Water Slide

Picture: Natural water slide

One of the cool things about living in a place for some time is that you discover the secret places that tourists don´t know about. This was no Machu Picchu but it was nice to be out in nature far away from the nearest tourist attraction and knowing you had the place all to yourself. Luckily we brought the rope so we could climb back up for more fun. Without the rope it would be impossible to climb up the mossy rocks.

Making Progress

Picture: Kids in my doorway

Every Saturday I have dozens of kids who rush to come greet me at the police station. They come with running arms wide open. It truly is an incredible feeling to be loved by so many kids who are treated like nuisances in the city streets.

Picture: Peruvian youth hold up their drawings of ¨Auto estima¨ or Self esteem

One challenge of mine has been to teach the kids what self-esteem is. Most of my youth have very low self-esteems, which, is manefested in their dire need for positive or negative attention and lack of creativity.

Picture: Healthy hands

One of my projects that is taking off is hand washing and clean water campaigns with the kids. The kids are learning about germs and parasites and are improving their hygene. One internesting fact is that most of the children that live in poverty are much smaller than the other children that come from the middle and upper class families. You wouldn´t believe how small some of the 10-15 year old children look.

The Big Cotton Bust

Picture: Bags of Peruvian Cotton in the court yard of the police station.

Yes, the Peruvian National Police here in Piura are hard at work fighting gang violence, drugs, theft and yes detaining cotton from the bad guys. After spending the few resources the police had on their new patio garden, the big cotton bust came. Someone decided the new patio would be a great place to store the 100 plus bags of cotton. Now I´m sure all the grass and flowers are dead but the cotton is still here to look at!