On a Mission in Peru — Day 5
Part 1:
Last night Saturday evening all of the children from the Hogar, except the babies, went to mass. I thought it was amazing. Dr. Tony has a huge van, and he drives all of the youngest children. The rest of the children walk with the volunteers including those who are blind, in wheelchairs or crutches. The church is about three blocks away and there are a lot of groups of nuns and novices in habits attending along with others from Chacalcayo. The church is salmon pink in color with a mosaic tile of Jesus and Mary at the front of the church. There was one special girl named Roxana, who is blind now due to a terminal brain tumor at the age of 11. She walk to Mass with Mrs. Halstead helping her, impressively avoiding the cracks and ruts with little guidance. She walks every night to daily Mass and sings with a most beautiful voice. She also goes up for communion. Mrs. Halstead is praying for her miracle of a cure. The children were so eager to go to Mass and they sat quietly and listened to the service. We children took up about six rows! It was definitely a great sight to see. The Mass was in Spanish, I did not understand all of it but I enjoyed the peacefulness of the church and service.
By Alexandria Dunlap, student studying Spanish with Mrs. Egan
Part 2:
So today was pretty much the slowest day so far. I mean, from personal experience, Sundays are always slow. But hey, maybe there´s some magical thing about how all the sudden everything slows just because it´s the Sabbath. I don´t know, it´s just a theory.
OK, enough of that. So yes, pretty slow day. Some nuns came in and taught the children Sunday instruction. After that it was pretty mellow. The Doctor lets the kids watch DVDs on Saturday night and Sunday only, so all the younger ones just sit there and are mesmerized by the miracles of Hollywood, while the older kids either join in on the vegging out, or just run off to their own corner and have some personal time. I actually saw some them go outside and sit under a tree. So it´s a pretty chill and relaxing day, as I´ve said several times before.
We volunteers took our traditional 4 p.m. coffee pause with the Dr. and that was nice. We chilled, and I had some delicious torta de chocolate, and the Doctor talked about some of the kids/patients. There is one kid there, Luis, who was a victim of someone burning down their house. I´m not sure about how his parents faired, but he lost a sister in the fire, and he was left covered in burns. When I say burns, I mean horribly, horribly burned. He is completely functional, just his entire body is one big scorch mark. And I kinda wonder if the person did that to him ever thinks about that. He wears a plastic face mask or a tension body suit at night to bed which helps reduce the scar tissue development. He is strong tempered which maybe is an important quality to help him get through life.
One of our troops, Alexandria, got a little sick but she is better now.
The gang also talked about this guy named Jamie. He´s a pretty cool cat actually, and he speaks surprisingly good english. He is continuously studying, and I think I heard something about him wanting to be an English teacher. He has burns that cover his neck, but I guess he has made good progress in therapy because he left the Hogar for some time, but returned in order to finish it. So hats off to Jamie, who also sings with a beautiful voice and plays the guitar. He is probably 22 years old and is working hard on his ability to teach English.
Then we returned to the Hogar to help with dinner and dishes. Dinner was roast chicken with sautéed onions and tomatoes, first preceded by soup. As always, the kids ate every bite.
Some Peruvian high school students came by to help, with two American cousins from Ft. Lauderdale. Another three children will be admitted this week and two will go home, having been helped and cured as much as possible.
Nate Moyer, student studying Spanish with Mrs. Morris
