A Day in the Life

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I read the news today oh boy... Actually I didn´t-- i have no idea whats happening in north america right now. I´m really just assuming it still exists, so there are still people to read this thing. So I figured we should right a little bit about what we do all week. From Andrea´s perspective:
8-10 is spanish lessons-- they´re coming along quite nicely. Don´t expect me to be reading Don Quixote in the original spanish (or even in english) any time soon, but I did mangage to direct a taxi driver today. baby steps. And if you need the time told in spanish, I´m your girl.
10-2 is spent working in Coto Coto, which is the orphanage for kids up to age 6. In the mornings, its just the little ones who aren´t at school, so its doing things like taking them outside, trying to get them to see that peeing anywhere is not always appropriate, terrorizing the cows, the usual. This is all because they´re otherwise woefully understaffed and allows the kids to have one on one attention that they wouldn´t otherwise receive. One of the kids, for example was 2 and couldn´t walk and the nurses didn´t have time to help her and run after the others, so it was the volunteers that spent time helping her.
3-6 is spent in Ladrillera, which is a centre for street kids in a brickmaking part of Huancayo. Its entirely volunteer run, so when there aren´t any volunteers its not open. Essentially its a drop in centre for kids that otherwise spend all of their time chilling by the brick factory. Okay, factory is putting a bit of a fine point on it-- its more like a bunch of fires, but you get the picture. Here we do anything from playing soccer with the kids, to helping them with their homework, to colouring with them. Apparently a lot of them don´t even have a table in their house, so a place to come and use a pencil and get help with math makes a big difference. The kids of course are adorable, excluding the huge amounts of snot they seem to produce in a day. Seriously-- its all over all of my clothes.
So that is essentially the volunteering part of the day- sorry for being so serious. Both parts of the day are very rewarding, and very different. Its definately an eye opening experience to see children growing up with completely different experiences than any kids in Canada.
Hope all is well at home and miss you all!!

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