The Lucky Ones

I was at the Hogar yesterday. Whenever I am there, reality checks hit me. Yesterday, the kids had mangoes for afternoon snack. One of my students, Yenssy, made sure that I got one too. Several of the kids sat around me as we enjoyed the mangoes. I had never eaten one, not one of the big ones anyway, without cutting it. But they were all eating them like apples. So worries of stickiness aside, I soon had mango juice running down my hands and all over my face. My student kept sneaking little glances my way and grinning, probably over what a mess I was :).

In the midst of my mango mess, I heard a little girl crying. I asked what happened and then quickly got up to make sure she was alright. Pamela, one of my pre-k students, had fallen down. She cried openly, bracing herself against the stone wall. She was not looking for arms to run into, she was not asking anyone for help. She just cried, alone. I quickly ran to rinse my hands of mango, and squatted down to hug her and see how she was doing. Then she walked into the crowded room she shares with nine other small children to the bathroom. Here was this three year old, upset, yet still so independent. She seemed used to dealing with her own tears. She struggled to turn on the facet and splashed her face with cold water, still crying.

I have eight students that live at the Hogar. Seven of them (all but the boy) share the same room. The beds for the older ones are lined so close that you can't even walk between them. I sat down on one. You can feel every wire through the thin mattress. I feel guilty for even thinking that my bed here was hard. The little ones are still in large cribs. They have to wake up at 4am to all be ready and to school by 7am. They have two "aunties" that help them get ready in the morning. Sometimes my students get too tired to stay awake in class, but I cannot bring myself to wake them up. I'm not sure about all their laundry, but when I was there yesterday my pre-k students were washing their own clothes BY hand.

All of this takes a while to sink it, but that's not the hard part. The hard part is realizing that these kids, these orphans--they are the lucky ones. And sadder still, for many of them this orphanage, this hogar--is a better place than "home" ever was.