Orphan´s Hope Project Blog

You haven’t heard from me in a while…simply because I don’t have much news to share with you.

Roger, Steve, Kristen and family have come and gone. They were at the hogar but I didn’t get any updates. I’m sure it was a hectic, busy time.

The Oakland Raiders are going to come through for us again. They’ve been scouring their warehouse and will be shipping me a box of goodies in the next few days. I’m not sure what’s going to be in the box… it’s always a surprise, a good surprise. Everyone in the office loves seeing what the boxes hold. The Raiders are going to put lanyards in there… maybe 8-10. Anyone who’s worked at the orphanage knows the importance of keys. We have keys and more keys. The lanyards are so useful. They’ll be Oakland Raiders lanyards… which means they will be nice. I’ll get some color tags for the lanyards so it will be easier to distinguish which group of keys they are. When I get the shipment, I’ll take pictures.

I wish I had more news to tell you. I wish I knew more.

Yes, that’s how many of us came to know and love Hogar Miguel Orphanage in Guatemala. We volunteered to work and live at the orphanage. Then we fell in love with the kids and the home. Many of our volunteers stay connected to the orphanage and return again and again.

Wilson has volunteered, lived and worked at the orphanage a number of times. He just graduated from college and is headed to UCSF in the fall, for medical school. Congratulations to Wilson.

Roger, Steve, Kristen and family are coming back for their 4th visit to the orphanage… all in the past year. They will be at the orphanage this next week. They have raised thousands of dollars and their help and support is very much appreciated.

Yes, this is Roger and you can see how attached the kids are to him.

Anna came back in February, with her parents. It was Anna’s 2nd trip (coming from London) and a first trip for her parents (coming from Sweden). They will all come back.

Damian lives in Canada and has lived & worked at a orphanage a few times. He recruited another Canadian, Sabra, and their last trip was in December. We appreciate them both.

Amanda is one of our big fans, coming from England. She even has her own web site and raises funds in England.

Diane W. returned a couple of months ago and is keen to come back. She loves being with the kids.

Kathy has been to the orphanage again and again, when she can fit it in with her college courses.

Lisa loves it there. She just got married and some of her friends donated $ to the orphanage as a wedding gift.

Nico was there for quite a while and eventually became the on-site administrator. When she left to pursue other goals, she eventually came back and became an English teacher for a few months. She’ll be popping in to see the kids in the next couple of months.

And the list goes on.

Please consider becoming part of our family of volunteers. Contact us for more information. It will be a life changing experience. You’ll be glad you did.

Yes, the box has been picked up. It leaves the San Francisco Bay Area today for its 3 1/2 week trip to Central America. The shippers will never let it out of their sight. Yesterday, they told me that they are also taking two new refrigerators to Guatemala. Julio, the driver, explained (in Spanish) that refrigerators are too expensive in Guatemala and it’s cheaper to buy them here and ship them to Guatemala. So, new refrigerators will be keeping our box company… along with lots and lots of other huge shipping boxes full of items for families in other countries. The shippers also take items to El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.

So, do you want to know what’s in the box? I guess I can tell you. Here goes. How about 16 soccer uniforms, 6 sweat shirts with hoods, 58 long sleeved and regular sleeved green t-shirts, 19 beautiful hand made blankets complete with ribbons and beanie babies, 23 large stuffed animals, 209 pairs of socks, 2 footballs, 27 white shirts, 10 pot holders, pens, vegetable peelers, a can opener, 24 Sharpie Pens, 300 chocolate chip snack bars, 9 lbs. of oatmeal, 2 huge jars of peanut butter, 4.5 lbs. of raisins, assorted school supplies (lots & lots of crayons, markers, notebooks, erasers, pencils, glue, etc), 41 dinosaur Spanish-English coloring books, 36 small flashlights with batteries, 35 toothbrushes, washcloths and about 20 wristbands. I even threw in a rain poncho at the last minute, for me. With the exception of the gently used soccer uniforms, all these items are new. The kids deserve new and they get new stuff from Orphan’s Hope Project and our donors.

And that all fit into the box. When I see the items all spread out before packing, I always think they’re not going to fit. But… they do and this time, they did. The box was full and I certainly couldn’t push it…not even an inch. We taped it up, completed the manifest and the shippers took out a hand cart and rolled it to the truck.

It’s gone. The box is gone. It’s on its way to the orphanage. That gives me a big feeling of accomplishment. The kids will be so excited to see the shipment arrive in the orphanage and they will be waiting for me to open the box when I arrive. All the items will be treasured. I want the kids to know that I treasure them, the children.

Light that griddle… I’m coming to the orphanage to make the kids pancakes!

Yes, the box is packed and the shippers are picking it up today. We expect it to arrive at the orphanage somewhere between July 8 and July 11th. There are lots of goodies in there. I’ll give you more details later. Thank you to all of you who helped us fill this box. The children will be excited to see it arrive at the hogar.

I received a great donation yesterday afternoon. This is the 4th time that I have received blankets for the kids. On earlier trips, I gifted each age group (one group at a time) with hand made blankets. The blankets come bundled up with a ribbon and each have a beanie baby on them. There’s a tag on each one, written in Spanish, that they are hand made with love. They are so awesome. Each group of boys has loved receiving them and they feel a sense of ownership with ‘their’ blanket. And yes, the blankets are theirs. They don’t belong to the entire group. They each have their own.

This time, we are going to give blankets to the girls. The girls have not received blankets in the past because the girls weren’t there in the hogar. Oh yes, these girls are girls. Their dorm room looks like a room full of girls lives there. Softer colors, stuffed animals, hairbrushes, hair accessories, different clothes and more gives their room a very different appearance that the dorm rooms of the three groups of boys.

It gives me great joy to be able to bring special things to the boys and girls at the hogar. The children deserve special ! All children do. I hope these blankets help make the girls feel safe at night, more comfortable and more loved.

Thank you Jo Ann for bringing these great blankets to me. And thank you from all the girls. They’ll have them soon.

Someone asked me yesterday why we had so many pictures of boys on the web site but not the girls. I guess we’re going to have to change that.

In late 2007, we started taking in a few girls. It was shortly before Christmas when we decided we just couldn’t turn away these girls. Formerly, we were an all boys home. Now that has changed. By Christmas 2007, we had 6 girls. By May 1st of this year, we had 15 girls.

Look at the smiling faces of these two girls.

Frances and Samantha are sisters and they are two of our girls. They are quiet, beautiful, smart girls. They are helpful, unobtrusive young women whose lives were at risk if they had not been taken into our hogar. And now, they are blossoming. Both of the girls tested and qualified for colegio, the Guatemalan version of private school. So, with funds that we raised, we are able to send these two sisters to colegio in Guatemala City. We now have 10 kids in colegio, thanks to the generous support of our donors. And every one of these children are deserving of a better life and a better education.

Taking in girls created problems that we needed to solve. In January, the girls were housed with the peques. While I was there, we cleared out a playroom, brought in beds and made a dorm room for the girls. A couple of the smaller girls had to share a bed. We had to coordinate bathroom and shower times, as the girls and the smaller boys (the pequenos) had to share the shower and toilet facilities.

Here are a few of the girls (with their decorated faces) in one of our outside play structures.

But, we didn’t have a teacher that could sleep in the dorm room with them. Eventually, Lorena, from the local village of Aguacate, was recruited to be the evening supervisor for the girls. Lorena and her 3 year old sister now stay at the hogar at night. In Lorena’s home, she doesn’t even have a bed. She doesn’t have a stove. She doesn’t have running water. Staying with us at night is safer for her and gives her a better place to sleep.

Now we have cleared out another part of a building and have a new room for the girls. They no longer have to share the bathroom with the boys. Instead, all 15 girls have to share one bathroom. But, it’s much better this way. Girls will be girls and they need their own spaces and their privacy, as do the boys.

All the girls have stories. Girls in Guatemala are at higher risk than the boys, for obvious reasons. And now we are providing some of them with a safe place to live. And they’re being fed and are getting an education.

This is what’s important…..helping others.

I am happy to say that we have now wired a total of $15,000 to Miguel Magone Orphanage in the past 4 months. Yep, that $15,000 is a good investment in the lives of these children. Thanks to all of you donors, the kids have a good place to live, have food in their tummys and they are thriving.

Thank You to all of our past, present and future supporters & donors.

In just 3 days, the new orphanage capilla will be dedicated and used for the first time. On Sunday, we’ll have lots of visitors at the orphanage. The new chapel will be blessed and the first mass will be held in the new building. It will be a day of pride and celebration. Plans are underway and it will be a wonderful occasion. Check back to this web log sometime next week. I hope I’ll have pictures of the celebration posted by then.

To all our donors, thank you so much. You made it possible. It is a beautiful building and you should be proud. We built it. Yes we did.

So many of the kids at the hogar have had bad things happen in their lives. The children are much safer in the orphanage than they would be on the streets and some of them are safer than they would be in their family homes. They certainly do get nutritious food at the hogar, a clean place to sleep, clean clothes, they go to school, they develop friendships and alliances and they are learning to follow rules to help them as they grow older.

One child who became very dear to me in January 2008 is a boy of about 9 years of age. Let’s call him Randy for the purposes of this story. He is such an adorable looking child… very cute face, cute smile, beautiful skin and expressive eyes. He lived with his mom and his dad in their family home in Guatemala. One day, his dad ended life as Randy knew it. Randy’s family will never be the same. Randy’s dad stabbed Randy’s mom, multiple times. Yes, he killed his wife. And guess who witnessed it all? Yep… this small, vunerable boy saw his mom stabbed and killed.

The father did get arrested and was put in jail. Randy, of course, now had no parents to live with. So, his aunt took him in. Did he get counseling and other help? Unfortunately not. The aunt kept him for a while but Randy couldn’t get a handle on his life or the past. He was acting out, fighting, having nightmares, etc. and the aunt couldn’t continue to care for him. So, he came to the hogar to live.

He had some problems in the hogar and was getting help through our staff psychologist. This child needed love and needed to know that people cared about him. One night in January, while I was there, Randy had a meltdown. In the early evening, he finished taking his shower but he developed a problem. He refused to get dressed. He was agitated and walked around with only a towel wrapped around him. He was combative and refused to leave the dorm room. He was striking out with a broom. In fact, he barricaded himself into the dorm room. I tried to get in to talk to him but I had to stay outside the locked door. After talking to him for a while through the door, and getting nowhere, I decided to ignore him. I said my goodbyes and made sure he knew it was ok to stay there. Then I left. He got dressed a short time later, came out, found me and got big hugs from me. After that, he and I had a special bond.

I can still see him sitting at the table holding a Monster Truck that he had just been given. (My friend Fran, in Illinois, shipped me 47 Collectible Monster Trucks in early November). All the kids were given these gorgeous trucks one night. My daily vision of Randy is of him sitting at his table in the dining room, a huge grin on his face and he’s admiring his new possession, his new truck. At that point, he knew that people cared about him. He felt safe. He felt love. He felt like he belonged.

I gave Randy many hugs during the 5 weeks I was there and we certainly were buddies. But that is not enough for any child. Unfortunately, in the past 3 months, the fighting and acting out continued. The orphanage does not have the staff to watch someone 24/7. He was sometimes disruptive and was becoming a problem. Sometimes he threatened other boys. Threatening other boys, picking fights and creating unsafe conditions just wasn’t acceptable as the other boys were at risk. After all, his dad had killed someone… maybe he should threaten to kill or harm someone too. His dad did.

It was time. Randy had to leave the hogar. Luckily, his aunt was willing to try again and he now lives with his aunt. I hope his nightmares are abating, I hope his days get better and I hope that he finds calm, peace and love in his life.

I am just a woman and a mom who cares deeply for him, wishes him the best and thinks about him all the time. I mentally send my hugs and kisses to this one lost child. I wish I could do more for him. I wish we could save them all.

Diane

I would like to say “Thank You” to our web master. I ask a question, she responds. I want to change something on the web site, she changes it. I ask for help, she helps. And she has become a friend.

The web master for Orphan’s Hope Project is Nicoline. She is a Dutch woman who moved from the Netherlands to Guatemala about 2 1/2 years ago. She came to volunteer in the orphanage and then stayed to work in the orphanage. My first trip to the hogar was exactly two years ago….May 2006. Nicoline was the on site administrator of the hogar in May 2006 when I first met her. There were 4 of us women sharing a small room and Nico (Nicoline) was one of my roomates. She was on call during the night and worked like a dog during the day. She picked up Spanish very quickly and is fluent.

And she met Aldo while she was in Guatemala. But that’s her story to tell, not mine. She continued to work at the orphanage and later moved off the grounds as she needed to have some personal time off and have a life. Eventually, the commute and the work wore on her a bit and she found a position in town. She later came back to become the English teacher to our colegio boys for about 6 months or so. She was a great English teacher and the kids thrived.

Now, Nico and Aldo are living in the Netherlands. Aldo learned Dutch and applied for his Dutch papers. They just came back from a bicycle trip in France. And… she is still our web master.

Nico, whatever life has in store for you in the future, I hope it’s a grand adventure and that it’s everything you want it to be. I am so glad you are helping Orphan’s Hope Project, which in turn benefits all the children in the hogar. I know the boys miss you. The faces change but some of the boys that you know are still there. Whenever you visit the hogar, I am sure they will welcome you with open arms.

And I thank you for all of your patience, your help and your friendship. Thanks Nicoline.

Aldo & Nicoline