Tortillas and beans......: Orphanage

One of my reasons of wanting to move to Guatemala was due to the needs and poverty that they have here, and so I could find ways to make an impact or help people in need. So far, I can't say that I have done much of that or found opportunities to get involved. On Saturday, my friend Kelly told me that she was going to go visit an orphanage where her friend is a "house mom" for the teenage girls. I was super excited because I wanted to see the orphanage and spend my Saturday holding babies! So, we loaded up the car, with four of us girls and headed up towards Antigua. On our way there, Kelly's friend called who works at the orphanage to tell us that she was broken down in the van on the way back to the home. So we actually got there before she did. We got out and walked into the area where all the little kids were. They ran to us like we were long lost friends. It was really sweet. They were behind these gates that were locked and they all wanted to be held and played with. We played for a little while until about an hour later, Kelly came to the gate (I didn't even see her leave) and said, girls come here, QUICK. We went up and she asks us, "Have you had your hepatitis A shots?" I was pretty sure that I had had mine before I went to Peru, but she said, well you should probably get out and go scrub up. Allison just told me that there was a Hepatitis A breakout in the children's area and she pointed to a room in the back and said, "All of the Hep A kids are quarantined there." Oh great!!! So anyway, it was a short stay with the kiddos, but we did get to stay and talk to her friend Allison and look around the children's home. There are sooo many kids there. Allison is a house mom to like 54 14-18 year old girls!!! They have their own school there on the grounds where the kids go to school and there are so many people that work there. I definitely want to start going there on more of a regular basis. Another reason I need a car!!! Here are just a few pictures that I snapped before we were removed from the children's area. They aren't usually locked up, only because of the Hepatitis breakout, so you can tell the kids are dying to get out of that locked up area!!!!!