Semilla de Amor: Official soccer & dance team

By Stacey Bell

August 1

We have had an AMAZING week!! The kids were so excited for the big event on Wednesday. Semillas De Amor now has an official soccer and dance team! I can’t believe how hard they have worked, cooperated, and committed to being a part of something. We have been practicing for several weeks now. The boys have improved so much! They went from not knowing how to practice shooting on the goal together to doing warm ups, drills, running, passing games and more. They were reminded of their goal each day at practice, to be ready to play in a game. And they were! They worked together and supported each other. The other interns helped the girls learn how to stay on beat, do gymnastics, and work together.

The day of the event was a lot of fun for everyone. We met at 8 in the morning to get rides to the school we were playing against, and all the kids were early!! There were about 6 mothers of the kids that came to help, they were awesome! It was great to get to know them. We got to the school and handed out their yellow dance outfits and blue soccer jerseys, it was like Christmas. All the kids looked so good. We played the game, and there were so many kids there to watch. The other team scored first, we scored next. At halftime the girls performed their dance and it was adorable. We had music and everything. During the rest of the game the girls cheered on the sideline. The other team scored again, we scored again and by the end of the game it was tied. So we had a penalty kick shoot out. 4 players from each team shot on goal. Each team had only made one goal and it was down to our last shooter and.. We made it and won!! A 1st place trophy was given to our team, and a 2nd place given to the other team. We had a celebration afterwards with lunch, drinks, and treats. I can’t begin to explain how fun it was to help these kids work hard, commit, and follow through. Specifically the boys, I am so proud of them!!! They had so much fun playing as a team. Semillas De Amor!!

Aldea Infantil: Justin's final post

By Justin Schow

July 30

Our two month stay at the Aldea Infantil has come to a close. I couldn´t be more happy to have had this experience nor could I be more sad for it to end. I've made so many amazing friends and, although Peru is not my home, I've come to feel at home among them. I will not soon forget all the great experiences I have had.

During the last few days before leaving the Aldea we attempted to round up as many of the kids and employees for a group photo. One of them really shows how close the group is, and I can definitely say that together they are an amazing group of children and adults. It has been such a wonderful privilege to serve in Peru!

Aldea Infantil: Brett's Final Post

By Brett Fotheringham

July 30
My final week at the Aldea was amazing, sad, but very happy as well. I had troubles finding a picture for this week so I finally just settled on this picture because I think it's hilariously adorable. On the left, with what looks to be a French Fry in his mouth is Renzo, and on the right is Matias. In the picture these two little guys are just hanging out outside of our house, along with half of the Aldea. Our last week we had a dramatic increase in activity participation and favor asking. It was a bit stressful but it was really neat to talk with all the kids, and see that they cared about us just as much as we cared about them. Two months is a comparatively short time in a persons life, but the experiences I have had at the Aldea have made the last two months feel like I have lived a whole new life. I know it may sound cliche, but I really feel these kids have taught me so much more than I could ever have hoped to teach them, about love, about service, and especially about myself. It's incredible how much the Aldea has changed my life, and how I view the world. As people in the U.S., we enjoy a lot of privileges and we are told this all the time so we think we are aware of how good we have it, but until you go out and see the need in the world, you don't quite understand how much there is to be done. Two months was far too short a time to do everything necessary, but I wouldn't trade my experience here for the world regardless. I hope one day I have the chance to come back to the Aldea and see what has become of all these amazing children, and hopefully see that I, and all the other volunteers past and present, have made a difference.

Aldea Infantil: Lessons in health

By Brett Fotheringham, an intern at La Aldea Infantil

July 20
This week was fun, crazy, and a bit sad all at the same time. The Aldea threw a going-away party in honor of the two Scottish Volunteers, Connie and Pascal, who have been here for the last eleven months. The kids were quite sad about them leaving understandably so. Seeing how much they loved those two makes it hard to think that next week is our last. It is crazy how fast the last two months have flown by and it makes me wish more and more that I could have had more time here like the other two volunteers because there is so much to be done here. I guess that is why you have to make the time you have count. The picture for this post is memorable for me because it is a rare occasion when I can get the kids to pose with me while finding another kid to take the picture. Although Viktor is watching the other kids playing soccer, Juan Carlos has his hat over his head, and Alex just barely stopped smiling right before the shot, I love this picture. Being around these kids is such a neat opportunity and they really have so much to teach me. This week for FAMA we talked about Drugs and Alcohol. We had the kids breath through straws to simulate how smoking affects your breathing, and after that we spun the kids around in circles for half a minute or so to simulate what inebriation felt like. They had fun and afterwards we had a more serious conversation about the health effects of drug abuse and alcohol. It just made me realize how difficult some of the lives of these children have been and how strong they are to have gone through all these things. I love it here and will be sad to leave. Until next week. Chao.

Columbia: Food Bank

By Bethany Weiler.

July 21

Uris, the director of the Foundation, really uses her resources when it comes to cooking food for the children. Once a week, she travels to Cartagena where the Banco de Alimentos, or Food Bank, is located in order to buy food in bulk at a decent price. The priest who owns the food bank, Father Pardon, has asked us to volunteer twice a week there before we go and feed the children lunch. So we go and do whatever they ask us to do. It is our hope that if we do the work now, we will be able to form a better relationship with the food bank so that they will remember the Foundation and perhaps be able to give back in some future way. We may not be able to experience the effects of it now, but I feel that we are doing some foundational work that will benefit not only the Center, but future interns as well.

Aldea Infantil: July 21 update from Megan

By Megan McKnight, an intern at La Aldea Infantil.

July 21

Another great week at the Aldea. An experience I really enjoyed this week was during an activity with the group of 12 year old boys. We did a lesson about keeping our communities clean. It was fun to see all the boys different opinions and the things they talked about on how they could keep the Aldea cleaner. It was interesting to see how the conversation turned to keeping Peru clean and then we started talking about Peru's History. Jose Antonio is one of the boys who knew so much about his history. He knew the name of every person involved and all the dates. He is so knowledgeable about his countries history! It was so cool to see. All the boys were so interested and it was exciting to see how much pride these boys had in their country and how knowledgeable they were.

Aldea Infantil: Estrella

By Justin Schow, an intern at La Aldea Infantil

July 21
As I look back on the last several weeks of my trip to Peru, I am reminded how much I have enjoyed my time at the Aldea Infantil. Our time here is drawing to a close and there are so many great experiences I have shared with the children that I will never forget.
A favorite daily experience of mine has been the time we spend in the mornings with the 6 or 7 youngest children at the Aldea. One of them is a beautiful 18-month-old little girl named Estrella. She is the daughter of one of the older girls. She is a little quieter than the others and doesn't say much, but every once in a while we can get her to say a few things and smile and laugh with us.
Being able to be around the younger ones is a different experience altogether than with the older kids, and I sincerely hope we are able to leave them all with a smile on their faces.

Aldea Infantil: Goals & push-ups

By: Justin Schow, an intern at La Aldea Infantil:

July 15
This past week at the Aldea was pretty eventful! Things started off on Monday when we sat down with some of the older boys to talk a little about interests and setting goals for the future. Juan Carlos, the oldest boy said he was interested in mechanics. Another boy named Victor was interested in writing music. There were a lot of ideas discussed and it was great to see that they had a desire to work to achieve goals for the future. 

In an attempt to show them the importance of constantly working hard to achieve goals, we had a friendly push-up competition. Juan Carlos beat us all! Afterwards we discussed the big picture: if we make an effort every day to improve ourselves, we would find that the limits to what we can achieve in life are practically endless. In this case, one of us would at least be able to beat Juan Carlos in a push-up contest someday.