So, we're in Lima (Callao), Peru for our second day in a row with one more to go. The first day, as usual, I was on IPM. Today, Sherwin had the day off until 4:00, so after I worked the morning library shift, we took a taxi into town. Unfortunately, Bush is here along with every other political figure for the APEC meeting, so we couldn't go into Mira Flores because of the crazy security (40,000 cops were brought in for this meeting.) This place is so unsafe on our own though, so we took a "safe Cab" offered by the port to the mall, the only place open for today because it's Sunday, plus the whole APEC deal. We walked around for about an hour, we bought a real churro (it's not just the sugar and cinnamon like the ones in the states), and it had a creamy center that was delicious. We enjoyed it! After a while of walking and looking at all the Christmas stuff, we were both homesick and ready to just sit until the cab came back to pick us up. We sat in Starbucks and just people-watched for a bit. Nothing too exciting, but tomorrow I'm going to a local orphanage and I must admit I'm quite excited about it yet nervous at the same time. I'm sure just seeing the kids will be a bit upsetting, but I'm so excited to see them happy when the can enjoy the cookies and presents we are bringing them!
Ok – so it's a couple days later (we're in Ecuador again today and tomorrow). Like I said, 6 of us went to the Hogar San Antonio, which is the San Antonio Orphanage. The port agent picked us up around 11:30 and we headed over to their office to load the car with the 5 boxes of clothes we had collected from all the crew and an interpreter, then we headed straight towards the orphanage. Once we arrived, we had to sit outside while the guard checked all our ID's. One of the buses from the school was unloading in front of us. The kids were primarily special needs children. Anyways, once we got inside they began giving us a tour of all the different age groups. Half the children were still in school and they were about 20 minutes away from going through the transition of swapping out the groups. The first stop was with the youngest children – the youngest was probably 3 or so. 90% of the 10-12 kids in this room were special needs. They were so excited to see us – they ran up and just wanted to hug us and say hello. We had to be careful of who got what, but we handed a few of them those giant pencils with erasers, but they all got peanut butter cookies. We toured several more rooms with different age groups; the oldest group of boys were 9-12, if I remember correctly. We handed all of them cookies, we gave each group an inflatable ship or two and had the interpreter explain that that is where we worked. The older boys got postcards of the ship and they thought that was so cool!
Next stop was the girl's quarters upstairs. Just as we did with the boys, we met all the girls – most of them ready to leave for school, just waiting on the bus to arrive. Most of the groups of girls were quite reserved, but again – their smiles were incredible, just to see them get these pencils and ships and things like that, they were so excited. The oldest girls were the most fun, though. We walked in there and they were all trying to say Good Morning in English and they were so proud that they did it. We were touring their dorm-type area and they started singing us a song in Spanish. So, you all know me and I said we have to sing them a song back…I picked "If you're happy and you know it…" They thought it was so funny that we were doing crazy things. They sand us another one. So for our last song, I knew they would know "head, shoulders, knees & toes," but juts in Spanish. SO I began to sing it in English and the two ringleaders of the group starting singing it in Spanish. Tons of fun J
The woman showed us their infirmary and things like that and the interpreter was phenomenal at interpreting everything for us. He was even touched, he said he had never done anything like that before and he was so happy he did it with us.
Our final stop, the woman had to give us a head's up. She told us it might be hard for us to see children with severe disabilities. We all said we wanted to do it – that's what we were there for. We went into the last facility with about 12 kids in wheelchairs. None of them were physically able to talk, but they knew we were there. I made an effort to at least acknowledge every child and give them a bit of human touch - I'm sure they don't get the affectionate touch like we all do, and we all know that we need it. There were a few little boys who were so strong. They pulled and pulled and just wanted to hold our hand. Eventually, we figured out it was the flash of the photographer's camera. So we would click the flash and they would just start hysterically laughing. I had a pump (the ones that you use to blow up floats and things like that) so I was puffing it in his face and he thought it was just fantastic. We ended up in there for about 20 minutes and were ready to head out. We stopped in their room (the special needs) sleeping quarters. There were three boys in there. The first one was a little boy, probably 2 or 3. The photographer from the ship was a bit distant with most of the kids. Not sure if it's just her personality or she just wasn't a kid person or it was hard for her to see. When we saw the first little boy, she melted. She spent a ton of time with him tickling him – he had a belly laugh that could make anyone smile! The second kid was physically unable to move. The only thing that he could move was his eyes, his teeth were worn down and he had no vocal response to anything. I went and talked to him for a bit and rubbed his arm. Then I got attached to the next little boy. I would rub his back or his arm and he would go into fits of laughter. It's truly hard to explain what it's like to see these kids laugh, but it's refreshing in a sense. I'm sorry, it's probably not making much sense to you as you read this. We decided to head out and say our Goodbyes to the kids. Darlene, one of the girls with us was outside crying. I asked her why she was crying and she said that the little boy in the middle (the one I said was physically unable to move) was only expected to live no more than 2 weeks. Wow…reality hits there!
Truly, this facility was amazing though. It was clean and organized and just well run overall. I was so impressed at the entire facility and its efficiency – I told the lady who was giving us the tour (well, I told the interpreter, he told her J) The kids were so happy and the adults were so appreciative and grateful for us just visiting. The director, the lady giving us the tour, said profuse thank you's and said these kids have no idea what a Mom or a Dad or a true family are. The teachers and staff give all they can and want to give more, but unfortunately it's not that easy. I'll stop ranting now, but want to say what an incredible experience – it's reality, it's refreshing, uplifting, motivating and just makes me smile every time I think about it. I recommend that type of experience to anyone with a heart!
The port agent interpreter, Cesar, took us to lunch since we still had a bit of time. We went to a place called Bembos, basically a fast food restaurant. Thank Goodness for Cesar! He helped us all order and when the guys got really confused and got all the orders wrong, he fixed it. Of course, we bought him lunch- but we had a great time just hanging out with him and learning about the Peruvian culture!
I think that's all for now, I will post pictures hopefully on the 6th in Ft. Lauderdale!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Eat Turkey (the dark stuff J) for me!
