19-11-2012

Us making strawberry jams with the boys.

The chocolate cookies are ready!

All the little ones behave so well!

Besides baking, they played around with the tools too.

Mari Luz finally were out and riding her bike!

A world of extremes:  On one hand, the children are so beautiful and precious, and everyday I just love them more and more.  On the other hand, I just hate the stupidity of people whom I don´t really give a shit but just like to fuck up everybody´s life.  Sometimes I wonder if it´s really my problem, but after like ten other people who come from different countries and different backgrounds (volunteers, visitors, family members of volunteers) have the same issue, I soon realise that it is just a fucked up situation and some people just like to mess around.  Actually as everybody knows I´m a pretty tough guy with no fear of shits, but seeing situations that are just ridiculous and people being fucked around make me realise how important we have to ignore these people, go on with our ambitions and missions, do whatever we feel right about and be fearless.  We are the reference of the children, and we need to be positive role models for them.  Ok....Phew!  Now the good stuff ......

Been having so much fun with the children, and every day I feel more loved.  Claudio always always asked to kiss me, while Esmeralda jumps up to me and give me a big hug and Angela wrapped around my back and Aldair pulled on my shirt.  It´s always fun to carry them, spin them around and play with them.  The older boys are also so wonderful.  The volunteer house is ready and we are about to move.  On one hand I´m happy that we have our private space and comfort, but I will miss living with the boys, who are absolutely wonderful.  Here are some of the things they said:

Jorge with an childish annoyed tone:  ¨Why you have to leave?  You can stay for a few years!¨

Alexander after saying that I will come and visit:  ¨Everyday?¨

Rafael:  ¨Why you are moving?  You don´t like living with us?¨ And I told him of course not, and we hugged.

I will truly miss living with them, missing put creams on their face and ointments for their wounds.  In fact, they often say that I have the best pharmacy!  At the last night, I made fried rice for dinner for them, and they were so happy.  I got hugs from every angles, and I know that they can feel that I truly care about them.  Even tío Roger, my roommate, said that they are going to miss me.  

Work wise it has been good too, although after the school strike the kids have to have make-up classes, and it ruins our schedule big time.  But the program is going well, and we are having good advances.  We have been doing different workshops like baking, cooking, sex education, and I also tutor English for some of them too.  The kids keep asking us when we will have English classes, person care workshops, watching movies, etc.  We hope we can more time and energy to do everything, but it is not physically possible.  But we try to keep it up so that we know we are here for a good cause, and not for the fucked up people and situations.  But, we are fine.  The people whom we care about are the ones who matter.

26-29 Octubre, 2012: Cajamarca-Trujillo

Sugar of different colours in the Cajamarca market.

Cajamarca has a lot of cows, and so do lactic products!  And they are delicious!

The beautiful church in Plaza de Armas.

A painter painting the beautiful city.

Me stepping on Cajamarca!

The cheese factory.

Us los increíbles at las ventanillas.

The church laminating at night

The truly ´breathtaking´ Cumbe Mayo.

The incredible landscape at 3,600 metres above sea level.

The pre-Inca canal with ancient motif on the wall at Cumbe Mayo.

The majestic stones.

Los Baños del Inca, delicious thermal baths.

Re-visit Chan Chan.

Revisit Huanchaco and fisherman with his totora boat.

A surfer and the pelican.

Revisit the romantic city of Trujillo.

Beautiful Plaza de Armas.

1-11-2012

A beautiful shot with Esmeralda and Jenny photographed by Jay, a professional photographer from New Zealand.

Another great shot from Jay at therapy with my little ones.

Alondra with her beautiful crown and mask that she painted.

Aldair trying to figure out how to play dominos.

A walk to the slum wasn´t easy at all!

Rufino, Leticia and Joselyn overlooking the slum at the edge of the hill.

On the top of hill, me and Héctor.

A little kid whom we met in the slum area.

One of the houses that some of our kids came from.

Our goodbyes to Elba who made us lovely bracelets with our names on.  We actually look much happier than we were.

Alcides trying to touch a skull.

The most haunting ruins that I have ever visited!  Hundreds of skulls and human bones all over the places.

Héctor found some pots.

Los increíbles (Viki, Moni, Olga and me) at the ruins.

Jorge standing on the of a construction .... almost falling!

Everybody!

It has been an intense two weeks:  Visitors came from Canada and New Zealand came one group after another to work on donations, Elba leaving, awful meetings with the tíos, on top of routine work like therapies and creating the program.  At the end of the day, the strength of the children has kept us alive.

First came Jackie and Doug from Canada, who were so nice that they brought us volunteers so many goodies like chocolate, maple syrup, proper knifes and pans, etc.  Doug bought wine and beer every day to cheer us up and cooked dinners like tacos and pastas, while Jackie treated us with proper breakfasts and lunches like French toasts, pancakes and grilled cheese sandwiches.  We joked that we would gain back the weight that we've lost!  They are amazing as they understand what kind of bullshits we face everyday.  And those of us who speak English helped them translate everyday and worked with them as they needed us.  Doug left one week after, while Jackie stayed for another week while the New Zealanders were here.  I could see Doug was sad when he left.  The feeling was mutual.  

We really worked our ass off while the visitors were here, but it was fun too.  We went the nearby slums and a ruins, which was totally interesting.  The slums area surprisingly wasn't too dangerous, and we went in group so that helped too.  We could see some of the places that where our children came from.  I could see the mixed emotions on their faces when they went there.  It was definitely a cultural experience.  The ruins was just an eye opening experience.  The kick of it is that it's not being excavated at all!   Once we walked up a dusty hill, suddenly piles of human skulls and bones just lied around everywhere!  You could how life is so insignificant here.  It was shocking, grotesque, revolting, but most of all saddening.  Then we saw some insignificant structures around the area where people scratched their names on them.  It was a good lesson on the moral implication of this experience to us and to our children.  

The children as always are just beautiful.  We have been working on the cognitive program and so we work with different groups of children.  It is working very well, and things are getting more concrete now.  And we got some good feedback from them too.  Francesco gave me a hug for several minutes, and the visitors were surprised to see that a kid would want to hug for that long!  Indeed they need a lot of love, no matter how old they are.  Even the older boys and girls need so much too.  

Last Thursday evening we went to the girls' house for Herlinda's birthday, and we made jam cracker and dulce de leche which Viki's mom sent her.  The girls were us how to write words in our languages.  In particular, they were writing love phrases for the boys that they fancy.  It was quite funny but so cool that they wanted to confide in us.  In here, basically it's prohibited to have any form of relationships, and the fact that they are willing to confide in us is really cool.  

Elba, a 17-year-old girl, left us to another orphanage in another town.  Long story, but we don't really agree on the whole process and the girls were treated fairly.  But there was little that we could have done, and we did every way to support her and the girls that are close to her.  She was so sweet that she made us a bracelet for each one of us.  We hope she is well and takes on the advice that we gave her.

There were leftover food everyday from the visitors, and I brought the food to different houses for the kids. You couldn't imagine how excited they are when I bought those food that no one wanted.  I felt so spoiled, and it just keeps reminding myself how lucky I am and how much we need to treasure what we have.  And in the meantime, I try to do my best to give whatever we can to my wonderful children, whether they are 2 or 18.

15-10-2012

My boys on holidays with me!  Eliseo, Luis Daniel, Glimar and Kebi.

The session of Virginia that inspired me with the idea of our cognitive education program!

Feeding Franco :)  while Lemar´t ate in the background.

Hector and Kevin were making their own version of tortilla española!

2 events that had made me ecstatic in the past 2 weeks:  The visit of Rafael, the adoptive father of José Luis and Jhonatan, and creating our own cognitive education program for children and adolescents with learning difficulties. 

I was called by Tula, the social worker, and didn´t know what it was.  Then when I arrived at the door, there was a man who had a radiant smile and approached me by a hand shake.  I was a bit puzzled as I didn´t know who he was, but then he introduced himself and he´s the father of the twins!  I was so excited that he actually came and wanted to meet me!  So he recorded a clip of me saying something for José Luis and Jhonatan, and we talked about their growth and what´s going on with their lives.  Sounds like they are doing very well in Switzerland, learning so many things, including German and French.  Soon they will speak like 5 languages!  Rafael even invited me to visit them when I go to Switzerland.  I feel so blessed that I got to spend the time with the twins and they will be always loved by their uncle Ryan.

Just as I was bored by writing reports, some exciting idea came through.  I was finishing my session and Virginia was still working on hers, and I observed her session with the 3 boys, and it was really fantastic!  She was playing a dynamic game of shapes and colors, and the boys were so attentive too.  I thought, it would be great to create a program to enhance cognitive development of children with learning difficulties, and we both have lots of ideas that can incorporate into it.  So we talked about it, and she wanted to be on board too!  So we have been working our ass off to create it.  Now day and night I´d have an idea coming up or I´d be in front of my MacBook working on it.  By the way, Pages is such a terrific app to do designs and cool layouts!  It can make ordinary to professional!  I´m loving my work, which hopefully will bring into use even when I´m gone.  

1-10-2012

Frank playing a balloon in the exhibition.

Carmen and Elvis posed beside the poster with the same pose.

Our 2nd place work done by Erica, Milagros and Carmen!

The winner!!!  Estefani, Rosa and Elba.

The kids followed a dance routine at the Plaza de Armas with a dance instructor.

One of the therapy days where the little ones can use up their imaginations in their head.

Our collage, with participation of tíos, tías and the boys.

We are in the time of chaos in Cañete: Public schools teachers have been on strike for almost a month now, civil union has violent manifestations, and among them are some other strikes from different group of people.  The result is that our children don´t have school to go to, and they all stay home all the time.  Well, except this one time there was a teens pregnancy expo in town last Wednesday, and our children participated in various events like a collage poster competition and dance competition.  We volunteers helped the older boys to do one of the posters, and it was so much fun!  The outcome was really nice because you can see everyone´s work and thought in the poster.  At the end, although we didn´t win, we did put our best effort to it and enjoy the process.  But the girls won first place and second place, which we were also psyched because besides a couple gifts we won a trophy for our home!  It was a pride moment for us, and all the kids screamed ¨NPH NPH NPH!¨  So did we!