My life on Saturday

Every Saturday I work with children who spend the majority of their lives selling candy, cigarrettes, clay ceramics, or anything to make a few cents. Some of the kids have no families and have to sleep on the street. I have heard that some of the kids sleep in the pits of garages where mechanics change oil. Family or not, these kids live in extreme poverty and live lives that are often heartbreaking and very sad. Most haven´t even thought about their future because they have enough to worry about just to make it through the day or week.

For the past 10 years or so, the Peruvian National Police have a program called Colibri (hummingbird in Spanish) that works with these high risk children through workshops and recreative activities. Since September I have been assisting in this program every Saturday.

Each Saturday we have between 50-100 kids show up from around Piura. Most of the time I play sports with them, have a lesson of the day, and then we eat lunch together. It is very hard to work with kids who have nothing, no parenting, little discipline, and little support at the police station. I think once I arrived to help out, the police that were suppose to help out every Saturday saw it as an opportunity to abandon their responsibility with the kids, a job they are getting paid to do. I am basically in charge of 100 street kids each Saturday so I am constantly seeking assistence.

Though I am frustrated with the police, I have learned so much about myself and am constantly reminded why I am here when I see my little friends on the streets late at night. They always come up and give me hugs and say, ¨see you Saturday¨. I think Saturday is their most exciting day of the week.


Oscar (green vest) has become a very good football player. It is neat to see some of the kids learn football. Sometimes I have to bring out my football and play catch to boost my self-esteem when the little youngsters kick my butt in soccer. This pic is neat because for the first time one of my little kids is able to teach one of the older kids from my weekly youth groups how to hold the football. Most kids have never seen a football and have no clue what to do with such a wierd looking ball. Do we kick it like a soccer ball?

One problem I have is that I don´t have enough sports equipment for 100 kids. I always get asked, ¨loan me a ball¨. I always tell the kids to share, which is a concept hard for some kids to understand. Most of the boys always steal the volleyballs from the girls. I´m teaching the girls to stand up for themselves which I believe is important in a machismo society.

Oscar and Angel are two of my favorite kids in Colibri. They both show up early before the rest of the kids to have personal one on one attention. Oscar likes football (futbol americano) and Angel likes soccer (futbol).

I found my digital camera to be a huge asset for my youth groups. I found a cable in my camera bag that attatches the camera to the TV. The kids love getting their pictures taken and then instantly seeing themselves on TV. Sometimes I make short videos that introduce the lesson of the day. Instead of talking to the kids live, I just show my video. It is something different and more entertaining.