First Day of School: Special Needs Education in Peru

"Colegio para niños con talentos diferentes"

time for school! 

Its my understanding that special needs kids tend to slip through the cracks of the education system, which I think happens everywhere, not just in Peru. There are very few special needs schools in Cusco, in fact, I think there are only 2. Kids come from all over to be able to go to school at San Juan de Dios. I wasn’t able to get a clear answer on whether the school is free or not, but I assume it’s low cost probably on a sliding scale. School goes only from 8:30-11, Monday through Friday. In the US this would be considered a half day but here it is the norm. Kids from all over Cusco and the surrounding areas attend, not just the kids in the clinic. When you enter the school, the sign above the door reads “Colegio para niños con talentos diferentes”, and just past the door is a courtyard with wheelchair ramps at every turn. The school is actually really nice, with about 4 or 5 classrooms separated by age and level in school.

future superstar Brayan 

Diomedes lookin' sharp

Flor and I ready to learn

I’m usually in the classroom with the younger kids and new kids whose level isn’t known yet. We pretty much just play like we do in the clinic, which to me seems a little neglectful. I think there is a “professor” there, but she’s there sporadically and I’m not really sure what she’s teaching them. It feels a little like they just throw all the younger kids in a classroom, give ‘em some glue and paper, and call it school.

learning amarillo 

the finished product

Fruit tasting

 Anyway, they love it. We spent one day learning the color yellow. There was a banana, yellow paper, and yellow balloons. Another day was spent tasting different fruits and deciding if they were sweet

 or tangy. Flor was just coming out of her skin this day, she was so excited to eat. Adalid was excited too, of course, she’s always excited to eat. We tasted a lime, a pear, a banana, and a tangerine. Johan just is not a fruit guy, because he spit everything right out and made the sourest faces I’ve ever seen. We basically do activities like this for a few hours. It’s obviously hard to teach them because it’s hard to tell if they really comprehend since they can’t communicate to you if they get it or if they’re confused (or if they just want to eat fruit). I’m sure the older kids are learning in a more structured way, since they can communicate for the most part. There must be some improvement, or the school wouldn’t still be running.

Adalid excited to eat? It can't be. 

¡Feliz Cumpleaños Angelito!

The coolest cat in all of San Juan de Dios

hi mom and dad!

This post is dedicated solely to Angelito, 4 years old today! His family came to visit and brought a delicious lucuma cake, popcorn, chocolate, juice, and Inca Kola for the kids. Yep, even the babies got a glass of Inca Kola and slice of cake (fun fact: Inca Kola has 50 grams of sugar in a personal sized bottle…50 grams!). We sang happy birthday in English and then Spanish, which was a little odd to me. Angelito was being showered with attention from everyone, and he got a little flustered, but I managed to get a few pictures.

always all smiles :)

Lunchtime: Organized Chaos and Family Visits

The lunchroom before madness descends

Lunchtime!

Organizing 30 kids to sit down and calmly eat lunch for an hour seems like an easy task, right? Lunchtime is generally more just chaos than organized chaos, but the nurses do it everyday without complaint (kids gotta eat). We pull the kids away from whatever they’re doing, which is usually playing with toys and they have no interest in being disturbed. The nurses come into the playroom shouting “Guardalos! Guardalos!”, meaning to pick up all the toys. Brayan is the only one who consistently will help, and occasionally Flor if she’s in a good mood. After somehow wrangling up most of the toys we arrange the kids into a somewhat manageable seating arrangement. 

well hey Flor! 

The kids that can eat without help like to sit in the same area, and the kids that need help bunch together too. I usually sit at a table with Flor, Jhon, Evelin, and Adalid. I love to feed Adalid because she always eats all of her food without complaint or difficulty, Evelin is not always so easy. She likes to fold herself over in her chair when she’s over it. Lunches with Adelid and Evelin are easy. Once I helped Catiluz eat. Never again. It resulted in a bowl of soup all over both of us and her nearly yanking out my ponytail. Could be that she was just in a bad mood that day, but I’m a little afraid now. Another lunch I helped Angelito eat, but all he wants to do is drink water (which is actually juice, they just all call it water which is so strange, and Flor does the same thing—mas agua!). He wouldn’t eat, but then another volunteer, Gonzalo, showed up. He pretended to be like an air traffic controller and Angelito, Diomedes, and Catiluz were the planes. I swear it was like magic. He would say “open your mouth to accept another cargo of soup! Of segundo! More soup!” and suddenly all their trays were empty. Kids are so simple sometimes.

A nurse expertly feeding baby Jhon, a task reserved only for the veterans

Uber's father posing proudly for a photo

Its easy to forget that these kids have families, which is a weird thing to say. Most of their families live far away in the highlands, so they can’t come see them very often. I’ve only seen fathers visit, and only of 2 kids. Uber’s father (still need to confirm spelling of that name) comes the most often. He’s super sweet and was there for a few weeks. It’s so clear how happy the kids are when their parents come. Their eyes light up and they constantly smile. Evelin’s dad also visited and he looks like a serious macho man and wears a leather Indiana Jones hat. I can’t imagine how these parents handle not being able to see their young children everyday. I guess it’s the sacrifice they make so their children can get the attention and rehabilitation they need. It’s actually kind of depressing to think about, but the kids are clearly happy and getting help that they need which is good in the long run.

nom nom nom

Hands in the water cup--typical Flor

Sweet Amy basking in the glow of a full tummy