16-4-2010

Kinder´s lunch time!

Anabel having lunch in our table. We had egg, rice and beans!

Cristina with Franklin and Marcos having club sandwiches and fresh peach juice after swimming and playing in the pool.

Franklin had so much fun at the pool!

The three boys who gained most ´smiley faces´got their tickets to the pool!

After my chill-out weekend, I was fully energized and able to deal with some of the issues we have. I'd read somewhere before I came here that working in an orphanage in a developing country can be frustrating, and now I totally understand and feel what it meant! But, the bottom line is that I'm here for the kids, and I need to think of their benefits first. They are the main, if not the only, driving force for me to be here. I truly love them, and I need to be here to help and protect them despite a few frustrations. One good thing is that our home director is very supportive of all the professional work that we do, and that makes it easier somehow.

On a more positive note, the three kids who gained most smiley faces had a surprise last Saturday, which was going to the pool in a nearby nice hotel! It happened to be my weekend off, so I couldn't attend. But, I made them "pasaje para un buen niño" (ticket for a good child) as a symbolic mean of their achievement. From their smiles I could see how proud they felt about themselves, and it helped motivated others to work harder too. So they went to this pool with a water slide, and they were so psyched! And they were so proper and well-behaved throughout the whole time that they didn't seem like they're from dyfunctional homes. I felt so touched and proud of them, and they would have a lot to tell the other kids, and now of course they always ask for 'pasaje'! LOL

Therapies continue to blossom and the kids are making great progress! They are speaking a lot more, but the most noticable is their behaviors, which are almost close to perfect now! Although there're still a few things needed to be sorted out, they have changed drastically, and even the local tias, who were not supportive at first, now see the differences that we've made and are much more respectful and courteous to us now. In fact, their workloads have decreased as well because of therapies and better scheduling! Tia Bertha, a teacher in the niñas section, commented to me that she has noticed how the kinder kids had changed and the room seemed so peaceful now! I was so happy she said that as outsiders can see the progress as well!

Another thing that had made me very happy is that Leticia, a 14-year-old girl, told me how she enjoyed the class of psychology in summer and she thought it's a lot of fun. She also asked me if I can organize a class next year. Somehow I thought they didn't enjoy the class because it involved a lot of concepts that required them to change their perspectives and forms of thinking, which was a challenge for a lot of them. But it was good to know at least she enjoyed it and got something out of it.

Just before therapy on Tuesday, little Jhonatan ran to me and said hello, but suddenly his pants fell off! While it was quite comical, I realized that the pants were stretched out, and he had to pull them up to his chest! It's funny how he knew that and did it by himself. Another thing is that their shoes are either too big or are poor quality flip flops that cause blisters between their toes. They do need some new clothes and shoes badly!