happy birthday LAURA!!

A very happy Halloween birthday to Laura!

Top 10 things I LOVE and ADMIRE about Laura!

10. She has sacrificed time, money, talents, and basically her life to help others.

9. She is GREAT at connecting people.

8. She has a heart of gold.

7. She has a wonderful sense of humor - which has got us through many rough times!

6. She is a dedicated wife, mother and friend.

5. She works tirelessly night and day to help others.

4. She is amazingly talented - have you ever heard her sing??

3. She is also very humble - which is why you may not have heard her sing.

2. She would rather have someone else take the credit - even though she often is the one who deserves it.

1. She is someone to whom I know I can always turn to if I need help - anytime, anywhere, anyplace. I know she'd be there if I needed her.

Thanks for all you do for at-risk children, for Southern Cross and for all of us! Have a wonderful birthday!

meet Sofia!

Sofia has 4 siblings in the Aldea: Fany (her identical twin), Jose Antonio, Benjamin, and Ruben. Her favorite movie is Shrek which is perfect for her because she loves to laugh and play make-believe. She likes to play tag and color pictures with her sister and best friend, Fany, in her free time.

what animal would you like to be? (Brian at Aldea)

Tuesday afternoon was English class which was kind of hectic. I had the translations for the questions that had been made the previous day and asked everyone to pick one question they wanted to learn.

I ended up getting sidetracked with the question, “What animal would you like to be?” and teaching the game King of the Jungle to everyone. We played the game with some really shy kids who wouldn’t participate ‘til peer pressured to do so.

After that we had Art with all the little kids ages 8 and up. A few of the kids from English class stayed to help with Art and I rewarded them with candy for doing so. I ended up drawing for a few of the kids. One picture was a Superman drawing and the other a Spiderman drawing. They loved it and everyone wanted one, which makes me think. These kids would LOVE coloring books! For now though, why not find some drawings online and print them out? I downloaded some drawings and hope they’ll suffice for art this week! Art is so fun! Everyone wants to draw and play and colors get all over the place! It’s a good thing they’re washable.

meet Hector

Hector came to the Aldea in January of 2004 and is now 14 years old. He doesn’t like reggaeton music, like many of his friends, but instead enjoys tradition Peruvian cumbia music.

He is known as the comedian and when he’s not cracking jokes, he is playing soccer and marbles with his friends outside. His favorite food is arroz chaufa.

flashback friday (natalie)

Remember Daniel? He's the REALLY cute kid at the Aldea who needs some medical testing to find out the cause of his challenges. Well, in our last newsletter, we decided to dedicate the money raised from the "Goodsearch" site to Daniel's medical fund.

So I just checked our Goodsearch site, and we already have $33.04 raised in October. It may not seem like much, but Daniel really only needs abouut $100 US to get his testing started, so Goodsearch should do it for us in just a few months at this rate. What's Goodsearch you ask? Well....

Goodsearch is a search engine powered by Yahoo and is dedicated to helping non-profit organizations such as us. You simply go to www.goodsearch.com and enter "Southern Cross Humanitarian" under the "Who do you Goodsearch For" line. If you want to use it as a search engine, we receive a penny per search. But the BEST way to use this site, is to use the Goodshop feature. Everytime I rent a car, book a flight, buy something on Amazon, eBay or a BUNCH of other companies, Southern Cross receives a percentage or a small donation. At first it was a pain to use, but then I downloaded the Goodsearch TOOLBAR and now my searches and my purchases AUTOMATICALLY go to Southern Cross.

It appears from our increase in money earned this month that many of you have answered the call and downloaded the toolbar. Daniel only needs less than 300 soles (about $100 US) worth of medical testing (that we know of so far) and at this rate, we'll definitely have it soon!

To re-read our intern Brian's account of Daniel's need...see below.

Thanks again....keep Goodsearching and Goodshopping!

Natalie

From Brian:

This week, I have noticed a few things. There is a boy named Daniel in the Aldea. He lives in Casa 1 with Tia Alejandrina and a number of younger children. He has some mental difficulties that affect how he behaves. It's not to say he misbehaves and fights with others. Just the opposite. He's socially awkward. He has a hard time listening well and chooses to ignore instructions at times when they are given, especially when he is being corrected for the better by the Tia who runs the house. He needs help. He's a good boy and the Aldea is waiting to accumulate funds to continue running tests on him to see what is wrong.
I talked with the Aldea nurse, Martha, this last week and she says the Aldea needs about 280 soles (about US $97) to continue running tests on him. There are also at least two other children with speaking difficulties who need some specialized attention from a Speech or Occupational Therapist. They are both under ten years of age and are the cutest kids you've ever seen. I know the nurse has seen these kids and that things are not progressing as rapidly as they could. The Aldea needs funding to run these kids through tests to get them to the therapy they need fast and the sooner the better. These two kids are growing up fast and the longer we wait to get help to them, the harder it will be to correct their impediments.

meet Rochi

Rocio, nicknamed “Rochi,” is a 16 year old with lots of personality. She likes to study for her history and social studies classes because she likes to learn about other cultures. Rochi would like to be a psychologist when she grows up.

meet Alfredo

One of the exciting things about Southern Cross is our partnerships with new homes. Our interns Brian and Carrie have been hard at work taking photos and writing little bits about the kids at Aldea Infantile. So we're proud to introduce you to the children of Aldea....meet Alfredo!

Alfredo is one active little boy. He loves to play on the Aldea’s jungle gym and be thrown in the air by the other kids. He is a 4 year old with no fear. Alfredo loves to learn songs in kindergarten like “Arroz con Leche.” He has a speech impediment like his older sisters, Blanca and Miriam, but he sings happily anyway. He has an adorable smile and a tender heart—though he’ll never admit it!

we need shoes (Brian at Aldea)

ALL of the kids in the Aldea need a pair of good shoes. They all have sandals and some have casual shoes that get them by okay, but many of the kids only have a pair of sandals and maybe some pair of dress shoes for school and that's it. I know of a local church who has scheduled to come out on with donations for the Aldea. The Church will also be putting on activities that entire afternoon for the kids. I had the opportunity to meet with the adults in charge of this effort and recommended the need for shoes and anything else they can come up with. We talked as a group of at least 6 adults for an hour and a half or more about planning the activities, what to look for in donations and how to manage what is donated, and food. The kids are provided for with basics like food, basic clothing, beds, and shelter, but they lack in other areas (shoes, for example, and modest clothes that fit well). The Aldea also has a great opportunity to advertise itself to the community as a quality place that really cares for the kids who call it home, but that it is what it is in part because of the local community. This is EXCELLENT advertising and would build a stronger positive reputation for the Aldea. Thank you for your support and care! We all need more of it here!

our first sponsor for our Aldea kids!

A huge thank you to the children at Paramount Elementary school for sponsoring Blanca at Aldea Infantil!

Blanca is 5 years old and is in her first year of primary school. She loves to do art and to paint and her favorite classes are math and communication. She also has been practicing her cursive and has been doing very well—the tias all agree she has the neatest handwriting in the Aldea. Blanca has a speech impediment which makes her difficult to understand at times but her smile is a language everyone understands.

The students at Paramount Elementary are collecting "Change for Change" so they can earn money for the children of Southern Cross Humanitarian.

Watch for more updates and spotlights on the children coming up. If you're interested in becoming a child sponsor, check our website or shoot us an email. 100% of every sponsorship dollar is sent to South America to help the children.

Thank you for helping us care for these children!

Thursday (Brian at Aldea)

Thursday we taught physical education. They all wanted to play volleyball instead of exercise and stretch out, so we combined the two. If you want the kids to do what you have planned, you have to bend and do what they want to do with them too. Obvious. We stretched and did some basic exercises like push-ups, sit-ups, and wall sits and did several reps of each. Then we played volleyball,

At 5:00ish, I met with Luis to do the Professionalism Class. When I came to help and ask if he was ready to build a resume, he said he had asked about help with homework. The homework he had done with Kayla had been lost or stolen or something! I didn’t know what to think. He’s a good kid but had lost or trashed his homework. I didn’t know if he was using the gringos to pawn off homework, but I helped him out.

While we were cooking in Casa 1, the men outside were harvesting avocados from the tree outside. One of the Tias asked me to get in a picture with the men so I did and shoved avocados up my t-shirt sleeves as biceps for the pic.

English class followed and I reviewed the fruit names and names of the month. We played “Fruit Basket” too to remember the names of the fruits and the kids ate it up!

flashback friday (natalie)

I still remember my first trip to Peru back in June 2006. Laura, Arnold and I decided to add on a trip to the Amazon Jungle prior to our expedition with Southern Cross. Starting with a sketchy prop plane ride into the jungle and landing on a grassy field, to riding for hours on a long boat along the rivers, and then watching monkeys playing over our heads and macaws flying by, it was an amazing trip end to end. But my favorite memory is meeting little children on our many stops along the way.

On one stop, we met two little girls sitting by the river. With our limited Spanish, we couldn’t communicate with them so we did what tourists do. We took out our digital cameras and took pictures. I think it was the first time those little girls had ever seen a digital camera. The look of amazement and delight on their shy faces when we showed them their photos was like that Visa commercial…priceless.

On this and every trip since, that is one of the children’s favorite pastimes. Looking at photos on cameras. On a recent trip, I took it one step further. I brought my laptop and camera to the children’s dance rehearsal. I would video the kids dancing and then immediately download the videos to my laptop so just minutes after they danced, they could watch themselves on my laptop. Soon a dozen or so kids were climbing all over me trying to see the magic on my laptop screen. We had the kids take turns watching the videos. I can still see their little faces as they watched themselves dancing. I can still hear their laughter and their little voices as they yelled “there’s Maria! There’s Joel!”

I miss those little faces, the voices, and the laughter. Along with the memories, I brought those pictures and videos home with me. And from time to time you can catch me with a smile on my face and tears in my eyes as I look at the pictures and watch the videos on my magical laptop.

candy or competition? (Brian at Aldea)

Last Thursday I went and helped with the strawberry harvest in the Aldea’s farm for an hour. It was fun to get dirty and sample some of the Aldea’s homegrown food! Really tasty! I look forward to helping em out even more as time goes by!

After an hour of helping there, I went back to play with the young children who weren’t yet it school. They just wanted to play on the swing for an entire hour. I just stood there and pushed Eunis. He’s new here at the Aldea and can’t talk. Just says, “Eh?” when he doesn’t understand, nothing at all when he does, or a more positive sound when he does. We played for an hour on the swing.

After lunch was English class. We reviewed pronunciation of the twelve months of the year in English. I gave away a dozen M&M’s, skittles, and starburst combination to the kids who pronounced the months correctly in English. Not a bad idea but when candy runs out, what then? I decided not to use candy as much but to make games for learning. The kids LOVE competition.

An Interns "To Do List" (Brian at Aldea)

(Note: interested in being an intern at one of our homes? Our interns teach skills and provide invaluable loving care for the children. But it is work! Here is Brian's to do list...)

To do this week:

-Prepare houses, sheets, showers, meal schedule, etc for volunteers who are to come this next week.
-Meal schedule especially for next month since Margarita will be out on vacaciones for the month of September.
-run classes as requirements (phys ed, dance, English, career prep)
-create resume guide and interview tips for kids on paper for career prep
-Translate and print out copies of each recipe in Carpeta for Tías in Aldea
-Birthday party for Aldea on the 28th
-Games for English class like Imitations, long-term projects the kids can work on by themselves and rewards for completing hard goals.
Pass off English verbs 20 at a time to only have to meet with kids 5 times to reach 100 memorized and mastered verbs. Which verbs?
- To make, to do
- To should
- To want
- To eat
- To sleep
- To laugh
- To love
- To be and to be (ser and estar in Esp)

a day in the life of an intern at aldea (brian)

So today was a full day. I have a lot to do here this week still! Today I did some English teaching, we’re making Mud Puddles this Friday as a dessert with the Tias. I enjoy it and it gets people really excited and the Tias here LOVE cooking new things!

I went to all the houses and told everyone about today’s plan and had about six kids show up for English Club. We learned basic fruit names in English and people who memorized the fruits we revised were given a candy. I used Kayla and Della’s fruit pictures and names to teach. I wish I had had more kids there and more of a fun game to play instead of just a lesson with a candy as a reward. I have a mini project for the weekend now!

I have an idea about what to do for the Physical Education classes I’ll be doing here. I need to find a scale and measuring tape. I’ll take measures of everyone’s arms and get everyone’s weight and note it all down on paper. As we go exercising throughout the semester, learning how to stretch, build muscle, gain strength, and maintain good health, we’ll record how the kids do so they can mark and monitor their own progress. We’ll have prizes for each child to meet along the way as motivators to continue exercising on their own initiative and get in shape. Prizes will have to be exercise related. Hmmmmm….something cheap and valuable. water bottles, headbands…

I also learned that the boys here LOVE to play around with the girls their age and flirt. If given the chance, they’ll do it without hesitating for a second.

After English, just the girls here and I practiced “Thriller” and then I taught Country swing. It was fun.

Then I went outside and played volleyball for a bit with the girls. I went around asking the Tias if anyone in each house needed help with homework. Only one child asked for help with spelling in Spanish. Everyone else had finished class and homework.

I’m bushed.