Hogar el Alba

This morning we visited Hogar el Alba.  This is an orphanage for children who may come from difficult family backgrounds.  Currently, there are around 40-50 children staying there and, on average, a child will stay for about 3 years.  Once they reach the age of 18, they are encouraged to leave, however if there is no plan in place they are able to stay at Hogar el Alba longer.  We arrived around 10 and had a small breakfast before getting to work.  We were split into groups and assigned workers to help us get organized and begin.  I was in the Panderia (bakery), with Maeve and Kiersten.  The walls were painted with half white and half pink paint.  We went over the walls and also the ceiling with white paint.  We then repainted the 2 ovens. 

These are the ovens in the bakery before and after we

sanded and repainted them.  

 After eating lunch, we were able to go play with the children that stay at Hogar el Alba.  Hayley brought string and a few of us sat with the girls and showed them how to make friendship bracelets.  After a little tea time snack, everyone went to play fútbol (soccer).  The children are amazing and definitely beat any Bryant students who tried to take them on.  From trying to take pictures with the children, they discovered our phones.  At some picnic benches, the game Subway Surfer was the new favorite thing.  Rafael, Theodore, and Abigail all agreed to share my phone.

The kids at Hogar el Alba discovered our phones and found their new

favorite game, Subway Surfer. 

I can speak some Spanish, and every time, they would show me what they’d won in the game.  It’s amazing to see how much fun they can have with just each other.  However, when given the phones, they figure out how to share and how to encourage each other within the games.  When it was time to go, we slowly walked back to the other building with our things.  Abigail asked to take a picture and all the children were saying goodbye to their new friends.  After taking a group picture, the children from Hogar al Alba followed us to the bus, still hugging and waving to everyone.  Being able to provide the kids with new soccer balls and even just spending one day with them has so much value.  This is an experience I, and I’m sure everyone else, will never forget.

All of us with the children we played with at Hogar el Alba.  

Juan, Croissants, and El Capitán

Summary:
Today our group visited Hogar El Alba, an orphanage for Argentine children aged three to sixteen. We brought donations of soccer balls and laptops and helped them to paint many buildings before playing with them for several hours.

A group photo with the children in front of Hogar El Alba

“Juan ven aca!”

When I woke up this morning, I didn’t expect to have several children boss me around in a foreign language, but I suppose I should have guessed it. From the moment I put down my paintbrush after refurbishing the doors, walls, and ceilings of several buildings, I was pulled in many different directions. It was all part of what I am almost certain will go down as the best day of the trip.

Today, the group visited Hogar El Alba, an orphanage located about an hour outside of Buenos Aires. In the middle of an obviously poor and rural area, we found the home of several stray dogs, honey bees, a few great chefs, and some of the world's most incredible children. The kids ranged in age from 3 to 16 and were all in the orphanage for a variety of different reasons. Some lost their parents, some were victims of violence or sexual assault, and others had incarcerated parents. We came to offer whatever we could to help these children. We brought soccer balls and laptops from Bryant to donate and we spent the first several hours of our trip painting. I could expand on this more, but I have more important things to discuss in this post so instead I have included some pictures and will skip ahead to the good stuff.

Photos of Bryant students hard at work
painting various parts of the orphanage.

The good stuff included the best croissants I've ever eaten, changing my name from Jon to Juan, scoring my first headed goal in soccer, and meeting a real life superhero. Don't worry, I'll explain.

The first thing we did after cleaning up our painting supplies was have a snack prepared by some orphanage workers for the kids and us. I don’t know what they put in the croissants, but I think I had four by the end of the day. Anyways, we were able to meet all of the kids and despite a language barrier, we quickly became friends. I met a group of three sisters named Abril, Maya, and Abby. I still can't tell you which one is which because they thought it was fun to try and confuse us. Despite this, they quickly learned our names and decided to change them. Rich became Ricardo, Phil was now Felipe, Safeen was dubbed Sofia, Tommy became Tomate, and of course my new name was Juan. Later, I learned these three sisters had three more siblings with them in the orphanage and I got a chance to meet two of them as the day continued.

I take a selfie with Peter, Jill, Tomate, Felipe, Ricardo,
and the four sisters (One is hiding behind Felipe).

After our snack, the fiesta moved to the fútbol fields where I immediately realized I was over matched. Seven-year-olds breezed by me as I struggled to stay on my feet. I did score once out of who knows how many attempts, but I am very proud of that one header. It didn't take long for me to realize that I was correct in choosing baseball as my sport and decided to meet some of the other children.

I once again found Abril, Maya, and Abby before Jill introduced me to the fourth sister, Angi. We played keep-away for awhile before I met their youngest brother, Elicio. He was the aforementioned superhero. I never called him by his name, I preferred El Capitán after his Captain America shirt. With my help, he loved climbing through the trees like a mono (monkey), playing Angry Birds on my phone, and flying like an airplane on my shoulders. For the rest of the day he never left my side. You can see him on my shoulder in the group photo.

We pose for our own picture before the group
picture seen above

I get a goodbye hug from El Capitán

Saying goodbye to El Capitán was one of the hardest things I've had to do. I wish I could have given him more than just a few hours of my time. I completely understand why Srdan decided to give a child the hat right off of his head. I cannot imagine what these children have been through in their lives yet they had more joy and excitement in their eyes than virtually any other person I have met. So the next time you have a bad hair day, or a fight with your mother or your daughter, please remember the children from Hogar el Alba and see if your problems are as big as theirs. Chances are that will end with hug and a smile.

Tres, Dos, Un Pájaro Francés

Today was easily one of my favorite days so far on this trip. We visited the orphanage, Hogar el Alba. Once we even drove through the entrance I knew it was going to be a mind-blowing and eye-opening experience. The area was very run down but you could tell they tried as hard as possible to give children an environment that they wouldn’t mind waking up to everyday. The land was scattered with playgrounds and soccer fields that the kids seemed to never get sick of.

Once we arrived we were greeted with hundreds of pastries and beverages and it was amazing because even though they don’t have much they still spent hours cooking this meal and making sure we felt appreciated for helping them. We then started working and I quickly realized that before we arrived I was hoping to get it over quickly so we could spend time with the children. However, I had a sudden change of heart and realized how both fun and rewarding that experience was. After I finished a project, I felt a sense of pride that was stronger than what I’ve felt before after doing service projects.

We worked for about 5 hours doing task after task once we finished a project and once they were finally complete we got the reward of spending time with the children. I played a new version of the game red light, green light, spent time on the playgrounds, played in a huge soccer game, and helped a little girl attack Tyler with a stick while giving her a piggyback ride.

This visit could’ve been considered one of the most labor intensive tasks we’ve had on the trip so far; however it was the most meaningful and worthwhile day we will have on this trip.

                                            

Group photo once we said our

last goodbyes.                                                                        The youngest child, Luc and I getting                                                                                                       creative with rubber gloves.