Week 2 - Costa Rica - 17th-23rd March 2014

Project: Orphanage "Hogar Cristiano", Puntarenas - http://www.hogarcristiano.org/index.php?page=historia

"El Hogar Cristiano es una institución de beneficencia fundada en 1918 por el Pbro. José Daniel Carmona. Nace con la finalidad de albergar a niñas huérfanas y brindarles apoyo para evitar que su situación las indujera a extraviar su camino, inicialmente es regentado por una junta constituida por seglares, luego por un grupo de religiosas, sin embargo ambos grupos, agobiados por la insuficiencia de recursos económicos, decide renunciar a su administración. (...) Nuevas coyunturas socioeconómicas generan nuevas problemáticas sociales y actualmente la institución ofrece atención integral a más de 50 niñas cuyas edades oscilan entre 1 y 18 años y se encuentran en riesgo social por diferentes razones, las niñas están a cargo de 8 monjas misioneras."

  

This week we continued in Puntarenas, but now working with a local orphanage, Hogar Cristiano, ran by a modest group of nuns. 

This Orphanage is currently sheltering over 70 children, mostly girls, but there are also some boys. Their age goes from just a few months old to 16-18 years old. 
Not all children here are orphans, in fact most of them are just sheltered here as they're considered to be at risk with they're parents: we met 2 sisters who had cigarette burns on their back and hands, another one traumatised by the presence of men, bits of hair missing on her head, another one who would just not speak at all, etc. 

Despite all the horrors you can imagine these children went through, they were unbelievably smiley, super well behaved and polite, they would do everything we told them to, and they were super friendly, kind and caring.
Children do have a lot to teach us, especially about forgiveness and positive attitude.


DAY 8 to 12 - Monday to Friday - Our schedule for this week was from 9h30 to 1pm. 

The orphanage consists of a few simple but wide children-friendly houses, where children were divided into groups, and a very wide open outside space for the children to play freely and safely - there was a backyard where there were chicken, a cow for milk, dogs, etc and a green area with mango trees which the kids with ask us to lift them up and pic the mangoes to eat them, this was so much fun!! There were also swings, slides, trampolines, etc.

We were assigned the Jose Daniel de Carmona's house. In this house we had 13 children, who went from 19 months to a 16 years-old. From youngest to eldest: Alexander, Jose Daniel, Ciany, Chiara, Brandon, Sandra, Mimi, Richard, Chelsey, Gerard, Jaylord, Janca.
This maham was managed by two "Tías" (in Spanish it means "aunties"), who are basically saints. They cleaned, cook, fed, bathe, dressed, looked after all these children as if they were their own. By knowing these children, you know they are rocking at this job!

We were quite apprehensive on our first day, as we didn't know what to expect. 
This was my first time working with children (specially children at risk...!) and boy did I get a surprise! These children made us feel very welcome and helped us fit right in!

We played loads with them, jumping on the trampolines (Simona was brilliant at jumping with them, they loved it!!), walking around outside with them to play with the children from the other homes, lifting them up on our shoulders so that they could pick the mangoes, running around playing hide & seek, etc.
We also sat down to teach them some English - there was one thing they were completely crazy about: flash cards!! They would see the box in my hand and they would all come running to the table screaming "cartaaaaas!!". They all wanted the cards, so we created a game, whoever said the word first would win the card. They totally responded to it, and we had lots of fun!!
A special thank you needs to go to my dear friend Ritinha Gonçalves, who was so kind to buy a bunch of these cards for me to bring, genius! Muito obrigada!

Another thing they were so crazy about was fruit! We would bring them fruit every day, cut it into little pieces, and bring it to them in bowls for them to pick from it. As soon as they realised there was fruit, they would come running towards us, climbing on top of each other, screaming "frutaaa!" from the top of their lungs...it looked like Christmas day!!

Makes you think twice, right, when we don't eat our own fruit back home just because we're too lazy to peel it, and we throw it away coz it went rotten... now, doesn't it?
You wouldn't believe how many "gracias" and "thank yous" we got every time we gave them something - so so so polite and appreciative, I couldn't believe it.


One of the proudest moments I had with these kids: from the first day, I noticed that they were understandably quite selfish with their "things". So, if they had a pencil, a toy, a glass of water, or a piece of fruit, they would keep it tight and not share. Slowly I started to teach them to share, that we're all friends in the house, and that we needed to be nice to each other. 
Then, all of a sudden, without any of us saying anything, you would see one of them share their glass of water, or another one who grabbed his last piece of melon and fed the little baby with it, looking at me in a way that seemed to say "see, I'm a good boy, I share" :)
Even the toughest one in the group I saw him share a mango - these great moments I had such a fortune to witness, just made my whole trip worth it!

Another example of kindness: Chiara arrived to our group in the middle of the week, right on time for lunch, She looked scared and lost. She ended up in my lap and wouldn't leave it. She would look at everyone with a child's curiosity...but she wouldn't eat. So I asked Ciany, who is just 2!, to help me with Chiara, because it was her first day and she was scared. She took that as her job, and helped me feed her by distracting her and being kind to her. Unbelievable. I am just lost for words on how these kids are amazing, so much more kind than we adults will ever be.

On the last day. we brought them all ice-creams. We were expecting them to go crazy as all children usually go. Well, another surprise. The Tías told them they would only have the ice-cream if they ate all their food and sat down by the table quietly. And so they did!! Each had their ice-cream, and boy did they enjoy it!

It was very sad to leave them. They were all crying their eyes out, they all wanted to come with us. And so did we.

Below I will share some of the best photos, we have tons!! But before I do, I'd like to share the orphanage's details in case anyone would like to make donations:
Hogar Cristiano
Banco Nacional: 100-1-003000207-8
Address: El Roble, Puntarenas. De la entrada principal del Hospital Monseñor Sanabria, 200 metros al este. Costa Rica.
Email: hogarcristiano1918@hotmail.com


THANK YOU so much for any help!!


Photos:

Meet Chiara - and Simona's fav pic  ;)

 

"Steesh" and the babies

Richard and his "Limonada"!

José Daniel

Ciany and "Mona Mona" (means "pretty" in Spanish)

 
 

Ciany

Sleeping Beauties

Sandy, another volunteer, Steesh w/ Brandon, Limonada w/ Ciany+Alexander

 

 

















 

Everyday when we had to leave, the boys wouldn't let Steesh go. And yes he fell on the floor eventually :)

 

 





















 

 

 

 

 

Tías and children baking buns to sell for fund raising :)

 
We also went back to say goodbye to our Parque Marino crew before we left:

Martin and Andres even came to the bus stop the next day to see us off!!

You can see Mario, the sea turtle, there on the left

And the goodbyes to our adopted mum, who took so good care of us while we were in Puntarenas:

Sarita and her great-granddaughter, yes.

We finished the week in San Jose - we took a bus back. We met up with Patrick, a friend of Simona's back from Slovakia, who took us for dinner and drinks in the city centre. They dropped me off at a hostal, where I stayed until tonight. I said my goodbyes to Simona and Steve who are now flying back to Barcelona... snif snif ;(

This was my first time in a hostal, was a bit apprehensive, you never know! But I have to tell you I couldn't have started in any best way then! People are lovely, the beds are great and comfy, everything is clean, and they're treating me super well - here's another story:
I got a very cheap bed in a 6 beds-bedroom for girls. First night, it was just me by myself - bliss!! The next day, in the morning, I had a sign on my door asking me to go to reception ("oh-oh what have I done!")... they had a 6-girl group arriving today, and asked me if I wouldn't mind changing to another bedroom so they could put them all together. Of course I didn't mind, was happy to help! The staff thought I was going to go mad (it is a hassle to move your things around, having to do your bed again, etc), so they were so appreciative of my understanding, they put me on their room in front of the pool, and told me they would freeze that room just for me until I leave because I was so nice to them. Moral of the story: being nice does pay off in the end! :)
http://www.costaricabackpackers.com/
Totally recommend them!
NEXT: I'm off to the Tortuguero in the Caribbean side of the country to help look after the Sea Turtles while their nesting, and make sure none steals their eggs. Krav Maga classes might come in handy.... No, Manolo, no te preocupes, tendré cuidado!! Un abrazo!! :)