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/