Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Con gusto

Con gusto is how they say "you´re welcome" here. It literally means "with pleasure" and they seem to really mean it here. This week at the orphanage there are only 2 volunteers. Myself and an English woman about 45 named Heather. Heather started at the same time as me and now that the experienced volunteers are gone I am really understanding that we are responsible for these kids. We´re not helping the Tias do things. We are taking care of the kids basic needs so that the Tias can take care of more complicated things like preparing food, washing and sorting the massive amounts of laundry, and the individual requirements of each child´s particular situation. So basically, while we volunteers are there we wake the kids, change them, feed them and then play with them until dinner and bedtime. And during playtime those kids are our responsability. There are a lot of them so they can be hard to keep track of all the time. Heather doesn´t seem to grasp that the kids all have to be watched an accounted for so I did a lot of running around and coralling of children yesterday. As well, Heather does not seem to like, or be very good at changing diapers and the volunteers do a lot of that. So these next few weeks could be interesting. However, at the end of the day yesterday, Connie (one of the Tias) said "Gracias" and gave me a hug and I have a chance to say "con gusto" and really mean it.

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