24-7-2010

Jhonatan enjoyed his freshly fried hot papa frita!

While waiting for the dishes, they both made silly faces all the time.

José Luis found another smaller triángulo.

They both screamed "triángulo¨ when they saw this sign, and ran into it immediately.

We stopped by the bakery and had some juice and cookies.

After cleaning up the room this morning, I took the twins out for the family outing. With the twins, they were so eager and it was definitely more fun! As a behaviorist, of course I did something that would make other kids jealous! Actually the volunteers had agreed that we won´t spend too much money each time as we don´t want it to become neither a spending spree nor a competition among volunteers, nor loss of the original purpose, a family getting together and enjoying each other´s company. But I had to do this outrageously for the sake of behavioral modification of the elder kids. Plus, I can´t deny that I am biased with the twins (also Lemar´t)!

First, we went for a walk, seeing different things, and they made a lot of comments of the things we saw. Because time was short and I wanted to take them on a motor-taxi, so we hopped on one. They were a bit scared at first, but they enjoyed it very much after a short while. Upon arrival in the village, we stopped by the bakery and had some cookies and juice. They often asked me to pick them up, especially when they saw big dogs around or whenever they feel like hugging. Although they were a bit heavy together, I really did enjoy having both of them in my arms together.

We ended our little outing with a pollo a la brasa (roasted chicken) meal. There were many ¨firsts¨ in this little venture. For starter, this was the first time they had this, and I wanted to take them there because I always find this place serving some of the most delicious I have ever had and I want them to try too. When they saw the sauce dishes (there were four kinds), they were a bit scared and didn´t want to try as they never knew them before. So I explained to them what kind of sauces there were, and we counted on the colors too which was a little educational and fun. They were too wary to try any of those, but at the end they tried ketchup which Jhonatan liked but not so much with José Luis. Suddenly, José Luis wanted to do No. 2, and this time I had to clean him up! This is the first time that I cleaned some kid´s bottom, and I managed to conquer one of my greatest fears! After he was done, we went back to the table and soon the food arrived, and fortunately the former incident didn´t spoil the appetite too much. They were so psyched to have French fries and a large piece of roasted chicken. For drinks, I let them choose between Inca Cola and Coca Cola, and they chose the latter. They never had much choices in their lives, and I felt like giving them choices is what a dad or mom would do with their kids. By the end, they actually said ¨mi barriga llena (my tummy is full) ¨ while they were holding their stomach with a frown (by the way it was really cute), which was the first time I have ever heard of them saying! Also, I had done something I would have never done for myself or anyone. While we were having the meal, there were a couple bees flying around our food and us, and the twins of course were a bit scared. I was so worried that they would sting them, so I forcefully pushed them away with my arm. Fortunately I had long sleeves on, but I would have never done it if it weren´t for them. It was definitely a fun and memorable afternoon with so many firsts. And they were all good.

23-7-2010

Alondra and Lemar´t led the way! They are just the cutest!

José Luis with his chubby cute classmate.

Marcos happily showing the flag of Perú.

Jhonatan paired with Jhosmelyr.

While I decided to take a stroll in the village and tried to get online, I realized that internet has not been available for a few days. Of course, the power cut affected the network and it had not totally recovered yet. So I just wandered around, got myself some snacks and waited for kinder to be off school at noon and pick them up. Surprisingly, they were parading in the village, holding the Peruvian flag. Of course, it is going to be las fiestas patrias (a 2-day celebration of Peru´s Independence Day) next week, and the teachers told them out for a parade/walk while singing a patriotic rhyme. Lemar´t and Alondra led the way, and they were super super cute. Then followed them were José Luis with his classmate, Jhonatan with Jhosmelyr, and the rest kinda scattered around. They were so excited to see me too, and it created a little chaos, as they were supposed to be in line but some ran off to me. So I helped with the order a bit and walked along with them. When they were about to return to school, I said goodbye to them but they looked a bit insecure and almost as if they didn´t understand why I had to go. Separation is definitely hard for them to deal with, and actually for me too.

There is a new activity the volunteers has been doing that we take the nuclear family members (of course exclude the parents) out for an hour, either it be a walk by the river or playing game with them together. The point is to get them together to do something fun as they don´t do so often. The first group I had was a group of 4 sisters, whom are a bit of a problem always. The eldest two were really fussy and kept making negative comments about it. In fact, some of the kids reacted in similar ways. We ended up canceling the session. So I had a talk with Tía Catalina about it, as it was getting a bit out of hand. In the evening after dinner, we had a talk about it with all the kids, and of course I had to use some behavioral technique to make them feel regretted. And we were harsh too as some of them don´t seem to appreciate the things we plan for them. The ambience was a bit tense and many of them looked really shocked the way I reacted as usually I am docile, but somehow we need to make them realize that they need to be considerate to other people´s feelings. Afterwards, an older kid, Alcides, came up to me and made a humorous comment, ¨Tío, tell me who bothered you, and I will go kiss his ass!¨ Of course I said it´s ok. I really hope that they do change their perspectives when looking at things, because they need the right and positive kind of thinking to move on in their lives.

21-7-2010

Since I came back from my break on Monday, there has been three days without electricity on and off. It happened at night almost every time, and that made it super inconvenient. We ended up dining and spending the night in candles, which actually made the evenings a lot more romantic. It was actually quite fun despite the inconvenience.

Extra cute pics: July 2010

José Luis playing ´rafting´!

Julio showing me the birds.

Lemar´t felt a bit cross with this plastic octopus.

Claudio with a drip of ...

The twins in the cutest pajamas ever, me and Franklin.

16-7-2010

Lemar´t´s early bedtime....at the dinner table.

I helped Jhonatan change his pajamas.

Everyone was quite hyper by showing me their stuff before bedtime. Left: Joanca wrestled with Marcos. Center: Franklin showed me a painting he did in the morning. Right: Jhosmelyr and her beloved Anita.

José Luis in his cutest pj. Actually Jhonatan has the same one too!

Alonso in his bed with his Barney.

After being sick again and stayed in bed for the whole day yesterday, I finally got better and was able to eat something and got myself moving for my weekend off. This week, though, in comparison to last week has been much more ´tranquilo´ and less dramatic. I have been quite busy though because I have been planning more activities with the kids as well as the local workers for whom I am planning to do training workshops. But more importantly, I just wanted to spend more time with the kids. Three days from today, it has been six months already since I got here! And I found myself to have built a really strong bond with the kids. Franklin called me "Papito" the other day, which means "Daddy"! Actually sometimes I feel like a daddy to them, as I play with them as well as discipline them when they are naughty. I help them with their homework, bathe them, take them to bathroom, change them and put them to bed. I enjoy every part of it, and it is always a joy to spend time with them even though it has its hard part. Whether it is Jhonatan gripping my fingers so tightly when he was in bed or Franklin arm-wrestled-like hugging me when he was falling asleep, it makes all the pains worthwhile.

11-7-2010

A Sunday´s Peruvian dog experience

The kids gathered around our tv and watched the World Cup final.

Jhon Carlos helped combing the kids hair before we headed to church.

Jhonatan finished his candy after a traumatic cry.

Poor baby, he looked so worried before heading to the clinic and get that shot.

If it wasn´t for the NPH website, I wouldn´t take this horrid photo! My heart went way down when I saw him like this.

It has been a crazy week! The Rustic Pathway group came again on Thursday, and they played with the small kids. But these teenagers didn´t really know what they were doing and how to deal with the kids. The worst was that they let the kids destroy some of the materials we have in the therapy room! As my friends know, I got really freaked out when people messed up my stuff. What´s worse was that it took a lot of effort in fundraising to have these materials, and it wasn´t easy. I burst out in tears just to see all the mess and I had to leave the house to chill myself out. After dinner, John suggested that we went out together for a little break and so we did. Funny there was a dog kept following us. I got to say as a dog lover, I hate Peruvian dogs! Basically they aren´t well domesticated like those at home, and they tend to bite and bark. But this one was just following us, as if he wanted to protect us on the way. She even followed us back to the house! The next day we had a meeting with Tía Catalina about this, as it was getting out of hand. She was very supportive, and she later in the day talked to the organizer about it and asked them to replace those materials that were ruined.

Friday the kids and some of the tíos had the H1N1 vaccination in our clinic. Most kids cried and got freaked out naturally, but they all got through it. I carried some candies with me to cheer them up, as some of my babies like Alonso, Jhonatan and José Luis cried so hard. They were so traumatized after the shots that they even couldn´t hold the candy in their mouth! While I agreed to help Tío John take some photos for the NPH website, I spent a lot of time comforting them. Lemar´t was really funny as it was only for 4 years and up. But he thought he needed one, so he kept saying no to me. Plus, he dragged me everywhere far from the clinic! I asked him if he was trying to escape, and he said with a smirk, "¡Sí!" There was a change in duties this week after 6 months, and the teenage kids shift their responsibilities around. The greatest switch was two boys taken over kinder and two others over the babies. The babysitting posts used to be an all-girl team, but now it´s all-boy! It´s funny to see them work with the younger kids, and I think it's a brilliant idea because the younger ones should be exposed to female as well as male siblings and it shouldn´t be just a girl´s job.

After lunch today, we watched the World Cup final together. All the kids and tíos were together in the dining room watching the game. I was rooting for the Netherlands, as it has always been one of my favorite national teams, and I happened to have brought a Netherlands orange tee with me. The favoritism in the house varied, some supported the Netherlands while others supported España. But the real fun was really getting to do this with all the kids. At the end a lot of us were a little disappointed as the Netherlands lost, but Tía Noelia, who is in Lima this weekend watching the game in the Plaza de Armas, must have been ecstatic! By the way, the dog that followed us on Friday keep hanging out in the home these few days, and she seems to like us. I am still a bit cagy about her as I was once attacked by a dog here, but she seems quite docile and the kids have been playing with her a bit and it went fine. The kinder kids though were a bit wary and scared, but Franklin and Joanca kept teasing her. Anyhow, I was glad to meet a Peruvian dog who is actually nice!

6-7-2010

Lemar´t dancing in the party.

Walter was practicing football with us.

Jeferson playing the skateboard as a bodyboard!

The kids and tíos were cheering for the volley teams.

The twins were all over me at the Teacher´s Day celebration.

Jhosmelyr was too shy to dance, but she tried!

Perú is a country that has lots of celebrations. Since I arrived there had been countless of celebrations from Children´s Day to Pisco Day. Today we celebrated Teacher´s Day, and the kids had a day off and arranged an array of activities for us. We played a few games like orange peeling and eating contest, quizzes and treasure hunt. It ended with group dancing, before we took our lunch outdoor. In the afternoon, we all watched the World Cup match with the Netherlands vs. Uruguay. Being in a football fanatic continent, the folks here paid a lot of attention in the games and it was really fun watching with them. Milagros handed me a bowl of popcorn, which was prepared for all the ¨teachers¨. The little ones, Franklin, Marcos, Joanca and Alonso all came around me and I gladly shared with them. At the end, the Netherland won and was qualified in the grand final, which noted the last Latin team being eliminated.

After watching the game, we all played sports, which were football and volleyball, the two favorite sports in the house. It was really cool playing with the kids and tíos, and we all had so much fun, even though I sucked at both sports. Walter and Tío Jhonatan taught me and Noelia how to play football, and we all practiced a bit. By the end of it, my legs were super sore but I really appreciated them teaching us. Sometimes I worried that I sucked so bad that I would ruin the games. But Walter encouraged me and told me that no one is perfect and it just takes practice. He is such a great kid, and he has become my favorite youngster. It had been a great day, because we seldom played together, and today we spent the whole day together doing fun things, which is very important as a family.