Final Goodbyes

Jesús Four Siblings

One experience that I will never forget is playing with a little boy named Jesús. Everyday we were there, he would carry around a flat bouncy ball that was missing the plug that holds the air in. Every time I saw him, he would be blowing air into it only to see it deflate. He didn't care though and would play with it like it was a soccer ball. At one point, I saw him climbing up a stack of bricks that was about shoulder high. It was obviously not safe so I took him down and saw that his ball was stuck on the top. After getting it for him, he threw it over the stack and ran around to the other side to get it and repeated this process quite a few times. I decided to get on the other side of the bricks and we threw it back and forth to each other. It was funny because neither of us could see the other so we never knew when the ball would come flying over the bricks. A few times, he tried to throw it over but he couldn't get it above the bricks because he was so short. A few times, I ran around the side and snuck up on him. He got a real kick out of that. Then, all the children were called to sit down and say goodbye to us. In order to cheer them up as we left, we handed out lollipops and gave hugs to all the children and then we left to get ready for dinner and later, getting up at 4 A.M. to fly back to Dallas. It was hard to leave them because it is extremely rare for them to get visitors, but on the other hand I was glad that I could make a difference in their lives. For example, we bought them a new washing machine and dryer to replace the ones that had been broken for years. Because they were broken, they washed all their clothes by hand and dried them by hanging them on the fence. I can't even imagine what washing and drying clothes by hand for 40 children is like because I can barely do my own laundry and my view on doing laundry has definitely changed. As much as I would like the visit them again, I hope that if I go back there, they won't be there and instead, they will have been adopted by loving families and be given a new life. However, I don't see that happening considering the Mexican government has bigger issues to deal with at this time. Just because the children can't be adopted doesn't mean we can't help improve their lives. Like I said before, these children are thrilled with the little things in life and don't need expensive things to be happy. I've learned, especially from this trip, to take nothing for granted whether it is family, friends, or material goods. We really need to take a step back and see how fortunate we are compared to others. I hope that through this blog, you were able to see what happened on the trip, what I observed, and what needs to be done. Thank you for reading and if you have any questions or comments, you can email me at 11kmckenna@gmail.com.

A Walk to Remember

As we got ready for our walk to the school, many of the younger children latched on to one of the teens. In my case, a girl named Jenny picked me to be her buddy. We basically walked hand in hand until we got the school which was a mile or two away. When we reached the school, she wanted to find as many flowers as possible so we went looking for all sorts of flowers. Most of them were little, but she saw a red rose in one of the planters and told me she really wanted it. I tried to explain that I needed scissors because the stem was so thick, but when I saw the disappointed look on her face, I knew I needed to find a way to get that rose. I finally found a place with no thorns and used my fingernail to cut and twist it until it fell off. When I handed her the rose, she was so happy and went to show all her friends. Next thing I know, she is asking me to get another rose for her friend. After getting the last rose for her friend, Jenny wanted to look for more flowers. Once we decided we had gotten every flower within sight, Jenny wanted to climb on this sign holder. Another boy saw us and wanted a turn so we played on that for a little bit and then everyone started to head back. As we began our walk back, Jenny told me she was thirsty. I tried to tell her we would get some when we got back to the orphanage, but it seemed like it was taking forever. On the way, we passed a farm and stopped at the owners house to see the river that ran through his backyard. Next, the children offered us clovers they picked off the ground that were edible. The clovers were better than I expected and had a nice kick to them. Now, we were only a few minutes away and Jenny wanted a piggy back ride. She didn't know to lean forward so instead, she leaned backwards and nearly fell off. After a minute or two, we decided it was not a good idea and walked the rest of the way. When we got back, I gave Jenny a giant water bottle and it was time for lunch. After lunch, we played with the children some more before saying good bye.

Handing Out Shoes, Toys, and Stuffed Animals

One of the first things we did on our last day at the orphanage was take all the shoes, stuffed animals, and toys and line them up on tables so the children could pick them out later. As soon as they saw us take the shoes out of the suitcases, they began to gather around the tables (especially the girls). After explaining that they couldn't take the shoes now and that they would get to pick them out later, they began to look at the choices and inform the other children of the shoes they wanted to insure no one would take them. Once everything was on the tables, the pastor told the children to line up and thanked us for our generosity. As soon as he said they could pick out items, it was like a mad dash to get as many as possible. It really only mattered for the toys because we eventually put all the shoes that weren't already taken back in the bags to be passed out later (mostly because the little kids were taking shoes twice their size and the older children didn't have as much). After that, the children went and played with their new toys and showed each other what they got. We got a chance to play with them for a little, but then we had to get ready to take a walk to their school which was down a rocky and hilly road. We drove past it everyday and I can't imagine walking back and forth to school because driving down the road was bad enough. However, we would soon walk hand in hand (literally) with the children to their school.

Ice Cream Time!

Taking a Break From Playing to Take a Picture
Apparently I Broke a Rule
The Girls in Their Church Attire
When the children saw the ice cream, they were so excited and instead of pushing each other to be first like most children would do, they lined up from youngest to oldest. After the children finished their ice cream sandwiches, we got to play with the children. While the older children played sports on the basketball court, the younger kids played games. Many of the little children played the role of police while the teens in my group were the bad guys. I was one of the bad guys and the boy in charge of making sure I didn't "escape" was named Jaime. Apparently, I was attached to the goal post with invisible handcuffs and if I even moved a muscle, he would say stuff to me in Spanish which I couldn't understand. These children are very creative and imaginative despite growing up in a tough environment. Another thing I noticed is that if one of the little children needed help or was crying, one of the older kids would rush over to help and calm the little one down. Although not all of them are related, they take care of and watch out for each other as if they were siblings. Also, I never noticed any fighting between them during our stay. I think that because they are basically on their own to some extent, they have matured faster than most children their age who live with their family. After playing with the children, we had to go out to dinner and then we would meet them again at the church. The man who is in charge of the orphanage is the pastor at the church and he and his family help out with the children and all of the kids look up to them as role models. Our dinner ran a little late so we arrived during the service and all the kids were thrilled to see us. We enjoyed the singing and clapping and everyone was really into it. At one point, there was some kind of meditation and the older children were really into it. They were bowing, closing their eyes, crying, and even kneeling on the floor. This just goes to show how much their faith means to them and how thankful they are for everything they have. When you have so little, your faith is something you can always fall back on and that is something I saw in the children during that service. Seeing them pray made me realize that I have so much, yet I take it for granted. These children go to church twice a week, and if ordinary people could see how much their faith means to them, I guarantee that people would learn a lot about what it really means to worship from these children. About half way through the two hour service, the pastor called our group of volunteers up to the front and told the people what we were doing and thanked us. Then, the children came up and thanked us as well. They were so thankful and when they went to hug us, they said "Thank you" instead of "Gracias". Many of them were crying as they gave us hugs, and you just didn't want to let go of them knowing what their future entailed. After mass, we said good bye to the kids and watched as they piled into the little van and made our way back to the hotel to get some sleep for our last day at the orphanage.

Finishing Touches

Our fourth day was basically the last time we would be painting, cleaning, etc. The majority of our group worked on finishing the lower half of the girl's dorm and painting the bathroom. The pictures above will give you an idea of what the rooms looked like before (blue and green for library and white and blue for girls room). It took a long time to paint over the blue in the girl's room, but we finally did it and then we scrubbed every inch of the room to get the paint, dirt, and dust off. The children tried to help us clean the floor by swinging a wet rag back and forth to splatter water on the ground while another child mopped it up. It was funny because they kept doing this to the same area and that is probably the cleanest part of the entire room. After the floor was cleaned, we moved all the furniture and beds back in (that is easier said than done). Another group of volunteers cleaned up the "meeting area" where children could meet with their parents who can't provide for them and gave their children to the orphanage so that they would have a better childhood than if they were kept at home. Before the "renovation" there was a dirty, smelly, green carpet that had to be hauled off to the trash. We also bought picnic tables with umbrellas so that they wouldn't have to sit on dirty chairs. In the girl's bathroom, we bought new shower curtains and painted the entire room. A group of three or four people painted a tiny bathroom next to the basketball court because it had writing and feces (mostly from the younger boys who thought it was funny) all over it. After lunch, we played with the children until they had to go get dressed for Mass. While most of them were changing, we brought out the ice cream sandwiches we had bought at the store as a special treat.

Field Trip!

The second day started off slow because we practically painted until lunchtime. Thankfully, we finished painting the library right before 2:00 P.M. when lunch was served. After lunch, we got to play with the children until they were called to go shower and put on their uniforms. When they came out, it looked like we were in prison because they all had the same outfits. By then, most of them knew we were going to see an IMAX movie at the science museum. When we arrived at the museum, I was surprised at how it dwarfed every structure around it. For an area with so much poverty, it was strange that they had such a nice museum. The children (all 37 of them) piled out of a yellow van. Three of them went on our bus because we had room, but still I can't imagine having to ride everywhere in that van. They were ecstatic to ride in a bus without having someone smushing them into the wall or having someone sit in their lap. After getting off the bus, the girls and boys each lined up youngest to oldest and walked towards the entrance where we posed for a group picture. After the picture, we were split into two groups and went on a tour. My group went to the space exhibit first and the tour guide asked the group of teens to go in this maze while another guide explained the solar system to the children. That maze was absolutely hilarious and horrible at the same time. The entire time, we were crawling because it was about as big as an air duct and there were all sorts of obstacles and drops along the way. Oh, and I forgot to mention that it was pitch black. It seemed like we were in there forever and would never get out, but finally after one last drop, we saw the exit. The worst part of the whole thing was that the entrance was next to a corner and when we got out, we saw that we came out where we went in. After that experience, we played with the kids in the exhibits and then headed for the IMAX theatre. The featured presentation was "India Mistica" and had no subtitles. Thankfully, the scenes and pictures were amazing and I had quite a laugh when the bugs on the projector lens were seen a million times their actual size and walking around like they were part of the movie. When the movie ended, a guide took us to a virtual reality exhibit where the children were split into two groups and played volleyball with each other like they were in video game or something. While the children played, we said our goodbyes and left for dinner. At the end of the day, I could only think about how ironic it was that they have such a good science museum yet no one can visit because the area is so poor. Another observation that I made throughout the trip was the driving. It seemed like in order to drive, you had to master defensive driving. It was like mad dash everywhere; there were many times I thought either we would get in a wreck or a car around us would but that never happened. One thing I did like about their transportation system were the stoplights. Right before they would turn red, the lights would flash so you knew how much time you had until it changed. I thought it was a clever way to prevent people from feeling that they could make the light before it was too late. Anyways, the second day was great on so many levels and I was very excited to see what the next day held.

Lunch Time!

After the supplies were unloaded and the pizza was placed on the tables, all the children sat down on the bench and got ready for prayer. The children joined hands, closed their eyes, and one of the older girls led the prayer. The prayer was extremely long and I had trouble figuring out what she was praying because I couldn't even think of a prayer in English that long. Afterwards, we learned that she had made up the prayer as she went along which I thought was very sweet. Their faith is extremely important to them, and I will go in greater detail about this later in the blog. The children were ecstatic to have pizza for lunch because the majority of their meals were homemade and prepared in a tiny kitchen. The children ate inside while the rest of us ate outside. Either way, we couldn't escape the flies. I have never seen so many insects in my life. They were everywhere and to try to kill them was pointless. The flies were on the food, beds, toys, and children. You name it, there would be at least one fly. Even our bus had about twenty flies in it (maybe they were taking a day trip to see their relatives from the farms). If you ever stayed overnight where the orphanage was located, there is a very good chance that you will be catching flies when you sleep. After our lunch, it started to rain so we hurried on to the bus and left before the road became too muddy. Driving down the road with sunny weather was bad enough, but when it was raining was a different story. Everyone was afraid that we may have to push the bus if it stalled or got stuck in the mud. Thankfully, this didn't happen and we safely made it back to the hotel. After dinner, everyone was exhausted and went to bed to see what the next day would hold.

Playtime and Projects

When the lego blocks were dumped out of the bag, it was like a piñata had just broke and the candy was spilling out. There were screams and then a mad dash to get as many legos as they could hold. After playing with the children for about thirty minutes, most of us went to work on the rooms. A large group went in the girl's room to paint the top part of the wall. A smaller group that I was in, went to the library to paint the top of the room. As you can see, the color scheme isn't exactly the best choice. For the library, we were going to paint the top and ceiling a cream color and put a new paint of blue on the bottom. In the girl's room, we painted the top, which was yellow, cream and the bottom, which was blue, pink. We also were to paint the bathroom pink. In the library, we had to take all the books off the shelves and take the shelves off the wall. Once the tarp was on the ground, the lines were taped, and the walls were somewhat clean of dirt and grime, we began to paint. During the taping process, the kids would tear pieces of tape and hand them to us. The children were constantly peeking in the doorway to see what we were up to. Some of them came in to offer help. One of the boys asked me if he could paint and I told him sure and handed him the paintbrush. Apparently the children weren't supposed to help us and one of the helpers told him to stop and go play. Personally, I think the children wanted to help because they had never had anyone else do something for them. They are so used to doing things for themselves that they felt obligated to help us finish the project. After painting for a few hours, it was time for lunch. This time however, the kids would not get a homemade meal, but rather pizza from a store.

Our First Day in Aguascalientes

After a great breakfast, we all got on our bus and drove to the orphanage. We drove down a road that went all through the countryside and after about fifteen minutes, we turned down a small road that was unpaved and extremely rocky and hilly. Because our bus was manual, it took a long time to get there because our bus driver, Lorenzo, had to switch gears every time we went up or down a hill. When we arrived, all the children were playing outside and ran to the gate once they saw our bus pull up. We all got off the bus and if you weren't awake by then, the stench of manure from the nearby farm animals would surely wake you up. The smell was disgusting, but we all had to deal with it because it wasn't like we could move about fifty cows, goats, and chickens. When we walked onto the basketball court, the children were excited yet curious as to why these foreign people were visiting them. Next, we got a tour of the rooms we would be renovating. First there was the girls room. When I walked in, the room smelled like a wet dog that just went swimming in a swamp. They had many bunk beds and a few pieces of furniture. The couch and two chairs they had mounds of clean and dirty clothes on them so they couldn't be used. Next was the library that had bookshelves with books and movies. It was ironic because, from what I heard, they had a nice flat screen TV that was still in the box so watching movies was out of the question. Then we went into the boys room that was above the girls area. This room didn't smell as bad, probably because it was newer and didn't have a bathroom. After seeing what needed to be done, we headed down to the basketball court where a bag of legos were dropped. In the next post, I will describe the children's reaction to the legos and the beginning of our projects.

The Arrival

As we walked off the plane, there were bugs EVERYWHERE. They were near the lights, crawling around our feet, and all in the baggage area. There were a lot of police at the entrances and one even had a German Shepherd. When we walked by the guard and his dog, he instructed the dog to stand on its back legs so it looked like he was waving at us/welcoming us. Because Aguascalientes isn't your typical Mexican tourist destination, our flight of about 40 had no trouble going through customs and getting our bags. Once we were all through, we got onto our Mercedes bus and drove to the hotel. We were supposed to have a team meeting at the hotel but because it was 11:25. Instead, we got to sleep in until 9 and push everything on our agenda back an hour. By the time I went to bed (not to sleep) it was about midnight. I don't know when exactly I went to bed but judging by how tired I felt in the morning, I'm guessing I went to bed pretty late.