The Sites

Now that I have some down time I am going to explain a little about my day to day life here in Cuenca. I volunteer two shifts a day, seven days a week. Each week I get to have three shifts off which is way nice and gives me some time to sleep, read, do laundry and on most occasions...shop. We catch the bus every morning at 7 a.m. and leave our sites at noon. This is when everyone is having siesta, so we join them. We come home to a meal prepared for us by Karina, the house´s chef which is usually some meat and rice. The evening shift starts at 2 p.m. and ends at 6 p.m. This is the schedule everyday.



There are eight sights that we go to. Los Pequenitos de OSSO is split up into three different areas all consisting of special needs kids.

...and...

I have spent a lot of time here at Los Pequenitos and have learned a lot from these kids already. There is a special spirit there, the workers are nice and there are so many kids there that I love being around.

We also spend a lot of time at Todeo which is split into two houses or casas.

Cunas means nursery in Spanish. This is where the babies and toddler age kids live. They are separated into two different rooms. The infants and the toddlers. What beautiful children I get to work with, don´t you agree?

Casas is where the rest of the children at Todeo live. They are anywhere from the age of 2 to the age of 8. These kids eat, play, and sleep together. This is interesting to me because they are at such different stages developmentally and their interests are usually different at this age but these kids get by and this is just how their lives are.

The thing that I love about Todeo is the children. The workers are a lot more strict here and they are precise on everything the kids do. This is also the home of nuns who run the place. The spirit here is a little different but the children are vibrant, young, and excited. I enjoy my time here although it can be difficult at times. That is to be expected though.

HML is another site that all of the volunteers get to go to twice each week after a full days work. This is a place for school age girls ranging from 8 years old to 20 years old. These girls have various backgrounds either they have parents but they were taken out of the home because of abuse, their parents are addicted to drugs, they were abandoned, and some are even true orphans. Nuns run this place but for the most part these girls fend for themselves. Each week we take an activity to do with them and they love the interaction with us. I have only met one girl who speaks some English but the rest only speak Spanish which is fun because they help me with mine. It is so exciting to interact with these young girls.

HML Ladies is an old folks place, we visit with the elderly once a week.

The last two places we get to go to are two places I wish we could spend more time.

Trinidad is a daycare for children who come from extremely poor families. Their parents are usually in the fields from sun up to sun down and these kids come to the daycare on their own to have somewhere to go or something to do. I have never seen poverty as I have seen it here. Only a small group of us gets to go up each week so I won´t be going here as often as I would like to. My first experience there was a couple of days ago. I will elaborate on my experience later.

Remar is the last site we get to go to. This is an orphanage which is extremely poor as well. The children here are very dirty and seldom get bathed. I haven´t had to opportunity to come here yet but the girls that have are humbled each time they go. I can´t wait for my turn.