Gifts to the Children of Samoa.
"I wrote and asked the God Parents if they could supply the background
info about the Christmas gifts given to the children of Samoa and having
received their reply I think it would be best to put the intro to the
photos in their own words"
[Angela]
Dear Angela.. I am very glad to know you have enjoyed your trip
to Peru so much and I hope we can have the chance to see you again
soon.
6 or 7 years ago some of my co-workers decided to bring help (medicines,
isolating materials for rain, cold and even solar panels for electricity)
to the people who live up in the mountains in the native villages surrounding
MOQUEGUA and we eventually were invited to join them... last year we
were
assigned to get Christmas presents for all 40 children of one of the
villages.. Somoa... 30 families in Ilo compromised to contribute with
the presents...("God Parents", as we are called by the children)...
and so we happily accomplished the task
of gathering the goods, packing them so each children would get warm
clothes, toys and candy, and taking them to Somoa ourselves... how lucky
we were... it was one of the most wonderful journeys we've, been through.
We started our journey at 5:00 am on Saturday Dec 21st. aboard an
old Mitsubishi truck, loaded with toys, books, clothing, biscuits,
candies, cokes…. and lots of expectations. Our first stop was
Chiligua, at 4550 meters of altitude. It was snowing for a short
while. From Chiligua we started descending thru a very narrow trail
typical of these areas. Two hours later we found spectacular
sightseeing places. Huge mountains all covered by a green carpet.
At a point about 3200m of altitude, we were met by a 12 years old
boy named Brígido. He was in charge of guiding us to Town.
Unfortunately, the access to Somoa had been blocked out by a land
slide, so we could not get to the Plaza as expected. Instead, the
“reception committee” had improvised a small flat area to carry out
the ceremony prepared to welcome us, the “padrinos jugueteros”
(Toy-loaded God Parents).
All children received their presents, each box stencilled with
the proper name of the receiving child. We could hardly keep them
quiet long enough to take some pictures, because they were eager to
run away an open up their presents “alone”.
Somoa, about 1,200 people, stands at 3,300 meters of altitude...
but to get there, you have to first climb up to 4,500 meters -- you
have seen the pictures of Somoa and CAMBRUNE, so no need to tell you
how beautiful these villages are-- We were absolutely overwhelmed by
the wild beauty of nature... but even more, we were touched by the people
who live there... we had prepared ourselves to meet poor, sad, maybe sick,
hungry little children, begging around... how silly !... instead, we
found a happy, full of energy bunch of kids running all over the place,
welcoming us to the top of their lungs... pretty young women holding
cute little babies, strong, handsome young men who never took their
eyes away from us, and sweet old ladies kindly offering us corn, cheese
and potatoes, all dressed up in their beautiful native "holyday clothes"...
yes, they are very poor and they lack most of the things we could not
live without, but they are certainly happy, full of love for their families,
they take care of each other, they have fun, they work hard, they are
proud, they eat what their land produces, they are kind and enjoy visitors
and yes... they go crazy about the goodies from the city, specially
the children, who had a wonderful time....( among the toys there was
a "Spider man" doll that caught the attention of all the children, but
NONE OF THEM wanted it !!.. not familiar with superheroes, space ships,
robots or Santa Claus ! ).. Sharing a couple of hours with them warmed
our hearts and made us wonder about what happiness really is, where
to find it and how.
One of the mothers, spoke in the name of all the Somoans. She only
said:
Thank you very much “padrinos”. …We are happy…..our
children are very happy also. God bless you and your families.
Then they offered us a banquet made of baked potatoes and fresh
cheese.
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