My first shift

To give you all a little background.. We work at an orphanage called SVP. Its a catholic Orphanage run by Nun’s. And man, They are saints!! 

In the orphanage there are 3 “salas” or rooms. Sala Uno.. Which is kids ages newborns to about 6 months. Sala dos..Which is kids ages six months to about a year. And then Sala Tres.. Which is about a year to two years. When there are more volunteers we go to different orphanage sites too but since we are low on numbers right now we give all our time to SVP. 

There are morning and afternoon shifts. Each 4 hours long. One volunteer in sala uno and dos and then two volunteers in sala tres per shift. And right now there are only 5 of us volunteers so we are definitely kept busy. 

There are about 8 kids in sala uno, 8 kids in sala dos, and about 11 in sala tres. So yes, that is one volunteer with 8 newborns. One volunteer with 8 one year olds. And two volunteers with 11 screaming, fighting, not yet walking two year olds. This aint easy work.  

So my first shift yesterday was in Sala Tres. We get there at about 2 o clock and we go in and get them from their naps. We then take a child, put their shoes and socks, set them in the playroom and then repeat until each child is complete. Then it’s play/therapy time. Since they are in an orphanage they are pretty behind. Like I said earlier, some of these 2 year olds don’t even know how to walk or crawl yet. So we do different physical therapies with them to try and help them catch up. 

Since its Christmas time the orphanage community has been throwing fiestas. Basically its like a huge chaotic birthday party. There are jump houses, cotton candy, soda, treats, clowns.. you name it. It was interesting though because all the adults were dressed up like it was Halloween. They were princesses, mickey mouse, and other extravagant costumes. It was awesome. So me and the other volunteer were told to take 6 of the Tres kids to this fiesta across the street. Two of the kids could walk and then the rest couldn’t. So we were each holding two kids while trying to hold the hand and contain the walking child. Its chaos! Definitely a sight to see. So we get there and all these adults come up to us wanting to hold and take the children. The kids are so loved. Then it started raining so we had to gather all of the 6 children who were scattered among the park and bring them back to the orphanage. We get back to the orphanage play with them a little more and then its soupa time. This is their dinner. We have to take each child and pin them down in our laps and then spoon force feed them this huge bowl of soup. Its nasty. But its how they do things here. After each child is fed we play some more. Then we brush each childs teeth, change their clothes into pajamas lay them in their cribs with a bottle and we are finally finished for the night. Whew!!! 

Mind you, I’m in Ecuador, they don’t speak english here. All while doing this I have no idea what people are trying tell me to do or no way to communicate. The children don’t even know english. I by natural habit start talking to everyone in english and then it takes me a second to realize that they know no english! I wish I could explain better how weird this is. Learning Spanish is definitely on my list of things to do asap.

By the end of the night I was completely exhausted. But so happy. I already love these children and people so much. 

Funny story: So last night we decided to watch a Christmas movie. So we put on the Grinch in the living room and me and 4 other girls watched it. Well we were so exhausted about halfway through we all fell asleep. Sean, our boss, is a major jokester. He love playing pranks and scaring us. Well last night while we were all asleep on the couches Sean decided to get a package of fireworks and light them right in front of our faces on the living room floor. I don’t think I have ever been so scared in my life. We all let out a pretty big scream and Sean had a very good laugh. After my heart stopped pounding and I came to my senses I thought it was pretty funny myself. Thats just the kind of fun we have here. When in America would you ever let off fireworks in your living room? Only in Ecuador.