Week 2 in Cusco

It is now two weeks that we are in Cusco ( Cannot believe I am only 2 weeks away from departure date...), and the second week has been just as full and a good as the first one (I chose voluntarily to erase from my memory all the troubles we had with the first travel agency, and the time spent at the police station...).

Our work at the center is becoming more and ore interresting as we are getting to know all the kids, what they enjoy the most, what makes them mad, which food they like and which they don't (that is, which food they will spit right back to your face)... I thought part of my volunteering work here would be hard, I thought there would be tough times... But for most of the time I was wrong: They stopped a while ago to be "special kids" to me. I just enjoy seeing their happy faces every morning, playing with them and making them giggle, even feeding them stopped being a fight between me, the not-so-yummy food, the spoon and their mouth. Every moment spent with them has just made me feel more aware, more thankful of my own luck, and of the luck of most European kids... And yet, despite their handicaps, these kids get to laugh, to dance, to play with a ball, to paint, to make scenes when then want more food, or simply to cry because they want to be held in your arms...

Each of them has its own, very defined character. Some of course, express it more than others. Like Luis. Luis is a little boy of 10years old, whose stomach is so small he can hardly eat most of the food that is given to him without vomiting it all right back...  Though Luis loves to eat. So when the sisters or Dany take too long to give him his meal, he starts a real show of fake tears and sobs, until eventually he gets what he wants.. In short, a real little man! He can be very sweet and cuddly at times, and at some others, he will start hitting his head hard against the floor, or against anything he finds really (walls, chairs, toys, other kids, yourself...) this his part of his "abnormality": Probably some sort of hitch he gets, due to a bleed in his brain or something similar... Luis is very small for a 10 year old, mostly due to his stomach problems... Which is not quite a good sign for the future... Seeing him so full of life makes me feel really frustrated nothing can be done for him at the center to improve his condition. He could make tremendous improvements with a little bit of medical assistance...

Don't get me wrong here though, I do not blame the Sisters for it. They are doing a fabulous job taking care of them all, with such love and patience. But authorities make their life very difficult, and every attempt they make to cure those kids is closely watched by the police... If anything happens, they could close the center... How ironic! As if the Sisters could do them any harm! They are the only ones who still care for them! 
Undertaking an operation on any of the children would be taking too much risk, and the best they can do is care for them in their current state. No worse, but not really better either... At least those children get all the love that was denied to them at first...