Falling even more in love

I never thought it could be possible to be in love with a dozen different boys at once! All day and night sunday and monday I was acting as madre to one of the boys houses, and it was one of the sweetest experiences I have ever had. The days were challenging, of course, attempting to get everyone to do their chores, get to meals on time and bathe, ect. We fought, played, wrestled, cuddled, argued and laughed a lot! But then that night every one of them wanted nothing more than to show affection toward me. These boys are not like the boys in the states who have a mother to coddle them and be coddled by them, so even the older boys just want to be loved on. I was sitting on the couch with three boys combing my hair, two in my lap and the rest holding any available appentage. It was both heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. Love crosses the language barrier.
As I have previously mentioned, days here are always eventful. This week we had a gathering here at the orphanage that included three other orphanages, as well as many of the kids from surrounding villages. We had a show put on for them and then handed out a donated toy for each of the kids. Tomorrow we are doing a garage sale open to the public as a fundraiser for the orphanage.
I am always surprised how friendly the peruvians are. They always like meeting new people, especially gringos! Whenever we go out anywhere we gather quite a lot of attention. Today on the bus a very strange old man kept taking pictures of me and two other girls. It was very funny, but creepy too! He wiggled his eyebrows at me.
My comprehension of the spanish language is not progressing as quickly as I had hoped. Communication is still extremely difficult. My top priority at this moment is to try and learn as much as I can as quickly as I can. Teaching classes or being in charge of kids for any events is ridiculously hard without Spanish. It is difficult to be taken seriously when I don´t speak the language, although it is understandably so.
I have not come to many conclusions about how to love these children. I feel like a fraud when I say ¨I love you¨. That statement comes with a promise. To me it means that I will do anything it takes to do what is best for you. And although I mean it with all of my heart, I will not be here forever and I don´t want them to think love is temporary. The only permanent thing I can do for them is to teach them about the love of Jesus, which will never leave. But these are just babies, and they need people, too.