Lies and Cries

I have been at Casa Acogida for 4 days now and I absolutely love it and all the girls there. There are only about 6-8 girls that are there during our time because the others are in classes during that time. On Friday I took some pictures of them while they were cooking lunch and they made me promise to print off copies for them to bring back on Monday. They were so excited when I gave them their pictures and they went around and showed them off to everyone before hanging them up in their rooms.

One girl in particular named Juanita has grown attached to me already. She told me that all of her family back in Lima where she is from is dead so now we are sisters and that I need to break her out of the shelter and take her back to the United States with me. She constantly hugs me and won’t leave my side. She is only 12 years old, yet she told the shelter when she arrived that she was 16 so that she would only have to spend 2 years there instead of 6. I am suffering from a moral dilemma right now as to whether I should keep my promise to Juanita to not tell anyone or whether I should go tell the directors that she lied and they need to check out her real age. She also told me that she had a 27 year old blonde haired 6 foot tall boyfriend from Switzerland waiting to marry her in Lima when she gets out of the shelter. I have a feeling that like girls back in America, these girls have behavioral problems too. Juanita obviously has a problem with lying and I think some of the other girls have self esteem issues by the way they pose and “smile” in pictures and the way they dance.

On Monday we danced with the girls to some of their Latin music and I tried to teach them some of the salsa moves I learned, but of course they already knew most of them and were way better than me. Afterward, they taught us a game with clapping and moving cups that got harder and harder the faster we did it.

Yesterday we painted pictures of our friends and most influential people in our lives and then played volleyball.

Today we were able to take the girls out to a public pool to go swimming. We had to pay S1.50 for each of them (about 6 girls) but they had a lot of fun and even though none of us volunteers went in because to us it was too cold and to be honest pretty dirty, they enjoyed getting out of the shelter to have some free time with just us girls and no adults.

We have planned to do make-overs tomorrow and Yoga on Friday.

I am enjoying my last days in Cusco with the many friends I have made here and hoping not to break down and cry when I have to say goodbye to them in just a couple days. Tonight we are going to trivia and then to the San Pedro volunteer house to play card games on their roof top balcony. I have mixed feelings about leaving: I am sad to leave the place I have called home for the past 2 months, but excited to get back to my family and friends back in the States. I will miss the work I have been doing here all summer and the people I have been spending time with. It is a bitter sweet feeling as I think about Saturday afternoon when I will take my two large suitcases full of souvenirs to the airport to start my almost 24 hour long journey back home via Lima and JKF- NYC. I will spend the next 2 days embracing all of Cusco and soaking up every last bit that I can as I finish up my work and go out on the town with my new friends from all over the world.

One last funny note… who would have ever thought they dressed their dogs up in clothes in Peru? Well the ones that aren’t strays are very fashionable and may even beat Tito and Rosie on the runway for best dressed. I have seen numerous dogs of all shapes and sizes dressed in clothes of all kinds. I thought it was odd that in a country like this, they would do something so superficial like we do in the United States.

Wish me a safe flight home and I will see you all very soon. Look forward to your awesome presents! I love you all and can’t wait to see you. Hasta luego for now, but not for long.

-Hillary-