Trip to Peru part 4

We had a few packed days of service and fun in Peru. One day we visited an orphange for young girls to help paint their walls. It was great getting to do some hands on service work, and the little girls were so cute! A few of them insisted on helping us paint saying, ¨Its my house!¨. We had lunch at a Japanese restaruant with a surprisingly decent veggie menu, and then the kids put on some wonderful dancing and musical performances. You could really see the warmth in the orphanage, and it felt a lot less institutionalized than what we have back in the US. The people running the orphanage were so caring towards the children, and it really showed. Even though the orphanage itself was poor in material goods, it was rich in love. Then for dinner we visit a Seva Cafe-ish restaurant, which donated all the proceeds to a project called Yanapay.

Another day we paid a visit to an amazing place called Casa de Milagros, run by a couple from Colorado. It is a small organic farm in the middle of an amazing valley, surrounded by sheer mountain walls. The couple has adopted 29 local children and were raising them as their own. It was an incredible place, totally awe inspiring in both natural beauty, and how these folks were living their lives. Our task here was to decorate a few walls with paintings. After discovering some Dragonball Z DVDs in the boys room I volunteered to draw some anime characters on their wall. After I finished drawing, some of the other volunteers painted in the rest. The kids were really excited and telling us the names of the characters I drew, and it was really exciting for me as well. I´d really love to come back and spend more time there someday. Apparently they´ve also got some connections in Hollywood as Woody Harrleson and others visit from time to time.

That evening Sukh, Shveta, and I also visited the Yanapay school mentioned above. It was essentially a free daycare for the poor kids, that anyone could go to after school. They are open from 3 till 7pm, and it was just jam packed with kids being tutored, and playing. The area they were located in was tiny, but they made the best they could with what they had. A number of foreign students were volunteering there, and spent a little while there playing with some kids.