Second week in and I have definately starting to settle into it. I was back at Semillitas on Monday and was pretty much just playing with the babies and little kids. Fell in love with one little boy called Salvador who is about 3 months old and has cerebral palsy. I was told by the nurse to just walk around with him and talk to him. There was also another little girl named Fatima who is no bigger than a six month old, however she is actually almost two years old. Not quite sure what the condition she has is called. Lunch time is definately the hardest time of the day as none of the kids actually want to eat, so you are literally forcing the food into them and making them finish their plates so it can be quite an ordeal and take a fair amount of time!
Today I was back at the Wawa Wasi with the same 7 kids I had before. This time I came prepared with crayons and paper for them, as well as stickers, which they all absolutely adored. As soon as I walk in the door I have the little ones running up to me and giving me big hugs and just wanting me to sit with them and do puzzles and play games. The first photo is of all the kids in the Wawa Wasi: Huan, Lopes, Leyo, Hosai, Edwan and Raoul. The photo in the top right is of Edwan the youngest little boy in the baby house. He is adorable but it is really hard for me to make him smile, he is very unsure of me, but for some reason everytime I had the camera on him he broke out in the widest grin!
I finally had a talk to Lidia, the Mum of my home stay who is also in charge of the program, about how I want to use all the money that has been donated. Her first suggestion was all the Christmas Celebrations that are being planned for all the various Orphanages and Wawa Wasi's. I agreed that I would love to contribute to some of that, however at the same time I would like to put the money towards other projects within the slums that are actually helping the people.
The first project that she mentioned was that one of the Wawa Wasi's in the slums was being rebuilt. The 'Mum' of the house had saved up money and with the help of volunteers has built a concrete slab with the walls, however her money was then stolen leaving her with nothing and unable to finish the project. Some other volunteers are donating and I asked how much the difference was and she told me about 400 sols. This is the equivalent of around 140 australian dollars only! I have offered to put in the extra money and we are heading this thursday to help finish the house which should be done by Tuesday. All the volunteers are going to head down to put in a helping hand which should be good.
I have heard of a couple more projects within the slums that I am hoping to contribute too, but currently we are just tackling one at a time. We are also taking a group of students, who won a maths competition, for a day out on friday, in order to congratulate and encourage them.
Tomorrow it is off to San Antonio to help out with the crazy toddlers who keep me on my feet all morning!
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