Love, a Baby and a Volcano

Happy Friday!

I have recently been reading the book Father Wasson wrote in 1975 which explains the philosophy of the NPH family (Quien Vera por los Ninos –Who will care for the children?) in order to best understand the four founding pillars of this home.  I am happy to be sharing the third (and my favorite) pillar of the NPH family with everyone today: love. Let’s be honest, “All you need is love”, anyway, right?

 I’m sure many of you have noted the underlying love in all that I have described about my new home. It’s hard to miss the love that my family of 300 siblings and countless tias and tias are constantly showing towards each other. Whether it is a warm hug every morning before breakfast, a kind kiss on the cheek between classes or a smelly embrace after a long game of soccer, even I feel the love.

As told by Father Wasson this love comes from the security felt by every child who enters the home. They enter into a home where they will never again have to fear hunger, abuse or neglect. They will be protected from whatever led them here, slowly learning how to just be kids. In all of this security, they find love. Love not only grows, but also flourishes in a home as secure as ours.

For example, the price of beans is extremely high because of a current drought throughout the country. Although beans are a staple, if not THE, staple food here, all of our children will still be fed. Three times a day, and with snacks in between; they will receive enough food and nutrition to grow. They will never have to worry about getting their next meal. Isn’t it a bit easier to love with a full stomach?

As for other happenings in the home, I was lucky to co-host a baby shower this week! About a week ago the topic of baby showers came up in conversation with the tias of my house and they told me that they don’t normally happen here because they can be expensive. However, we soon realized that Tia Divina, the tia in the house next to ours (of the youngest boys) was about 8 months pregnant. The logical next step? Plan a baby shower for her. To avoid the issue of money, we decided to all bring a little something and make gifts optional. All we wanted to do was surprise her with love and good luck on the birth. The shower was planned for Thursday morning at 9 am.

          Well at Thursday morning at 7 am we realized that Tia Divina had already had her baby boy on Monday morning. Rather than scratch the party, the tias from my house managed to get the home’s van to bring the party to her. All in good spirits 12 tias, tios and myself piled in, bringing a cake, a piñata, sodas, and snacks. We were only able to stay at the house for about half an hour due to the terrible weather and fear of getting caught but it was wonderful all the same. Take a look at some of the pictures!

Four days of rain really flooded the city. 

The cross streets looked like mini-rivers but people -even motorcycles-used them anyway.

Here is the piñata that we brought and ended up leaving for the kids to play with later on.

Most all of the baby shower attendees with the baby. 

Tia Divina cutting the cake (we forgot candles, whoops!)

The star of the day (yet to be named) was impressively peaceful all morning. 

Today I also had another totally different and fun adventure….Since it’s my weekend off, I decided to finally climb the volcano that I can see from my front door. It has been calling and calling and finally taunting me since I arrived so I ignored the terrible past 4 days of rain and set off this morning. Stocked with a full camel back, some protein bars and a raincoat I set off with naïve hopes. After a short trip and some friendly help along the way I arrived at the base of the volcano. Being stubborn, cheap and a bit arrogant I refused to pay transport to the top and instead decided to hike it. Well, 2 hours of 90 degree inclines covered in slippery moss later, I finally reached the top of the volcano!

My plan was to set out on a 4 hour loop to see the craters and overlooks from this point. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible. The final transport down to the entrance was leaving about ten minutes after I reached the top due to so few visitors that day. My self-preservation overcame my arrogance as I imagined the broken wrist that I would no doubt suffer from slipping on the way down. So I gave in and rode the bus down. Without setting foot on the path for the craters. Oh well! I guess ill just have to go back soon! Thank goodness it’s so close.

Before I saw the treacherous inclines...

After I saw the inclines.

Here's a mini-volcano to show how high I hiked. It is about 1300 meters, pretty high!

This is just one view of the gorgeous trails I passed.

Food for the week…

Yesterday was a boy from my house’s birthday and I decided to make him the BEST cake ever. I bought real cocoa powder and followed the Hershey’s recipe to make a “Delicious Moist Chocolate Cake”. Unfortunately my cake refused to rise and  was a bit TOO moist. But I brought it and everyone enjoyed it anyway! I’ll have to figure out how to make it soon because I have another birthday coming in 2 weeks!

Casa San Jose celebrating a birthday

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think in the comments section below.