Today our hearts broke!

Today our hearts broke! I have to admit that though we love all the kids at Pueblos, we do have our little favourites, one of which is a little 10 year old boy in grade 5 whose name is Jose Leonardo. Jose is the cutest sweetest and smartest boy. At first we thought he was a bit clued out but in reality he is a brilliant, beautiful, funny, loving and bright child. He is like an absorbant sponge, taking in all the information , acing his tests and speaking english at every opportunity. We have fallen in love with him and his sister in grade 4 who is also a shining star. Today I discovered there was an even smaller Jose Leonardo in grade 1, who came over to me and shouting "whatsya name, whatsya name" and I thought oh my god we don't even teach the younger grades and english is spreading like wildfire amongst even the smallest kids. Then I looked closer and saw this very cute familiar face, a little jose just a lot smaller, it was jose's little brother and he had been teaching english to the rest of his 9 brothers and sisters.

Anyhow we were planning on visiting Jose Leonardo's family next week because we were quite curious about his family situation, since they had produced such brilliant kids even in the midst of poverty. The girls and I discussed his abilities and concluded that he must come from an unusual two parent involved family. We talked about how lucky they must be to have such a rare family dynamic. (Most poor families, quite large in size, more than not, don't have a permanent father figure.) Anyhow today after the kids had their test on "farm and wild animals," at the end of class someone told me that Jose Leonardo was crying while frantically reading his "bible." We were naturally concerned about what had happened seeing how this kid was always happy and could light up a room with his energy. I went to get the teacher because my spanish still sucks and all we could make out was that he didn't want to talk because he felt shame, he felt embarrassed. He kept saying that "his heart felt bad pain." The teacher pulled him aside and the worst of the worst came out. I looked at the other volunteers and we both feared what we were about to learn. The kid was hiding under his desk as he proceeded to tell his story, he felt humiliated. He begins to tell the story about his father ... today another classmate decided to tell Jose Leonardo the truth about his father that his mother had been shielding him and the other children from. He was told today that the baby his 15 year old sister had was actually his fathers. His father had raped Jose's 15 year old sister. The father had taken off after the mother learned of what had happened, and shun him from the family. Apparently the father wasn't working and one day when the mother had left for work the father raped his own 15 year old daughter. The daughter had to move away, and though the story was in all the papers this man continues to walk free, a normal occurrence here. Police here you see don't like to get involved in "matters of the home" (characteristic of a machismo culture), even in extreme cases as these. And even if they did get involved so many cases just get blown to the side, men who repeatedly beat their wives or sexually abuse their children, in most cases walk away free and are never prosecuted. After all to prosecute you need money to fill out forms, and who has that. The justice system is corrupt, inefficient and undersubsidized. In any event this poor boy was tramautized. A pyshchologist around to help him, his sister, the mother? No ... a poor family living in a shanty town would never have such a luxury. The closest thing to help is us. And so today, our brightest little boy felt only darkness ... it's so sad isn't it? The kicker, sometimes this man still comes around ... and it isn't to contribute to the family finances!

An update on Little Jose Leonardo

Well we finally made a visit to Jose's house yesterday. The mother was extremely hospitable, offering us lunch and cheecha (peruvian corn liquor). The house at this point not a shocker but still hard to imagine actually having to live there. The walls made of straw and bamboo, dirt floors, 3 chairs, a small wooden table, an open pit to cook (smoke filled room in 90 degree sweltering heat), one bedroom (partitioned off) the baby (6 months - probably the 15 year old daughter's child from the father) lying on a sheet on the dirt floor, a starving baby cat, a couple of baby ducks and chickens running through the house, the roof partially open to the sky (rainy season is approaching), a pig, a couple of pots and pans, 5 of Jose's 9 little brothers and sisters, and about 10 curious neighbourhood children quietly observing, and 3 gringa's. The family was delighted that we had come to visit. At first when we arrived Jose was utterly shocked and emabarrassingly shy as he had not prepared for our arrival. He went inside to change into his best clothing and slicked back his hair. The youngest, Jose's 3 year old brother Ulyses, was busting with excitement with our arrival, drinking cheecha, bumping into walls and falling down, and saying he was borracha (I'm drunk). (cheecha is easier to come by than clean water, and so kids even 3 years old drink it). It was so unbelievable for Jose and his family that we had actually come to his house. It's hard to explain how they felt but it is kind of like this ... it seems like poor people place this exaggerated importance on North Americans. They see everyone with white skin as having high status, almost on the same level as we would view movie stars. Our visit was kind of like the President or Brad Pitt stopping by. Though we don't have anything near such status they view us as if we do, and so for them it is an extreme compliment for us to take time our of our seemingly important lives to come and see them. Not only that but when we asked them if it would be alright to share Christmas with their family they were flabbergasted! Though we had many invitations to spend Christmas with our friends we thought it would be more special to spend it in the shanty town, with one of our students family. Knowing that this family is surviving on almost nothing, we offered to bring the food and agreed to cook it together at their house. Jose's eyes were just so moved at our request. And of course we couldn't be happier to be there as well.

I told Jose's mother that her children were exceptionally bright and that Jose had won a certificate for the highest achiever in English. She was a proud mom, and told us that Jovanny and Jose take great pride in English class and guard their english notebook like precious material. By the way my boss at the private institute that I work part time at, had approached me with wanting to join the efforts of my project. I told him that although we want to help all the children we have limited resources. Other than offering free english courses, school supplies, sports equipment etc. we really couldn't do much more on a widescale. I told him that my secondary goal was to choose a few children, and financially support them so that they could attend university. He was really taken back by this and felt that he wanted to do the same. He too would like to see at least one or some of the kids get out of their poverty and go to university. Sooooo, after some brainstorming, he is going to approach several schools that he has contracts with to participate in offering scholarships for university and various other institutes. Excited by his cooperation I quickly told him of Jose Leonardo. So at the moment we are working on setting up a fund and finding contributors so that we can put little Jose and others like him through University! If together we can accomplish this I couldn't be prouder. I want to see Jose excel in whatever he wants to do, I want to see him graduate from his inevitable cycle of poverty, I want to see him utilize the talents that he apparently has, and want to see him use his success to help the rest of his family. Imagine that, little Jose on graduation day!!!