Second to last night in Villa La Paz

While at dinner last night I asked the doctor if he finds that the kids have a hard time going through puberty here in a house with almost zero privacy. The doctor said that he has kicked people out for having relationships because it comes with too much hassle, for example if one of the girls becomes pregnant. They are not allowed to have boyfriends or girlfriends in the home. The kids range in age from babies to 30 years old so it must be difficult! I guess this is yet another challenge that comes with living in this home and having such dissabilities. I asked about one of the young boys who often dances around in dresses and the doctor had mentioned that they used to be concerned about his mental status. The doctor replied that he had asked the boy's mother about his history several times and finally she admitted that the boy had been raped as a child by one of their older male neighbors. The boy now has psychological issues as a result of this. I imagine there are many similar stories for these kids.
Tyson spent a few hours last night playing guitar with one of the young men here. They seemed to bond over music and everyone was listening. It was special and I took pictures that are posted on my facebook page.
The more spanish we pick up, the more we can communicate and the closer we become with the kids. Today we had wheelchair races at the park and arm wrestled with the kids who normally use wheelchairs so their arms are freakishly strong. I lost to every single kid, I need to start working out.
At the end of each month they celebrate all the birthdays that took place through the month. Each child gets a new outfit (from the second hand outfits in the storage room) selected for them by the mamitas and a new game. They also eat cake and dance.
Today after breakfast we attempted to do some laundry. We filled up a big sink full of water and got a small ration of detergent from the mamitas. We used a scrub brush and tried to make the soap last. Luckily we are very selective about which articles of clothing we actually wash. It was an experience that will cause us to go home and hug our old washer dryer that we used to complain about.
Today during baby hour, I held a baby who has a huge benign tumour on its face. It is quite unsightly covering the entire forehead and side of the face. It is swollen and bruised and the baby cries a lot. The tumour is too big and surgery would be too extensive for what the baby could likely endure. They have started the baby on a new medication that has previously had great results for similar cases.
On Saturdays the mamitas go to a huge market to shop for all the meat, vegetables, fruits and snacks for the week. This feeds all 60 kids and about 15 staff for three meals per day. The approximate cost comes to about $100 US for everything. Tyson and I will try to go with them tomorrow.
Today at coffee we met about five youung people from the US who are a part of the peace core. They have to commit two years to the program and could get stationed in any third world country to help with its development. They get paid a small amount of money at the end of each year. In Peru they get about $6500 US which is a significant amount. It sounds like a cool program and I think we are going out with them tomorrow night to celebrate one of the girls' birthdays and our going away.
After coffee we played outside with the kids and did excersizes it was a lot of fun and its hard to believe that after tonight we only have one more night here.

Please check out my facebook page for all the photos of the kids and the city!