Portraits of Peru-Anderson

So here I was the second day in Peru, going to meet my six year old sponsor child for the first time. I love children and I enjoy connecting and playing with them, so why was I nervous about spending a full day with Anderson?  I was thinking, what am I going to talk about with him all day long? Will he be shy? That’s how he looks like in his picture.

As I was in lobby of the hotel, looking around at the kids, one seemed familiar. My interpreter said, “There is your sponsor child, Anderson.”  I walked over to this little boy with big brown eyes and deep brown skin.  As I went to talk to him, his mother gently pushed him towards me and his face split into a smile as he gave me a hug.  I knew everything was going to be okay.

I asked him few questions about his family, school and hobbies, before we had to get into the bus to go to the beach.   As we were talking, Anderson found out there was a hotel and swimming pool at the beach and he was so excited about going swimming in a pool.  He had been to the beach before, but never a pool!

As we drove along the highway, he pointed out different things we were passing.  His questions came non-stop. “Is there a slide in the pool?  My dad told me about a giant slide that went into a pool.  How long will it be before we get there?  I hope there is a slide in the pool.  Look, there is car coming towards us.  Oh one just passed us up.”  His enthusiasm and excitement was contagious.

I then told him that he probably would count at least a hundred cars passing us before we arrived at the beach.  He proceed to count each car passing and as the interpreter said number after number in English, I told her she didn’t need to interpret each number, especially since I had given Anderson the idea to count them all.

When we arrived at the beach, Anderson saw the swimming pool and we  had to call him back to get his wrist band and wait for all of us to change our clothes.  As we were in line waiting to change into our bathing suits, the music played and Anderson started to dance.  I told him that I loved to dance too, so the two of danced around and around.

When we went to the beach, we played soccer in the waves with a beach ball.  Anderson loves soccer; He told me that he watches every soccer game that Peru played.  He could tell me the scores of the games and which games they won and which they lost.  While we were playing ocean soccer, we would yell gooooal, if we kicked the ball past each other.

Finally we were able to play in the pool.  Before any of us adults could get to the pool, Anderson was already there and he jumped in uninhibited.  We played keep the ball away from the shark and the alligator, and splashed around in the pool for almost hour. 

As we were playing, Anderson noticed a little boy and girl nervous about getting in the water and he went over to encourage them to get in.   He talked to the parents and the children.   He was a confident and compassionate little boy.

When it was lunch time, it was hard to get him out of the pool, he so enjoyed it. But we managed to convince him that he needed to eat his lunch. As were eating, more talking and questions came.  Suddenly he noticed that other people were playing at a nearby pool table.  He wanted to play too, “Can I play? Maybe they will let me play if I ask.”  Mom told him wait until after lunch.  Between mom, the interpreter and I, we convinced him to finish lunch before playing pool.

After we finished our game, we all sat down and I gave Anderson and his mom some little gifts. Of course he wanted to play with the balls, but mom said to draw a picture to give to me.   Mom knew that it was almost time to go.  With mom’s help Anderson drew a picture of the interpreter, him and me playing in the pool, and then we prayed and got back on the van.

 As we were leaving, Anderson said, “Mom, we need to come back her again.”  Now his question was, “When could they come back and do this again?”  And then he asked me a question. “When will you come back again?”  My heart wanted to say soon.  I had fallen in love with this little boy so full of life and love.  My answer instead was, “probably not for a while, it depends on God’s plan.”

As we drove off, satisfied with a day that was beyond my expectations, slowly Anderson relaxed and fell asleep.  All of us felt quite content and tired, so we joined Anderson in a little nap, as the driver drove us back to Piura.