Casa Veronica

Today we drove to another part of Lima to spend the day with the women & children at Casa Veronica (Veronica's House). The house holds living quarters for approximately 20 women & their small children, as well as multiple rooms for sewing & programs hosted by Generacion. Outside, there is a volleyball court & garden, where pomegranates, olives & other fruits & veggies are grown. They also raise chickens & rabbits in the backyard. A building located behind the house is under construction, paid for by Not for Sale, and will host cosmetology & cooking classes once the project is finished!
The girls who are living at Veronica's House are generally between 14 & 21 and the majority of them have one or two young children. The house is a shelter for girls who are victims of sexual exploitation....often homeless & have either been trafficked or sought prostitution as a way to make money, even though they were not of legal age to give consent. One of the women had a baby shower today, so we all took part in a Peruvian baby shower...which was fun! :) The kids at the house were adorable, but it was so sad to see girls who are YOUNGER than me who have already been through so much. Some of the girls shared their stories & it was devastating.
Anyway, here's a cool story from the day! This morning a young boy named Cristofer came to our hotel to eat breakfast with us - he is one of the Surfing Tribes kids who we hung out with yesterday. We became good friends...he liked my phone & my camera & he really wanted me to listen to his reggaeton music, which I was ok with. :) However, he dropped his headphones & they broke. He was pretty bummed about it & moped for awhile. Now, before the trip I looked absolutely EVERYWHERE for my old iPhone or my iPod nano & I could not find either one, which meant no music for my trip. However, in the midst of my searching I went ahead & packed my headphones in hopes of finding my iPod. Therefore, I had a pair of headphones with me and no use for them! Soooo I ran up to the room & brought Cris the headphones...the kid was THRILLED. It was pretty cool! What an awesome God thing, right?
Wellllll I'm off to bed! We have to be ready by 5:30 am to fly to Cusco in the morning! To las montañas we go...leaving la playa behind! (Spanish lesson: montañas - mountains, playa - beach)