anika in mexico

After a leisurely morning, I walked a few blocks to Megan’s house. She invited me in, and we had a cup of coffee in the sitting room. She gave me a tour of the house. It’s a very big, very beautiful house, and they have lots on interesting art hung about the place.

I met her son, Cooper, again. He’s really adorable and suuuch a flirt. He kept going into his toy room to bring me different toys.

We left for the orphanage about an hour after I got to her house. Through her husband’s company, she gets a driver if she needs/wants one. So her driver drove us to the orphanage. He parked on the very steep hill in front of the building. It almost gave me vertigo, it was such an angle.

Megan and I carted some supplies with us, and soon we were within the walls of the orphanage. It was actually a fairly nice place, all things considered. It was sunny, the walls were brightly painted. There’s a playground in the courtyard. It’s a very big building, and everything was pretty clean. Except for the kids. Most of them looked like they don’t get regular baths. They weren’t totally filthy, but definitely not spic and span.

Megan and I were there to visit the kids who are 2 years old or younger. Most of them were walking except for one baby who was 10 months old, but not even sitting up on his own yet. There are about 10 kids in all. A lot of them have been mistreated in their homes, and already at such young ages, the issues they’ve developed are evident in their personality and the way they react to certain interactions.

The kids stay in a small room with white tile floors all day. There is one girl taking care of all the young children. There are windows in the room, but it is pretty dark in there. Lots of toys and books were filling the shelves on the back wall, but they weren’t really being played with.

Once they got used to the idea of us, they were all very clingy. They just liked to hang on us, even if we were playing with another kid.

We were there when it was time for them to eat, so we all shuffled across the small empty courtyard to the cafeteria. Megan and I took turns feeding the youngest. We were both surprised at how much of his lunch he ate. There was a whole bowl full of some kind of corn and chicken puree and he ate pretty much all of it. The other time was spent trying to get the other kids to stay out of mischief. But they love mischief. It’s a delightful game to them.

They loved tugging on the television cord that was dangling down behind the refrigerator that was attached to a television that was mounted up in the corner. I told them to stop, but no such luck. Finally I took it from them and stowed the cord on top of the refrigerator out of their reach.

After that they realized that they could hide between the wall and the side of the refrigerator, and if they opened the refrigerator door they could block themselves completely from view. I once went over to tell them to stop. I closed the refrigerator door and told them to get out of there. Of course they didn’t, but then kept trying to play the game I’d started with them, and would every now and then close the door slightly and peer at me and laugh.

At one point one of the older kids figured out how to open the door that leads to the street outside. 5 or 6 of the toddlers waddled outside onto the street, but they were soon caught and corralled safely back into the cafeteria. Someone then was dispatched to secure the door more carefully with a padlock.

After lunch, Megan and I completed the unpleasant task of changing diapers and damp clothes. Nearly all the kids had dirty diapers or wet shorts. The people who work/volunteer there don’t seem to stay on top of keeping the kids dry and clean. At least they are safe, I suppose.

After the kids were dry, a bit cleaner, well fed and played with, Megan and I finally tore ourselves away. Which was pretty difficult. The kids really didn’t want us to go. One little boy kept clinging to me, wanting to be picked up and held. We’d stayed for only 2 hours, but it had seemed like such a worthwhile time spent with those kids. It made me wonder how anyone could mistreat any child. Even the ones I met that day who became frustrated easily or acted out in order to get attention are so small and sweet. It was definitely a new experience for me, and I hope I have the chance to return at some point.

After a short drive, I was soon back home thanks to Megan’s driver.

I was pretty beat after tending to 10 kids for a couple hours. I had something to eat, but took it easy for the rest of the day.

Karin picked me up later in the evening and took me over to her house to get my car. Siggy eventually came back from school, and we all sat around and talked for a while. Teocrito gave me very detailed directions to get to San Miguel de Allende.

I had supper with them, and drove home around 10pm.