Dearest Logan, Meg & Kate, Mom & Fab Fam, and great friends,
A week has passed with the babies and my boys.. everynight i was in bed by 8:30 just as soon as that taxi got me there..
this is sort of how my day is going now... spanish classes are great and i am understanding alot now.. more than i can speak but i can struggle along in conversation to my house mother and friends, with vendors, my kids and of course with my tandom Mitsy. there is only one other girl in class with me, Teigan, from Australia. she is 26.. just a dream of a person.. as are most. on friday my professora Magda and I went to the San Pablo market and talked most of the time in spanish... it was funny.. the market which is truly a Peruvian market and i have described to you before with the animal heads and bodies and rancid smells that turn your stomach.. the place you don´t want to be alone in in the evening.. anyway.. we take the tour around.. pause to learn some names of fruit. .. sample a few goodies... tamalies with sweet mashed corn and raisons inside.. yummmyyy...and a fruit that looks like an orange but has a very hard peel.. once chipped away inside it has a light greenish slimey substance that covers flat seeds.. anyway, to eat it you kindof open the whitish skin at the top and suck the contents out.. it is supposed to be very good for your stomach.. there was a potatoe full of eyes next to the vendor which is supposed to be fantastic for cancer.. there are lots of remedies here..
but the funny part that i was going to tell you is this... as we were about to enter one section the professora stopped and told me in spanish that the lady around the corner is loco.. she sells soup made of frogs and all the men eat it because it is natural viagra.. she said not to look at her but to pretend to be looking everywhere else.. she is loco.. craazzeeeeeeeeeee.. so we walk by and there are three men , all that can squeeze in front of her stall, and they are gobbling up the soup... we continue walking and magda says .. did you see the frogs.. no.. then she takes me back , tells me the same story.. don´t look at her... so away we walk back ..past two old peruvian ladies selling yuccas.. and then to her booth.. men still there.. and i notice beside them long octopus tentacles , something iccky on top of them.. maybe frogs..not sure.. anyway we laugh away and it is funny.. if you just went there alone you would never get the stories...
i pick up some baby booties and some flutes for the boys, some string for string art, and we head back to begin my working day with the boys and the babies...
the boys and i have established a pretty good routine and we get right into the art when i arrive...i don't remember how to do this but do the best i can and about six kids and i dip the string into our little pots of colour.. and with folded papers make some patterned art... today there is more paint on us and the table than on the paper... david continues to be a star.. english requests have extended to include asking for colours of paint as well as for paper and it feels a bit like school.. i like the order.
for the past week i have been invited to eat lunch with the boys... manners, hospitality.. something good that feels like it is apart of these people .. it is very nice and everyday the cook asks me if i will be coming to the orphanage tomorrow.. now the food that i have had here is really good.. there is always soup..a main course and a drink.. so far there is no apple pie or ice cream..
the menus this week have been.... soups... usually with potato, some onion and a little bit of that miniature tapioca like substance... main courses have been great! better than at my family house here .. wayyyy better. for example , one day we had chicken, sweet potato and carrots..the next day it was fish, rice and salad.. yesterday it was fried fish, rice and a great salad of cut onions, lettuce and tomatoes... now i am not sure that this is always the case because the chef has been trying to ask me something.. at first i thought it was to attend a party on hallowe'en , but friday he wrote me a letter which i had my tandom interpret and what he wants is for me to be the Godmother to his son.. the ceremony is Oct 31 at 4;00.. Apparently this happens alot here that is, the families ask someone they like - foreigners - to be this. when Michael, the older gentleman that looked like Col. Sanders, was here , he was asked to do this and he had to buy all the clothes for the boy ..top to bottom.. and pay part of the party.. so i am not sure if this request is for the right reasons.. and i am still on the fence with my decision.
anyway the food is great and if i knew that it was always so good i would be happy for all the boys knowing their tummies are full of good things....at this point with this good chef. i think he is one of the staff who has been here forever.. the kitchen in the pictures i sent is very basic. i found the utensil drawer... a few knives. lots of locked cupboards. nice space and big enough to dance around in.
singing has become the norm too. the guitar is still a hit and stompin' tom's Dang Twang gathers a small crowd... always with requests for more.. i have strummed that guitar so much it will hardly stay in tune , so tomorrow i will take it with me to pick up the little one and see what the señor can tighten up for me.
after the boys i either raceback to maximo or get a cab straight to the baby projectwhich is walking distance to Nadia's house .. about 8 blocks..
each day i have the same job....loving, rocking (sitting on the floor..abs, abs, abs) spoon or bottle feeding and doing that wonderful juggling act that this week is keeping me awake! i told you how i had , or maybe i didn´t, fallen in love with the wonderful joqueim, well on thurdsay they moved him in with the bigger babies and so i only got a glimpse of him at tuck in time. i didn´t want to , well i wanted to love him up them, but i did´t want to disrupt the schedule that the staff here have down... most babies don´t finish their meals from bowls but nearly all of the little babies gobble down all their bottles...
it isn't sad here.. the care is unbelievable.. the crawling babies are exercised and taught to climb up and down stairs with one nurse talking all the time to them..they are in nice clothes.. layers upon layers of them, they are sparkly clean and their hair is combed and styled!! i will get some pictures for you of this little ever changing crowd.
friday when i arrived there was one little boy . 2 months old but newborn in size in the swing. the nurse began speaking to me in spanish and i got one important part which was the oxygen tubes had to stay in his nose... he was wailing.... the other babies had been lovingly plunked on their backs or bottoms equipped with toys swinging from bars and rattles.. they are content, not demanding anything... i am instantly handed a hairy small soul.. firmly wrapped to feed.. his eyes are black and his skin deep cinnamon. i lock my eyes to his and study his wonderful face... he is hot and his thick hair damp from working so hard to empty his bottle... i peel a layer off and wipe his hair up off his forehead ..he isn´t smiling but is intent... into the rocker he goes... all the while the nurse is attending the little one and doing everything she can to get the tubes taped to his face...Lucy arrives, she is awesome... she is thin and small with a great happiness about her that breathes all goodness.. she is beautiful despite bad burn scars around her mouth and entire nose..sometimes i grab her foot to make her smile pretending she is one of the troops i have to entertain... she giggles... we don´t speak much spanish yet.. but may get there...together we feed the babies... alex is impossible and no amount of food will go into his mouth and stay there. finally i give that up and just begin to hug and cuddle him ..rock, jiggle.. then another guy is fussing, so into the rocker goes alex where he finally crashes after some violent rocking... i think eveybody feels the tension of the needs of this new baby....i hear the nurse telling her about this baby.. he has a hernia, something about his heart and breathing troubles... at the end of the day she changes him and i see his hernia.. and perfect little body... he is wide eyed and calm for a minute or two... i watch him while she leaves for something and am told to blow in his face which i do... when she comes back he spits all his food up...
i am too tired for words.. but i have to get a cab to maximo..to be with mitsy my tandom.. this goes til 8 and then i rush home. Misty is trying to pass an english test so we are working away on words like "get" and how it is used.. and how to write a letter to get a job.. and how to answer questions that an employer to be might ask...we spend alot of time laughing and i could have a flock of students if i put the word out.. but already i have too much on my plate.
the two projects are very different.. the boys i see growing and learning and becoming ... the babies i just love... feed ... play.. the boys need life skills fast ... the orphanage can only keep the boys for three years then they are either on the street, on to a larger orphanage in Lima, or back with a family with too little means to support them..On thursday, Janet , the directora asked to speak to me about something.. she told me that one of the boys 3 years was up and he was back with his mother and she wanted me to meet the mother and her other child.. i said that this is fine.. i would but i wanted her to understand that i do not have money to sponsor the children or family and that all i can give to the boys here is my love and energy while i am with them..these boys are in a bad situation.. they are all great boys... well, there is one tough guy, who i hear is training by the best pick pocket in cusco, to become a pick pocket ... and i think it may be too late for him.. but others, well, they have great potential.... now i notice there are times with some of them when they sit alone, are quiet... don´t want to do anything... and i get it...
on friday the nurse mama ( i call her that because she hands out medicine and gave me the supplies to clean up Gabriel's infected ear which lasted almost three weeks) anyway, when i arrived the boys were digging up the weedy spreading vines between the stones, grass and sidewalks and i interupted their work... she can rolling in with her grumpy face and told them to go finish their obligations... that is fine... just say it nicely. i don´t like the idea that the boys are doing manual labour that the staff should be doing.. the tools are primitive... that axe /hoe combination tool that requires some brute strength in the hot heat of morning...
my sweet guido, has been swept away for over two weeks now to work for a roofer.. he is fourteen. child labour.. everywhere here. on streets, in the stores, in restaurants.. they are trained from babyhood at how to make a sol...taught to dress in costume and sell pictures of themselves.. you will remember the picture of the children with the lama behind the fence.. this is everywhere.. little girls with baby alpacas, and mommies with babies and children in beautiful costume, dressed everyday to earn their living..
poverty is everywhere.. it is impossible.. abuse is everywhere. magda told the story of when she was teaching in a city nearby and there was a little girl, 11yearsold, in her class who always wanted to clean the classroom..help clean even if it wasn't her turn... one day magda figured it out...the girl was being sexually assaulted by her stepfather.. and forever.. when the mother was approached she told magda to be quiet because if the father was put into jail she would have no money to support herself or her other three children... there are big posters everywhere for womens' centres and getting abuse into the open..
.. all around are the beautiful mountains...all purples and greys.. the sky is colorado blue and the music stirs the soul...
driving home the taxi crawled up the hill. a small girl, maybe 5 runs around the corner of the sidewalk and pics up a piece of styrofoam..like those that protect electronics in boxes..white with holes throughout...the taxi waits for a change to merge... she grabs it and rushes back setting it next to a hydopole.. beside her are two men waiting to cross the street... she pulls down her pants and begins to pee.. the men cross the street.. the taxi merges into traffic......i go home to bed.
i hope this letter finds everyone happy and well... enjoy your warm beds and steady fires... put your pjamas in the dryer, jump into them and crawl into bed.. we are so lucky and we don´t have to feel bad about it. i will hug the boys and babies for you and tomorrow i will pick up the guitar and sing...
good night. all my love,
mom, me....
ps. thank you for the letters .. sorry to not get back to some of you... just busy.. moved.. to a new family for a little while.. thought i was going to be part of a family.. but it is the same as before.. except there is noooo internet til next week. may change back as it has become necessary this far away from all of you.
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