Third week of work

So I`ve just started my 3rd week of work. Nothing has changed in terms of what my working day consists of...still changing diapers (I`ve gotten faster), still feeding babies, occasionally getting thrown up by them. But maybe its because i`ve gotten into the routine, its not as bad now, and I`ve memorized all 30 children`s names, and they are really growing on me.

Since I started working, already 3 children have been deported out of my room because they are getting too big to stay in my sala (room)!!! And that means i don`t really get to see them anymore, just sometimes when they are playing outside. Its really sad to see them go because you get so attached to them.

This internship is definately preparing me to be a mother. I got the diaper part down pat, although at work, to save expenses, they don`t use disposable ones, but cloth ones that they made. Feeding them is sometimes a challenge too, when they gargle up the food...and it gets in your hair and on your clothes.... as Tommy would say, "good times".

And the babies, there are babies that cry a lot, and babies that hardly ever cry. Some babies just cry no matter what, they don`t need a diaper change, they were just fed, but still they just wanna cry! And other babies never cry, even when they`ve been sitting in their poo for hours. Some just smile if you smile at them, and some hardly ever smile. (mind you, where we are working is an orphanage, so some children, even when they are babies, have had tramautic experiences that i think make them detatched from the world, and so they don`t really respond to anything).

Some babies are chubby (like my brother was when he was a baby....man was he fat!), some babies are just so cute (like me when i was a baby, i`m sure), but all are just angelic when they are sleeping.

When at work, it always feels like i`m working at a day care center and i often forget that I`m working at an orphanage, because they children are so beautiful, I can`t believe no one wants them. Where i work, its a happy place, because its a place where chidren are very well taken care of, but its also a sad place, because its also for children without a family, without a home.

So let me tell a little about the organization I am working for. Its called Fundaciòn Amanecer. Amanecer means sunrise in Spanish, refering to how every day is a new day, a new beginning for these abandoned, abused and/or orphaned street children.

It was founded in the early 1980s by American nuns, and now its grown to a total of 7 houses here in Cochabamba, each for different age groups and purposes. The one I work at, Salomon Klein, is for orphans, abandoned children, or "children at risk" from ages 0-7. The children come from hospitals (for example, the child and the mother were in a car accident, and the mother died, but no one came forward to claim the baby, no relatives were found), sometimes from streets, also sometimes through social service organizations, kinda like Children`s Aid, who deem the parents are incapable of taking care of the children for whatever reason.

There are also other houses for older teenagers, some with vocational training facilities, there is also one for women and their children, who are poor, living on the streets, but want to make a better life for their children.

The organization does great work and its very well known and respected here. I feel good that I am a part of an organization that is so committed to its work.

But i have found it to be very disorganized as well. I think I already talked about how none of the workers, not even the head person of Salomon Klein knew we were coming to work for 4.5 months. But also, from the North American perspective, it seems that their many volunteers are being under-utilized. For example, when we came in, they told us volunteers get weekends off. But one volunteer I work with said she came into work the other weekend, and it was so busy because there were no volunteers. I`m pretty sure that most volunteers here such as myself wouldn`t mind taking turns or something to come in on the weekends so that there is enough help.

Maybe its the culture here to not demand employees to work a certain amount, but I thik if a very efficiency&productivity-oriented business person from North America came and saw Amanecer, he/she would just cry!!!