from any major artist’s work!  Rafael and Jorge did card tricks that were simply incredible.  The girls including Milagros, Leticia, Vilma and Carmen came up with their own choreography and collaborated an incredible dance.  We were all very impressed and happy to see they created something so amazing by themselves.  At the end, we awarded Rafael and Jorge as the winner of the talent competition, Erika as the winner of the artistic competition.  And we did a public voting award too that everyone participated, and it was a lot of fun!  At the end, Rufino’s drawing and a dance collaboration of various children named “Thriller” won the award.  Hector made an incredible stadium out of recycled materials.  Although it didn’t win, I decided to buy it from him as I also need something like that to do speech therapy activities with some of the children.  I wanted to make him feel that his work does worth something, and it really does!  It has saved me time and effort to make something for my therapy work!  And he learned that if he works hard for something, someday it will pay off.

Virginia and I also spent some time to talk to the social worker, Tula, about the family history of some of the children.  Each story was just excruciating for us, because we only see where they are today, but not where they came from.  Franco, for example, lived in a house full of rubbish, and no one took care of him in the house.  Franchesco and Angela lived in a house full of fleas, and many came from home with problem such as alcoholism, various types of abuse and malnutrition.  It was so depressing but at the same time helped us understand better where they came from, so that we can provide appropriate therapy for them.  But most of all, they simply need love and care.  Everyday I just love them more.  I just want them to feel that I love them so very much.  

Today I finalized my preparation of therapy materials, and I will start my therapy work with the guys tomorrow.  I am very looking forward to it and all the positive changes and improvements that will come along.  Super psyched!  I love my children!