Security

The orphanage has quite a bit of land, here, in Peru. There are several buildings and a small house on our property. A few weeks, ago, the 'Rancho' building and the small house were robbed. These two buildings have families living in them and the families were present during the robberies. It was traumatic for the families, as you can imagine. The 'ladrones' took all of their money, cameras, cellular phones, televisions, a stove and the baby's milk. Thankfully, the robbers did not hurt anyone.

Looking back, there are so many reasons we could give about why the robbery occurred, but, instead, I'll share that we were able to work on some positive changes for security at the albergue. Joel and I witnessed everyone pulling together to make the changes and even the local churches, community and some police came to help.

We have created an emergency plan for the workers, madre tutoras, volunteers and children and we added 2 more vigilantes (or night watchman) for each night. The orphanage has also formed friendships with two surrounding companies and their vigilantes. Overall, our facility is much safer and we, again, have seen the blessing of community.

We painted some of the walls white, which surround the property. This provides more illumination/reflection when the vigilante is on duty. He is able to see if people are passing by and has a clearer vision of the property.

We also put in a ton of lights around the buildings that were robbed and also more lights at the orphanage. Thanks to Erin (one of the volunteers), her church and family, and to First Lutheran Church in Gypsum we were able to buy enough lights for all 3 building and the driveway.

A local company brought their tractor and helped us install lights along the main driveway. A few weeks of work and we have a safe and secure facility.

Treci Had Puppies!

This puppy was named Joel by the volunteers taking care of Treci and her puppies. Joel was one out of two males in the litter of nine.

Tesoros del Rey

There are 4 casitas or houses for the children. Each have their own madre tutora (mother figure) and their own personalities. Casita Tesoros del Rey is special because they have a madre tutora AND a padre tutora. Hugo and Sarita are married and together they parent this casita. They live with the children and have 4 days off a month. Hugo is also responsible for cleaning the albergue and facility. They invited us over one night to chat, play and get to know Casita Tesoros better. It ended up being a wonderful display of each of the boys' talents... one-handed cartwheels, dance moves, arm wrestling and joke telling.

Sarita and Hugo (Madre y Padre Tutoras)

- also Sarita is sporting one of my youth's t-shirts that was left behind in June

Jesus doing his one handed cartwheel

Junior, Samir, Joel and Arnold (top left to right)

Is that really Robyn? Chito, Robyn, Dani and Abel

Halloween?

About 10 or 15 years ago, Peru decided that they needed a Peruvian holiday on October 31st, since other countries had Halloween (or day of the witch, as the say here.) One of Peru's favorite traditional singers died all those years ago on Oct 31, so this day became "El Dia de la Cancion Criolla." It is celebrated with concerts, food and dancing to this type of music. Some of the young people observe Halloween at the discotechs, but most of Peru celebrates with Criolla music. We didn't do too much to celebrate either holiday. However, I watched some videos of Criolla music and some friends tried to teach me to dance salsa. It didn't work, but at least I tried!