The Kids

This last week has been somewhat of a whirlwind. Cusco definitely has pushed us to our limits in many ways.  Of course, the thing that makes this all worth it are the kids; they are absolutely precious and so loving, and seeing how they are pushed to their limits, makes the work for us seem so much easier. We've been able to have so many great times with these kids. Although we're not sure how far our influence will go, we know that we love them and that hopefully we'll have some positive effect on their futures. Many of these kids come from pretty grim circumstances, many broken families in extremely poor situations.

You don't find six-year olds this resilient and this happy every day.

It's amazing to watch them live day to day; these are tough kids. These kids sleep in concrete rooms without heat in old used beds covered with several thick heavy Alpaca blankets. At night the temperature gets down to 3-5 degrees C. They wake themselves up at about 6:30am every morning and start to do their chores. Some of them sweep the floors of their rooms with water and an old stained broom, some feed the chickens and the dogs, while others clean up chicken droppings from around the orphanage. There is dirt everywhere. Most of their shoes have holes in them and some have shoes whose soles are barely hanging on. Even the six year-olds will often move things like large loads of wet clothes, chairs and tools around with wheel-barrows 4 times their own size. These kids work hard, without whining. Every Saturday they wash their own clothes with water from a small well on the corner of the property, and then hang them on the line to dry. They clean their own dishes, they dress themselves, and they even send themselves to bed. Most of them are really bright, they do homework every day, and some even have the best grades in their class. Some of them have a harder time with learning, for some it's because they've only been speaking Spanish for a few years, their native tongue being Quechua, the language of one of the indigenous peoples of Peru.

The weekly Saturday washing of clothes.

Digging the hole for the composting sewer tank, this guy is amazing!

All of them however, seem so happy, and of course there is lots of time for fun too. Some of them love to play the card game war and have come up with their own complicated rules on how to play. Their life really makes me think of the life we have in Canada. When we say that we live a comfortable life in Canada, we really do, more so than I realized. In Canada most of our water can be drunk right from the tap. Here, if you do that you spend the next two days vomiting, as I have found out (it was hardly a mouthful and I didn't even realize until that evening on the bus!). In Canada you just throw your clothes into a machine that cleans and dries them for you, your water comes from a stable water system, your electricity isn't jimmy-rigged from the closest power line, and when you go to the bathroom you can flush the toilet paper down the toilet. In Canada there aren't dirty wild stray dogs everywhere that bite at your heels when you walk down the street, and there aren't people living in mud houses and the farmers don't have to irrigate their fields with sewer water.

Off for a walk to the local zoo.

We love being here, we are enjoying doing our best to help. We are living their life in some small degree and we have learned so much from them as we have done so. If there is anyone interested in donating in some way to help these kids, please please contact us!