Yesterday during class, Joaquin showed me the way to the children's home that I'll be volunteering at for this week. We went with another girl and her teacher and on the way we stopped for snacks. The teachers got these things that looked like snow cones except they put actual fruit on them instead of just juice and the one teacher got chili powder or something put on hers too. I tried hers and it tasted like puke, so I didn't get anything haha. I don't understand why you would ever think to put spicy powder with fruit.
When we got to the home, they gave us a tour of the place. There are almost 80 kids that live there and the majority come from abusive situations or were neglected. We saw some parents visiting with their kids but the visits had to be supervised by a social worker. I think the woman showing us around said that most of the kids can't be adopted because most of them still have parents. I couldn't understand a lot of what she was saying though because she talks really fast. They showed us where the kids sleep and it basically just these huge rooms with tons of bunk beds lined up and crammed in. It didn't look much like a home. The whole experience was just really sad. Then we went into the baby room and there was a volunteer in there with two super cute babies! She actually spoke English so that was nice. I decided to volunteer there three days this week because a lot of the activities this week are repeats, so I've already done them. I went yesterday and I'm going again today and Friday.
When I went yesterday, I got lost on the way there and couldn't find it. I asked a woman if she could help me but she said she didn't know where it was and then thankfully, another woman walked up to me and asked me what I was looking for and I was actually really close to the home, it was just around the corner. When I there I had to give them a letter from the school that explained my experience and when I wanted to volunteer, as well as the same information for the other girl who is going to volunteer there. They were mistaken and thought I was the other girl, who studied psychology in college. So they sent me to work with the psychologists. When I explained that I wasn't her and that I just wanted to help take care of the kids and play with them, we went up and got some babies and brought them back down to the room to play. One baby was new, so he cried pretty much the whole time. The only thing I could do to get him to stop was give him candy :) He had this big scar on the side of his face and the psychologist said it was from his parents. The other baby looked maybe 1 yr old, but she was actually 2 1/2! She was just beginning to learn to walk and she was so tiny! After a while we brought the kids back up to the baby room and there were more kids in there, probably about eleven. I'd say the majority were under 2 yrs old, but they were all under 5. When we got there to bring the kids back they were completely unsupervised. They were just in the room with the TV on. The babies were in cribs crying or with their bottles propped in their mouths. I think the majority of the time the babies are in their cribs, even when they're awake. There was this older girl (maybe 4 or 5) who kept trying to pick up the babies and I kept telling her no, she could've so easily dropped them. Then this other baby kept climbing all over the furniture- she somehow got on top of a dresser, so dangerous! There was only one woman assigned to work in the room and she was taking the babies out to give them baths and then bringing them back. She obviously needed help, so I'm glad that I could be there but it makes me wonder what happens when there's no volunteer. When she was changing some of the babies, she just walked away and left them on the changing table! They could've rolled right off! And the diapers were way too big for the little babies so there's basically no point in them wearing them.
I kept comparing it to Care-a-lot, the day care center I work at, and thinking how many laws they were breaking and how many things could go wrong. Ugh, it was so sad to see the kind of care these kids are getting. I mean, yeah its better then where they came from, but really, they need so much more to thrive and grow. A baby cannot stay in a crib all day and hardly ever be held. I'm glad I can volunteer there, even if it is just for this week, to give these kids a little bit more attention then they usually get.
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