A Hidden Treasure

This morning I worked with the Grandes starting at 6 (and after going out to eat last night and not getting back til 1 waking up was a little hard) and so I helped all of them get up, get dressed, eat and then I left for breakfast but was told to make sure to be back by 8:30 becuase I had to take some of the kids somewhere. After breakfast I learned that the 3 I had to take were Sabina, who is 21 and has some mental problems, Margary, who is I think 16 and also has some mental problems, and Sonia who is 16. We hoped on a bus which had about 30 people too many and rode into town. We the walked a couple of blocks and then turned to climb what was the steepest climb I think possible without some rope and a pick axe. After conquering Everest I saw where we were heading, it was a shop with clothing and some little knicknacks...Seriously, did we really go this far out of the way to go shopping...but it doesn´t end there, we then were welcomed and walked into the store, went into a dark back room and then a lady was there to welcome us and then she just turned to the girls and said you know what to do...ok this is getting a little sketchy...we then went up a spiral staircase to this big room


I had heard about this from one of the other volunteers but had forgotten all about it. On Saturdays these three go to classes on sewing, stiching, crocheting, whatever you call it. There is a family that owns this shop and teaches the craft to younger generations in order to keep the arts and culture alive. Alex, who is the oldest son, told me all about what they do and showed me around the shop and also to a gallery that had various tapestries as well as carvings, masks, paintings, etc. It was very cool to see the rich culture in this little shop and Alex and I had some pretty long discussions just about the culture and history of Peru and how different it is from that of the US. He also brought me up to the roof which is actually another story being built but in Peru building is a very very long process. He also told me how his family owned all the surrounding land and so the sold most of it and the rest of it is used for the family.

Peace,

Brandon

Here´s Alex working on a tapestry




This was the veiw from the roof/4th floor in the making

OOOPS...

Before I get to the beef of the story I want to first talk about one of the Children in the Casa. His name is Fermin and I mentioned him in my last post. He is 9 years old but has the mental capacity of a 3 year old becuase of a mental handicap that could have been from birth but is thought to be caused by physical abuse. Growing up, he had a mother who also had a mental disability and since she did not know how to take care of him she would just lock him in a room and he was naked, cold, and hungry. He lived like this for 6 years until Fermin was found one cold and rainy day in a corner of a dark lane, he was very dirty, just wearing a jumper, bare feet, and seriously malnourished. Fermin is placed with the pequeños in an effort to stimulate him. He often just paises back and forth sometimes running, sometimes just sitting down. It was during one of his series of running back and forth that this story begins:

I was working with the pequeños this morning so I was in one room making sure the young ones were eating while one of the señoritas was in the other room with Fermin. I look over to see that the señorita had gone downstairs for a second to give some of the kids their medication when I saw Fermin running and he tripped over the uneven floor and bumped his head on the drawers in front of him. I went ove to see if he was ok to see his face covered in blood and a nice gash in his forehead. I brought him downstairs to the señoritas and they washed his forehead and tried to put a bandage on it but he kept ripping it off so we just kinda left it how it was for a while so that he could eat and we could get the kids off to school. After all the kids were gone one of the señoritas brought Fermin to the hospital where they put in 5 stiches but I´m pretty sure back in the states it would have been atleast 10 or 12. I then had to watch Fermin for the rest of the day trying to get him to not touch the stiches. I found out the best way to do this was just to give him food. Fermin absolutely loves to eat and if you let him eat on his own he´ll scarf down his food in no time flat so instead I hand fed him and would give him only a little bit at a time to drag out how long it would last. Well eventually I made it through my shift and was very tired.

Peace,

Brandon


Here´s a picture after the stitches

Casa Hogar

So I realized that I never really talked about what the project is here. I mentioned a littel bit about it before I left and I gave you a link to the website but I figure I´ll tell you about it from my point of view. First of all, the two that started it are Gil and Chantal he is from Belgium and she was from France. I believe that Chantal may have passed away because I have not seen her and noone has talked about here but they also have their son Aaron here. They just decided to move one day and so they came here to Ayacucho to help with the problem of homeless children. There are 27 children her in three different catagorize. There are 7 Lupes which is for children with disabilities. The majority of these children have cerebral palsy and one of them is blind. There is then the 6 pequeños who are all 5 or under with the exception of Fermin who is 9 but has the mental capacity of a 3 yr old so they put him with the pegueños so that they could try to stimulate him to be able to develop. The third group is the 14 grandes which range in ages from 6-18. We work in 2 shifts one form 6-1 and another from 2-7 or 2-8. They early shift with the Grandes simply consists of waking them up and getting them to eat and get ready for school and then when they leave at 8 you are done for the day except on weekends when you play with them/ help them with homework til 1. Then the afternoon group comes in at 2 and helps them change out of their uniforms, eat lunch, do homework/play and then eat dinner and get ready for bed. The Pequeños do all of the same things except during the week the early shift stays with Cristofer who is 3 and Fermin who I mentioned before. The Lupes is a more demanding group but can also be a more rewarding group. You do all of the same things expect for helping them with getting up, getting dressed, brushing their teeth etc means that for all but three of them you are doing everything for them and changing diapers and then with the 3 that can do it themselves they still need help, supervision, and encouragement. Also playing with them is more of just sitting with them, carrying them, or helping the 3 that are able to walk. Of the 3 that can walk, María Jesús needs alot of help b/c she can only barely walk, Eberson, who is blind, needs a little less help than María Jesús but obviously since he is blind you have to direct him. María Antonieta is the most developed and so she can walk with you only holding one of her hands. Then the late shift also often has to give a couple of the kids oxygen or help with therapy at night. In addition to us volunteers there are also the Señorita who work 12 hr shifts 6 days a week. They are there to basically do everything while we help them out. At first I felt like the volunteers don´t really do all that much until I really thought about it and realized that the Señoritas are working 12 hrs with hyperactive children and they need all the relief that they can get during their shifts.

Chao,

Brandon

This is Eberson, Yacner, Diego, and Ruth with one of the Señoritas

This is Emerson, he is kinda the ringleader of the Grandes

This is Luiz or Chinito, he is one of the mischevious Pequeños

I Was Hungry And You Fed Me...Banana Pancakes

So I just posted an entry yesterday so not too much has happened since then except I spent a little time with the Lupes although it was my day off and then went to the market to help get stuff for dinner...and a little extra. The little extra being the ingredients for pancakes as well as some bananas for banana pancakes. All we have had to eat for breakfast is bread and butter with some fruit every now and then so after some discussion I decided to treat everyone to some pancakes this morning. They obviously have everything needed since all you need is some flour, sugar, baking powder, little salt, eggs, milk and butter. So I woke up this moring and cooked some regular as well as banana pancakes and I have to admit they were quite tasty.

In other news, I work this afternoon with the Lupes and then I am not sure what next weeks schedule looks like because it has not been put together yet. I have also posted some pictures to facebook and I´m going to try to upload a couple of videos of the kids that I have on youtube. I´m also going to try to start putting together a video of Los Gorriones with some interviews with the kids, the Señoritas (the ladies who work full time), and some of the other volunteers.

That´s it for now,

Brandon

Best Day Yet...Not Night

So I mentioned the start of my day in my previous post, but it only got better. After finishing up on the internet I went back to the house and I read my bible for a little bit (I´m going through the whole New Testament while I´m here and I´m already ahead of schedule) then some of the other guys came back and so we played cards until lunch (which was really good fried rice with a fried egg). We then came back and played some more cards until about 3 when the others had to go to a meeting (the meeting was about starting up a guinea pig farm in order to feed the children as well as bring in income for the orphanage making it self-sustaining I don´t mean to ask for more money but if anyone reading this knows anyone who maybe able to help us out then let me know b/c it is going to cost about $60,000 and we only have $30,000 so far). While they were at the meeting I read some more of my bible and then at about 4:30 I went back over to the orphanage b/c frankly I love those kids and sometimes prefer to spend my free time with them. I went to help out with the Lupes (the mentally and physically disabled children which you can learn more about at the website casahogarlosgorriones.com/english) because I care about those kids as well as because the two girls working there last night have not become completely comfortable with them. I went over to say hello to Maria Antoineta who is a girl who suffers from cerebral palsy as well as some mental handicaps as well. She gave me a kiss on the cheek as she often does and then she held my watch against her ear because she likes to hear is tick. It was then time for dinner and so I fed Diego who also suffers from Cerebral Palsy and cannot talk or walk at all and most likely never will be able to. It was while I was feeding Diego that Fabio who is probably my favorite kid in the Casa came in and started talking to me and when the other children started blessing their food he started to say the lords prayer in English which sounded a little like this "Ower Fadur kwho aut en kheaven haouellwurod be dy name" he then couldn´t remember the rest so I helped him with it and then he left and came back with his english folder and so practiced it again and again with me helping him pronounce the words better. Again this was all while I had Diego in my arms feeding him. This was the most powerful moment I have felt so far. I was holding Diego, who growing up was often neglected and left in the house on his own, in my arms feeding him and Fabio, who now 12 was brought in 5 years ago by the police because his alcoholic mother disappeared one night, comes in to talk to me and better learn the Lord´s Prayer in English. God is truly in this place to take 27 neglected, abused, malnurished children and turn them into 27 loving, trusting, bright, happy children.

Ok now to why it was the best day but not night. After I was done feeding Diego I went back to the volunteer house and we all decided to go out for pizza instead of cooking. Everyone was finally ready to go around 8:30 so we pile into cabs and go downtown to a pizza place. We had to wait an hour and a half before the pizza finally came out (however I also thought about those who we not going to eat dinner). I came back with some of the girls who were tired and didn´t feel like going out and I then learned that the combinatione was not 4290 either, it was actually 9240...but it only took me a few minutes to figure that out. I got cleaned up and was started to fall asleep when Laurre, who sleeps in the bed next to me, got up and ran out of the room...apparently he stomach didn´t appreciate Peruvian Pizza...and then came back with a pan to put next to the bed and continued to throw up all through the night. But again with everything else so far this trip the good far outway the bad so my mentality has not changed and I am still cherishing every second I have here because I´m not sure when, if ever, I´ll be able to see these kids again.

Peace,

Brandon

Another opportunity to help

This morning was my easy day. I had to wake up at 6 which stunk but all I had to do was help the other kids get ready for school and clean up. My day was done at 8 so I went back to the house, had some breakfast and started heating up some water for my shower. As I mentioned in my last post there is a container of water that we get our shower water from so I was boiling water to mix with the cold water in order to have a warm shower. Right when I finished filling the container a kid walked up and asked for Sylvan (one of the other volunteers) I told him he wasn´t there but then he told me that he was waiting for him so that he could have some English lessons. Naturally, I explained that I was from the US and I had a little experience in teaching English so I could help him. I worked with him for about an hour an a half with simple things such as ¨My name is, I am from, hello, how are you¨etc. He was very passionate about learning so it made it much easier and enjoyable for me. When I was finished, I went to take my shower and noticed that there was already someone in there. When she was done my hot water was all gone but I figure my time and hot water was little to give up in order to help someone else.

Here´s a picture of Daniel

Also a little event that happened since my last post:

Yesterday was Lorrie, the girl from England´s, last day so one Wednesday night we decided to go out to a discoteca. We first went to one that they usually went to but it was 10:30 so it was empty. We then went up the street to anoher one that was open and so we started dancing. I quickly learned that Peruvian ¨Salsa¨is very different from the little salsa that I know but the good part is that I was with a bunch of French people that really didn´t know how to salsa either. It was getting a little late so about 6 of us left the club around 3 to come back and go to bed. We lock the door with a combination lock when we leave and so we put in the combination to open it and...nothing happend... I asked Matt and Carine if they were sure that the combination was right and they said yes they had done it before, the combination is 9042. Well...it obviously wasn´t b/c we couldn´t get in. We then went through the other door to the porch area that was locked but we were able to crawl under or climb over ther door (I chose climbing) and then we got in and were able to go to sleep. About an hour later the other group showed up and so we told them the lock wasn´t working to which they replied ¨the combination is 4290...OOPS!!

My resort style living

So I was under the impression that I would be living in really harsh situations but that is not the case at all. Right when I got in they had a security system to get into the volunteer house. We each have our own private rooms with soft carpet, king size memory foam beds, and climate control. We also have huge private bathrooms with heated tile floors, toilets with heated seats and bidets, a shower that has hot water and flows out like a waterfall. We also have our own kitchens that we don´t really need to use because we have 24hr room service. Also, in our common area we have comfortable furniture with a 62in plasma TV that gets something like 300 channels. We also have people that will do our laundry for us...this is not what I expected.

P.S. By living room with comfy furniture I mean some wooden benches and broken chairs with a couple of small tables. Also shown in this picture is our washer and dish washer to the right and our dryer to the left.

By private rooms I mean 6 to a room we also did have a fairly large TV but we never watched it and they took it. You can also see that by king size memory foam bed I mean a twin size straw rock hard mattress.

By nice shower I mean rigged up container of water that if you want warm water you have to boil it and then when you pull the water bottle down the other one goes up letting the water come out of the spout at a very slow rate.

By nice kitchen I mean it has a stovewith one working burner and an oven that we actually just leave open and use as a second burner

And by nice toilets with heated seats and bidets I mean a hole in the ground that we squat over and then throw water on to wash it down.

Having said all this I don´t mind. I actually prefer it this way because I experience how the people here are living. If I were to go to a 5 star resort at the end of each day then I would not experience what it is really like down here. Also, we are in many cases better off for instance we have 3 full meals a day and we have clean water that we can buy from the market just upstairs from where we are staying and although the house is not perfect it has 4 walls as well as a roof which ic also more than some of the people here can say

How many people can fit in a Peruvian cab?

Yesterday we had 9 new volunteers come in. They are a group that is called SOS and they are all from France only they speak more English than the other volunteers. Last night after dinner we decided to go into the square and go to a bar that our friends recomended because it had good live music. We walked up to the bus stop but when the bus came by he said that he was going home for the night so we hailed the next cab and decided to all pile in the cab (all 10 of us plus the cab driver and his wife) this was an experience to say the least and reminded me a bit of some of my trips down to football games or Sonic only typically I am the one driving and so its comfortable. After bottoming out on every speed but we finally made it to the square and began looking for the bar. After asking about 20 different people and looking for 45 minutes we finally found it...and it was closed. The people I was with finally just gave up and decided to go grab some drinks at a chinese restaraunt but they did not serve alcohol there so instead we all had some Inca cola and then all 10 of us piled back into a taxi and went back to the casa for the night.

Here is a picture but it does not quite fully capture the moment.

My first few days

So I am now in ayacucho and have been here since 2 mornings ago???? (these days have all run together and I´m not sure if I´ve been here a day or a month). I got in around 7 in the morning after a 10 hr bus ride that actually wasn´t too bad b/c busses here are actually really nice. Once I got in I got settled in the volunteer house and got to know some of the volunteers (all french except one girl from England and another from Lima). I then just hung out for a while until 12:00 when I got to go with Maria Gracia (the one from Peru who will actually be studying in Wisconsin next year and speaks English fluently) to go pick up some of the younger kids. I then ate lunch and spent the rest of the day playing with the kids. After we put the kids to bed at 7:00 we came back to the volunteer house where people switch off cooking and so we had some noodles with vegetables that two of the French girls cooked up. Needless to say I was dead tired and so I went to bed.

The next day I didn´t have to work until one so I spent the morning resting and getting to know the other volunteers better until I went to work at 1:00 playing with the kids all day again. After work it was Maria Gracia and my turn to cook...so we went to the nearest restaraunt and picked up food for everyone haha... and again was tired so went to bed.

Today I worked with the older kids (by older it means about 9-13 because the kids are all farely young here) and so I had to wake them up a 6:00, help them get ready, and then played with them/did homework until one when I went back to the house, took a shower, and came here to get on the internet...oh yeah in case you haven´t realized by now there is an internet cafe that I can use and so I´m going to try to update my blog a couple of times a week since we have a lot of down time.

Chao for now,

Brandon

P.S. here are pictures of the front of the Casa where the kids are and the view to the left and from behind

Maybe planning ahead would have been a good idea

So I got into Lima last night around 10 30 and decided to let one of the concierge guys in the airport get me cab to the bus station so that I could go to Ayacucho where the orphanage is. To make a long story short, they took me down some dark alley and fed me some crap about how they don´t accept nuevo soles (the currency here) and that I needed to pay in pesos. They then told me that the ATM would give me pesos and I needed to take out 1400 (which in Pesos wouldn´t have been too expensive) but then it spit out nuevo soles (1400 is about $500) and they took them and ran off. I then got another cab to take me to a hotel but he gave me the same crap and I wasn´t buying it but he pulled over on a dark highway and basically made me give him what I had while a very angry Peruvian came and started banging on my window. Needless to say I paid him and he brought me to a hotel. I told the lad at the counter what happened and she was very sweet and felt sorry for me so in the morning she called me a cab and he brought me to a bus station (the cab fare was only $5 this time not $500. I had called my mom and she told me to go to a bus station called cruz del sur because they had reserved a bus for me but apparently the cab driver brought me to the wrong one b/c there was no reservation...but no fear!!! I talked to some cops that reminded me a little of cheech and chong the way they discussed where the other cruz del sur was until they finally just called me a cab so here I am at the right cruz del sur waiting for my bus that leaves in 10 hrs (not quite sure what I´m going to do for 9 hrs but I´m sure I can manage to get into a little bit of trouble.

Having said all that I feel like I should sum it up a little bit. I got scammed, then scammed again, then found a nice lady at a hotel (oh yeah her daughter was rather attractive and nice as well as was her husband, the nice part not so much on the attractive). But I am now at a bus station and all is well. I am not angry at the cab drivers and am rather sad for them and actually spent some time praying for them because they they took advantage of my fear/tiredness/ignorance and frankly they did need the money more than I did but I really wish I could have used that money at the orphanage because they need it even more than these cab drivers. So for all of you out there supporting me and praying for me say a little prayer for those cab drivers and a prayer of thanks for the sweet lady at the hotel. That is it for now and if I have access to the internet in Ayacucho I will be sure to do my best to update the blog.

In Christ,

Brandon

Here We Go...

As I'm sitting down to write this it is after 12:00 so technically I leave today for Peru. If you are reading this then you most likely already know me and know why I am going but, just in case, I will be flying to Lima today and then taking a bus (although that's not scheduled so I'm somewhat on my own there) to Ayacucho where I will then head to an orphanage (again not quite sure how I'm getting there) and will begin a month of mission work with the children in the orphanage. I'll then head to school for another month and finishing up with a couple of weeks of backpacking.

What I know I know about the orphanage (which I have gotten from the website http://www.casahogarlosgorriones.org/english/) is that this is an orphanage with 25-27 boys and girls ranging in ages from 2-15 and some of which have mental and/or physical disabilities. Some of these kids have parents who are unable to take care of them so the orphanage steps in and takes care of them and the parents are still part of their lives while other kids are on the national adoption list and so the orphanage takes care of the children until they can find a proper home. What I will be doing...I think...is helping with the day to day activities such as waking the kids up, feeding them, sending the older ones to school/entertaining the younger ones, helping with homework, washing them up etc. There is a level of unassurance to this trip though, and I welcome that. Why do I welcome that? It's simple, most of the time Jesus's disciples had no idea where the were going or what they were doing, they just knew that they could trust in him and everything would work out. So although I do not entirely know what I'm doing or how it will turn out, I know that it's in God's hands and I'm going to try to do my part because I know he's going to do his. So here we go, off to Peru to try to help out others a little bit because I know that they are going to help me out A LOT!


P.S. Not sure how much internet access I'm going to have so this may be my only post for a while.