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Published: November 28th 2008
At this rate I’ll finish last summer’s blog sometime in 2010 but I’m still plugging away.
So my last week at the orphanage involved many great and fabulous things that made me feel very loved and appreciated, but early that week was also the only truly negative experience that I had during my time with them.
When Madeleine and I got to the orphanage on Monday we realized that we were the only two volunteers for the afternoon. There was some random woman there who we later discovered was a nutritionist. She was there to take the kids to the local health clinic for their regular weigh in and such. After some debate it was decided that all the kids would walk to the clinic at the same time. Madeleine and I would go along with one Tía and the nutritionist. So we wrangled them all into groups by age. The 5 mid-aged boys (my homework group) and Beatriz were in a line—all holding on to a jump rope to keep them organized. Then the toddlers were put in a line with two jump ropes tied together to keep them contained—they were to hold on with both hands. The
3 older girls were loose to help out with the younger ones.
We headed out and down the road in one of the most bizarre and unorganized processions I’ve ever been a part of. The Tía with us was the one in charge of the babies and she walked ahead with Madeleine, really just worried about them. The nutritionist walked with the kinder/1st group and I was left to bring up the rear with the toddlers. The kids were wandering all over the streets with cars taking the corners way too fast—and in the wrong lanes. I was the only one that seemed at all concerned about the situation.
The further we went the farther behind my group fell. Trying to walk 4 toddlers in a row down a questionably paved street is no easy feat. Pretty much every half a block someone would take a spill and then the rest of them would go down like dominoes. If I hadn’t been dealing with crying toddlers lying in the middle of a street it would have actually been quite hilarious to watch them knock each other over--repeatedly.
About half way to the clinic I gave up on
the jump rope plan I’d been given. I called the older girls back, gave each one a kid to walk with and we made it the rest of the way like that.
Being quite proud that we had made it there alive I figured that things would be less stressful once we were inside a contained area. Not so! It was pretty much complete chaos. The kids were running wild in an indoor patio heading up the stairs and down various hallways. The Nutritionist was inside and as soon as the babies were done Tía Sonia and Madeleine left to take them back. I was left completely alone with all the other kids.
Especially stressful were the toddlers. You just can’t reason with them! And, as they took all my time, the older boys (who usually listen to me) were completely out of control. The kids were climbing the fence around a tree and just generally acting like wild animals. One person cannot watch 13 or so kids in this kind of environment! The other people were looking at us like I was insane. But what really upset me was that I caught three of the toddlers, at
different points, as they were heading out the open front door to a crazy busy street. One was actually already on the sidewalk outside. I went in and told the nutritionist that it wasn’t working and I needed help—I was pretty forceful. She sent out a girl who yelled at the kids and told them to sit down which they did—it lasted all of about 30 seconds. Same results for the second girl she sent.
After what seemed like FOREVER Tía Flor showed up with Maricielo whose diaper she’d been changing and the kids listened to her a little more, plus there were two of us. She had to stay there and so on the way back it was just the Nutritionist and me. It’s a serious miracle that nothing bad ended up happening.
After we got back I went to tell Sonia how frustrated and upset I was about what had happened. I ended up crying, I think I was just so beyond stressed as I had been so sure something terrible was going to happen, and on my watch no less. My thought was that you’re pretty much not going to find a volunteer more qualified
than me (my job is to keep control of 20 kids and I actually speak Spanish) to be left in that situation and it turned out like that, just imagine if it had been someone else.
The next day I got called down to the office of Lilia the head Tía. She told me how sorry they were and that they had had a meeting and that it would never happen again. Sonia apologized as well and said that she had been so focused on the babies that she just hadn’t thought about leaving me there with that many kids. I got a chance to explain how concerned I had been about safety in a much calmer way—and I definitely feel like I was heard. Actually, she said that some of the Tías had been having problems with behavior as well. One had been left alone with the kids a couple of days earlier and as soon as the others had gotten home she’d said, “you deal with them they're out of control!” and went to the Tías’ room. It did make me feel better that it wasn’t just me.
The rest of the week was pretty uneventful.
On Thursday I was doing the usual drill of homework and chaos with the boys in the basement when the French volunteer, Marie headed out saying she was buying cake ingredients. Sounds good. But when I asked about it again on our way home she said it was for my going away party on Friday. Still sounding good, except Friday wasn’t supposed to be my last day. I was actually coming back the next Tuesday. They decided to stick with the cake and speeches on Friday anyway.
Madeleine had raised money to buy things for the orphanage before coming and she’d been going out regularly with Lilia to buy things they needed. She was leaving for good the day after me and still had some big tickets items to take care of (like a fridge!) On Friday they decided to take me along to help out translating and such. It was a strange but interesting trip.
It was the first time I really had a chance to talk to Lilia for any length of time. I found out that the orphanage was started by her and the other women a couple of years ago. They gave up good
jobs (and salaries) to move in to a house with 18+ kids and work 24/7 for no pay. Amazing! Lilia had worked for a non-profit, Sonia owned her own business, and one of the other women worked in an office. They moved into the building and furnished it with their personal belongings from their former homes.
Anyway, when we finally made it back Marie had used the oven at the orphanage for the first time ever to bake 3 cakes, chocolate, apricot and apple. They cut the cake into piece, put it in front of the kids at the table, and then made them sit and wait while they set up everyone else, and gave speeches about me.
So, in keeping with what seems to be standard when describing me with kids Lilia talked about how I am apparently the “discipline Tía.” She thanked me repeatedly for all the discipline I brought to the orphanage. Then she made the kids apologize for their behavior at the Health Clinic, and Jorge Luis had to apologize for hitting me (which he did on accident earlier that week). I responded to what the Tías said and sort of said goodbye to
the kids, but not really because I knew I was coming back. And they waited there for all this with cake sitting right in front of them. Now that’s some serious (self)discipline if you ask me (and I am, apparently, the expert). When we finally got to eat the cakes they were delicious.
I went ahead and went back to the orphanage on Tuesday after my trip to the Colca Canyon and my very last day in Arequipa. Since it was my last day there and Madeleine’s second to last day we had decided to go face painting with the kids. I got stuck doing the longest homework assignments in the history of the planet and so face painting got off to a late start—and it was an crazy-ass mess like everything that happens there. But, it was fun, and in the end we got all their faces painted (with varying degrees of success).
I was also frantically trying to get the kids’ “All About Me” posters taken care of. In the midst of it all I hauled Carlos off to on a secret mission to put the kids’ posters up over their beds. I don’t know how
they were received, because they didn’t see them until after I was gone, but I hope they liked having them up—I hope it made there small amount of personal space a little more their own, and a little more special.
When we were done and on our way out I said goodbye to the kids one last time (thankfully, there were no more speeches about how strict I am). And then on the way through the basement the Tías stopped me to say goodbye. It was actually quite sad. They are some truly amazing women and yet they had some very nice things to say to me and that really meant a lot. They gave me a Peruvian hat to remember them by--How could I forget?
That night we went out to dinner and then dancing with a lot of volunteers as a going away for both me and Madeleine. I headed back to my hostel earlier than the others to finish packing and head to the airport at like 4:30 am. I was off to Cusco to meet up with Willow.
I wasn’t really sad about leaving the kids until the next day—then I really did
actually miss them a bit. It is quite surprising how fast you can bond with them. It’s funny how they can carve out a little place for themselves in your heart in such a brief time. I only spent just over 3 weeks with them and even now several months later I still think of them on a regular basis.
I’m very glad that I decided to spend my summer with them. I learned a lot and it was worth every second of it.
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myrna fanucchi
non-member comment
you
That was a very touching story.