KidsAlive Manchay
The people that live on the mountains live in cardboard boxes or whatever else they can find to build as a form of shelter. All desert, no grass. Dry and dusty. Poor. Incredibly poor. I have never seen so many houses in such a small area. I'd estimate 100 families could fit in an area the size of my parents house/yard... about a half acre. I imagine that most of them don't have electricity or plumbing. I've only seen places like this in pictures. I feel nervous about working here for a lot of reasons. I think one of the primary reasons is because working there will put names and faces to towns like this. To be one of the "have’s amongst the "have not’s and to internally negotiate my responsibility during and after my time here. And I will somehow have to fit this extreme poverty into my worldview.
The kids asked me to read Snow White in English. And translate it, page by page into Spanish. I lacked some vocab, so the kids helped me out. They told me the word for comb is "piene." When I tried to repeat it, I said a similar word with a very different meaning. Male genitalia. Yeah, I believe my actual sentence was "There was a penis in her hair." Ha. Learning a 2nd language can be so embarrassing.
I realized, after I got home, that no one spoke any English to me the entire day. And I survived! And I understood what people were saying to me. I felt so accomplished!
El Refugio
The kids here are so crazy, so cute. I used to think that I would love to run an orphanage someday, but I have discovered this was a romanticized idea. I am spending a month here, but people spend years working here. I can't begin to put my admiration into words.
There is a boy, Miguel. He's 2 years 6 months old. He and his sister, age 5, came three months ago. Abusive mother. Even though he is past the age of learning to speak, he still can't. His sister often contemplatively stares into space. If you ask her what she's thinking about, she'll look distraught and tell you that she knows she has a mother, but she can't remember what she looks like. She is afraid because she is forgetting.
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There is a new baby- Wilma, 11 months old. She has been in the hospital since she was born. In the two weeks that she's been here, she is learning to not be afraid of people. She is starting to become like a normal baby-- wanting to touch things or play with toys. I almost saw a smile the other day. She's making progress. She is starting to understand that if you set her down, you'll pick her up again.
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