Well, as you have all probably guessed, I have now returned from Peru, hopefully refreshed, destressed and ready for my final three months with Operation Restauration! My holiday ended really well, it was wonderful to feel part of a family again, and it was a great time to relax in. I did manage to see some of Lima, as well as reading nine books in ten days: I saw the city centre and went to a really impressive water display park. Despite how much I love living in Santa Cruz, it did look awful dirty and bleak in comparison with Lima which had much more of a big city feel about it: Santa Cruz kind of feels like a small town of several million inhabitants.
I arrived back in time to cover my weekend shift at the home, although thankfully I was able to stay at Casa Alfa on Friday night at head back to the home early on Saturday morning. (I was out of the house by 7, my previous student self wouldn´t recognise me. I even make my bed every day!) Thankfully, although I did find the thought of going back into the home a little bit of an effort by Saturday afternoon I felt like i had never left, and my fear of having lost all authority with the girls over my time off did not come to pass! It was a fairly uneventful weekend, and in many ways, those are the best kind!
The biggest change in my life, which I believe I have not yet mentioned was in the pipeline, is the new timetabling for all the young female volunteers. Because there are now five, possibley soon to be six of us (hard to believe not that long ago I was the only one!) we will not be spending all of our time in the home. Rather, we will spend one week working in the home and another week in the first contact teams. I have mixed feelings about this, as while I am excited about getting the chance to get out and about in the city, I have always felt (despite how difficult it has been) that the things that I am good at fit better int he home. I am basically going to see how it goes this week, and then get back to the directors about how I feel.
There is one very good piece of news from El Alfarero this week: the neighbour has given us a nice bit of his land to grow vegetables on, so the girls have been spending a good part of this week clearing it all to put seeds in. This is particularly good, as the finances of the minsitry are in a much more precarious state than I mentioned before. Roger is saying that unless something dramatic happens, the ministry, after about 15 successful years, will be completely out of money. This is an extremely serious situation that everyone involved in leadership and finances, and, lets be honest, everyone else, is stressed out and worried about. If anyone does feel that they would like to give something to help out, either one off or regular (like sponsoring a child) PLEASE get in touch with me.
The most tragic decision that had to be taken this past week was to pull the two youngest girls out of school as they confessed to having developed sexual relationships with several of the boys from school. This was obviously extremely distressing news from such young girls, and shows that the restoration process is nowhere near complete with them. Our psychologist is trying to work out a process of rehabilition for them, to try and help them recover and be healed from the countless bad experiences they have had in their lives so far that lead them towards these kinds of activities that are so unnatural for children there age. But then, so many unnatural activities have already been forced on them. For me, this was one of the most distressing things to happen so far as it reminded me of how messed up they are, plus forcing us to take a decision that will put them even further behind in their studies. But at the moment, it is certainly better to keep them out of temptations way and within our protection.
Anyway, thank you all very much for your continued support and prayers. I am sure that the next three months will bring continued challenges and hopefully some excitement. I am even starting to build up a social life! (Thank you Caitlin and Emily!)
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