Cuidad de los ninos

We’ve been volunteering at this orphanage for a while now, and we are loving it!! It is such a privilege to work with these amazing kids and with the sisters who care for them so lovingly. There are just over 40 kids living here, from little babies a few months old to kids in high school, so it’s a pretty diverse group.

Elementary kids:

We often just visit with the kids, which we all enjoy, we have also done one little translation project regarding some poison oak/ivy/sumac lotions that were donated, but all the instructions were in English. We have also been teaching English in two different classes, the elementary kids in one and the middle and high schoolers in the others. What a blast!

Two of the high school students have scholarships from the local Rotary club and will be traveling to California to live and study English for a year. They are Angel and Aida. The rest of the kids want to learn English for varying reasons from future work, to just being able to better communicate with the North Americans that visit them on occasion.

A few favorites have struck us for various reasons. Jesus Andres is Ralph’s favorite hands down. He’s 9 months old and just a cute and funny little guy. Luis and Martin are 10 and 11 and are very fun loving. They enjoy roller blading on the broad patio at the orphanage and they also enjoy bouncing on the trampoline. They are always laughing and being silly and generally enjoying life.

Llesica is a quiet little girl with a great sense of humor and she also enjoys the trampoline. Luz Maria is my personal favorite, a sweet, shy little six year old who struggles a bit in school and in the English class, but she is bound and determined to learn. We try to give her a little extra help when we can. She just can’t write things down as quickly as the other students and is hesitant to ask for extra time to finish her writing.

Dulce and Gloria are what we would call in the States “tweens”, not little kids anymore, but not quite teenagers either. They want to be in the limelight always and will often jump in and answer questions posed to the others. Little Daniella is a cute little toddler whose favorite thing is to ride around in a little plastic foot powered car…she has invaded our classroom on more than one occasion to see what’s up. She’s just afraid she’s missing something!

This is where we feel the most fulfillment as far as work here goes and where we feel like we are operating in God’s will. God is truly at work there and we are just blessed to come along for the ride. We are thankful!!!