Mr. Mom (Natalie)

March 27 post from Natalie, an intern at La Aldea Infantil.

Daniel is a sweetheart! I ate in house 10 this week and he made sure
to personally take care of me. That house is full, so if we all eat at
the same time there isn't enough room at the table. One of the days I
got there a little bit late and they were already eating. Daniel got
really excited for me to be there, but then noticed that there was no
silverware left so he got up, walked to the kitchen, and washed his
spoon for me to use. He handed me the spoon but then quickly took it
back because he wanted to dry it for me. We walked into the room to go
eat and he became all worried because there was no seat for me. He
immediately offered me his seat and it took a lot of convincing to get
him to sit back down at the table while I ate in the other room. He
kept turning around and checking on me to see if I liked the food and
see if I needed anything else. He would look at me, mumble something,
then give me a big thumbs up. It was the cutest thing! Every time I see
him he hollers my name and beckons me over to ask me where I'm eating
and some other random question. I love my Mr. Mom.

The Next Richard Simmons (Carrie)

March 27 post from Carrie, an intern at La Aldea Infantil:

Lucho finds his love for running!

Last week Lucho, the three year old boy from House 9, came to visit us outside our house. During his visit we decided to do a couple laps around the Aldea on the sidewalks to help run off some energy. That day Lucho was sporting his cute yellow mesh tank top. As we were running Lucho stopped abruptly and pulled up his tank top to expose his stomach, after which he began to pat his stomach while looking confused. Lucho has a chunky little belly so we told him he needed to run if he didn't want his belly, right after we told him this he looks up with a determined face and starts running again quicker than before. We are waiting to see if he really understood what we were saying and if we will continue to see him randomly running around the Aldea.

For information on how to sponsor a child like Lucho, click here.

Look here, here and here for more posts about Lucho.

Juan Carlos the Funny Guy (Kathryn)

March 27 post from Kathryn, an intern at La Aldea Infantil.

This week I ate in casa 5 which is basically all of the older boys
between ages 11 to 17. It is a fun house to eat with because the boys
are always cracking jokes and doing something entertaining. Juan
Carlos, a boy about 15 years old is probably the most entertaining and
funny guy in the house. Every time I see him he always smiles and has
some new trick to tell me or a new joke to tell. He works hard from
5:00am to around 4:00pm every day at his job in Trujillo. Though I can always tell he is
tired when he gets home, he always makes time to play with the younger
kids and uplift others around him. Juan has already learned the value
of hard works and having a good attitude, which will help him in the
future ahead.

A Tree Grows in El Bichito (Erin)

March 27 post from Erin, an intern at El Bichito.

The beginning of school marks a fresh start. We thought it would be nice to help the kids start the school year off right by setting goals. We also wanted to add some colorful decorations around El Bichito. We had the kids trace and cut out leaves for a tree that we had made for the wall. On each leaf we had the kids write one goal for the upcoming school year. Reuben wanted to read more, Luis wanted to get all A’s, and Alida wanted to prepare to go to college. We had tons of fun making the leaves and learning what the kids wanted to do this year. We left the tree up in the comedor as a reminder of their goals.

For more about El Bichito's goal tree, click here.

Sports and hugs (Carrie)

Jose outside our house after basketball class

Jose from House 2 has proven his ability to learn new sports along with tugging on all of our hearts.
Jose has always loved to play soccer with us whenever we play with the other boys and he's always been pretty good at it.This past week we began teaching some of the kids how to play basketball, which is something they don't play often at the Aldea. Jose was one of the best participants because he took the time to concentrate on the principals we were trying to teach him even if it meant the basketball didn't go through the hoop every time, he focused on shooting the ball correctly. Even after we were done with the activity he continued to practice. Another thing that we all love about Jose is how sweet he is. Almost every night we find our way to House 2 for hugs from Jose and the other boys before we leave for our house. Jose always offers hugs whenever you are leaving or randomly when he sees you and thinks you need one. I will definitely miss his sweet personality and tender nature when I am gone.

Hard at Work, Hard at Play (Erin)

Reuben started coming to El Bichito when school started, so I've only known him for a short time, but he's already captured my heart! He is fun-loving third-grader with a lot of spunk. Sometimes it takes the kids a while to warm up to us interns, but from day one Reuben told me all about his day at school and what he wanted to do. I am always impressed how quick he is to take out his homework and get it done. He's a very bright and dedicated student. As soon as his homework is done though, he is ready to play! Whenever he notices my camera is out, he is quick to pose and ask for a picture. We made a goal tree today (we had the kids cut out leaves and write goals for school on them and then taped them ot the tree on the wall) and Reuben wanted to show me every leaf he made and read me his goals. They included reading more books and doing well on his homework. He gets really involved whenever we have an activity and is a great sport!

Antonina is a Princess (Kathryn)

March 21 post from Kathryn:

Last week we made paper cut out crowns with the kids. All the kids were excited to decorate their crowns, but none were as enthusiastic about the activity as Antonina was. Antonina is a 5 year old little girl with a bold personality. She takes control of situations she is in and is definitely a natural born leader! During the activity she got right to work picking out her colors and designing a crown fit for a queen. We taught all the kids how to say "you are a prince and princess". Half way through the activity Antonina walks up to me and says, "Katie, you are a princess!" She is such a sweet girl and open to new things and new people. Even when we first got here she warmed up quickly and helped the other kids feel comfortable around us. I love her so much and look forward to seeing her every day.

Hector: The Writing Machine! (Jake)

March 22 post from Jake:

School has recently begun here in Puylucana, and with the return of schools comes the dreaded "tarea" or homework. Well at least I dreaded to do homework when I went back to school, but that's not the story for most of kids here at El Bichito. Hector is a six year old that is just beginning the second grade. He is also one of the happiest and energetic kids I have ever met. Hector showed me the writing homework he was assigned and I thought it was maybe due at the of the week because it was so much, but no, it was due the next day. I thought there was no way he would be able to get it all done. So I decided I would do all the same writing exercises as him and it could be a little race to see who could finish first....Needless to say I lost that is how Hector earned the title as THE WRITING MACHINE. When Hector is properly motivated, he can use his endless energy to accomplich anything!

Milagros (Cynthia)

Milagros means “miracle”, and this little girl is my Milagros.

Every time she walks in the room she lights up with a smile and calls you by name to say hello. Milagros is a happy and giggly 6 year old girl who loves to play games and talk. Milagros lives in Pulyucana in a small one room house with her parents, older sister and baby brother. She comes to El Bichito for a good meal and to play games and learn from the interns here. But she is the one who has really taught me. She has taught me how to smile, even if life seems hard. She taught me what it means to be lucky, that it’s ok to be silly once in a while and how to be generous. I had the opportunity to visit Milagros in her home and after showing me her little space, she offered me some candy from a little jar. She told me I should take extra for the other interns as well. Coming from someone who has almost nothing, that meant the world to me.

Huevo Huevo Huevo (Natalie)

March 17 Update from Natalie:

Yesterday was Katie and my birthday! We had such a fun time celebrating with the kids. Apparently a big Peruvian tradition is to smash eggs on the birthdaygirl/boy...I ended the day with 11 eggs in my hair, Katie with 9. Most of the time one kid would have the egg and about 5 others would chase you and then hold you down for the one with the egg to come and smash it then they would all rub it in to make sure it was nice and disgusting for you. Victor David and Juan Carlos each did a sneak attack acting all nice and innocent talking to me then BAM i've got egg oozing down in my face. Then to add to that they shoved our face into the cake--gracias casa 1 for that amazing cake--smearing chocolate frosting all up in there. Needless to say a long shower was included in the night plans. It was an amazing day!!

Last week was the Dia de la Mujer.

Everyone was so cute and would go around giving hugs to all the girls and making them feel special.

We had a fiesta with lots of dancing and laughing included.

They also started school a couple weeks ago and i'm happy to report that when asking the kids how school was that day I have never heard a negative response. They all love going to school and enjoy learning.

Alesandro- My Little Monkey! (Erin)

Alesandro just started kindergarten this March. He is a bundle of fun and always has twice as much energy as all the interns put together! He and his sister Katherine come to El Bichito regularly and I have loved getting to see his personality shine. One of his favorite things to do with me is sit on my foot and wrap his arms around my leg. He will hold on tight as I wander around El Bichito talking to all of the other kids. He also loves to climb up into my arms and all over the tables-- He is a little monkey! Sometimes he also babbles in his own made-up (hilarious) language. One day while we were working on activities and he started doing his own version of beat boxing. We tried to capture it on video, but as soon as he noticed that we were watching he stopped. You never what to expect with Alesandro because he has so many different sides- sometimes he wants to curl up and have you read a book to him and other times he wants to be in the thick of things trying to do math flash cards and puzzles with the older kids. All his spunk adds a lot to the fun atmosphere of El Bichito!

Junior's love for math (Cynthia)

Junior makes me laugh every day. He comes in every afternoon with a big smile and a walk like he owns the place. While Junior's confidence can sometimes make him a little bossy, he is still so willing to learn.

Last week we had our academic standards testing and while I was working with Junior I discovered his love for math. Though only starting 2nd grade, Junior has mastered his basic math facts and is ready to learn more. I decided to see how he would do at multiplication though they have not learned it in school. After briefly explaining what to do, he was off and running with it. Problem after problem that I put up on the board for him he was able to solve. I have never been so surprised or proud! I'm thinking with math skills like these and his joy for drawing, Junior should be an architect!

Kindness over Winning (Julia)

In the Aldea, it is rare to see acts of kindess solely for the purpose of trying to make another kid happy, so when we do see these actions it is a very rewarding feeling. We try our best to be good examples and to teach the kids about self-worth, but you never know who is listening and who is not. One person who was obviously paying attention was Ruben. The other day I was watching the kids play soccer and Ruben was the goalie (and doing pretty good I might add) until Miguel came up and wanted to play. Miguel has something wrong with his leg so it is hard for him to move around fast, which is why it was a shock for me at first that Ruben gave up his important spot to him. After that, Miguel missed a couple but then one ball came straight for him and he blocked it! It was cute to see Ruben give up his spot in the first place, but to see the team's reaction was even better. All the kids cheered for him while Ruben gave him a big pat on the back and turned his cap around to make him look "cool". I loved this moment and wished I had a camera with me, but I didn't get a picture. This is one of the happiest times I've felt at the Aldea because I love to see that the kids are actually realizing the importance of kindness and that winning isn't always the best.

Baby Genius (Carrie)

Maria Luisa shows us all how smart she can be.

For the past two weeks we've been able to spend almost every morning with Maria Luisa. This baby continues to amaze us with how quickly she learns. She currently repeats random words that you say to her, some of her favorites to use are Mio, papel and dame but she will say other words sporadically. Also, if she is playing with something and you tell her to watch you do it correctly she will then be able to it correctly herself. For example, when she wandered in my room last week she was trying to carry my backpack around and I showed her how to correctly put it on by putting on my own back after which she picked it up and put it on her own back the exact same way. She is also loves helping us out by trying to put our sandals on for us when she notices we aren't wearing any shoes. This baby has won us all over with her cute smile and happy attitude.

Helping Hands (Carrie)

Daniel from House 10 helps at the Aldea

Every week, Daniel from House 10 goes around to all the houses and collects their garbage in a big wheelbarrow. You can tell by the smile on his face that he feels important with this big of a responsibility and he takes it very seriously. Every so often we'll hear a knock on the door and there is Daniel asking if we have any trash. He definitely likes having a part at the Aldea. This isn't Daniel's only way of helping at the Aldea. He also provides everyone with a big hug or smile whenever he sees you. Also, this past week Daniel walked me to the house I was eating dinner at on several occasions after finding out that I wasn't eating at his house. He is one of the sweetest boys and we are all grateful for his positive attitude and willingness to help out.

Olympics at El Bichito! (Cynthia)

Can you believe it is already time for school to start?

To celebrate the last week of summer we planned a Mini Olympics for the kids here at El Bichito.

We divided the activities into outdoor and academic to try and ease out of summer and back into school.

The outdoor games were a blast and the kids enjoyed discus (Frisbee) and shotput (water balloon throw) in addition to a few fun relays and races. We had pretty small numbers because it is the last week of summer but the kids that came had fun and we certainly had a blast. We played a hopping tag game, a water balloon waddle relay and a tossing name game.

After we had exhausted ourselves outside and handed out suckers as prizes to everyone we moved inside to get their brains moving. The kids were broken into teams and raced to see who could finish a puzzle fastest. In their rush they started trying to force pieces together until we told them the puzzle still had to make a picture…

The kids also loved solving math problems on the whiteboard for their team (mostly because they think it’s fun to write with whiteboard markers). Thanks to some donations we were able to get some fun prizes and treats for all the kids to finish the day. Wish us all luck as we start school this week!

Fabricio: Getting Better Little by Little (Julia)

Fabricio: Getting Better Little by Little

This week I’ve been getting to know the baby Fabricio better. I love to hold this baby and give him as much love as possible. His muscles aren’t strong enough to sit up straight, or even hold his head up yet and he can’t see very well, but he does react when someone’s in front of him so we think that he can at least see light or shapes. At the beginning, I never knew who Fabricio was even though I’d heard his name a lot until one day Katie brought him over to our house to take care of. We now like to babysit him in the mornings, along with the other babies, and I think that ever since we’ve been taking him out of his house and helping him to exercises, he’s been getting significantly better.

Manuel the Monkey (Kathryn)

Manuel is the brother of Braylin and Kristelle. He has just as much enthusiasm for learning as his sisters but is completely his own person. Whenever I am with him, he is always climbing up something or jumping up and down, full of energy. Though small for his age, he is surprisingly good at sports and balancing himself while climbing trees. This past week he out did himself by climbing to a very high point in one of the Aldea fruit trees. No fear, he raced to the top, only stopping to turn around and wave at me. I joke with him calling him mono (monkey in espanol), and the name definitely fits. The whole Aldea benefits from his spunky personality and commanding attributes.

Feliz Cumpleanos Cesar!! (Natalie)

Image: Cesar with Fabricio

Thursday was Cesar Hamberto's 16th birthday!
He didn't even know it was his birthday, he was surprised when we told him his birthday was coming. He got ambushed with a few traditional eggs cracked on his head of course. His birthday request was a soda, and being dumb and agreeing to bet a soda on our futbol match which I had no chance of winning, he gladly accepted two sodas for his gift. I don't think he expected anything for his birthday because when I asked him what he wanted he didn't think I was being serious and when I actually gave it to him he couldn't believe it. His huge grin was great! After dinner we enjoyed a delicious cake and sang to him. I'm glad to report that he told me he had a great birthday is very happy.

Other updates:
The kids started school again this week.
We are teaching some of the girls (plus Victor and Jose) a dance that they are going to perform on Tuesday at a party.

I regularly play a match with the older boys and am get them to participate more and more.

We made a new schedule for the school year that includes weekly sports, crafts, dance, and self esteem classes after homework is done.

The kids are all happy and having fun.
They love learning new English phrases and repeating them back to us.

Everything is going good and i'm LOVING it here!!

Young Man (Carrie)

Reuben with Alondra

February 28 post from Carrie:

You can’t help but smile when you see Rueben who acts well above his age.

When I think of the best behaved and one of the sweetest boys at the Aldea my mind immediately goes to Reuben. This boy is only 11 years old yet he not only willing participates in all our activities but he also provides a calming atmosphere that more often than not rubs off on the other kids. This week I was more aware of the small acts of kindness he does and how wonderful his personality truly is. On Wednesday night all of the volunteers went to House 5 to play monopoly. While we were there Rueben was doing other activities but even though we were being loud and taking up a lot of space, Rueben never once complained. He even had to sit 10 feet away from the TV, when he decided to watch a movie ,with his vision blocked and the sound barely audible. I was amazed at his patience and lack of complaining. On another occasion Rueben had a huge piece of watermelon which he ate a little bit of, gave some to Caesar and also broke off a piece for Llennifer( the girl with special needs from House 9) when she came up and pointed at it. We feel like Rueben acts well above his age in how calming and mature he acts but occasionally, like when we go to the pool, you can see the kid emerge from him that is usually hidden deeper. When we went first went to the pool Rueben didn’t know how to swim and so he’d cling onto the volunteers but he was really interested in learning how to swim and he learns really fast because now he has no fear of jumping in and swimming around in the deep end. We’ve taught him how to do a proper cannonball and he was learning how to dive this week, during both instances when Rueben first emerges from the water he comes out with his arm up, raised above his head, grabbing for the air in an almost triumphant looking pose. All of us volunteers can’t help but smile when we see him, he truly is a young, old, man.

Carnival at El Bichito (Erin)

Post from Erin at El Bichito:
Today in an effort to teach the kids the importance of having clean clothes we had a pre-Carnival water party. We started out by talking about where water comes from and what we can do with water. We tried to focus on the importance of having clean clothes, especially how it can help them get better jobs when they are older. We then asked the kids to show us how to properly wash clothes with a bucket of water and a bar of laundry soap. We washed the shirts we had asked them to bring yesterday.

After we hung the shirts up to dry, we played some water games. We had a water balloon toss and then a little water balloon fight. Of course, the interns were the main targets. We hope to make this a weekly tradition for the summer- to provide incentive we told them that next week if they bring a shirt to wash they will get an extra water balloon for the games!

El Bichito visits Granja Porcon!‏ (Cynthia)

8 kids, 4 leopards, 2 lions, 7 monkeys, a few thousand fish and 1 great day!

We had the opportunity to take a group of kids from El Bichito to Granja Porcon, a successful evangelical cooperative a couple hours outside of Cajamarca. We had a pretty crazy bus ride up the mountains with all those kids and we had the great opportunity to just sit and talk (or sing or play peak a boo in the curtain

Once we arrived at Porcon, the first thing we noticed were all the pine trees! Something of an irregularity- the mountains of Porcon are covered with millions of pine trees, an entirely man made forest. The surprises didn't stop there though, Porcon was a beautiful and clean place with plenty to see. We started off our trip walking through some of the artesian shops where we saw carpenters and other craftsman hard at work.

We then hiked to the zoo and saw lions, bears and ostriches. Alvierri said his favorite part of the trip was the monkeys because they were so "cute". Junior liked all the different types of birds and Ana Maria liked "everything"!

These kids were so full of energy the whole day and the only time we stopped running was to play on the slide.

We ate our lunch in an open grassy area and the kids got some of their energy out playing soccer.

Next we visited the trout farm and some even tried their hand at fishing. It was so interesting to see the progression of the baby trout in the tank to full grown fish in the lake. The kids were sad when it was time to leave and it took a little convincing to get back on the bus. It was fun to ask what they all enjoyed most and we are sure they will remember this trip in days to come.