Mensajeros de la Paz DAY ONE!

I barely slept last night. I had nightmares about taking the wrong bus and getting terribly lost, forgetting kids at the park or watching one fall from a slide, and being in a room full of kids kicking and screaming at the top of their lungs. I also had very positive dreams about all the games I want to try to teach them, dancing in the living room to salsa music, and lots and lots of hugs. I woke up excited and anxious to go!

I took the right bus, and it would have dropped me off right at the corner if I hadn't been so impatient to get off! I hopped off a block or two downhill from my corner, so I walked the rest of the way. My first try was the wrong conjunto, which is like a large gated neighborhood, so I couldn't find the building for which I was searching. I needed Brasilia II, but had tried Brasilia I. I eventually found Brasilia II with the help of several neighborhood guards, and began to search for departamento 102. To no avail... I found a house with that number, but it was definitely not the one I wanted. I wandered for about half an hour and then called ACLAS to check the direction. After several calls and clarifying conversations we discovered that I needed to look for BLOQUE A before I could find #102. Aha! I eventually found it, but I think this sunburn is from the hour of being lost.

The most important part is that I DID find it, and I put in a good 6 hours with the kids today. The woman who lives in the apartment is named Eulalia, and there's another woman named Theresa who helps and brings her 4-year old. Lindsey Ross is the other student from Willamette who is going to help, and she arrived a few hours after I did. There are three girls and one boy living the apartment, all of whom were abandoned at young ages. I believe they are all in the early teens, but I don't have specific details about ages yet. I spent the first couple of hours in the park across the street with Maria and Theresa.

Theresa cannot speak, but understands basic questions and commands and communicates incredibly well through facial expressions and signing. So far, I understand when she wants me to tie her shoes, give her a hug, give her a pat on the back, put her hair in a ponytail, and when she needs to go to the bathroom. I also know when she's ready to leave, and she is very good about watching out for the other children. Some of her mannerisms are very adult, and she is SO SMART. She unlaced her shoes and wanted me to lace them back up, but the ends of the laces were so frayed I couldn't do anything. She promptly picked up a small stick and showed me how to force the laces through the holes using the stick. She can also use scissors, swing on the playground, and loves to run up and down the skateboard ramps. Various times throughout the day I wasn't able to tell what the other children were wanting or needing and she ran over to show me. She's a gem.

Maria is able to speak, but there isn't much connection between words and actions. She can and will repeat almost anything you say to her, and loves to be cuddled. She sat herself right down next to me and put my arms around her back. She says hello to everybody that passes, and almost everyone in the neighborhood responds "Hola Maria." I think she's pretty popular. She smiles a lot, and will laugh at everything. She gave me quite a scare this morning, because she took off running and wouldn't respond to anything I said. I had Theresa, too, so when Maria ran across the street I wasn't sure what to do. We followed closely behind until I could get a hold of her, and then we walked arm in arm back to sit on the swings. I guess she likes to run a lot! She's very capable and physically strong. Some of her favorite phrases: Hola, cuanto años tienes, verdad, estoy aqui, estas aqui, ya acabó, como te llamas, ya vamos, and pan. Also, if I'm patient and repetitive enough, I can get her to count to 20 with me. She needs a lot of attention, and if she isn't getting it she starts kicking or trying to push the other children's heads to the ground. All of this she does with a smile and it doesn't seem like she understands when she's in trouble. Maybe that's a blessing. I think Maria was found abandoned in the street as a toddler.

The other girl, Mariela, is blind and has a lot of difficulty walking. Her upper body is very strong, and she has definitely learned to use her hands and ears to navigate. If I remember correctly, she was dropped from a long way up and left in the hospital. Today she cried a lot, and I think it was because she was terrified. We were new voices and felt totally foreign to her. Eventually, she came to me with her feet in the air, wanting me to change her shoes and socks. About 10 minutes later, she would come back in the same manner, wanting me to remove her shoes and socks and then put them on again. She likes to sit in the wheelchairs, but we were discouraged from letting her do this because she pinches her fingers in the wheels and runs over her feet. It was tough to keep her away, though, because there isn't really anywhere to hide a wheelchair. She doesn't talk, but responds quickly to commands and verbal communication. She doesn't always like it, but she knows when she isn't supposed to be doing something. She arches her back and cries out, and most of the day I had to pick her up and move her away from things. She was the best eater of the group, though. She opens her mouth wide, and keeps her hands still in her lap while we feed her. I don't think she chews anything, so for hours after lunch she was burping and coughing. Her hair is thick and shiny and very straight, and she has a haircut very similar to my almost-mullet from the early years. Though they wander, she has big, beautiful, clear, brown eyes.

The boy, Francisco or Poncho, is the toughest of the group, because he has virtually no way to communicate specific things. His hands and feet are very damaged, and they said he just recently learned to walk with assistance. He spends most of the day in his room, slamming the doors and rolling around in bed. He isn't blind, but cannot focus his eyes. He doesn't talk, only whimpers and screams. He wears a diaper, and I'm not sure how he eats. I think it's a battle each time. When he was out of his room today, he crawled over and over to the door like he wanted to leave. We'd say no, he'd cry, and several times he scratched at Lindsey's arms and pulled her hair. Then he would fall to the ground and start banging his head on the floor. Finally, after lunch, I got to take him to the park. It was like he was a completely different person. He reached for my hand and practically led me there, except for the stairs when he needed me to carry him. We got to the park and he sat down on a bench. Then, he pulled me down onto the warm cement with him. At first, he curled his arm under his head like a pillow. I started scratching his back and running my fingers through his hair, and he scooted closer to use my thigh as a pillow. He smiled. He closed his eyes, took my other hand in his, and started cooing like a newborn. We stayed that way for about 45 minutes, and I think it was the only peace he had all day long. It took about 15 minutes to get him back to the apartment after Eulalia called us in--he fought me and fought me, crying and shaking his head the whole way, but eventually he just hugged me and let me carry him across the street. It broke my heart, because I can understand how much of a prison that apartment is for him. He has the start of a mustache and some pubescent acne, but his body is very thin and his bones feel brittle. His eyes don't focus or stay still, but his eyelashes are long and mesmerizing while his eyes dart from place to place.

What a first day.