First day at the Foundation

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Today was my first official day working at the foundation, and it was an interesting one. Most of the children are away on holiday, so less than half have been there for over a week. They will slowly trickle back in until Sunday, then it will be back to almost 60.

It is so interesting how this foundation works. A lot of the children have parents who are dead, and a lot have parents who are addicted to drugs and on the streets. Some do have parents and/or family that they return to for holidays if they want to, but I am not quite sure how that works. It seems that some would literally be returning to the streets for days at a time.

Today we only taught two lessons and spent most of the day at the park and playing games to try to teach them English. While we were at the park with 6 of the girls, a homeless woman selling gum (quite common here) walked by and stopped to watch us playing. I heard one of the girls say in Spanish "it's your mother," but I thought she was kidding. As it turned out, that woman was actually the mother of three of the girls staying at the foundation, all of whom were with us. She stopped and chatted for a little while, but then just kept on her way selling gum along the street. While she was there, she told two of the volunteers that her children have been at the foundation for years, and that she gets beat up by men on a fairly regular basis while she is on the streets. One of the little girls who is 8 years old did not even have a reaction to the fact that her mother was there. She did not say anything, but when the woman left, she stared at her until she was out of sight. How sad!

Yesterday in our orientation, Sam was explaining to us that the foundation originally tried to help the parents, but most of the time the parents were resistant to help. Apparently they prefer their freedom, and they would rather sell things on the streets when they want to, even if that was not providing any kind of opportunities or nourishment to their children. Therefore the foundation found it to be a waste of time and resources and decided to only help the children.

The children at this place range in age from 2-17. They are all so friendly, the ones that are there, and are clearly appreciative of any kind of help and affection. They get fed well and they all have decent clothes on their backs. When we bring these children out and they want to go to a store and spend their allowance on candy, I am certain that the people at the "tiendas" do not have a clue that they are all orphans. These children have such sad backgrounds and life stories, but they are all happy at the foundation with their moms that devote their lives to taking such good care of them. It is amazing what they do here, a crucial ray of sunshine in a constantly threatening storm.

My Spanish is terrible and the children don't speak much English, so it is certainly an interesting experience. Nonetheless, they hold my hand and play games with me and communicate with me the best they can. They are wonderful and make me so happy. I am taking a lot of notes about what has been done here!

Other than that, I met some more people from America. I had dinner with a girl from Greenburgh, and chatted away with a guy from Hastings who is staying at my hostel. I am sincerely enjoying listening to everyone's stories because most of these people have been all over the world. I am more grateful than ever for everything I have been blessed with, and I love Medellin!

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