Lucho: A ball of fun

January 31, Julia

This week was my first week at the Aldea and loved meeting all the new kids that will be a part of my life for the next 3 months. They are all so loving and want to play with us all the time. One Little boy that I had a lot of fun playing with last week was Lucho, a smily, chubby, 3 year-old. He is at the age that I love the most because everything amuses him and we can do the same thing over and over again without losing any entertainment. One day Lucho gave me a little wooden disk with yellow on one side that he wanted me to put on the bush, where it would fall to the ground immediately and laughed every time. We went through the same routine (adding in letting it fall from our heads) for 45 minutes straight. The funny part about it was that I didn't feel like it was getting old either and I could've gone longer but we had to go eat lunch. I love these kids and they make me feel so happy each day!

If you would like to learn more about sponsoring a child like Lucho, click here.

Flor: Tiny girl, huge personality

January 31, Kathyrn

Flor is a little three year old girl who lives at the Aldea in Santa Rosa, Peru. She is about the size of a healthy one year old child, with the bold personality of a five year old. When I first met her she warmed up to me instantly, just as she had done with all the other interns. I was shocked to realize how old she was, considering her size. After only a few days at the Aldea she recognizes me as someone to trust and love, as she now runs into my arms whenever she sees me. The other kids tell me of how bright she is, always does what she is told and she knows what to do when asked.
On Friday we had a fiesta for all the kids who had birthdays in January. Flor came early with the interns to help decorate. She laughed as we blew up balloons and let them fly around the room and she always had another one in her hand for us to blow up when we were finished with one. I was happy to spend those few hours with just Flor and not have my attention split between a dozen kids. She has a fiery personality and the cutest smile to match it. I look forward to spending more one on one time with Flor and the other children as they learn and grow.

If you would like to know more about sponsoring a child like Flor, please click here.

Friends and crushes at the Aldea

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 seperate 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."

FIESTA!!

From Natalie on January 3:

FIESTA!!

This Friday we had a party for all of the kids with January birthdays. It was so much fun! The kids got all dressed up for it and looked so nice. We had a big lunch outside with everyone...There are now only 3 sheep wandering around the Aldea instead of 4. They had presents for the birthday kids and a piñata for the rest of them. There was lots of yummy things like cake and popcorn and other desserts (I don't know what they were) for us to enjoy. We had a big dance party where the kids showed off their great skills. Some of them have some pretty good moves they whipped out. Everyone had a great time! I love it here!

Natalie: Week one!

We spent this weekend in Trujillo with our host family who are amazing! We went to Huanchaco on Saturday. It was so much fun!! If you take six white girls to the beach you will get stared at though, I learned that. We ate at a restaurant with great food and got hair wraps, which look sweet! What we didn't get however, is tan...hopefully we will soon though. The weather is amazing and so are the people! Peru is definitely a great place to be to have a good time!


Thanks to our great contacts in Peru, our interns are getting to experience the culture and family life in Peru! Our host families are so generous and charitable to our organization!

New Faces at the Aldea!

January 23 update from our interns Carrie:

There are 5 new children at the Aldea, all siblings and Me (Carrie) a new volunteer!

There is a new boy at the Aldea named Victor who is 11 years old. The first day that I was at the Aldea, I was there by myself, without the volunteers from project trust. No one at the Aldea spoke English and my Spanish wasn’t very good but Victor spent the whole day trying to help me understand what he was saying and what the other kids were telling/asking me. He still continues to ask the other volunteers and I how to say things in English so he can say things to us that we understand. He’s a really good kid and is always trying to help us or get us to play sports. Also, he is a very quick learner. When we taught some of the kids the alphabet in English, he was able to pronounce the letters correctly and correctly identify them when we asked him in English to find a certain letter. It was also Luchos birthday on Friday, he doesn’t quite understand yet that he’s another year older. When we asked him how old he was he kept telling us he was 2 but he’s 3 now.

We are so excited that our interns are already creating relationships with the kids! That's the first step to making a difference! Check back soon for more updates on the children and interns!

4 more days (Dan)

¡Hola!

¿Como estan ustedes?  Tengo solamente 4 dias mas en Banos del Inca!

It´s really crazy how fast time flies... It feels like I just got here to Cajamarca and the kids in Puylucana.  Tomorrow is my last day at El Bichito, and I´m getting a little party set up.  Basically I´m going to have some bingo so they can work on vocabulary and some balloons and a few goodies.  It´ll be typically chaotic with 40+ kids as per the usual, but lots of fun.  It´s been lots of fun lately there as I
have gotten more comfortable with the kids and they with me.  It really does take some time, but I´ll be sad to miss them.  Also, I´ve occasionally brought out the frisbee I brought and the kids are having
a blast.  Wiliam is particularly good, and others like kevin and Manuel are decent too.  The older boys still won´t stick around much, but a couple have.

Allie and Izzy, the two girls from Project Trust who I was with in the Aldea in Trujillo, came up to
visit and see Cajamarca with a few other girls from other sites in Peru.  I showed them around banos and the hot springs, and finally got the chance to see Granje Porcon, a beautiful valley about 30 minutes away I had not yet seen.  It is a small valley that has a trout farm and also a cool zoo.  I got a chance to see a spectackled bear!  Yeah, the only bear in South America.

Anyway, my time here in Peru is rapidly coming to a close and a list of the things quickly that I know I´ll miss...

Getting crammed into combis
The amazing Cajamarca cheese and ¨pan de agua¨
Toilets without seats
cheap public transportation
trying to get these kids to bring and finish their homework without cheating
Random rain starting out of nowhere (oh wait, I live in Seattle, nothing really weird there)
All of the amazing friendships I´ve made, more than I can list here...
really, it´s amazing how many amazing people I´ve met
Included are the kids at both the Aldea and El bichito... I´ve never
wanted to smile and go crazy so much in my life

Entonces, I´ll be leaving my Peruvian home soon, and I´m already feeling homesick...