As some of you know, I spend all of my Wednesday’s at the
shelter run by Paz y Esperanza. The shelter is called Casa de Buen Trato (The
house of good treatment) Hovde, and it does a number of wonderful things. Two
of its main focuses are providing a place for victims of sexual abuse, whose
abusers are usually in their own family, and a refugee house for women that are
victims of domestic violence. The shelter is about 30 minutes out of town, so I
don’t get to go out there as much as I would like, but I always cherish my time
there.
The Shelter
Each Wednesday, I wake up early in order to catch a 7:30 am
bus that takes me out to Tomayquichua. There I meet the people who work at the
shelter in another bus that takes us to the shelter. Every time I walk through
the doors, at least one of the little ones runs up and greets me with a hug and
a kiss. It’s literally the best part of my entire week. One of my favorite
things about the shelter is that if I ever sit down, one of the little ones
always climbs up in my lap, and if that one leaves another one will usually
crawl right in.
In the mornings I usually spend time with the adolescent
girls that don’t have classes till the afternoon. We work on homework, talk,
listen to music, and they love to play with my hair. I also watch the babies or
little ones that are too young for kindergarden. It’s always an adventure with
them, but I am constantly amazed with their imagination. I can usually just say
these sticks are a motorcycle, let'sgo for a trip, and the next thing I know it's
three hours later and they are still riding their imaginary bikes.
The afternoons tend to be a bit crazier. My job is to help
Esther watch all the little ones while their moms are taking classes. We have
to help them with their homework, and then we usually try to take them to the
farm, but only if they behave well. At the farm there is a pond with fishes, a
giant turtle, cows, guinea pigs, rabbits, and the coolest playground ever.
Needless to say, the kids love going there.
Some of the cows!
Whenever I’m about to leave, I have to sit near the office
so that they can let me know when the bus is going to head out. At least two of
the girls always come and sit by me, and of course my lap is always full with
one of the little ones. Last week I was sitting there with two of the newer
girls. Both were on the brink of tears, telling me about how much they miss
their families and how they want to go home. I sat and listened to them express
their fears and concerns, and then I told them that I too wanted to go home. I
told them that I hadn’t seen my mother in almost 6 months, and I knew how hard
it was to be away from your friends and family. But I also told them that like
me, they have wonderful people around them who are supporting them and trying
to help them through every step of this hard process.
To change to a lighter subject I started practicing the
little Quechua I know because both of these girls speak Quechua as their first
language. The girls started laughing at my terrible attempts, but when I finally said Tupananchis Caman
correctly, they yelled and hugged me tight. It was then that I realized that
was the first time I had seen one of the girls laugh.
Some days at the shelter are just plain crazy. Some days I
feel like all I do is chase around little kids saying, “No don’t throw that,”
“No don’t hit her,” “You need to share the leggos.” Some days I go home covered in dirt, orange juice, and snot. But I usually end up leaving with a heart full of love for
each and everyone of them.
In just two short months, I will leave the girls and little ones, but every
day I pray for them. I pray that they grow up to be beautiful, strong,
independent women/men. I pray that they are happy, but most of all I pray that they
continue to laugh, and laugh often.
"Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty." -Mother Teresa
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