La Policia de La Familia

I've been back to work with the kids at La Policia again, though I've only been able to go a couple of time due to my affliction, which is much improved today.

It is somewhat improved since my last visit though still quite grim. They've put down a new tiled floor which makes it more comfortable and easier to keep clean. The walls have been newly painted and the bathroom has had a much needed renovation with a new toilet and wash basin. There's also a shower which they can use but only with cold water, but better than no shower at all.

Other than that the place hasn't changed much, though I don't think there are so many children taken there anymore. Certainly not the twenty or thirty we had in the past. But the need remains the same for the kids who are there. And I think the police do their best in difficult circumstances, after all they are not social workers, just the same as cops back in UK.

There were seven kids there on my first day. David a wee boy of 11 years who had run away from his home somewhere in The Sacred Valley, many many miles away from Cusco. How he was able to make it I have no idea. But here he is. He will be taken back home I think once they make contact with his family. But why he left is something else and he doesn't seem keen to explain. He speaks Quechua and I got him to write a wee bit for me. Told him he must try to keep learning it and never to lose it.

Jerson is a boy of 13 years who ran away from his home in Cusco because of the beatings administered by his parents. He refuses to go back and police and courts have agreed so he is now waiting to find a place in a childrens home, which in fact has now been found, so I said goodbye to him and don't expect to see him again. He wants me to visit him there, but I doubt if I will be able to. Will see how things go.

There were also three teenage girls there who had been lifted on Friday night for being at a disco underage. The punishment seems harsh. They were still there three days later. Their parents don't seem too bothered or in too much of a rush to collect them. Wonder what happened to the owner of the disco. Certainly not been locked up for a few days, but maybe they will close the place down for breaking the rules.

There's also the fourteen year old girl who is pregnant and been thrown out by parents for refusing an abortion. Happy days. She hopes to go to live with her boyfrind, the father,  who is 19 and lives with his folks. Don't know how that works out here. Not sure of legal ages etc.

All for now.