Orphanage | Rebecca

We pull up to the orphanage and I was extremely nervous and I couldn't tell you why. The big gates open and the bus pulls in, the first thing we see is this little boy running up yelling Rachael's name. We step out of the van and he immediately jumps into her arms. As we walked to the back, to where we were going to put our bags, I noticed that most all of the kids had some kind of disability, which definitely added to my nerves.

We were given a partner from our group that we would hang around with with the kids until 12 o'clock then we could go out on our own; my partner was Billy. After we put our stuff down we were encouraged to go and explore, there was this table that had kids and older boys sitting all around it colouring, watching TV, looking at magazines and just hanging out. Billy and I started there just trying to talk with them but it got a little crowded so we moved on to the nursery that was full of children in cribs. A bunch of people were already in there making friends with the kids. I walk over to a bed with a little boy whose name I did not learn because I couldn't understand when he said it. I just sat beside his bed for a little when a nurse came up and asked if I wanted him on my lap, I said yes and she helped me get him out. I didn't talk much with him because my Spanish was very limited and he didn't seem like one who wanted to talk but I just rocked him in my arms and tried to make him laugh by tickling him and making silly faces, he loved it. The nurse came back and grabbed him to change his diaper, which is when I saw this little kid sitting on the floor by herself.

I walk up and sit next to her and right away she had a smile on her face, her name was Elizabeth. Her smile was adorable; she was missing her two front teeth. I tried to talk to her but she was very quiet at first and it was sometimes hard to understand what she was saying, she spoke only using one word answers. We became the best of friends. The orphanage doesn't have very many toys so when I was playing with Elizabeth her toys consisted of a syringe that she used that morning and an empty medication bottle, she also loved to play with my shoes. We would take the syringe and look through it at each other and she would hide it in my hair so I couldn't find it. We would do silly things to make one another laugh and we were most always successful. When lunch time came around I got the chance to feed her, it took a long time but we got there. Elizabeth soon learned my name but could not pronounce it she called me Bay-ka. I learned a lot about her, her age, favourite colour, also that she loved to count and just other simple stuff like that.

I made sure to visit every room in the orphanage at least once so I headed up to the older boys room upstairs, I heard many stories about what was called 'the upstairs' so I was feeling quite intimidated. Walking up the stairs the first thing I seemed to notice was that there was a lock on the gate. Most of the boys were sleeping but the ones who weren't I sat beside. Shelby sang to them and I just clapped, they love to clap along to. These boys were men of very few words but loved to hug, lets just say they were a lot let intimidating then I was expecting.

We went to the orphanage 3 times during the trip, I spent the majority time hanging out with Elizabeth and it was nice to see how comfortable she got with me and me with her. When it was time to say goodbye it was really hard knowing that I wouldn't see her again and that I couldn't take her with me but I'm sure that the fun we had together would be remembered.

I have a great respect for the nurses who work there; they are so good to the children and take great care of them. All the children wear clean clothes and diapers, their nails are trimmed, their bodies washed, they are fed well, these kids have a well taken care of life because of these nurses. As much as they are being taken care of it's still not the same of having a family and home to call yours.

After the visit, during the drive back to the base, I really started to think about the children there and the situations that they are in. I remember thinking that it's not fair, since they were born in Dominican they can't get the treatment they need that would come so easily to them if they were in Canada. A lot of the kids are brought to the orphanage because their parents couldn't afford the care they needed or they just didn't want to have to deal with their child's disability, which should never have to be the case. It was hard for me to think that the world is this way that it is so unfair.

To finish the day we had circle time and we each got to share our thoughts and stories of the day, it was nice to hear the stories of others because they were all different.