Villa La Paz / Hogar San Francisco De Asis-Chaclacayo
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| Franzua, Segundo (El Primero), Jennifer, Carter |
Over the last several weeks, we've gone out to the Hogar San Francisco, the medical halfway house, a couple more times, so we've gotten to know the kids a little better. I'm terrible with names, but even if that weren't the case, it's hard not to label the kids by their infirmity...you know, "Victor with clubfeet". Perhaps that just shows that we are still just getting to know each other. Certainly, to them we are only the latest in a long string of volunteers. But that doesn't change how much they crave individual attention.
I estimate about 40 kids there. The last two Saturdays, we went to the park with several of them. Jen, beautifully unhampered by second-guessing, initiated a wheelchair race. Those not wheelchair-bound helped push—even tri-peligic Viktor pushed, and it was a gonzo good time. On the whole the kids are lots of fun, but they need supervision like any others, and they have good and bad days too. Viktor will bite or head-butt other kids he is mad at (he head-butted me with his helmet at the park, but it was TOTALLY fair because we were playing soccer and I was using my hands to block him...so lacking hands, he used what was available to him). Jimene (with the burns) got impatient with another girl on the slide (who has a malformed leg with a 6-toed foot painfully and awkwardly terminating at around where the knee should be), and Jimene tweaked her bad foot. Mostly though, they are sweet and enjoy any one-on-one attention you can give them. "Amigo, amigo!"...push on the swings, play ball, etc. After the park outings, there is "Baby Hour" back at the house, when several of the infants are brought down for blanket time.
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| Jennifer and Carla finishing well at the wheelchair race. |
There are less cute moments too. Tri-peligic Victor is 13 but of course needs help in the bathroom getting his pants down and having his butt wiped. "Oh," I told him wryly, "this is my favorite part of the day." He laughed. Getting Bryan onto the toilet was more serious...the bolts in his knees are very sensitive and he is constantly warning kids not to bump him, plus he needs to stay in the same position all the time: seated with legs straight out in front of him.
Jen and I can already see that it will be hard on us when our 2 months volunteering there ends. I think we will approach the doctor about maybe inviting one kid out at a time, to the movies, to lunch, whatever. Not sure if that is kosher, but we'd surely enjoy it.
Learning to Ride a Bike and All That Jazz
Out on the big street nearby, closed off Sundays for cycling, Carter finally learned to ride a bike. It just clicked. Best quote of the day: "I can't believe I am doing this!" Later he said, "And I learned right away!" As a dad, I rolled my eyes, for I guess it is typical that you run behind holding a kid's seat for months, you cajole him, you praise him...and then the kid forgets. Pop, Gary, thanks for teaching me to ride a bike.Jen came back exhausted from one of her marathon training runs, but rallied in time to go to a late-afternoon jazz concert in the park. We met up with Julio and Maureen's family and spent a beautiful evening sitting on the blanket or, more likely, horsing around with the boys. The Peruvians all agreed how unusual it was, Limeños don't really have events in the park, but perhaps it will happen more and more as things improve for Peru.
Allison
After having lost a kitty named Hermie to a pathetic accident, we didn't go too long before being supplied with Hermie's smarter, more vivacious sister. Jen and I were bantering about good names when suddenly Carter interjected, apropos of nothing, "We could name her Allison." So of course, that's her name. And in our household, pets get never-ending nicknames, so she is Ally-cat, Muhammad Ali, Ali Baba and perhaps worst of all, "Allison" sung to the notes of the Elvis Costello song.
That's the end of this post.
Skip the stuff below, it is a list of the kids I have met at the Hogar, just to help me remember the individuals.
Bryan, who beat me at chess and loved building the Lego Star Wars kit
(immobilized below the waist with bolts in his knees)
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| Victor |
Victor, who was disappointed my phone has no games, but loved the Rush Hour puzzle, got his casts off in May
(clubfeet)
Jimene, who is saucy and jumps right in for physical contact
(burns from forehead down and lost a hand)
Jenny, complains that her family never visits, and laughed uproariously at lunch when she hid the mandarin orange from me, loves to be taken to the park
(largely immobilized by cerebral palsy)
Viktor, can eat/paint/play with the one limb he has left, has been at the hogar his whole life and travels with the Doctor the 2 months of the year that he goes to the US
(tri-peligic)
Percy, two years old and laughs happily
(botched operation for interrupted esophagus, needs feeding tube)
Segundo (Primero), bright and intuitive, uses his crutches to play soccer
(malformation of left leg)
Segundo (Segundo), always filthy, always smiling wanting to participate
(motor and cognitive cerebral palsy, can use his legs for a few yards)
Ana, sweet, sometimes sad, brave on the slide
(malformed leg with 6-toed foot terminating where the knee would be)
Chingay, one of the preteen boys
(malformed ears)
Aracely, who likes to ride the big pink bike at the park, wears a head covering half the day
(burns)
Bresny, with the cockeye and the walker, except at the wheelchair races in the park
(cerebral palsy (?), with leg braces)
Tracy, who is almost all better and her mother visits frequently
(dislocated hips)
Carla, who enjoyed the wheelchair race
(wheelchair-bound with clubfeet)
Franzua, 4yrs old and really not that pleasant
(Tuberculosis of the spinal column)
Christian, who loved the stomp-rocket
(cerebral palsy)
Juan Lucio, helped me push Jenny at the wheelchair race
(fractured neck)
Juan Pedro, 1yr old I played with at baby hour
(Apert’s syndrome, with fused hands and malformed head)
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