casa lena

we spent what ended up being just a few days at this lovely school called casa lena.  we had planned on spending a week here but then towards the end of the week it turned out it was peru's independence day, so the school was closed and many of the volunteers were traveling for the long weekend.  instead of sticking around by ourselves we decided to move on.  all of us felt sad leaving and we were so touched by the few days we spent there.

casa lena is a project started by this remarkable young woman from belgium, named stephanie. she was trained as a teacher and came to peru for an internship where she met her husband. they started casa lena about 5 yrs ago and it is astounding the program she has developed.  casa lena is located in curahuasi which is about 2.5 hrs outside of cusco.....still high in the andes and quite a beautiful place!

there are three parts to her project. the first being a program for children with special needs.  during our few days there we met kids with cerebral palsy, down's syndrome, autism, visual impairment, and other developmental delays.  the second part of the project is an afternoon education program for toddlers.  the special needs kids are included in all the classes in an effort to teach tolerance, and responsibility for each other.  the third part of the project was regular meetings with the teachers from the schools in curahuasi to work towards better education in general.

there were a gaggle of volunteers there, mostly from belgium with the exception of only us and another couple.  most had been there for several weeks, but a couple volunteers had committed to a year of service.

Stephanie (in the black sweater) leading class

riley and lucy were received joyfully by all the kids. they were both a huge help to the teachers.  todd and i helped out here and there but we were frankly not as useful as riley and lucy.

the kids we worked with were so loving and beautiful.

this is fernando who loves loves loves to ride the scooter. he has cataracts so terrible he can hardly see, so he puts everything close to his face. the good news is that he might be able to have eye surgery soon to correct this.

his brother lucho is probably about 18yrs old, and completely blind in addition to his other developmental delays.  their mother is an alcoholic which likely played a role in both boys disabilities.
todd helped to shave lucho one day....

lucho loved to swing....no hands!

hands down the kid with the best smile and laugh was a child with cerebral palsy named jean pierre.  his laugh just rang with joy and you could not help but smile with him.

razon was pretty severely autistic such that he had only a few words.  with the patience and direction of the teachers he was able to complete small projects that he was immensely proud of.

riley had his soccer ball out and the kids were so excited to play with him!

a few of the little ones just adored lucy and would hold her hand and follow her everywhere....

Asiti on the left was Lucy's shadow.  On the right is Stephanie's daughter named Sophie

lucy also made friends with clariza, another child with cerebral palsy.  clariza actually developed a little crush on riley and wrote him (or dictated) a note.  he showed some real kindness and maturity and gave her a flower in return. this of course made her day and was a very sweet gesture.

i am in general very appreciative of those who choose to teach.  spending even a few days with these young teachers i was again struck by their skill, their kindness and their patience.  especially in witnessing how they challenge and guide those kids with special needs.  i certainly do not have the disposition for teaching, but boy am i thankful for those who do!

we were all so moved by our experience at casa lena.  riley and lucy were really quite sad to go and loved being with the kids.  we plan to keep casa lena in our hearts and continue to contribute to the project in the future.

now we are in lima and i am playing a little blog catch up.  we will be heading north tomorrow.
hasta luego!