Advertisement
Published: November 15th 2011
Edit Blog Post
149
Some of the older street Children It’s a beautiful Saturday morning and I’m still feeling a bit under the weather – the tummy bug has not buggered off yet. As I sit up in bed and wonder how I am going to get though another day of stomach upsets I remember the street kids have an excursion to the local swimming pool and I’m on volunteer duty with Sue, Ann and Klauss. With this thought I jump out of bed and ready myself for a fun filled yet full-on day!
We arrived at the ‘Street Kids Centre’ at 9am to be greeted by big beautiful (somewhat crooked) smiles and millions of hugs and kisses. As always the kids were ready and waiting for us with excitement and anticipation. It took a bit of time to get everyone organised but we made it out the door by 10am. I was a little nervous about getting 20 kids onto a public bus (as the bus’s barely stop to let you on) but again somehow me managed to cram all the kids + volunteers onto the bus without injury or cause for concern. Because the bus was already packed to the roof the smaller boys (aged 4) sat up
004
Out and about front with the drivers (no seat belts) and the rest were either compressed between people and windows or squished on our laps! Although it was a cramped journey I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
The LOCAL POOL was approximately 1 hour away by bus and involved a 30 minute walk along some very grotty dodgy streets out in the suburbs. Once off the bus we made all the kids hold our hands throughout the walk to the watering hole as there was a lot of traffic on the roads and many homeless dogs roaming the streets. When we finally arrived I was pleasantly surprised to find a clean Olympic sized pool + a baby pool on semi descent grounds. There was even grass for the kids to play on and a play area behind the pool with a volleyball court and picnic tables.
To make a day of it we (the volunteers) and Miss Lilliana (the social worker) put on a games tournament for the kids. We played running races, games with balloons and volleyball. We (the volunteers) also took part in the games with very little persuasion from the children. It was a right hoot and everyone had a
041
Playing the ballon game laugh. What I find amazing is that these kids have nothing and I mean nothing – literally just the clothes on their backs – and yet they are so grateful for everything and anything that comes their way. A lot of them have had very traumatic childhoods and live very tough lives however you wouldn’t know it. They are never angry or spiteful, rude or inconsiderate. They are actually the total opposite – polite, loving, caring and always up for some fun. They would have played the same games all day if possible. Yet when you compare these kids to the children at home, they would have been bored within minutes. It makes you realise how grateful one should be for just the simple things in life – a smile, a laugh, joy and love.
After a rather successful contest we took the kids over to the pool for a swim. First hurdle; we had 20 kids in our care between the ages of 6 – 12 years old and there aren’t many pools in Huancayo. I began to question whether any of these children could swim and would I have to use my advanced resuscitation skills...hmmm!
Second hurdle;
063
The baby pool - Thankgoodness they wanted to swim in this pool only! the kids were told to bring 1 sols ($.30 Australian) to enter the pool however when they went in to pay it actually cost 1.50 sols so the kids didn’t have enough. Lillian tried to bargain with the owner however they weren’t having any of it so the kids were told they couldn’t swim. You should have seen the look on their kids faces – it broke my heart. They all started to walk back to the main road with their heads down low and a few tears in their eyes. I just stood there and couldn’t believe it. How could anyone turn these kids away especially when I am sure they stood on the streets and worked for hours (most probably until 2am) selling lollies just to get enough to go on this excursion? These kids and their parents live literally on the streets in tiny shacks with no running water, little to no electricity and no proper sanitation. One of the girls (Ruth) lives between a corridor under two buildings with her mother. All the kids smell quite bad and have terrible teeth. I think they might wash once a week if that and their clothes are always
034
Ruth !!! dirty and in tatters. Yet they seem to make the best of their situations. The parents also try very hard to do the right thing in very difficult circumstances. We put on education sessions every Thursday for the kids and the parents about very basic things such as washing, hygiene, stranger danger etc...it’s a slow process but something is better than nothing. Again I was in shock these kids were being turned away from what may be their only outing for the next month or so...Of course we (the volunteers) put up the rest of money for the kids to go into the pool. To us it cost nothing yet for these kids it was a lot. Once more the kids were extremely grateful for our very small gesture and we were flooded with hugs and kisses and thankyou’s.
When we finally made it into the pool I also realised the kids didn’t have any swimmers. They just stripped down to the bare essentials and jumped in. To my relief they all swam in the baby pool (it became quite evident none of the kids could swim) and had a whale of a time. We played games and ran
058
Cheeky Judy... around with the kids but what was really lovely was to watch these kids BEING KIDS! Laughing, splashing, jumping, playing, teasing, chasing and giggling with no concern for anything other than fun and play.
We stayed at the pool for hours and hours. The kids did not leave the water for the entirety of the day apart from 10 mins here and there to warm up in the sun. When it was finally time to leave I think it took us about 45mins to get them all out of the pool and another 20 mins to get them undressed out of their sopping clothes and into something dry. The kids didn’t have towels so we had to use the sun shine and our clothes to dry them off. I didn’t mind drying them off with my stuff at this point because I think the the swim would have been the best shower/bath they have had in months. They were sparkling...lol.
You could tell the kids were exhausted as we made our way home; they all had big smiles on their faces but were quiet for the first time that whole day! As we pottered home I wondered what life
033
Who's going to give them a brighter future??? has in store for these children. What opportunities will come their way (if any)? What road/path will they take? What chance do they have at a better life? They are all extremely intelligent and talented individuals in some way or another – my main question is who will look out for them, teach them, nurture and foster such talents and ultimately ensure these kids have a brighter future?
Advertisement
Tot: 0.057s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 5; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0341s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb