Most, if not all, of the families are in Cusco and some of the mothers actually visit their sons. They usually come with even smaller children on their backs but provide some support to the lifestyle of the boys in the orphanage.
A few blocks off a main street, there is a huge red steel door that is locked all the time. To get in, you have to ring the bell. The wait can be anywhere from 30 seconds to 20 minutes depending on who has the one key and where that person is. The complex has two main buildings and a shed.
One building has administrative offices downstairs and upstairs is the library and the dormitories. The other building houses the kitchen which would catch anyone´s attention for it provides food to a group that is hungry nearly all the time. One large tree stands in the middle of the grounds providing a feeling more along the lines a yard and not grounds of an orphanage. Walkways are lined with multi-colored cement stumps to indicate the preferred way.
Once permitted entrance, various scenarios can be at play. Boys playing on the basketball court/soccer court, boys washing their dishes or helping in hard labor on the grounds, or on rare occasions the boys will be inside, upstairs in the library. When they are in school, the boys usually have play time until 3:00 and then have to work on homework until 6:00 when it is dinnertime.
When they´re not in school, which was the majority of my time here, they still go inside at 3:00 (on the rare occurrence that we´ve been able to convince staff to keep the kids outside, they can stay out later)and look to us volunteers for entertainment. Big hugs and smiles are usually at the front door waiting.
Being a governmental organization and being low on supplies, the boys are usually dressed in an eclectic style. Pants that are too small and shoes that are too big. Sometimes there are no shoelaces and floss has to be used or no shoelaces are used at all. Unfortunately for these boys, there is no toilet paper or kleenex to help them with their chronic runny noses.
It took me asking three boys if they needed toilet paper and them telling me yes and me telling them to get some only for them to reply that there isn´t any before I caught on. Because of this, they have learned to blow excellent snot rockets or just continue on with a very runny nose. I usually want to laugh and cry at the same time as I watch them struggle. Lotion is not very commonplace, either, and these boys suffer from cuts due to extremely dry skin. Some are shy and won´t respond when asked how they are doing but a quick soft touch or a small crack of a smile tells me they know I´m here.
Most want to play professional futbol and it has been great for me to get to play with the boys of all different ages from the small ones at 8 years old to the older boys of 15.
Taps is a huge game for the boys to play and it involves thin, little plastic coin shaped toys that are tapped on each other. It takes less than a minutes for groups of boys to congregate to play Taps.
Just in many situations, there are the bullies. There are three that come to mind and they usually run everything. They decide who gets to play futbol, what toys the younger kids can play with and they will threaten the other kids if they don´t get their way. They can also be the hardest working kids if they want to be. As I watch them interact I realize how they´re just such young boys and they just need love. Tough love, soft love, whatever kind of love...they need it and more of it.
I watched one kid go from being a bully to being his 12 year old small self in a matter of seconds when I took his toy away. The most ironic of situations is one of the smallest boys at 8 years old who is a natural leader and can sometimes control the older boys. Such big britches for such a small boy. They usually travel in packs together and when they can´t find anything better to do, they´ll look around for the easiest target and smack him and then run.
While at times, this work has been difficult, it is most rewarding. I don´t know if or how I have impacted any of these kids. Maybe to communicate to them that there are people out there who care. Their smiles will make your heart melt. Each of them deserves a good home and I wish I could provide that for them. Their excitement in playing games and getting help with homework makes the hard moments worth it. There are infrastructural issues, which can affect how the system as a whole is run, but ignoring those (which can be extremely difficult), these boys are what matter. I am sad to leave them, especially not knowing what will happen to them, but I know they are in better hands than they would be if Jesus Mi Luz didn´t exist.
1 comment:
Alexandra - I am going to Cusco to volunteer for 3 months in April. We were hoping to volunteer with street children or at an orphanage. I've had trouble finding an organization there though. We are both beginners at Spanish, but will be taking Spanish classes while we are there too.
Jesus Mi Luz sounds like a good place to look into. Do you have contacts there that we could reach out to?
Any info you have would be greatly appreciated.
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