We're here!

We are safely tucked away at Hogar de Esperanza (HdE).  Our trip went pretty smoothly.  Our flights were all pretty much on time; it was just a long trip.  I feel like I've spent the last 3 days in some sort of time-space continuum.  All concept of night and day has been lost.  At 5 A.M. today in the Lima airport, I debated whether to have Papa John's because my body felt like it was the end of the day or a McDonald's biscuit because my head knew it was breakfast time.  The pizza won :)

A quick shout-out to Kelly's dad for driving us up to O'Hare.  Now I have two highlights from our trip to share.  First, I fell asleep shortly after we left Houston on our second flight.  I woke up to discover that I had lost my glasses in my sleep.  Come to find out, I must have dropped them into the aisle in my sleep.  I spent the rest of the flight unable to see, but thankfully, a flight attendant returned them to me just before we landed.  She had found them way at the back of the plane.  I guess they took a little trip of their own.  The second trip highlight was getting through customs with 55 bottles of children's multivitamins.  Alex took the lead on that one, and we only ended up having to pay $28 in vitamins, which is pretty good since their first offer was $100.

Bryson and Courtney, two long-term volunteers at HdE picked us up at the airport and brought us out to the albergue.  All the kids were gone to a day camp, so we were able to unpack a bit and do some necessary paperwork without feeling guilty.  I also managed to catch a shower and a nap, two absolutely wonderful things.  Lunch was rice (surprise!) with peas and beef.  I can now saw that I've seen a cow's vertebrae.

The preschoolers and Juan (age 10) had come back from camp at lunchtime, so Kelly and I spent the next few hours with them.  They were super cute.  Alejandro (age 3) has changed so much just in the five months since we were last here.  He's talking more and is so much more demonstrative.  He sat right next to me for the longest time and held onto me.  I think I have a new friend!  It's such a great example of what this place can do for kids.

When the kids all got back from day camp, the shrieks were amazing!  I know they were mostly shrieking over seeing Alex, but it was still quite the welcome.  Pablo, one of the five-year-old twins, was the first to run to me, but I managed to get hugs out of almost all the kids.  I gave Abraham (age 14) a nice, manly handshake, though.  It was so good to them all and again and see how many of them remembered me.  They even remembered this game I made up with them last summer.  Basically, everyone holds hands in a circle and jumps and dances around chanting, "Bailar, bailar, yo voy a bailar," which loosely means, "Dance, dance, I'm going to dance."  As soon as Marita came over to me, she grabbed my hands and started playing the game.

The rest of the afternoon was spent pushing Alejandro, Jhon, and Oriana on the swings, reading to Jhon and Jose Luis and then to Marita and Paul, and meeting other volunteers who are here right now.  There are quite a few volunteers down here at the moment.  I'm not sure I've met all of them yet.  Dinner was leftovers from lunch.

That's all so far, and I'm going to bed soon in an attempt to straighten out my nights and days.

P.S. Yuli managed to point out how pale I am.  I explained to her that it's winter in Illinois, so it's very cold and snows and we have to wear sweaters and coats.  Not that I'm not always pale, but that's the reason I gave her anyhow.