Here we go again!
I have been waiting a year to be back at this place. This time my family and I had a special guest. His name is Benoit and he is a friend that I met when I used to live in Europe.
Benoit is from France and travelled all the way to deliver meals in Peru to 700 children.
The night before the event we had a lot of fun packing the backpacks, sorting out the clothes and cutting bread. My parents have a really good sense of humor and Benoit can speak Spanish which made the interaction between them very easy. We had a blast!
The day of the delivery my family, Benoit and myself started very early in the morning. My parents woke up at 4:00 am to make the hot chocolate and we started around 6:00 am
This year was a little bit different. A lot of the children were not able to come to event. But some of the moms at the community informed us of some remote areas in the village where we can delivered our meals and clothes as well.
When we arrived, I recognized a lot of faces. Faces that I had the pleasure to meet the year before. Our favourite clown was there again! He got us all dancing and laughing with his jokes and games.
After the clown performed, we started with the distribution of the meals, clothes and toys. The line was very long and it was really hot but everybody stayed there and waited.
When we finally realized that we only had 400 kids at the event, we decided to deliver the meals somewhere else, somewhere where I have never been before and to be honest I was not prepared for what I was going to experienced.
I remember in my early teens that a group of Boston came to volunteer to my town and we went to places really really poor. Back in 1998 was went I experienced extreme poverty. I thought I was poor or that my family was considered poor but poor people does not have TV or new pair of jeans or go to a private English school. My parents made a lot of sacrifices for my education and I appreciate everything they did for me and going to Shanty town for the first time made me realize that my family was not poor. We experience necessity but nothing like this.
After leaving my family and friends in Peru, I moved to Canada in 2011 and although I went back in 2015 after five year for Christmas. I was prepared. My mom told all about the last three times she delivered meals with my family in Oasis de Villa and how poor the people were and I kind of knew how it was going to be.
I certainly was not ready to experience that extreme poverty again. it was a cultural shock see the cardboard houses again with no roof or no doors.
People have asked why I do this every year, and the reason is not to forget my roots and where I come from.
We made two stops and again we ran out of everything and people were still lining up.
At the end of the day it left us with a big smile!
It was a big day and I would like to thank everybody who cooperate and make this possible.
Thank you again for another great delivery day!!
Love,
Dianita