The Coprodeli Boys Orphanage

The developing world is unpredictable. Yesterday we thought we would be in Pachacutec, a shantytown about 40 miles from Lima. That was before the transportation strike which basicly shut the country down. Add to that an electricity outage and the day was off to an interesting start. Not disuaded, we made the best of it and had an amazing day.

We spent the day at both the boys and girls orphanages in Callao, very near the Coproldeli volunteer house where we are staying. Callao is a rough neighborhood on the outskirts of Lima. It is difficult to get cabs to come here out of fear of being robbed but Coprodeli has never had any problems, good Karma I guess. Both orphanges are within walking distance of the volunteer house so we were not dependant on transportation.

We spent 3 hours at the boys orphanage. We split the 25 boys into two groups and Kevin and my group taught the same programs and lesson plans that we had planned for the schools. We then did the same at the girls orphanage in the afternoon and came back to the boys orphanage and brought dinner last night.

Rather than blather on about all that we did and saw I would rather take a minute and talk about what we experienced. In this terribly poor area of Lima these orphanages have created a surprisingly positive and warm environment. The kids must follow a strict schedule and they do so without complaint. The women that single handedly looks after this montly crew is Edisa, a 60 year old saint of women with a soft spoken voice. Make no mistake Edisa means business. She does not ask twice and the boys don't mess with her. Having done volunteer work in south-side Chicago schools with similar aged boys, I'm shocked at how much better behaved these boys are. Is it cultural, is it the regimen, is it the fact that these boys must get along and help eachother or live in chaos? I'm not sure but it is moving to witness. It is inspiring. This orhanage on a shoe-string budget manages to feed and cloth these kids and most importantly show them love.

We had a hell of a lot of fun with them too. After our classroom activities we stayed and played soccer with them on a tiny piece of cement behind the orphanage. The cracked cement and tight space didn't slow them down. The trounced us with a smile and didn't seem to mind that their field was smaller than most Americans garages.

Kevin asked Edisa what we could do to help her. What could we do for her personally. She responded quickly, "just help my kids". Money is very tight she only has $100 per month to feed 25 kids and if she had $50 more a month they could eat Chicken (like the meal we brought) twice a week. Obviously we will take care of that but the more amazing thing is that all this over-worked, underpaid women wants is to better help her kids. Now that is what a real hero looks like. We were honored and moved to see her in action.

Cheers,

Tom and Kevin