Santa Anita

Journal-Megan Curry
Visiting Santa Anita in the morning gave us an insight into some of the realities that the kids we are working with everyday have to face outside the walls of P.P.A. The clean, organized, and well-kempt area in which we interact with them is not the whole picture-and it was very important for us to see this. Though there are many slums and they have their differences, seeing where the P.P.A. children typically come from gives us, as volunteers, a greater understanding of the conditions and hardships the children and their families face.
Molly's discussion about the slums in peripheral Lima supplemented our visual understanding of experiencing it first-hand. She explained that as a result of the government's lack of involvement, there is immense organization on behalf of the local residents. We enjoyed meeting and interacting with those at the soup kitchen and the day care, two examples of this organization. Children were intrigued by our huge bus, typical tourist appearance, and unique Spanish skills (bad).
The people were grateful for our visit, but we are even more grateful to them for allowing us to learn so much during our short stay. Afterwards we enjoyed a short lunch (by Peruvian standards-still an hour) and enjoyed splitting into our afternoon groups. The evening was spent at dinner with an optional trip to the Inca Market.

Thoughts of the Day-Megan Curry
"Embrace the inspiration."
To me, this trip is filled with moments of inspiration-and most of it comes from the children. I thought I would share a moment of my own. Martín was writing a letter to his mother which read:
"Mamita, te quiero mucho y con todo mi corazon"
"Mom, I love you a lot and with my whole heart"