Fridays

Friday equals sleeping in! Doncha just love being able to roll over, look at the clock and then roll back over and snuggle down deeper into the warm covers? I´m enough like a cat that I could lie in the sun and be in-between consciousness and dreams for hours!

My Fridays here in Arequipa are free, class-wise. YAY! Which means I can go all out Thursday night (see previous post, ¨A Typical Thursday¨)

Fridays, though, are not just for sleeping in. I get some homework done, catch up with my Facebook and (obviously) blog, AND I get to volunteer. That´s actually my favorite part of the day.

You see, I have at least three little boys (between the ages of 4 and 12) waiting for me at the Casa de la Mujer (House for Women) every Friday afternoon at 3. I walk about 15 minutes down the main avenue outside my apartment complex and go to this beautiful house run by several Catholic sisters. Once I get through the gate and into the house, I am POUNCED! Those lil boys can really give some big hugs! I usually have one or two hanging from my neck and one encircling my legs with his entire body. It´s a wonder how I don´t just fall down everytime! When I finally peel them off, we sit down in the small garden outside (it´s ALWAYS sunny) and do homework. Usually, the boys have to do some English homework, so I love helping with that. Maybe it´s drawing a comb and labeling it or just rewriting the word ¨cat¨. Sometimes they have an hour of homework, but other times, like last week, very little.

This is when we really get to bond. Last week, three boys were there. Two brothers, 5 and 8, and a separate 4 year old. They had little to no homework so they were crazy! We played Red Light Green Light, Hide-and-Go-Seek, Tag, a hand slap/counting game and even watched some American anime cartoon in Spanish. How I managed to play the games in Spanish, I´ll never know. Instructions and rules were certainly hard to talk about...not that they followed them anyway. All they really wanted to do was, as we say in NC, rassle (or however you spell that). They, as can be expected, got FLITHY. Dirty hands and runny noses. Nasty. So, the magical gringa (white girl)...me...dug out her mini bottle of hand sanitizer and gave them each a big drop in their black hands. I say ¨magical¨ because they ooohhed and ahhhhed over that sanitizer so much that I kindly said, ¨Would you like more? Because there´s more for you where THAT came from!¨ Little did they know that they were getting a GOOD cleaning!

When my three hours was up, I tried to make it to the door. Try, being the main part of that sentence. It´s hard when three little boys are clinging to your legs and are begging for another hug, tickle or spin. After about 10 minutes, I finally walked out the gate. When I turned around to look back at the house, three faces were pressed to the glass beside the door.

These boys, though, are not your typical kids. They come from an abusive home. The Casa de la Mujer is for physically, mentally and emotionally abused women and their children. Some stay for a few days, others a few weeks...some, longer. I don´t know from week to week which children I will help with their reading, will tickle or hug goodbye for the last time. So, today, I´m almost hoping those boys will not be there because then I know they have their own, now SAFE, home to return to.