San Juan de Dios

For weeks now I've been meaning to write a blog about the experience I had volunteering in Peru. I don't know why I'm behind. I could say I've been busy, traveling and just haven't gotten to it yet. But honestly, I''ve just been having so much fun on this trip. It has been life changing, and my volunteer program was no exception. So here goes...

I spent my last two weeks in Peru volunteering in the hospital San Juan de Dios. Other than being a therapy center, hostel, and agricultural farm, San Juan de Dios is home to over fourty children. Having special needs, these children, ranging from toddlers to twenty, require special attention that their family just cannot give. Some are visited by their parents occasionally. Others will never know the face of their mother. They were just left in the care of the hospital. Never the less, walking into the orphange instantaneously casts a change upon you. It's something that you don't realize at first, but by the time you leave, you'll know. These kids are awesome.

I walked into the orphanage my first day having know idea what to expect. Working with kidss frightened me, in that aspect. The head nurse brought me to the childrens' ward. There I met my guys. Instantly my new friends lit up when I walked in. José in particular never stopped smiling. Wilson, a year old, thought I was the funniest guy in the world, and laughs at EVERYTHING. Angelica, was always dancing in her chair and insisted that I would to. Bonds formed in those two weeks.

I wasn't asked to do much. Just be their friend, the nurses asked me. A relief, because aside from babysitting my brothers years ago, I had no experience with caring for children. So, I passed the mornings playing with toys, singing, and walking around the hospital. Aside from Roger, who I would need to chase around the hospital, the toddlers were confined to wheelchairs for much of the day. So my german friend Gunda and I would take walks across the complex, visiting all of the animals. Dozens of pigs, busy at their troughs, would waddle to their gate to greet us. The larger sows squealed wickedly, fleeing from machos. One particular friday, I returned alone to the farms, stone cold stunned, as workmen were busy slaghtering these three month old animals. It was an awful sound.

Other than pig squealing burned into my memory, I can recall a particular white llama spitting on me as I was taking snapshots. Flaming camelids...

At lunch I would help the kitchen prepare lunch for forty odd children, be it slicing meat, frying hamburgers or dishing up rice (mmmm...rice). We'd rush out the plates to the dining room and hand them out according to age. There are many children who have trouble feeding themselves, and a volunteer is most valuable at lunch. The staff needs assistance making sure these kids are eating right, and I played a key role in this part of the childrens' day. While some children, like Carmen, absolutely adored her lunch, others didn't realize playtime was over and made the meal a real trial.

Overall, I loved this experience. Completely unique in my trip, it provided me with some important memories. After knowing what these children are dealing with in their lives, my own feel insignificant, quite petty. In spite of not seeing family, these children are quite optomistic, and well cared for by the nurses, who adore them. I fell very lucky to have played even a small part in their lives.

To all NRSCA students, I recommend this program. Apart from helping people who are in dire need of attention, you will experience Peruvian culture outside of the tourism industry. Additionally, the spanish school offers a thirty percent discount on classes to all volunteers. It really adds up when you study for four weeks, something I wish I had known about. But now that you do, get haughling to PERU!

Cheers.