9-2-2010

The kids were fascinated by the birds.

My boy Lemar´t again!

After walking so nicely, everyone had a glass of Inca Kola and fruits.


Tia Sonia and Tia Cristina from Norway on the way on the caminata.


Sara (left) and Milagros (right) enjoying the campo.

Tuesdays is the hiking day during summer holidays, and today we went to the town centre in Lunahuaná. This time I went with the kinder group, and we had tons of fun! We saw a lot of plants on the way, such as corn, grapevines, prickly pears, avocados, aji (a type of chili pepper that's orange in color), mangoes, etc. So we taught the kids to name them. We saw a bit of animal's defecation as well, and the kids pointed and said "kaka"! LOL All the kids walked all the way by themselves, although some requested to be carried occasionally. So I'd pick them up for a few seconds and they'd walk again. Cristina treated them with candies for walking nicely, and everyone was ecstatic! Once we arrived in town, all the kids needed to stop for a visit in the bathroom at a store, and after that, I treated them with "Inca Kola", which is a Peruvian soda, and we had fruits as snacks too. The owner of the shop was so nice, and provided us with tissues (for wiping the kids) and glasses for the soda, and we all sat in the backyard where there were a couple tables. There's also a live turkey! Some kids had fun making sounds as the turkey was singing, but most were scared when it's near. Afterwards, we went to a local hostal where has some birds for the kids to see. Then we went to a canotaje agency (whitewater rafting) that Cristina hired last weekend, and the owner was nice enough to let the kids play in the boat. All of them went mad and had tons of fun! I think I'll try whitewater rafting in the next weekend, which should be fun. Lemar't as always held onto me most of the time, and he danced whenever he hears music! And everywhere he went, he'd wave his hand to the people and said "la", which in his language means "hola" or "hello". Of course he was well received. Soon after all the fun, it's time to return home for lunch!

8-2-2010

Gregorio, one of the youth group kids, was being silly by putting masking tapes on his mouth. He´s a great hardworking kid though!

The youth group drawing their own portraits and their strengths and weaknesses in the comedor (dining room). They all did great!

6-2-2010 II

My favorite boy, Lemar´t, whom I shared ice-cream with. Isn´t he precious?

The kids always ask for water to drink, and they are as happy as drinking gaseosa (soda)!

Little Jhonatan smiling after drinking water with his uncle wawawyanyan!

Carlos Abel cleaning the shoe cabinet.

6-2-2010 I

Ademir and Luigi cleaning their drawers and folding their clothes so nicely

Saturday is cleaning day, and I was helping out the 6-9 year-old boys room. I still don't have a clear idea on their routine, but I tried my best and others came and helped too. There's quite a lot to do, such as folding clothes, cleaning shoes closet, doing beddings, sweep, mop, wax the floor, picking garbage outside, etc. It's amazing to see those little boys doing all these things so neatly by themselves. What I'm used to see is children having helpers .... No offense to those who have maids out there, I was just trying to be sarcasticly funny. :p

Afternoon was "Sábado Especial" (Saturday special), and this week we did drama competition. We were split into 6 groups, and each group had to come up with a 5 minutes story. Our group did a village reunion of Northern Perú, and we had a lot of fun doing that. While waiting for the verdict from the judges, we had a surprise, which was popcorn for everyone while a couple kids performed dancing in pop music. It was hilarious! And Lemar't came to sit with me, and we shared popcorn. He's really really sweet, coz he kept feeding me popcorn while I fed him as well! Everyone laughed at us and said I'm his papa and he's my son, as he always want to be with me, and starts giggling and runs towards me when he saw me. Actually I wish he's my son too! Haha ...... Anyway, our group won! Actually 2 groups tied, and we were one of the two. We had a tin of ice-cream as the prize! Another kid that clings to me a lot as well is Jhonatan, who calls me "wawaryanyan"! Really hilarious! Sometimes when I stood afar in a distance, he'd scream "wawaryanyan, mano (hand)!". He's fascinated by water, and everywhere when he saw it, he'd say,"Agua!". And when he drinks water, he has a great satisfied smile too. Actually all kids love drinking water! Sometimes I took a few of them to the dining room and give them glasses of water to drink, and it's actually quite fun and satisfied to see them drinking water with such happiness.

I started working with the youth group as well, on their self-esteem and communication skills, and of course, some behavioral management too! Most of them had done really well. Last Wednesday I asked group one to draw their self-portraits, and tell their strengths and weaknesses. They all did very well, and I was very proud of them. I also suggested to post their drawings in the dining room, so others can see their great work. The Friday group, on the other hand, was a bit tricky. I'd say most of them did really well, except 2, who really needs individual counselling, as they often fail to follow instructions, and often disrupt the class and bug other kids. I had to use behavioral management stuff, and they were a bit pissed! Oh well, I think in the long run consequences are good lessons for them.

5-2-2010

This is my habitacion. My room is upper left one, where you can see my blue towel.

4-2-2010

Tio John (left) and Tio Wynn (right) doing their laundry in the lavanderia

This morning after breakfast, we did gardening as its our thursday chores. This time we did take out all the wild plants in the backyards, while others worked in the little farm we have and cut a tree that is used for lighting fire for cooking. I helped with the former and latter. The former was really tough as there was a lot of dusts and I kept sneezing. But I didnt care as the kids worked really hard and I cant let my little setback to stop helping. I also helped cutting the tree, which was the first time ever in my life! It was tough at first, but once I got used to it, it was not so bad.

Also, we do laundry ourselves here. By laundry, I mean washing by hands! At first I didnt know what I was doing, but now I think Ive worked out a procedure how to wash efficiently. The children from 7 start washing their own clothes as well. In some ways, its kinda fun, and I just had to let go of the privileges I have in Hong Kong or Canada, or elsewhere there are washing machines and dryers. The clothes dry very fast as its very sunny and dry here. So if I wash after breakfast, the clothes will dry up in the afternoon.

31-1-2010

The local pueblo, Cuiva

Centro de Lima

The busy street in Lima overlooking a mountain with colorful habitaciones

Me and Noelia, the volunteer from España in La Plaza de Armas de Lima

Weekend in Lima was fine except that I didn't get to accomplish a lot of things. But at least I got to use high speed internet although i still hadn't completed everything! On Saturday night, Noelia and I travelled back to Cañete as she wasn't feeling too well, and we had a birthday party to attend in a town nearby called Cuiva, where we stayed at the home of one of the local tias, Sonia whose daughter was going to be 7. The town is very rural and poorly constructed. Because of that the roads are very dusty. Sometimes there's water suspension, and it happened on the Sunday morning when we were there. Kids was wearing rags basically, and their clothes were quite dirty. Each room there's a big hole on the ceiling, which serves as natural light in daytime. After visiting the local town, I appreciate a lot more of what we have in the home, which is by all means not luxury. But at least everything is clean and sufficient. Nonetheless, the people are awesome! When we got off the bus, there's quite a long path we had to walk to Sonia's home. But we were lucky enough to bump into a señor who was driving a truck back home, and offered us a ride. At first we were a bit cagy, but he kept telling us "confianza" which means confidence. So we hopped on, and he told us he's the school mate of Sonia's father and they're still good friends. Then we met Sonia's family: her daughter Melany, her elder sister Rica, her nephew Daniel and her parents. They are all super hospitable and down-to-earth people, and told me their home is "mi casa" too. I helped them with some chores, which made me become fast friends with them. Sonia's dad was particular fond of me and treated me like his relative.The birthday party was fun too. We danced in Peruvian music, played games, had snacks and dinner. The kids surely had fun, as I don't think they have such abundant resources that often. The next day, they made pisco sour for us to try, which is a typical Peruvian cocktail composed of lemon juice, sugar, ice and pisco, a local liquor made of grapes and is as strong as tequila. Overall it had been a wonderful experience in which I saw the real rural Peru, and got to experience the generosity, hospitality and kindness of Peruvian people.