My First Week in Lima

These last few days have really been a blur, but a really amazing blur! Tawnya and I flew into Lima on Sunday and met all of our new volunteer buddies--they´re all really cool people from different places and different backgrounds, all here for the same purpose. There´s about eight of us right now, all female, but there´s TWENTY-FOUR more new people coming tomorrow. It's kind of exciting, but were all a little hesitant about it. We´ve all grown so close in the last week, we don´t want any newbies ruining the balance! Haha

(below: first group shot, downtown Lima) 

This was the U.S. vs Canada (we won!)

Poor Canadians...you're good at ice hockey!

Taken in a cab (Clariza, Tawnya, Me, Nicole)

So, Sunday we all went out to central Lima to the Museum of the Inquisition--it was basically about how the Spaniards came here all those years ago, imposed their culture, religion, views on the native Peruvian people, and then created a court system that would enforce those views...so depressing. We got to see the old court room, the torture chambers, the prison cells, and we learned in detail the ways in which prisoners used to be tortured...so if you´re ever

curious about the best way to get a person to confess for a crime they did or didn´t commit, just ask! I know at least four ways.

The pillars at the Museum of Torture 

 Parque de Agua on Wednesday- which is in the Guinness Book for the most fountains in one place! Super fun and very pretty.

We also toured downtown Lima, saw where the president lives, etc.

Monday was our first day at our placements, and it was super amazing! I know it looks like I´m just having a bunch of fun, judging by the photos (and I am, don´t get me wrong) but we´re working too--it´s just inappropriate to take photos of the kids at this stage, there might be more posted later, but none for now. I can tell you all about them, though!They are all so adorable, where do I start? 

Well, I get to see one of my favorites from last time, Johnathan! I don´t know if you´re reading this, Kelly, but Jon had surgery on his left leg last March. He was int he hospital for three months recuperating, but now he´s back to his old self! They are doing his right leg in February, and then he´s getting prosthetic legs and learning how to walk! I was so excited for him when I found out! I asked why they didn´t just operate on both legs at once, and I guess it was a complicated surgery and he bled a lot, so they had to stop half-way through. But never fear, come this February he will be on his way to walking!

 Villa El Salvador, where all of the abuelos live

Above: Tawnya and sister Jackie on a home visit

Also, little Esperanza goes to school now! She goes every single day around 7:30, and comes back around 1:00, so I unfortunately haven´t gotten a chance to see her--but she´s going to school! How cool is that?! There´s a new little one named Milagros, she´s three years old and sooo adorable. She´s completely fine mentally, she just doesn´t have the use of either of her legs. She´s such a little firecracker, it´s hilarious! She tries to feed her baby when she´s eating, like a good little mama, she says to the nuns: "Me bebe, me bebe!" and they´re all "yes, yes, after you eat." And then she cradles it and feeds it. 

When you play toys with her, she´s so independent, she won´t let you help her at all! They said that when she came here, less than two months ago, she was scared to even let anyone touch her--but now she´s a little love bug! She loves to get hugs and kisses from everyone, and when a sister (nun) walks by, she goes "hermana, hermana!" until they come over to her and give her some love.

So I went to Mother Teresa´s Hospice Monday through Thursday, and to Los Martincitos today. All of the other volunteers went to Cusco for the weekend, and it would have been me all alone at Mother Teresa´s (which can be a bit overwhelming) so I just went with Tawnya to her placement to check it out. It was extremely different from my placement, but I´m so glad that I went. The abuelos (grandparents) are super welcoming and sooo cute, it´s unreal. There´s about 80 of them, they come to this community center in the poorest part of Lima three times a week for activities, social interaction, a break from the norm, and a couple of warm meals .

Right when I got there I had an endless line of abuelos giving me hugs and kisses, and asking how I was and talking about the rain--I felt to happy just to be with them. We went into the main room for their morning exercise, song, and breakfast, and then we washed dishes for awhile. It was Anna´s (a fellow volunteer) last day, and she´s been here for SIX WEEKS, so it was kind of a big deal. I picked a good day to go, because since it was Anna´s last day she brought cookies for them and they loooved us for it. 

arts & crafts time!

They sang us a cute little song with clapping and dancing, it was so special, Tawnya and I were close to tears. There´s just something so amazing about seeing people who have as little as they do, get so excited about things that seem so small to us--they are just so happy to be there, with each other and around us, it´s very inspiring.

Well, I better leave it at that--T-bird and I have to walk back to the house ten minutes ago, we're late for dinner!



Love ya, mean it!

E