Chess match

So I completely forgot that the older boys and two of the older girls had a Chess tournament last weekend.  I went and cheered them on, although silence is pretty much demanded at chess matches so it was more like high fives and chest bumps afterwards.  No yelling "YA TAKE THAT ROOK" or anything like that.  Although I might have had a lot of fun if that kind of stuff was allowed.

Gerson made it the farthest.  He was in the playoffs for third place.  Overall there were 20 kids there, most of them had a lot more experience than our kids, but our chess teacher at the school is doing a pretty good job training them and they are getting better.

Gerson in his playoff round.

Joel thinking about his next move

Marciello and Sintia

Nelson going for the kill

Waiting for their challengers

Easter Weekend

I started off the Easter weekend with an egg hunt on Friday with all the kids at Hogar de Esperanza in Trujillo.  A couple of missionary families came with the eggs and candy and we hid them around the orphanage.  We took to turns, one for the little kids and one for the big kids to make sure the little ones had a fighting chance.  It went really well and everyone had a great time.  I also got to use my camera a lot, I don't usually take it out of the orphanage because I don't feel comfortable carrying it around on the mico buses so I have some good pictures for you all this time.

Had another great weekend with the kids in Pacasmayo, although it was a little harder to get there because of the Easter holiday.  We played another game of pick-up soccer although we got beat pretty bad this time, its probably my fault because I was playing this time, but to my defense we were playing all 15-17 year olds and I had a couple 10 year olds on my team.  Also next week we'll have our new shoes so we'll beat them, I can feel it.

Sunday night when I got back to the orphanage a police car pulled up at the same time with three of the other volunteers in it.  Two of them had been robbed at gun point about 30 feet from the door of the orphanage.  They called the police and filed a report but doubtful that anything is going to come of it.  Supposedly the police know who the suspects are but that doesn't really mean anything.  It was a reminder of where I am and the type of environment that we are living in.  This is the second time some volunteers have been robbed in the last six months.  So I am going to be very careful about what I bring with me when I am on foot.

Another good Peruvian story is that yesterday I was driving through a parking lot and I tried to squeeze in a little smaller space than I should of.  This taxi was sitting stationary in the driving lane so I tried get into the parking spot that he was partially blocking but I ended up side swiping him.  His car was already marked up pretty bad and I don't think I did too much damage, although it was obviously my fault so we talked and I gave him 20 soles (about 7 dollars) and we called it even.  Pretty simple and easy really.

Last weekend I was heading to Pacasmayo with a heavy heart.  I had been in a couple meetings that didn't go so great and being more or less forced to translate really really starts weighing a person down.  However when I arrived in Pacasmayo and saw all the familiar faces once more I was rejuvenated.  The behavior chart that I had set up a week before was a great success. There were three boys that did not get TV privileges on the weekend and three boys who got a perfect score all week (Yhonson, Gerson, Joel).  The rest fell somewhere in the middle which is about what I expected really.  The moms all said that it helped them out during the week. 

We played another pick up soccer game with the kids in the neighborhood.  They didn't dominate this time because a lot of the older kids came out to play them.  They did hold their own though and even though they tried to convince me they won I'm pretty sure it was a tie.  Speaking of playing soccer the boys who are regularly playing do need some new shoes.  They aren't allowed to wear their shoes that they wear to school to play soccer in, so the shoes they have right now are falling apart.  Three of them are actually playing in sandals or barefoot which can be pretty painful sometimes on the concrete.  SO if anyone would like to donate money to buy them new shoes let me know.  I am budgeting $150 to buy six pairs shoes that should last for about four months.  Leave a comment or send me an email and I can tell you how to get the money to me.

Last night I went to Longhorn steakhouse in Trujillo, it's definitely not the same.  It is still the best beef I have had in Peru but still no where close to the quality I'm used to at home.  Also the poor waiters had no idea what to call different cuts of meat, they told me they had no T-bones but said they had New York.  So I decided ok I'll get the New York then, well they brought me a T-bone which worked out just great for me because that is what I wanted in the first place.  

I had an interesting encounter this morning.  I needed to get copies in Trujillo this morning but only one place was open to do it.  I went in and told the guy I needed two copies.  However I only had a 50 and the copies only cost .10 a piece.  Well normally this wouldn't be a problem in the states but of course in Peru no one ever has change for anything.  He told me I had to go change it myself but then I told him no one else was open, but I did have .10 on me only that the copies would cost me .20.  I talked him into just fitting my copy that I needed on to one page and I would cut it in half.  Well, he tried and apparently he didn't know how to use his copy machine very well and he messed up and came out a copy that I couldn't use.  So he tried again, and messed up again.  I offered to help him but he refused, then made another mistake.  Finally I just asked him if he could just copy it on two separate pages so he didn't waste anymore paper.  So he did and I have him the .10 and said thanks and walked out.  I felt a little bit bad for the guy but not too bad because he refused to change out my 50 then went on to make 4 mistakes on his own.

Tomorrow and Friday are national days off, but since kids need someone to watch them I am still working on Friday although I get Thursday off.  Friday should be a lot of fun though because we are having an easter egg hunt for all the kids here at Hogar de Esperanza.  I'll make sure I take plenty of pictures and I'll do my best not to start a candy fight (Guier family ritual).  

I've also made a new friend lately here at Hogar de Esperanza.  His name is Edwin and he is one of the boys I take to the special school every morning.  I believe he is autistic but I am not sure what his exact condition is.  He is very quiet and shy around most people but he has opened up quite a bit to me.  One of the things he does is he get water bottle caps and stuffs them packed full of paper that he tears up and wads into balls.  He doesn't let anyone touch or look at these caps but the other day he let me hold it, it was a big break through.  He is able to talk a little bit but has a very small vocabulary which is mainly; Amo (I love), Hola (hello), Bien (good/well) and just recently Kevin (Kevin). He loves getting hugs from me and sitting next to me at lunch.  The teachers in school say that he is a very good example for the other kids.  And by the way, Edwin is adoptable if anyone is thinking about it.

Pick up games and election time.

I had a lot of fun this past weekend with the kids in Pacasmayo.  Friday night I got there around 8 and we played some card games until it was bed time.  Saturday we played soccer all morning, then decided to go to the park and look for a pick-up game with some of the neighborhood kids.  They quickly got a game going that was pretty much kids from the orphanage against some of the kids from the surrounding areas.  Little did the other kids know that the boys from Casa de Paz have been training together for the past year and recently I've been turning them into super humans through the form of bets.  My boys were able to make quick work of the other kids even though the other team had mainly older players.  To add to the pummeling Yhonson gave one of the older kids an accidental bloody nose.  Afterward all the boys were chest bumping and carrying on about how big of a whooping they gave the other team.  It was in my opinion a really good bonding experience for them, because more often than not they are always pitted up against each other which leads to a lot of unnecessary fighting and bickering.  I am definitely wanting to take them out again for this activity.

Sunday morning there was no church because it was election day.  I guess two things that you can't do on election day is drink alcohol and go to church.  There is a day long prohibition where no one is supposed to sell or consume any alcoholic beverage.  With not having church it gave us another opportunity to get out of the house.  So I took the older boys to the river to swim.  Sam took the older girls out walking on the beach Saturday so the boys were wanting to go somewhere too.  They had a lot of fun but I wish I had been feeling better so I could've joined them.  I was still having a couple stomach problems that were compounded by my choice in Mexican dinning the night before.

This past weekend I also came up with a behavioral chart for the boys house so that there would be no more confusion as to who can watch tv/play video games on the weekends.  I did this because there wasn't a very good discipline/reward system in place.  What was happening is that one or some of the kids were behaving badly and the house moms would say, "we are taking the t.v's out".  This not only punished unfairly the kids who were behaving well, it also led to confusion for the kids who were being punished.  As they did not always know exactly what they did wrong so they could correct their behavior.  So the chart I made up has a way of daily tracking six different areas for each kid; general behavior, completion of chores, making bed in the morning, being ready for school in the morning, doing homework, receiving good grades.  When I come on Friday night I can quickly see who has or has not earned the right to watch movies and play video games and why or why not.  The kids can also see all this too as it is posted in a large format for all to see.

And for the picture of the post, here is a photo I snapped of Pedro doing his homework at Hogar de Esperanza.

I am writing this as I lay in my bed too sick to my stomach to move. The weekend was great but I think the dinner Saturday night did this to me.  I ordered a bottled water to go along with my meal, the waiter opened the bottle of water and poured it into my glass.  I took a big gulp because I was rather thirsty but much to my surprise it tasted oddly fishy.  To make sure I wasn't wrong I took another sample of it but didn't swallow and sure enough it was very fishy tasting.  I held the rest of the bottle up to the light and examined it only to find it had a yellowish tint and a lot of particles swirling around.  I am sure that drink of water is what is currently wreaking havoc on my intestinal track right now.

The last week was a little hectic.  We had a garage sale which entails selling all the old clothes, furniture, or donations that we aren't going to use to the public.  Our storage closet was over flowing with clothes so we had plenty of those to sell.  Other items included; old back packs, an old but functioning T.V., and toys.  Overall the garage sale raised 950 soles, or about $385.  We are going to have another one this weekend because over half of the items did not sell.

Yesterday I helped cleaned out the water storage tanks that are up on top of a two story roof, and haven't been cleaned for 4 years.  It was pretty gross.  I didn't actually climb inside of the 2000 liter tanks that was Marcos part, and I'm glad he was willing to do it because I would not have done it. Using chemicals to clean off 4 years of black growth in a very enclosed space inside black plastic holding tanks heated by the sun just doesn't appeal to me.

Ok I'm going to go back to sleep now and try to get over these stomach issues.