Dancing at the El Bichito (from Kelsey)

This week we had the opportunity to perform a few traditions Peruvian dances with the children at the school. Eliana taught several dances to different classes and in celebration of Father's Day here in Peru, the children were able to present them to their parents and the rest of the school. We had so much fun dancing and spending that time with the children. They all did so great!

Friends and Crushes at the Aldea (Carrie)

January 30, Carrie:

For the past two weeks I’ve noticed how the children at the Aldea are good about playing with different groups of friends. The kids still have people they are more likely to play with, but in general, they are good at including each other and varying who they play with. When we play sports it’s especially fun to watch how all the kids, of all ages, can play together and still have fun! This past week I was told that Alfredo, one of the boys in house 2, has a little crush on one of the little girls in house 1 named Antonina. On Friday, the Aldea had a birthday party for the children who had birthdays in January which was really fun. At this birthday party there was dancing, which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone because Peruvians love to dance! During the dancing part of the fiesta, Alfredo asked Antonina to dance and they danced holding hands, with Antonina giggling the whole time and Alfredo standing there being a perfect gentleman.

This week we played in the pools that were donated to the Aldea with the kids on Tuesday and Thursday morning. I also had the opportunity to help teach an English class with Caesar who works for the Aldea and Julia one of the new interns for southern cross. Other than that we played soccer at least once a day, played a game called Kiwi and went to a fiesta for the kids with birthdays in January that was held on Friday.

Child Highlights:

1. Victor David in house 2 and I played monopoly two separate times after dinner. I was eating at their house this week.

2. We watched Lucho and Renzo in our house for 2 hours on Thursday while their Tia was gone. We played ball and tried to get Renzo to walk.

3. I talked with Victor David about what he likes to do, he's a really smart kid who loves reading and learning new things. He helped me with some Spanish and I taught him some things in English like "my name is...," "goodbye," "good morning," "thank you," and "how are you."

Changes (Dan)

(continued from Dan's last post)

Now for the big news!

...... I´m heading to Cajamarca! Yes, that´s right, as of tomorrow night, Sunday, I am moving up to Cajamarca, (about 7-8 hours north) to help the kids up there. A pretty big shock to be sure, but it´ll be a great opportunity and challenge. I will be working with the kids at El Bichito, which is a food center run by a woman named Feliciana. In talking with Chris, a great guy I met who worked there with his wife this passed summer, I´ll be helping the kids with their homework, and also with learning activities. I know I´m going to miss the Aldea immensely, but I know that I can do some good in Cajamarca. I also hope that being the only volunteer up there, I´ll be able to improve my Spanish even more rapidly. I´ll let you know more next week about the changes and everything. I´m excited to serve the good people in that pretty city.

This past week, as I´ve been preparing to leave, I´ve been doing some last minute activities with the kids and tias in the Aldea. I´ve been trying to make pizza or bread with each and every house in the Aldea before I leave. I´ve been teaching the tias how to do it, and the kids have been having fun mixing and kneading the dough, and of course eating the final product. It´s fun to share what I know (thanks to Preston and Kelsey for teaching me the cooking skills) and have a great time with the kids. Guadalupe in casa 1, who loves to dance, and great fun grating the cheese and punching the dough until it was ready for pizza. We´ve also been doing a lot of drawing and coloring in casa 6 (the craft house) and it´s been fun to do paper airplanes as well. I love seeing some of the more rambunctious kids like Jonathan or Pedro, get really serious as they prepare their airplanes for flight. I don´t look forward to saying the last goodbyes to the kids. This really does feel like home, and I will miss their smiling faces and laughter. I´ll also miss those at the direction like Eduardo (our stake president), Cesar, Blanca and Estelle in the direction, and so many others too. I will miss the tias especially, as they are so kind and helpful with us and cook for us the great Peruvian food all the time. We just had papa de juan gallina, which is potatoes with this creamy sauce poured all over it. Hmmmmm, so so tasty! Entonces, I´m sorry about the long email... I just need to write more often, and keep them at a better length. I´ll try to do that better in Cajamarca.

A few special moments (Britney)

Natalie, Dan, Tanner and Preston got back from their big trip to Macchu Picchu and Iquitos and so I get to go running again which is so fun! Afterwards, I went to help in a house with Daniel, a boy about 12 with special needs and Pilar, the cute little baby. I kept Daniel occupied for about 2 hours and introduced the Tia to playdough! Then, I went to help Cinthia, a teenager learn how to read and write because I just found out the day before that she didn’t know how. What was so cool was that afterwards, she thanked me and asked me to come back! Then, as I was going out the two older girls in the house where I eat, Ana and Monica who are 16, are always home all day so I want to spend more time with them. We got to eat lunch together and that’s when they begged me to translate Justin Beiber - instant bonding, right?! Plus, I got into a longer conversation with Rocio, a 15-year-old girl!

Another cool moment was that at home I started washing clothes when Sara Lee (8) came over and started telling me the Pinochio story. Later, she wrote down the story for me and decorated it - A TREASURE! Don’t worry, apparently I don’t wash clothes that well so she and the tiniest girl I’ve ever seen - Estefani - both started washing my clothes. Even when I had to go, they begged to keep washing so we decided the next day we would!

Next, I was asked by the older girls to supervise them so they could dance in the cultural hall-ish room. They actually choreograph dances to all our pop music. Then we tried to help all the kids decorate the picture frames, but it was all a guise because they just wanted the pictures we gave them of them with their houses.

Visitor (Britney)

I had so much fun helping little Renzo who is 9 months old strengthen his legs. He has absolutely no leg muscles - he came to the Aldea that way and the Tias try to help him practice crawling or walking but they said they just don’t have enough time so they asked us to help stretch his legs, massage them and help him practice standing to strengthen them. Meanwhile, Benjamin who is 8 and I love him had a day off school and came outside and played with my kickball with me. Then, I helped him study for a test and don’t worry we high-fived after every question he got right! Then SURPRISE, a Congresswoman came so we all had a big fiesta for her- meaning all the houses had some of the kids perform dances. It was awkward though for a couple of the older girls who were dancing to Justin Beiber’s “Baby, baby, baby,” - don’t worry all the girls are in love and I MEAN IN LOVE with Justin Beiber and the Twilight series. Even little Manuel, 6, in a house filled with 8 older girls sings all the lyrics in English. But when I translated them the other day, they didn’t even know what “baby” meant. haha The congresswoman was impressive and wants to work hard for the women and children - she acknowledges that they need a lot of help! She said over 2 million children work when they aren’t legally allowed to. One cool note for me was that cute Jose Antonio always goes around singing in an opera voice so I started singing out his name randomly all through the day - we sand back and forth - cute!

dancing Carla (Brianna at the Aldea)

(note: this posting is from our intern Brianna at the Aldea)



This week was so great! Once the kids know your name they really love to talk to you more. They love when I bring the camera out, always asking for their photo to be taken. I have been taking a lot more photos lately and it gives me a chance to watch the kids so closely.



We have been doing a lot more sports this week and the one game all the kids loved to watch and play was volleyball. I was taking pictures of the game and I couldn’t take my eyes off Carla. Carla has a real talent for sports and dance. You notice her especially when she plays volleyball. She moves with such grace and hits the ball with such force. If she were in a public school in the states, she would kill any competition.



Carla also has a talent and a love for dance. She couldn’t stop dancing and wanted to learn more even after the class was over. I had taken the class an hour over but we were having too much fun to notice.



I can’t wait for next week. I have a lot of fun dances for the kids to learn and they are very excited too. Peru is amazing and these children are beautiful in every way. I am truly blessed to be with them.