Play Night

27 Mayo 05

Play night and a packed house here at the refugio. The children are so excited in their full costume and makeup and end up doing a fantastic job performing for their parents, professors and friends...we are left awfully proud...Nearly all of the children leave with a family member...crazy pots of jam...(Dan borrowed the computer for a moment...) after the performance to spend the weekend with them and we are left with a very quiet house here.

Kike, Rosemary, Ruth and Marcus are the only children that remain. With the addition of Angelica´s family that live on site, Lucy and Manuel, myself, Dan, Ibar and Maria, who joins us for the evening. We all head to the children´s school where a community gathering is taking place...musica and dance folklorica, and Ruth is performing.

I kick myself for forgeting my camera...believe it or not...as Ruth was dressed in traditional Peruvian costuming. I danced around to the music with sweet little Kike on my shoulders...we kept the little ones up until they were ready to drop and then made our way home. Sweet Lucy prepared us a late evening meal and we all sat together over drinks.

28 Mayo 05

Joined Jose, Briged and Javier to discuss one of Javier´s current environmental projects, his was also the sustainable school project. Fascinating guy. He gave me a ton of useful information on local flora and I was able to pepper him with questions about the refuge site water systems, local resources for material donations, native vegetation, books and website resources. Afterwards he spared me the two hour bus journey to Lima by giving me a lift to meet up with the gents, Ursula, and Padre Hilario for lunch.

The guys had a brief discussion with Hilario about the two children that were the next hopeful placements at the refuge...after two months they still have yet to arrive. We have been given several different stories about why they aren´t here yet...Mostly that there was difficulty in obtaining birth certificates, etc.

Turns out it is the ridiculously over-complicated, crap politics of an unqualified group of board members arguing about this and that while these two children are currently being abused in their current situation...why can´t such matters be resolved simply and proptly?

None of these board members wants to be held responsible for the decision making and therefore point their fingers at the other members of the board. Now it appears that these two children may not be able to come to the refuge afterall. One last hope is to speak directly with Carole in the UK to raise up a fuss...there is really very little to loose though it may piss off a few people here...stepping on toes.

Came back to the refuge quite late this evening and repeatedly rang the bell to no avail. Not sure if anyone is actually here this weekend or not. Dan ends up scaling the 15 foot wall after I attempt it and land on my tush in the dirt street. Spry gent that he is. Its lonely and quiet here with the exception of all of the neighborhood dogs that we have managed to wake...

...Now all is quiet and I am refreshed from a brief nap in the cab ride home on Dan´s lap and I lay on the trampoline searching the cloud covered sky for stars by myself...