Some Cusco Children

Even after living here for over 2 years, there are occasions here when I am very moved – it might be meeting someone, visiting somewhere, or just an occurrence in the course of everyday life. This week I have had several of these moments so I thought I’d try and express them on the blog.

Sonia

Last week Lucy (Strider) and I went to visit Sonia's mum who was sick. Sonia is a 12 year old we know well from the mountain project and perhaps because she is a bright girl with leadership skills we had not realised how poor her family is. Her mum is a widow of Quechua background who does not speak much Spanish and the family, with three children, live in the tiniest, darkest little mud house I have ever seen. They have one room containing three 'beds' (more like benches with blankets), a table and some shelves. The house has no windows, a mud floor and a few guinea pigs running around. They have a little side room containing something that resembles a gas camping stove, and a small mud-walled courtyard. I cannot imagine how they manage to live there. I have questions such as: How does Sonia manage to have clean clothes? Where does she do her homework? What do they do when it rains and they can’t use the courtyard? What hope do they have of ever getting a better place to live? How can we help this family?

Sonia, left, with friends and Emma, a volunteer from China.

Flor

At the weekend Lucy, Robyn and I (together with Matthew and Carolina (Robyn’s children), and Sammy) went to visit baby Flor’s grave, as at her burial we did not have a little cross to mark the site. It was Sunday afternoon and the atmosphere at the hillside cemetery was a strange mixture. Some families, presumably those who relatives had died a long time ago, seemed to be on an afternoon out with kids running about flying kites. Others were in the midst of grief as they visited a very recent grave or were actually burying someone that day. A young couple had brought flowers and silently lit a candle over a very new baby grave near to Flor’s. There was actually just a patch of earth where Flor’s grave was as people had used the stones we had put there for other graves and the flowers had died since it is the dry season. Anyway, we pretty much had expected this and Lucy had brought new plants to put in. Matthew and Sammy carried the little wooden cross up the hill and one of the teenage grave diggers helped to fix the cross into the ground. As we were there, just below another family were burying a little white coffin. It didn’t take long and after a very brief prayer they left. But then, two of their grave diggers, boys who looked to be about 12 years old, took off their caps, stood beside the grave and very solemnly and clearly began to recite prayers and sing a hymn. It was very moving to see how seriously they committed the little girl to God.

Sammy and Matthew at the cemetery.

Nilda and Katherín

Part of Lucy’s work here is visiting a children’s home once a week and I have been going along too. I wasn’t sure at first if I had the time to go every week but I’ve quickly grown attached to the kids so I have been going regularly. (It has taken the place of the little baby and toddler group I used to do with Ben last year, which we don’t do now he is at pre-school.) It is a new home started by another mission agency and most of the kids are very young – it is so sad to see such little children without parents, despite the good care they do receive in the home. I have become particularly attached to two little sisters, Nilda (4) and Katherín (6 months). Nilda used to live with her mum (often on the streets), who is ill, and I think they were picked up by the police when Katherín was born. Their mum is not able to look after them so they are permanently in the children’s home I think. Not much is known about their dads and they have had to estimate Nilda’s birthday. Other children have similar terrible stories. Beltran, who is about 6, is smaller than our Ben and has multiple disabilities. His mother died, I think due to alcohol problems, and he was found in a field beside her. It is amazing how he has improved since being in the home. He has learned to sit up, talk and sing and is such a happy little boy. Alina is the oldest girl in the home and we thought she would always be in a wheelchair. However, this week a visiting group from the USA had brought her a walking frame and with Lucy’s help it was amazing to see her begin to try to take steps with it. Again, she is a child who is going to improve so much now that she is being given better care.

Baby Katherín

Vanessa

Church last weekend was one of our special invitation services for families and a group of our older girls from the mountain project performed a dance. They have been practicing with Lucy for a number of weeks and it was lovely to see them finally perform. Afterwards, Vanessa asked if they had done OK because she said ‘ it was the first time I’ve done something like that and it made me really nervous’. She is 12 and really quite talented in art and dance – how special it was for her to perform in front of a church full of people! Later in the service everyone got into groups to talk about the Bible story and do activities and it was great to see 6 groups (3 kids groups, plus men, ladies and young people) all sitting round discussing – such a change from the tiny services we used to be part of a year and a half ago! Equally encouraging is that the church people themselves organise most of these outreach events now.

August Family Service.