For those of you wondering what the above words mean, they not only translate to Love Child Home, but signify the location in which I completed 25 hours of community service this semester while in Chile. Hogar Niño Amor is a temporary orphanage for kids between the ages of 2 and 8 (approximately). They are taken from broken homes or uninhabitable situations by the court system, which then contacts the home. The employees consist of several ¨Tías¨ (the women who take care of the kids, bless their souls), a few social workers who are the intersection between the parents, children, and courts, and an older women and man... I am not sure what their jobs are. There are about 15 children living in the house at any given time, each with different situations. There are about three pairs of siblings.
Several of the children´s parents visit, but many do not. I was there one day when parents visited and it was very sad to see them leave because the children nearly always erupted into tears as the parents walked away. Another thing I noticed about the parent´s visits were that they almost always brought toys, food, or other gifts. Though I can understand, I somehow felt annoyed with this. Like they were trying to buy their kid´s love and make everything the did okay. The children already clearly love their parents a lot. In addition, the kids eat sugary and unhealthy think nearly every day.
Basically, when I was there, I played with the students, fed the little ones, and went on walks with them, sometimes to the beach. If I went in the morning, only the really little ones who didn´t go to school where there. Those times, it was calmer and less draining. In the afternoons, all of the students returned, and it was mayhem. I had to play with them, discipline them, and try to keep them entertained at times. Although they were all cute and I wished they didn´t have to be there, I was usually ready to go home and rest after a couple of hours.
Some of the most memorable children are named María Paz, Vairon, José Manuel, and Amelia But they were all wonderfully cute. As a collective, all of the volunteers were obsessed with 2 year-old María Paz because she was such a sweetie. She rarely caused trouble or fought and, on top of that, was adorable. My friend and I called Vairon, also 2, ¨niño confundido¨ or ¨confused kid¨ because he always had a vacant expression on his face.
You can find pictures of the site at this link:
https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=94E0894DC52E5084!108
