Through the Eyes of Child

Photo: The lovely children of the Alto Cayma Daycare

When Father Alex first came to Alto Cayma he was alarmed by the number of children that died from very preventable accidents. Children were being left in small 3-meter by 3-meter homes while their parents spent the entire day away in the city looking for work. Many times the children would, looking for water or something to drink, get into a noxious substance. Father said he found himself burying child after child and knew he had to find a solution.

The solution was to build a daycare center. Quickly his program grew - from a small room in a small house to a four room school with a playground, kitchen and complete bathroom (with stalls for bathing the children everyday). Today the daycare is a full fledged preschool, certified by the Peruvian Ministry of Education. There are five certified and fully credentialed teachers, daycare services from 7 am until 7 pm (to match the long work hours of the people living in Alto Cayma) and weekly medical and dental examinations. The school has over 100 children enrolled.

This morning I was very preoccupied with the amount of work I have on my "plate." I knew I needed to get on-line and un-burry myself from my hundreds of emails. Equally, my "To Do" list seems to be multiplying before my eyes. As luck would have it, the power was off at the Mission compound and I could not get on-line. As such, I decided to follow Ben (HBI's Director of Operations) as he did a bit of filming for a small documentary we are developing for Father Alex.

The minute we got into the daycare we were surrounded by children screaming "visitante," which means visitor in English. They swarmed us and enveloped us with hugs and kisses. For about 30-minutes we had a constant succession of kids coming up asking for hugs or wanting to hold our hands. I quickly began to realize that all of my preoccupation to work and my "To Do" list meant nothing when I looked into the eyes of these lovely children.

I began to realize how important it is for me to be fully present to the life of our little girl and how much impact that "presence" will have on her life. I realized once again that my greatest gift is not my ability to churn out email after email . . . but commitment to be a loving, compassionate person.