dearest kids,
mom, special family & friends,
this is the update letter that will catch me up on the second week with my boys....
you will remember that at the end of the first week i was heavy into construction with my team mate gavin, the army guy from england, and we both decided to go ahead with the chicken coup idea despite the directora wishing to buy paint, and more paint and get curtains for the dining room...
we are both quite sure that the language barrier here is wide enough to take a pause while we get some good feelings back about expectations and asking for money for things... at the moment it seems that gavin and i are the only people doing anything with the boys or the place as staff tuck into their offices and disappear...
so we disapppear too behind the folding metal door that leads down the long hallway to the guinea pig house and the half finished chicken cou which was a ¨HOPE¨project in June .... we will work away on skills and probably a few of them will join us at some point.....
having had no limits to learning when i was little i am quite able to remove chicken wire, nails, use a hammer and balance a kid on my knee at the same time... so while gavin saws great wide boards that are piled against the building i take down the chicken wire and roll it into a pile.... the plan is to ad the height of two boards to the brick base so that the kids don´t stand on the bricks and pull on the chicken wire to see in... the boards are still low enough for them to look in and there is no reason to pull on the wire...this is the plan....
anyway my little special boy that they still call " loco".. is my star helper and he and i begin to remove all the nails from the posts that surround the worn stone floor and partly finished brick wall that stands about a foot tall.. the sun is hot.. it beats on us.. our faces are brown and our hands are dirty. one by one , usually with Aldear perched on my knee he pulls the nails , bent flat against the post to hold non existant chicken wire.. determined, eager, with purpose he grabs the nails. ancient black plyers brace against the post,, twist, pull, tug .. his hands twist to figure it out... i show him over and over .. put it up and down, against the post, pull down... sometimes he gets it and after we have the whole side all done... just a few more posts Aldear.. no.. no .. no .. he is done.. so i go to my backpack and pull out some bottlecaps... coca cola, inca cola, beer caps... and his gets bright and that little dirty hand of his reaches out for more... just this many for now...
he got beauties.. i have never appreciated the colours or the writing on those caps... but wow they are fabulous when they are hammered flat with a rounded stone...
the joy is that aldear is with us.. and he is happy and not hounded by anybody ... and the chicken coup would be nothing without him....
so, floors cleaned, wire removed, boards cut and nails pulled we are ready to hammer and get the walls finished... it goes smoothly .. and we work away... Americo and Jean´Paul jump in for a little time and Ananánan joins us too... this is the favorite group that like to be around us, doing what we do, eating our lunches and not missing a thing..
the sun is hot and the work is good.. at one point the carpenter came over and was upset with us cutting the boards ... as they are beauties.. about a foot wide and 8 - 10 feet long.. .. but we used them anyway because they were perfect and the directora had given us permission to finish the coup..
tired from the sun with more kids gathering we worked on more airplanes and i have not had so much fun playing in ages... i can feel the stress of my life leaving every day..
we continue working on the coup over the next week and it is completed.. our intention is to get 5 or so chickens and a rooster.. the directora asked for 15... but 5 or 6 will be fine and they can have their own eggs and learn to take of them . most of these boys are from the outskirts of cusco and farming communities and they like the idea of getting chickens.....hopefully they will take better care of them than they did the budgie.. it died the day after i got here..
after finishing the walls, attaching the old wire to the posts, boards and making sure it was tight, the coup looks better than the carpenter could have imagined and we got the thumbs up from him immediately. wicked!!! i like him.. he seems to be the one staff member that works with the boys to teach them skills.. now he has a pretty nice world too.. he has an ok workshop, with machines that work and some good table space and piles of wood and broken furniture to fiddle with.. i think his life is good.. and at lunch he gets a tub of what looks like great soup.. yyeah.. i like him. and.. whenever i need nails or something for the boys for something they are building or a hand with cutting or making wheels for example he finds me the box, trusts me with his tools.. and we have a nice relationship..
the next thing we need to finish before the chickens is the pens, but we decide to give this job to the carpenter to see how important the idea of actually getting the chickens is and so we leave it in his hands...
time passes.. nothing happens...
we move on to fun projects in the courtyard... planes complete..no sign of the blocks...the boys are fascinated with my bracelets.. those gigantic beaded ones that you made kate with the funky shapes... so gavin buys some beading supplies and this fun becomes the joy of the rest of this week.. their tiny worn fingers are very good at this.. patterns emerge with some of them like it is in their being.. it is a system of honor.. we give out the beads and when they are finished with their bracelet they give back what is left over for another day..
here these boys have almost nothing.. except the bare essentials.. but in terms of having something that is just yours... hardly a thing and if they do it is guarded with their lives.. some of them have pockets with pogs or bottle caps... occasionally a pack of cards.. the bracelets are bright green and orange... the benches of the courtyard are lined with boys bent over working, or sitting on the sidewalk using the bench as tables... everybody wants more... mañana...mañana...
for the time this is a nice break for all of us...
Guido gives me his.
days are full of changes... and i am learning a bit about what is ´a normal day for the boys´.
there was a day this week when bags of fleece tops arrived and one of the senors blew a whistle and all the boys came running to the entrance area near the offices.. they all lined up in one long line and one by one the señor called each boy to his side.. picked up a top held it up against his chest checking for size and them handed the boy his new top...each one was clearly delighted and most put them on immediately... in six weeks this is the only time this has happened..
although they have some fairly ok clothes, they are just like us.. and have their favorites.. this makes me laugh.. can´t give up that white shirt and jeans.. how many years would you say... twenty??? well they are just the same except there are lots of days between washings..some repairs needed . i have seen coloured underwear in piles and some boys wear socks with ok runners..others those rubber tire sandals.. and others leather shoes some in fair repàir and others with flopping soles.. those shoes with or without socks.. track pants are common.. and good because they have zippered pockets to keep their treasures safe, tops are layered with a fleece on top, and of course the kids on the morning school routine have wrinkled white shirts, navy knit vests, ties on elastics, grey trousers and leather shoes or boots that lace up the ankle..
their hair is tidy and kept short and neat and they are showered on the whistle call of the older nurse mama ... or the señor with the whistle on a shoelace.. in the time i have been here once fingernail clippers were part of the shower routine... my packsack has become a bag of treasures to them.. and i occasionally trust them to go through parts of it.. for clippers or hand cream ..even the carpenter gets lotion on occasion.
on wednesdays when the afternoon voluneers come the boys are taken to the swimming pool and although i was invited to go.. decided not to.. later i learned that the volunteers pay for this activity .. that part is fine.. but i just didn´t like the idea of putting on my bathingsuit in such unknown company!!!! the kids bustle with happiness on pool day... they are all showered and their hair gets washed before leaving and they leave all sparkled up!
now back to aldear.. i write this in the present... he is one of the few boys who has had a mom visit him.. she is wide and old, in traditional countryside clothes which is a gathered skirt, knee socks and sandals, a sweater, hat and long braids.. she is wrinkled and soft and she and i have held hands and laughed together at the pictures of her sweet boy, aldear.. as he worked away on the chicken coup and played with me making airplanes and blocks and singing songs..... i think he could speak with help for he had played clapping games across from me and i have sung all the songs i know from The Sound of Music with him mimicking my words and expressions as wild and exagerated as they are.. and he was so happy and free in this moment...
there is a great intensity in his eyes watching my mouth form words and make sounds and he watches and tries.... there is no doubt of his understanding.. and he does hear..and he does work.. and he can stay focused for a long time...
the courtyard buzzed with our good energy. sweet aldear.
Aldear hasn't been at the orphanage for over two weeks... when i ask the boys say he is with his Mother.. i believe this is good.
i hope you all have wonderful days... i wish we could all sit around and make bracelets and sing.. touch hands and get each other coffee and toast with peanut butter and stay right there in that moment for hours..
i love you all. miss you very much.. love mom, me...
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