Capurganá - San Blas Islands, May 2013

The natural pool in Capurganá.... super lindo!

The sea of seven colors thanks to different formations of sands and pebbles, corals and fish.

The unrest strike involved many actions such as burning flames to attract attention and arm force.

 Finally arrived in Panamá .... La Miel

First island that we landed was near where the kunas still go fishing in their traditional boats.

A private beach of the first day ... it´s basically a small coconut palm island, and nothing else.

Second day, arrived in an island of clear crystaline water.

A paradise island.

Look at the water!  It is so clear!  And on the right, you can see the formation of the coral reefs right at the shore.

Romantic sunset.

Swaying in a hammock at sunset between the coconut palms.

From one paradise island to another.

See the shipwreck?  It´s on the left!

Lobster night!

The star fish island, a true paradise on earth.

Shallow calm water with wonderful sealife underneath.

Two friends.

Star Fish everywhere!

Enjoying a coconut on the beach before heading back again.

It is just breathtaking!

9-6-2013

Cristhian with his new polo.

Lemar´t with his new Havaianas

The giant Oreo cake for both Lemar´t and Cristhian.

The big last night with two incredible women!

Franco and Ángel

Mili and me saying goodbye, second take with smiles.

My Peruvian bro, David, and La Billordo.

I just realized that people do read my blog!  I was too busy (and lazy) to update, and honestly it has been crazy around here.  

Well, I have left the orphanage for ethic and personal reasons, and it had been a torture living there in the past two months.  I was threatened, humiliated and damaged psychologically while working endlessly on ENPAL and other workshops.  It was more than I could take, and also the organization was not helping but rather supporting those ¨evil¨ events that has been going on.  I was utterly exhausted physically and psychologically.  I realize that there is nothing that we could do inside the orphanage, and so we work ¨outside¨ by filing complaints and documenting abusive events, maltreatments and financial mismanagement of the institution.  This is the only way we feel that can genuinely help the children.

What has left me is some time to cool off and travel a bit.  It turns out to be an once in a lifetime experience for me as I am able to travel to all the places that I always wanted to go!  The first highlight was to go to Capurganá in Chocó, Colombia.  So much I have read about this undeveloped Caribbean town on the border between Colombia and Panama, but being there was a dream came true.  Well, it turned out to be a tad more interesting than I thought it would be, because the day I arrived was the day they started a strike!  It means that the whole town was paralysed and nothing was available.  Nothing.  Fortunately, I was in a hostel where the staff was very helpful and most of all get me sorted with food and drinks!  After understanding why they were on strike, I realized how important it was for them to  fight against the evil (just like the way we fight in Peru).  They hadn´t had electricity for the whole week because ¨some people¨ corrupted the gasoline that was supposed to arrive in town for the generator.  It was a definitely legitimate reason to fight for their rights, and unfortunately they had to use the tourists as their strong playing card because no one would ever listen until the tourists complained.  Even though I was uncomfortable with the fact that I was hostaged, it was pretty much harmless to me. I could still do hikes, go to the pristine beaches, snorkel, play beach volleyball and have some decent meals.  So I was quietly waiting until they lifted the strike, which happened 5 days later, to head on to San Blas Islands.  

The day that we left for San Blas was pretty surreal, as I thought we would have to stay much longer.  But as we were on our way there, it was pretty amazing.  The sea was just beautiful, crystal clear blue water which you can see it through to the bottom.  Visiting the Kuna community was an interesting trip, because they still live their culture and speak the Kuna language.  It was like back in ancient time.  In San Blas, I had the best time snorkeling!  It was one of the biggest barrier reefs after Australia and Belize, and it had proved to be amazing!  I had seen every single colors that I could name, so many types of fish, crabs, sea urchin, and one time I saw a poker dot sting-ray!  While it was just snorkeling, when I went deeper in the sea, I saw a wall of coral reefs that it felt more like scuba diving.  It was the most amazing snorkeling experience!  Each and every islands that we went to were unique in their own ways, but each one was just absolutely beautiful.  You feel like it was your private island, and you can totally chill over there.  The various colors of the sea was just amazing, and the undersea life was just wonderful.  I just wish that I had a waterproof camera then!

After the trip in San Blas, I went to Panama City, which I never anticipated as I thought I would go back to Colombia.  But it turned out to be a wonderful surprise.  I got to visit the grandeur of Panama Canal and know a bit of the city, such as the beautiful colonial but touristy Casco Antiguo and the Panama Trump Tower which is the tallest building there.  In fact, Panama City has more high rise buildings than any Latin American cities.  Afterwards, I returned to Colombia shortly before I set out to Northern Brazil!

I managed to get a very good offer on air ticket to Recife, Brazil, and there I started my venture of the beautiful northern coast and its beaches!  Well, it didn´t start off very good, as I got sick just before I left Bogotá, and I spent the first few days in Recife with the flu.... and the rain!  So I guess it was a good thing that I rested a bit during the rainy times.  Fortunately, I got better and I went to Porto de Galinhas, a fantastic beach resort, which sports a reef made natural pools and it is within walking distance at low tide.  It was a very amazing place, and coral fish just follow you around, waiting for you to feed them.  The natural pools are amazing, and you can stand on top of the reef and have fantastic views of the beach, the reef and the town.  It was definitely an unique experience.  Now I am up north again in Praia da Pipa, and I´m waiting for the rain to stop and get some more marvellous experience in this stunning region.

7-4-2013

We´ve created spaces for the kids to play and enjoy different educational games.

This is where the evil starts!  hahahahaha .... José has been learning to behave here.

Even the new tía Maribel was playing our games with the kids!

When they are occupied with meaningful activities, they are so good!

Antony and Angelo dragged me all around to play puzzles.

Even MariLuz is a fan of puzzles now!

Two little lovers!

Among a crazy guy and another manipulative gal volunteers fiasco, Finally came some comfort......

It has been a problem with the Casa San Antonio, where the tías cannot manage very well the boys of 8-12 years old.  For one thing, there were not enough tías and too many boys.  And boys are always naughtier and more physical.  On top of that, some of them had delinquent backgrounds and even psychiatric issues, what could one expect not to have problems?!  Even when I visited them, being a professional, I felt hopeless and helpless.  Tía Maria Castillo, who is a fantastic tía with a maternal nature that we all love.  She once said that, ¨it´s a pity because you can´t work with these children with love and care.  They don´t seem to understand.  All they are used to is being treated like animals, and it´s the only way to go.¨

Since Viki and I have been designing the cognitive educational program ENPAL, we have been working endlessly creating games, techniques to handle behavioral issues and tools to help the teachers understand the importance of learning through play.  One of the things we have decided to do in the second half of our year here is that we would go to each house and try to figure out the problems and help solving them.  In the past weeks, we prepared what we have with ENPAL, developed strategies, then we stayed in their house all day to observe the needs and flaws and tried to make some strategical changes.  It was like second nature for me to create behavioral programs, and I loved doing it.  And it was a good way to show to the tías how to manage behaviors effectively.  Both tías are so happy because they finally find ways to cope with the issues of the house, and they even resolved the conflicts that they both had because of different ways to handle the children.  Yesterday when I talked to tía Maria again, and she said,¨Yesterday while all the kids are drawing, painting and playing, suddenly Jeferson told her, ¨Tía, our house is so quiet and nice now.  I like it very much.¨!¨  I was so proud of all of them for making this program work.  They are the one who can make it work and make it sustainable.  And the children respond it to so well.  I truly believe that if we keep it consistent and keep it positive, we can make dramatic and positive changes.  Not only the behaviors, but the confidence, the self-esteem and knowledge these children deserve.

3-1-2012

Happy New Year!  Really cannot believe that I have already been back to the home for six months already!  It has been such a wonderful journey already, and I love every bit of it, even the horrible things that have happened to us.  It is part of the memory, and it just shows that we can overcome every hardship in life with one thing:  Love.

The Mayan calendar said that it was the end of the world in 21-12-2012.  Well, according to Viki, her friend in Argentina said that it was actually an end of the negative world and we will have a better world from that day on.  I like this interpretation!  Well, it happened to have a staff lunch and secret Santa gift exchange that day.  We the volunteers definitely didn´t look forward to that because of all the troubles we went through with some of the staff.  I had no expectation whatsoever.  First, it was just another business lunch, and I never have luck in lucky draws and things like that.  It turned out to be a surprise!  First, I won 100 soles from playing Bingo, and I was shocked to my very soul!  Then, at the gift exchange, I got a gift from Alfredo, which is a tee shirt which I like a lot!  The lunch was quite tasty, and it all added up to be a wonderful day!

With all the Christmas craze and celebrations, there are a few things that makes me happier than anything else in the world.  After my break, I attended the anniversary ceremony where I saw Rafael.  He looked at me as if a little child who didn´t see his parents for a long time, worried and asked me where I were while giving me a hand shake.  I couldn´t believe that I only left for a few days and he was missing me.  Another one was Franchesco, who invited me to sit with him at lunch time.  I went over and there was some water on the bench, so I told him that I would sit on the other side.  Without even thinking, he rubbed his bottom on the seat so that I could sit with him!  I almost cried over there!  If you tell me that´s not love, then I don´t know what it is!  I love them so much!  With all my heart.

While we were doing a session of therapy with Evaristo and two other kids, we were teaching them to remember their birthdays.  He looked down and didn´t say a thing, because he never had a birthday, and no one knows when his birthday is.  So I decided to tell him that from now on, we will celebrate his birthday on January 1 every year.  He was so excited that he was asking us everyday when his birthday is!  You would have thought that people would support this.  Then some people went to tell him that it wasn´t his birthday and lied about that he has a confirmed date.  But of course, no one really knows.  We were outraged but we went ahead to have a birthday party for him.  From being excited in the beginning to being confused, we had to talk to him and told him that until the date is confirmed, January 1st will always be his birthday.  Fortunately, we saw his smile again on his face.  We had a blast, and I hope that he feels belonged and wanted as birthdays marks an identity of a person.  I just hope people understand this.

20-12-2012

Rafa and I.

Franklin after his first communion, with Monika, Viki and I.

Franchesco and I.

Carlos Torres and I.

Jorge and I.

Olga and I.

Paul fell down in the slippery mat, but still laughing so much!

A lovely sibling, Ruben and Silvia.

Alcides and Jorge was doing a cheerleading thing after their game.  They got the highest score from me!

Franco didn´t want to play, so he hid under the coats.

A very difficult game, but the guys had so much fun!

Claudio and Gustavo were practically playing the water instead of playing the game!  But so glad that they had fun.

7-12-2012

Me and Jorge with his birthday cake that I baked for him.

He helped me to share with his mates.

Lemar´t learning how to mix colors!

Rafa learning playing guitar with me while Jorge came to annoy him.

Jenny and Julio making fun of chubby Claudio.

Cristhian learning how to write!!!!!  So exciting!

It is so difficult this year to keep up with this blog!  I have been so busy with everything.  Work is one, then we have numerous events coming up in December, and there are more kids and it means that they would ask for things here and there throughout the day!  And we just moved in our brand new volunteer house, which is another big task to keep it up.  But, nothing to complain, we have all the great facility now that I didn´t have in the past year.

Just a couple days ago, we talked to the younger kids about Christmas elfs coming to fill their socks at night (they don´t have stockings so we used their socks), and most of them, even some older boys, really believed that it´s gonna happen!  They also wrote letters and laid out water and a bowl of soup for the elfs, which we told them to do.  They are really so innocent and sweet, something that I can´t find in any kids in Hong Kong.  

So many things had happened, but so little that I can write.  But they are all in my heart, and everyday the children has become more and more important to me.  And it is tough to work with a lot of children who have self-destructive or violent behaviors, but we just have to be patient day by day and everybody works as a team, and hopefully one day they can change in a positive way.  And it´s fulfilling when I see them grow everyday, and the directors appreciating what I do.  I really can´t complain!