Winter sets in...

May so far has been a bumpy ride.  Obviously, the Mothers' Day holiday and the weeks leading up to it was a hard time for many of the kids at the albergue.  I think it was a difficult time for the volunteers and staff members as well, especially because everyone at the albergue seems to be getting sick these days.  The same illnesses keep getting passed around from person to person until they've made their way back to where they started from before anyone has enough time to fully recover.  This has definitely been the case for us in Kinder.

Maricielo came in to class with a runny nose and a cough three weeks ago, and despite the abundant hand washing and germ-x use at my insistance, after about 24 hours, both Jhon and I had the same bug, and eventually Jose Luis got it too.  Our symptoms seemed to be getting better, but then returned and worsened over the course of two weeks.  After three doctor visits and an unsuccessful round of antibiotics, decongestants, and cough medicine, I was finally diagnosed with Strep Throat and am now feeling a lot better after being treated for it. 

Perhaps everyone's getting sick has something to do with the changing of seasons. After a very long and warm summer, the days are quickly growing shorter, cloudier, and colder as winter makes its grand entrance into the Southern Hemisphere.  Granted, in Trujillo very "cold" weather means a high of 68, and a low of 60, but the lack of sunlight mixed with the humidity from the Pacific Ocean and the strong winds from the desert behind the albergue do seem to make it feel significantly colder here.   One interesting thing I've learned lately is that, according to the average Peruvian, you can get sick from any one of the following five reasons:  You either
A) eat too many "cold" foods, such as apples or oranges,
B) do not eat enough "warm" foods, like cookies or buttered bread,
C) drink too much water outside of meal times,
D) drink any beverage colder than room temperature--if you put ice in your soda, you're DEFINITELY asking to getting sick--, or
E) go outside without long-sleeves and a "chompa" (sweater/jacket) when the temperature drops to anything below 80 degrees.

As logical as these well-known Peruvian "facts" may sound, I still maintain that the most probable cause of our recent increase in illness is the simple change in weather and the kids' lack of drugs and good personal hygiene habits.  But, what do I know, I'm just another crazy American who drinks her milk cold and doesn't put on a jacket to go outside when it's 70 degrees...

Despite these minor setbacks, a lot of good things are going on here on this month.  My students in kinder class seem to be soaking up and retaining a lot of information.  Jhon and Maricielo have become a lot more obedient than they were at the beginning of the year, and are talking more and more each day.  (Jose Luis still has yet to say much of anything other than the sound "mehhhh," but at least he's decreased the amount of non-food objects he eats in class every day.)  Several weeks of frustrating potty training work with Jhon have finally paid off, as he is now using a "basin," rather than a diaper.  I am so proud of him, and he is pretty excited too to be more like the big kids, especially his in-class role model, Maricielo.

Last Thursday was John, one of the other volunteers,' birthday, and we celebrated it with a surprise party in La Campiña of Moche.  "Campiña" is the Spanish word for "countryside," and here it is used to describe a particular area in Moche, a small suberb of Trujillo very close to where we live, that was originally founded by the Mochican indians, the same native group that created the great Huaca de la Luna and Huaca del Sol.  Several of the volunteers, both past and present, are friends with a Mochican man named Javier, who was kind enough to let us have the party at his house in Moche.  Javier has his own pottery studio, where he works hard to make traditional Mochican ceramics using the exact same processes and techniques that have been used by his ancestors for hundreds of years.  Javier and his (many) brothers are all musicians, and they enjoy keeping their culture alive by playing the music of their ancestors using traditional hand-made Mochican instruments. 

When we arrived at Javier's, he greeted us by blowing in a giant conch shell, which he told us was the traditional way for a Mochican to welcome new guests.  Then he shared some of his homemade chicha with us, and his brothers walked out of their house playing clay horns, the ends of which had been lit on fire for special effects.  They played their traditional music and sang for John and the rest of us for about forty-five minutes.  They even let a couple of us play some of the instruments with them.  Afterward, we went with them to the restaurant next door where we enjoyed a tasty meal and an evening of Peruvian music and dance.  Unfortunately, my camera ran out of battery early on in the evening, but I did manage to record a short video clip of one of the first songs the Caimanes brothers played, with Lori joining them to dance for her husband John.  Caimanes Brothers video

Javier's Peruvian Hairless Dog, "Con Hache"

Three of the Caimanes brothers playing their dragon horns

The flaming dragon horns again, this time without a flash

Lori joins the Caimanes

A couple of the kids had birthdays this month as well.  Jose Luis, the youngest of the whole albergue, finally turned two yesterday, so we're going to have to have a little celebration for him in kinder class tomorrow. (Hopefully this will help them get better at remembering the number 2.) 
On May 8th, Enrique turned nine and to celebrate Elizabeth, Susanna, and I took him out for a hamburger, ice cream, and a trip to the park.  Normally when we take one of the kids on a birthday outing they get to choose one friend to come with them, but at Enrique's request, we made an exception this time so that he could bring both his friend Aldair and Maricielo, his 2-year-old sister.  The three of them all had a great time!

Enrique anxiously awaiting his burger at Janos

Me, Susanna, and the kids

Aldair and Enrique enjoying their hamberguesas

Maricielo's first hamburger ever. She liked it alot, but

was definitely not able to finish it without her brother's help.

On the playground at the park

A very chocolate-covered Maricielo fell

asleep on the micro-bus ride home and didn't

wake up until we were back at the albergue.

Home sweet home at our little oasis

in the desert that is northern Peru

It's the hard-knock life...

Before graduating from Purdue last December I found myself being asked on a daily basis about my plans for the future.   When I told people that my post-college plans did not include getting a job nor applying for graduate school, but that I was instead going to go live in an orphanage in Peru ("No, not Peru, Indiana, Peru the country, as in South America"), I got a lot of different responses.  I remember a couple of friends cracking some innocent jokes about the grimness of orphanage life, as popularized by Oliver Twist ("Please, sir, can I have some more?") and the musical Annie, in which the orphan girls sing, "It's the hard-knock life for us, No one cares for you a smidge, When you're in an orphanage..."  

Jokes like those were easy to laugh off since I knew that those lyrics couldn't be farther from the truth when it came to life at Hogar de Esperanza.  Afterall, the children here live in a fun and safe environment, they have access to health care, and they receive a relatively good education (complete with native English teachers!).  They are surrounded by many people who love them, and there is certainly no shortage of food here.  In fact, Luz and Filomena, our two full-time cooks, are amazing chefs who make far too many giant, delicious Peruvian meals to let any of us go hungry. 

Lately a couple of the other volunteers and I have been getting increasingly irritated by some of the kids who constantly complain about things like having to do homework or not getting enough time to play on the internet, because we all know that it only takes a short walk (or micro-bus ride) around the outskirts of Trujillo to see that the kids at the albergue are actually much better off than a great deal of their peers, who have to eat of trash cans, work on the street, and may never get the opportunity to go to school.

However, in light of that recent holiday that is always over-advertised by florists and greeting card companies, I have been made painfully aware this month that despite all of the wonderful possessions, opportunities, and relationships that the children have here at the albergue, there is still one thing they will always be missing that is infinitely more important than the rest: the presence of their mother.  

I think that we far too often get caught up in our own daily work routines and making sure the children behave, get their homework done, take their baths, do their chores, have fun on the playground, etc., that we forget how difficult and far from "normal" life really is for each and every one of these kids living away from their parents. It really and truly is a hard-knock life.

I don't know if it's just me or if there's an actual difference in cultures, but "Dia de la Madre" (Mothers' Day) seems to be a much bigger deal here in Peru than it is at home.  It's been all over the local radio and television, and for two weeks now the kids have been reading and talking about mothers in school, doing countless art projects for and about their moms, making gifts for them, and practicing musical and theatrical numbers to perform them.  Even here at the orphanage we had a Mothers' Day program this Saturday to honor the four madre tutoras, as well all of the Hogar de Esperanza staff members who are real mothers.  Basically, there was just no escaping the holiday. 

On Friday afternoon, Colegio Betania had their Dia de la Madre program and a lot of the kids from the albergue were performing in it, so Elizabeth and I went over to the school to watch the show and help the four madre tutoras (house moms) support the kids.   Each of the classes at Betania, from "Inicial" (4 & 5-year-olds) to the oldest group of adolescents, had been practicing for weeks to perform skits, songs, dances, or poems, all in honor of their mothers. 

Enrique, Piero, & Fernando waiting for the show to start

Isabel, Larisa, Cristina, Jennifer, Piero,

Paul, Abraham, and Elizabeth watching the show

Marita and Camila ribbon dancing with their class

Cristina and her partner were doing so

 well until he got tired of dancing,

ducked under the table, and ran off the stage

before the song ended. She was NOT happy.

Paul with his pretty little dance partner

Pablo is one talented 4-year-old!

Chilling with Aldair and Abraham

Eduardo and Dante ready for their skit

At the end of one of the songs, a teacher passed around a microphone and had each child find their mother in the audience and say "Feliz Dia, Mama."  I wanted to cry each time the mic landed on one of our kids and they had to say in front of everyone, "Feliz Dia, Tia (Insert house mom's name)."  Out of all the kids from the albergue who were performing, not one of their real parents came, even though some of them have family members who live here in town and visit on weekends.  Although I think it's great for the children to celebrate their madre tutoras since they do work very hard to show the kids love and support every single day, I still struggle with the question of WHY these kids had to spend so much time practicing songs and making presents for someone who (for whatever reason) isn't even there, and  in almost all cases, is the source of great pain?  

Most people I know would define the word "mother" as a strong and self-less woman who protects, cares for, nurtures, provides for, and unconditionally loves her child. These are all definitely character traits to be  praised and admired.  By this definition, a mother is comparable to the super hero you can always count on to save the day, or the friend you can always lean on.  I must have been incredibly blessed because all of the women I grew up around--in particular my mom, my aunt, and my grandmother--perfectly fit this description. 

But most of these children's biological mothers (at least those who are still alive) are in fact quite the opposite.  Some are women who abandoned their children, neglected them, allowed them to be abused, or chose to put drugs, alcohol, men, or other selfish needs before the needs of their children.  Are these traits that we should be teaching the kids to honor and respect? 

One of the American volunteers who teaches at Betania told me a story about how 7-year-old Brigitte got in trouble at school with her teacher after she ripped up one of her homework assignments.  The assignment was to "draw a picture of you and your mom."  (Brigitte was dropped off at the orphanage when she was 3 months old and has lived here ever since.  This is a girl who mentioned to one of the other volunteers last week that she still believes the only reason she came to the albergue was because she cried too much as a baby.)  I can't say I blame her one bit for tearing up that paper.  I would have done the same, if not worse, if my first grade teacher forced me to dedicate an entire holiday to someone who I only saw for a couple hours a few times a month at MOST, like the house cleaner, the bus driver, or the mailman.  Wouldn't you?

 I was so proud of all of our Betania kids for singing, dancing, and acting in the Mothers' Day program with the rest of the kids from their classes, even if it was hard for them to do so.  I know that they appreciated us coming to the show and enjoyed having us there, but I still wish there had been more of us there to give those kids the support they deserve.  They worked hard to put on a very cute show, and I feel very honored to have gotten to see it.  Wherever their mothers are, they're certainly missing out.   

  

Hogar de Esperanza...Home at Last!

I know, I know, it's been a REALLY long time since I've posted anything new, over a month in fact, and I appologize for the delay.  Simultaneous spare time and a decent internet connection come to me far less frequently here than I had hoped and planned for.

Today marks the end of my 9th week living and volunteering at the Albergue Infantil Hogar de Esperanza in Trujillo, Peru!  I'm amazed by how fast time seems to fly by here, and it already pains me to think about having to leave the albergue in only four short months... 
As I'm sure you can imagine, a lot has gone on here over the past two months, so much in fact that I honestly have no idea how to cover it all without sitting down and writing a book.  I suppose I will just have to start from the beginning, and try to work my way back to the present, covering most of the major highlights in between.  Here goes nothing...
After two weeks of traveling through mountains, jungle, and desert, and overcoming a rough case of Moctezuma's Revenge, I finally made it across the border into Peru and arrived at the albergue on Monday, March 1st.  At that time, the children were still in their last week of summer vacation, which in Peru generally runs from Christmas until the end of February/beginning of March, so I did not have to start teaching right away.  Besides taking time to get to know the children, staff, and other volunteers here, I spent the majority of my first week working in the orphanage library, helping sort, recategorize, and reorganize all of the books before the new school year started.  I also spent many hours getting my classroom and lesson plans ready for Kinder class, which took far longer than I imagined.  If there's one thing I've gained from my teaching experience thus far, it's a much deeper respect for teachers, especially the good ones. 

Here are a couple photos of the finished library and my finished classroom:

In the past, the kinder class at Hogar de Esperanza has usually consisted of 3-5 year old children, but this school year things are much different, because all of the children from last year's kinder class have moved up to colegio inicial (1st grade equivelant) at Betania, the school next door to the albergue.  This leaves only the three youngest children in the albergue, who are all under 3 years old, to be in my kinder class.  Their names are Maricielo, Yhon, and Jose Luis, and they are 2 1/2, 2, and 23 months, respectively. 

Kinder class runs from 8:30-12:30 every morning Monday through Friday.  Afterwards, I have a prep hour and eat lunch, then go back to work at 2:30.  From 2:30-3:30 each day Courtney, one of the other U.S. volunteers, and I are in charge of "Joyeria" (Jewelry making).  The kids take turns coming in groups of 3-10 to make beaded bracelets, necklaces, and earings, which are later sold both in the U.S. as well as here in Peru to groups who come to visit the orphanage.  This program, which we call "Seeds of Hope," is a pretty neat project not only because it's a fun activity for the kids to do, but also because part of the profit from each item of jewelry sold is put into a bank account for the child who made it, and he or she will have access to the account when they turn 18 and have to leave the albergue.  Another part of the profit is given to the child immediately, as their "tip" and can be spent however he or she chooses. 

After Joyeria, I spend the last two hours of the work day in Tutoria (Tutering), helping a small group of children with their daily homework assignments.  The three boys in my Tutoria group are Italo (11), his brother Abel (8), and Edwin (8).  

They can be a really fun group but also very challenging, because all three of them have developmental disabilities that set them behind in school compared to other children their age.  Fortunately, they receive a lot of individual attention at their school, Escuela Miller, which is located on site the albergue, right next door to the kinder classroom.  Here are my friendly neighbors at the Miller School, with their head teacher, Miss Aly, (who also supervises my curriculum for the kinder school), and their other teacher, Courtney, a long-term volunteer from Louisiana. 

Although the albergue has a capacity of 48 children, there are currently only 38 children living here, and they are split up into four different houses called "casitas."  The two boys' houses are the "Tesoros" and the "Amigos," and the girls' houses are the "Chispas," and the "Luces."  There is one Peruvian staff member who lives in each of the casitas, and works as the "madre tutora" (house mom).  The madres each get one day off a week, called a "franco," and when there isn't a substitute madre (called a "reten") available to watch their house for them, the other volunteers and I take turns covering shifts in the casitas. 

Other than the occasional weekend house covering, I have most of my weekends free, and I would have to say that some of the best ones have been spent in Huanchaco, a nice little beach town only 12 km west of Trujillo, on the Pacific Ocean.  The beach's unique waves attract tons of surfers year-round, and I've been trying to take advantage of our close proximity and the cheap rental prices to work on improving the surfing skills I picked up in San Sebastian, Spain a few summers ago. 

Perhaps the most exciting event I've gotten to witness so far at the albergue happened in early March, when Arnold, a 10-year-old boy who had spent about 5 years at the albergue, was adopted.  We were all very excited for Arnold to finally meet his loving new family and get to go home with them to live in Dallas, Texas.  It was really hard for everyone at the albergue to say goodbye to Arnold, but we held a great "Despedida" ceremony for him and his family before they left, and his parents brought cake, soda, and gifts for the children, madre tutoras, and volunteers, which was really thoughtful of them.  Arnold will definitely be missed around here! 

Yummy treats for everyone at Arnold's despedida

Camila, Junior, and others having fun with the parachute;
Estefani and others in the background playing frisbee
and soccer with Arnold's new brother and sisters

The second big event in March happened toward the end of the month, when a group of five short-term volunteers from Vermont came to stay with us for a week.  They spent most of their time working with Alex and Elias to dig up some underground piping and do some painting inside the casitas.  Elizabeth (the volunteer coordinator), and I went with the group to visit Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna, a really neat archaelogical site really close to the albergue, where there are some ancient ruins from a city built thousands of years ago by the native Mochican people.  A "huaca" is more or less an inverted pyramid.  Huaca del Sol was the Mochican's government center, while Huaca de la Luna was their religious center, where they performed all of their human sacrifices to their gods.  Becaues the site was only discovered in the last couple of decades, it is not yet fully escavated, but Huaca de la Luna is open for visitors, and Huaca del Sol should be within a few years.   

A view of Huaca del Sol from inside Huaca de la Luna

 My favorite part about las Huacas--the famous Peruvian hairless dog!

With the start of April came the Easter holiday, which turned out to be a pretty exciting time around the albergue.  The kids had that Thursday and Friday off of school, which meant we also had those days off of work.  On the Wednesday before Easter break, I took my kinder kids next door to paint Easter eggs and paper baskets with Miss Aly and the kids at the Miller School.  The kids made a mess but everyone had a lot of fun. 

A second Easter tradition we imported from U.S. this year was the Easter egg hunt.  None of the kids had ever participated in one before, and none of the Peruvian staff seemed to understand what eggs had to do with Easter.  In all fairness though, I don't think many of us Americans have a clue either.

We split the kids up into 4 different groups according to age, and did four separate Easter egg hunts to make sure that each of them had an equal chance at finding the candy-filled eggs.  We decided to get reeeeally creative with our hiding spots for the adolescent group, but somehow, they still managed to find all of the eggs we hid from them, so I guess we weren't quite tricky enough.  After everyone had received their candy from the hunt, we all sat down eat it while watching the movie Where the Wild Things Are. 

Aldair and Dante painted their faces before the movie,

but I'm still not quite sure why...

Unfortunately, Arnold was not the only person we've had to say goodbye to recently.  At the end of April, we had another despedida, this one for Beks, who was heading back home to Idaho after volunteering as the kinder teacher for 7 months before I came.  The boys of the albergue sang a song for Beks at her despedida and some of the older girls choreographed a dance to perform for her, and did a really good job.
Before she left Peru, Beks spent her last couple of months in Trujillo painting some pretty incredible murals around the albergue, including in the kinder room, the capilla, and in each of the casitas, so now even in her absence, her wonderful artwork will keep her memory alive in the albergue for years to come!   

The boys singing their song for Beks.  They forgot everything

after the first verse, then kind of just stood their until the

music ended.  It was cute though. 

 

Meeting on the monument in the Plaza de Armas in Trujillo

before going out for a night of karaoke with Beks on her last night

In the Plaza de Armas with all of the H.D.E. volunteers,

plus Oscar, Bek's Peruvian boyfriend

Becca, warming up for Peruvian karaoke

 Although we lost one volunteer in April, we gained two new ones as well.  18-year-old Anna traveled from Scotland to stay with us for a week, and Leila, another 18-year-old British girl, took three weeks off from traveling South America during her Gap Year to volunteer at the albergue as well.  It was great to have both of them around, even if it was only for a short amount of time! 

Ok, well, I think that's about all the catching up I have time for tonight, but from now on, I promise to try and update this thing more often, so hopefully you won't be left in dark again!  In the mean time, feel free to check out the rest of my photos, which are updated regularly at http://jenenperu.shutterfly.com/