PACKAGES!!!!!!!

I have started to receive packages! Thanks Timber team and Codi and Brian&Eric! They are so rad! I've tried to call but the phone works only sometimes and haven't been able to get through, I will keep trying.

I took new outdoor stuff to jail today but then we couldn't go outside for some stupid reason. I am excited to take new stuff tomorrow, they will be sooooo happy. I can't take it all at once like I wanted to and let the kids open the package because the police will just steal it and sell it on the black market. This happens with a tremendous amount of the goods sent to organizations, so I am glad to be able to ensure that the stuff you are sending is making it directly to the kids. I will admit that there are lots of things at the Black Market I would like to buy and it is all SO cheap, but ethically I just can't bring myself to do it. Anyway, I end up having a room full of cool stuff that I will dole out a little at a time. Really fun though. This ensures that everyone gets some good stuff and good stuff is going into the police station all the time, not just one day of Christmas morning.

I am taking next week off from volunteering to find a life. I am done with the hostel and want to have a job and an apartment so that is what I am going to go find. As it turns out, job and apartment hunting aren't any more fun in a foreign country. That's not true, it's actually pretty rad, but still would be easier to have it done.

The kids at the police station have been really enjoyable this week. The dynamics are always so shifting that you never know how it's going to go. There is one boy that is mentally challenged or whatever the PC way to say that is these days. He alternates between being super super hard and really sweet. Today was particularly hard and there were moments of tears in my eyes feeling so incompetent. I have not been trained in this, I don't know how to deal with this kid's fits. Hitting kicking punching scratching screaming obscenities. Just keep loving him, put him in another room, try to calm him down, let the fit wear off. It did eventually and then he was fine again, but it sure was hard. They make it harder by telling him his mom is there when they want him to cooperate, but in the long term, it is making it so much worse. Then he will eventually calm down and come over and want some love. It's an amazing process but it isn't his fault and he doesn't know how to do it any other way, I just love him so. And the rest of the kids are just delights. Sad and frustrated, but sweet and loving and helpful, I just love the group right now. I suspect that I will find time to spend there next week even though I wont officially be working.

I am going to check out some of the smaller towns around Cusco as well to see what types of volunteer stuff they have happening as I think it might be nice to get out of the city for a while. I am a country girl at heart and have been living in the city for far too long. I think it would be nice to be further away from other travelers and more immersed in Peruvian culture. So far the few Peruvians I've had the chance to spend time with I have really really enjoyed. There is also a chance of spending some time living in the super super mountain country with some shamans that I am interested in and a little intimidated by. We will see. I will have more to say next week. I will continue to spend time at the police station wherever I end up, even if it is coming into Cusco on the weekends or working with the stations in my local town so the goods will continue to make it to these kids and programs that need them so much.

Love to you all, I hope your days are happy.
em