The Orphanage Experience: Part 1

** See "La Mission Valley 2" for the second half of the story.  Look for the Mexico section somewhere on the "Blog Posts" page. **

I'm back in S.D. now, but... wow, what a weekend!

Drove down the coastal route of Baja California, Mexico, on Friday arv.  Weather wasn't so good which was a bit disappointing as the view would have been stunning, but we sure got to see some great views when we drove further down the coast - this time in beautiful sunshine! - the following day.

But back to Friday.  After a late lunch at a Mexican restuarante just up the cliffs from the ocean and a drive down a very muddy dirt road, we made it to the orphanage. Now, I'd never been to an orphanage before, but this was certainly a lot better than what you imagine the typical orphanage to be, and you could tell that right from the start, driving past all the brightly painted buildings.

Even the volunteers' quarters were nice. That afternoon we hung out with the five gorgeous little nursery kids, who must have been between the ages of 7 and 18 months; some could walk, others just crawled. Hopefully they didn't feel too intimidate by us big scary people!

They get a lot of groups down there though - they'd just had different spring break crews for five consecutive weeks, for example - so the kids are better than your average kids when it comes to strangers. The next day some of our team went off to help pour cement for a path; the rest of us just got to play. And the kids came up to us saying "amigo" or "amiga" and didn't seem to mind too much at how bad our Spanish was (speaking for myself here).

So together we attempted to make kites, played with chalks, made a lot of noise in their music room, stuck stickers on one another, and played on the swings - it seems some of the kids know a couple of important English words: "push!" and "faster!" if nothing else.

Earlier that day we were given a tour around the orphanage and sure enough facilities inside were as good as they appeared from the outside. I've put some of Kat's pics of the girls' dorms up for you to see how funky they are - lots more bright paint (loads of pink of course!), walls decorated with bible verses, pictures and... packaged toys! I was surprised to see dolls, other toys - even a Furby! - still in their plastic boxes put on the walls like artwork. Apparently they get them one Christmas and leave them up there until the next, when they take them down and put their new gifts on the walls in their place. And these were toys to be jealous of too!

But, like one of the full-time volunteers explained to us, though they've been accused of "not being needy enough," it's all part of their philosophy of treating the kids like their own. Kids get housed with about 10 of them to "parents," a couple or sometimes a single mum, often with kids of their own. And older kids, who can stay and get put through college if they want, are required to take responsibility for the younger ones too.

So it was a good day - but exhausting! Sometimes I forget just how tiring kids can be.