a few short bios (Dan from Aldea)

Here's a few little bios of some kids for the blog.

Alfredo Hoshua is 4 years old and loves to cuddle. He smiles and gives great hugs. Papas fritas or french fries are his favorite food. He loves to play a game called Kiwi with the other children, a game of tag with some unique variations. His other favorite activities are to play on the swing and watch his favorite show Ben 10. One his secret talents is to draw, but he doesn't care to share his awesome drawings too much.

Estefani Araujo SaaVedra is a seven year old chica who loves to climb and jump on people's shoulders. She has an older sister at the Aldea whose name is Jenifer. Her favorite food is Seviche, a raw fish dish that is absolutely delicious. Kiwi is her favorite game (as it is for many of the children) and she loves to play with dogs. She loves Dora the Explorar and many other cartoons. She is always smiling and is very friendly.

There is a sweet little shy girl in the orphanage named Blanca Tamani Briceno. She is a tiny six year old who smiles a lot once she is comfortable with you. She is the has 3 other siblings at the Aldea including her younger brother Alfredo. She absolutely loves spaghetti with meatballs and with ceviche being a close second. She likes volleyball and singing and dancing, but when she grows up she really wants to be a painter. She loves to have a pencil in her tiny hand. Her favorite movies are princess movies, preferably Barbie princess movies, and the song she loves to dance to is "Chulale." She is a great kid.More will be coming.-Dan

First Update from Dan (Aldea)

Hello everyone!

Just my first update from Peru. It´s for my family mainly, but if you wanted some more information then here it is.

I´m in Trujillo right now at an internet cafe. Trujillo is about a 30-40 minute bus ride from the Aldea Infantil, (we just call it the Aldea).

It has been amazing! I arrived last monday night in Lima and went with Zara Lopez to her home. I spent the next day Tuesday going around Lima a little and spending time with her young son Joshua. That night I spent on a bus to Trujillo where I met up with Carlos´ family and another intern Natalie. Then we went to the Aldea crammed in a small pick up truck. The Aldea has been awesome. There are two other volunteers here from before, from England! They´ve been here for almost a year, Bethany and Georgia who is from Sheffield. They´ve been showing us the ropes and it´s great.

We live in Casa 3 and there are 10 casas in the Aldea. Only some are used, but one of the us gringos eat in each casa for meals. I was in casa 9 last week and now I´m in casa 10. The Tias do the cooking in the casas and organize the kids in their casas. I room with Tanner from Chicago and Preston from Canada/Texas/...

My normal day is waking up around 7, then going for a 30 minute run with Natalie on the main road. Then we spend some time with the few kids who are new to the aldea and don´t go to school yet. We push them on the swing (colombio) and play games, and do lots of arts and crafts stuff in our casa. ¿Quieren pintar ahora? The kids always ask us to push them on the swing. They also like to dance a lot, and Bethany and Georgia have been working for a long time on a big show that we did yesterday, Monday. We sang some songs and danced as well. Beth and Georgia are going home soon so this was a big hurrah for them. I got a lot of video of it.

Back to the day. The niños come back from school around 1 pm and we eat lunch. Then we help with homework or play futbol or an awesome game called kiwi, or learn spanish and teach english. Those books have been great that your sent Mom. It´s tough to keep track of everything because the kids like to snatch anything they can get their hands on. I really to love the kids though. I´m beginning to get all the kids names down, probably at 80% right now. In the evening at 6 or 7, we have dinner and talk more. After that its time for us to chill in our own casa. We all get along really well, and it´s been great. Church on Sunday was great. It costs between 2.50 and 3 soles which is about 1 dollar to take the combio (bus) into Trujillo.

Anyway, it´s been great! There are a ton of bugs, and my legs are covered with mosca bites. We boil our water for drinking and we wash our own clothes by hand. Also, there are no toilet seats, so I only use our toilet because I know it´s clean. Thanks for the adapter, it´s been used a lot by everyone here. I like the sugar cane, and the normal rice and chicken is great. I´m really trying to eat carefully because it´s very easy to gain weight here. (Another reason to run every morning) Breath How is everyone stateside? Mom and Dad, thanks for pushing/nudging me towards this. It is so amazing! Love you all! and please share this with others!

Daniel el travieso(they call me that here as well)

My First Week (Preston at Aldea)

Hey everyone!

My first week here in Peru has been amazing. The kids are so much fun. I'm still working on learning all of their names. It's tough because there are so many kids and I'm terrible with names, but I'm making progress.

This week we put on a little show with all of the kids in the aldea. Pretty much everyone was involved so it was a lot of fun. I'm glad I brought my guitar because we used it a lot in the show.

The children that I have gotten to know the best are Victor, Miriam and Daniel. Victor is extremely active and always ready to play. I can't sit down without him trying to climb on my shoulders for a piggy back ride. Daniel is a lot like Victor in the sense that he is always ready to play. He is very friendly with the interns. I got to know Miriam because she sat next to me at the dinner table in Casa 10. She is a little shy, but has a little spark in her that comes out from time to time.

Anyways, I'm really enjoying my time here. I'm extremely tired at the end of every day, but that's exactly what I wanted.

Have a good week!
Preston

Quick First Note from Tanner (Aldea)

(note: we have a new round of interns both at the Aldea and El Bichito...their stories are great...stay tuned!)

i´m having the most amazing summer ever!

I was very nervous at first coming to the aldea but the kids made all of my fears go away. On the car ride to the orphanage we picked up Jennifer and the first thing she did when i got in the car was give me a hug. That is the general feeling in all the kids, they are just so loving. My first few hours in the aldea i was pushing some of the kids on the swings in the playground and was really thirsty and i asked one of the kids, maunuel, where to get drinks and he took my hand and took me to one of the casas to get water. Manuel is definetly one of my favorites.
sorry there is not a lot in this email, i´lll do better next week
Tanner

water fight! (Mitch at Aldea)

Dear Southern Cross,

Friday was definitely the highlight of the week, maybe even of our whole time here at the Aldea. The month of February is supposedly known as the month of water fighting. All month kids have been secretly filling water balloons and attacking their friends, enemies and every once in a while us. All the water that was thrown during this month does not even compare to the massive water fight that we had yesterday. It was supposed to start after lunch, but I was completely soaked from head to toe around ten in the morning. War had then begun. I decided to leave and buy some water balloons for us to fill up. We soon realized that water balloons really were not as effective as pitchers, buckets, and hoses. The portable swimming pools were filled with water as well, and I think that every kid in the Aldea had at some point taken a dip. many kids spent all day in the pools. We all ate lunch together and the water games continued until 5 or so at night. Then we all danced around a tree that had been prepared with toys and presents hanging from its branches. The kids were to each take a turn with the machete until the tree fell down. Well, there was no machete, so we tried with a large butcher knife but soon realized that if we continued like this, we might find ourselves still hacking at the tree in the morning. One of the older boys then brought an axe and within minutes, the tree had fallen, and kids were going crazy trying to get their hands on a toy! We then had rice pudding, cake and popcorn. What a fun day.
I ate in casa 1 this week. We had a fun time together. With the older girls, I often played checkers with them after lunch and dinner. Sometimes I won, many times I lost. I taught one of them how to play chess. I liked playing that over checkers--I always won :) One of the older girls is Evelyn. I got to know her a little better this week, but not as well as i would like to. She is 13 and very close to a girl named Elvia that lives in the same house. They are always together. She doesn't seem to open up to many others. She is always cheerful and is always smiling. One thing I like about her is that she is very respectful of others and is usually always happy to help out. She doesn't really get involved in too many physical activities, but would rather sit outside her house and talk or think. She seems like she would be a reader to me, someone that could devour book after book and be completely happy. I'm going to have to ask her about that and see if that is something she likes to do. Oh, and she doesn't like to lose at checkers either! If anyone could get away with cheating, it would be her! Because this week the oldest children of the Aldea left on a religious camp out, there was extra milk each day for us. So I bought some little bags so that we could make marcianos (popsicles). Each night after dinner and after checkers, we made some delicious milk marcianos. I averaged about 4 or 5 a day-Yummm.

The internet is up and running in the direction so all is good there. We are just still waiting for computer desks for the computers before they put them in the houses. The kids LOVE learning things on the computer. I taught quite a few new kids this week and had some repeat customers as well.

Stephanie (Cori at Aldea)

Dear Southern Cross-

This week, I decided to write about little Stephanie. Wow, what an adorable little girl she is, her smile just lights up my day, everyday. I will tell you what that girl can climb anything, she is so petite yet she is so strong. She is so incredible at showing her sincere kindness for others. Each day she gives me the best hugs in the entire world. Just the other day we were watching a movie and she was sitting on my lap and would wrap her arms around me and give me a kiss on the cheek. Simply adorable. She is really adventureous for her age and so daring to do anything. Swimming in the pool she will do so much, climbing the trees she will go so high, or climbing anything at that matter. Mitch also noticed that Stephanies loves buiding things, loves building houses out of anything. She made a house out of twigs for Mitch, and while watching a movie in our Casa she started making a fort out of the cushions, blankets, and chairs. This girl really is so smart, creative, loving, giving. I love being around these kids, they just teach me more and more each day.

Till next week. . . Cori

Luz Mila (Cori at Aldea)

Dear Southern Cross-

This week was yet another one that flew by! Being with the kids the time just seems to be nonexistent. . . wow how I love them so much! This week we got a lot of good time with them before their school starts this next Monday. I got to know a cute little family this week, Braghalee, Kristel, and Manuel. What an adorable family they are. They all take care of each other and are all really good friends, its fun to see that they treat each other so well and respect one another. These siblings are such a great example for me and how I want to treat my siblings.

But I actually wanted to write about a cute girl named Luz Mila. She is such an inspiring girl. One ready and willing to give all that she has for you. While eating in her house this week, I was able to see how well she interacts with the others in the house. She is always willing and ready to give hugs, to give kisses, to get excited about life. She is so happy and constantly happy, even with the small things. For instance when in the pool with all of the kids, she was the one who wanted to be thrown in the air as well. Even though she is a lot harder to throw cause she is older, she still wanted to do what the kids were experiencing. She kept asking about when we were going to swim again, when she was going to be able to make her mask we made in art. Which she will make on Monday! I love how she is just so content being her. . . and when I went to say goodbye this weekend, she just wanted to say goodbye over and over again, so sweet, she just cares so much. With all the tias as well she is so excited to see them and to show them she is happy to see them. She has one of the biggest hearts! Thanks again for everything!

-Cori