So at this point I've been in Peru for three days. Within these three days my primary activity has been shivering and trying to find innovative ways of staying warm by layering the summer attire I stupidly brought with me to Peruvian winter. When I take a break from the shivering, I have volunteered at an orphanage called Casa Hogar. This is a place started by the community for street children whose parents have given them up for a variety of reasons, most commonly because their mothers have remarried and the new husband doesn't want to take care of children who aren't his. There are about six children home in the morning who go to school in the afternoon. On my first day there, I was told that the kids would be watching movies all morning and that I just had to sit with them. That quickly turned into trying to break up fights in a language I couldn't speak or understand. Between the fights, the kids were incredibly sweet and loving and I could tell that they were craving attention and a solid parental figure in their lives.
Today, I got there and was ready to hang out with the kids again and get to know a little more about them. I was assigned to help one girl clean her room. Unfortunately, this little girl is very prone to acting out and quickly started beating me, locking me in a room, and throwing my shoes and translation sheets out the window. The rest of the day continued on like that for quite some time. It was one of the more discouraging moments of my volunteering. Not being able to speak Spanish, I couldn't really do anything to talk to her or stop her aggressive behavior and overall left the orphanage today feeling that I'm possibly doing more harm than good for these kids. The nuns there also have their day very structured but generally have nothing solid for me to do to keep the kids from beating on myself or each other. I would love to bring games or activities for them, but when I have tried to instigate activities in the past two days I have either been unable to communicate or have been told that the kids have other things to do. It also seems like several of the kids have a lot of the symptoms of reactive attachment disorder and I can't help but think that a constant flow of short term volunteers is only making it worse. Even though the kids are wonderful for the most part, I think I may have to leave that placement. Our program director is coming to help me out tomorrow, so we will see how it goes from there.
On another note, to unwind from placement stress a group of us went to an outdoor full body Zumba situation that I'm still sore from. The middle aged women really kicked my ass. Then today I decided I had had enough of being cold so I went out to search from some clothing item that would keep me warmer. A really exhausting trip to the mall later I ended up in what seems like the equivalent of a Costco where I found the best mansweater for like $8. I may never take it off my body. Conclusion, no matter how ridic placement is, I will always be warm in my sweater when it's over.
