Today was the most painful day that I have experienced since
I started work at the orphanages. I went to the Semilleta today (the orphanage
for children with special needs) and just about everything painful happened to me.
A little girl chewed off a large portion of my hair. My head
was literally numb for 5 minutes and the other 5 minutes all I felt was pain. I
had food thrown at me, a part of hand gnawed on (thank God none of kids’ bites
broke through my skin, that could have been dangerous), and kicked in places
that no one should be kicked in (I’m glad I don’t bruise easily).
Other than the pain, I had a pretty amazing day. I worked
with Jonathan again today. We took a stroll through the orphanage, we sang, and
we danced. I also drew some pictures with Carlos and taught Carlos how to spell
his name.
My favorite memory today was work with Gonzalo. None of the
staff members allowed Gonzalo to go outside since Gonzalo had more severe
behavioral problems. I found work with Gonzalo both challenging and rewarding
(I love challenges!). We played with the legos and I found him extraordinarily
sweet. He kept kissing my arms and hands. He would take my hand and make me
pick up the pieces of puzzles while he held my hand. He did not share me with
any of the other orphans. Since all the other orphans in the room were in
wheelchair, Gonzalo would push their wheelchairs away whenever he saw them
approach me. It was cute.
In this particular room, many of the children had scars and
open wounds on their heads. I asked one of the staff members what happened and
she told me the scars and wounds were due to surgeries and operations. I really
hope this orphanage is not performing unethical operations on these little
children. It would make me very upset if this were the case.
I also somewhat feel like SOME of the staff members treat
the children like animals. It makes me really sad and upset when I see one the
staff members push and shove the children. Take Gonzalo, for example, he
refused to let one of the staff members give him water because she shoves the
cup in his face. What Gonzalo did instead was he pushed away the staff member’s
hand and took my hand and placed my hand on his cup as to tell me that he
wanted me to help him drink his water. It really warmed my heart.
In addition to the busy day, I was going off of only 3 hours
of sleep since I spent the previous night downloading music -___-. Yes, I was
downloading music. But overall, I had a super amazing day. Yay! :)
Buenas noches amigos!
