As most of you know, I have been volunteering once a week to go out to a farm which is an orphanage for about 16 boys. In the mornings, when the older HS boys are not in school, we have informal English classes. We started with 6-8 boys and are now down to 2....who may not even be there for next year. Unfortunately, the story is very long and very sad but the essence is.....the evangelical organization that has been running it, lost the
"parents" who had been there for 5 years due to unsuitable working conditions, unpaid salaries and hardships. The organization is now being sued by a registered child psychologist who says that the orphanage organization has not been providing the basics of basics for the boys. They have not replaced the loving "parents" yet and have ignored the fact that the boys were in mourning and dealing with much grief. Instead, they treated them with increased discipline and harshness thus pushing out those who were nearing their HS diploma or near 18. Most of our core group have either found relatives to live with, runaway or are living with friends until they finish the school year. One example: one of the boys talked back to the organizational leader, thus he was punished by not being allowed to go to a bowling and swim party here in town, organized by our school. (remember these kids live way way out in the country and this was an outing they were looking forward to for months). So, instead of giving the boy a different consequence, they simply took this special trip away from him. He backtalked again....so 8 hours later...they dropped him off at the bus station, gave him money for a bus fare to Caracas and told him to find his relatives there. This is a boy who has been with the orphanage his entire life, has no street smarts and was 3 months away from graduating. BTW, sweetest kid on earth. They ALL are...they were just floored emotionally by losing their parents and suddenly having these temps come in with no compassion but insults and toughness. Chevron and the volunteer organization that I tagged onto have dropped their financial support as well due to an obvious misappropriations of funds. So much was donated, yet there was nothing to show for it. For example, now that they are being sued, suddenly there is cheese and ham, medical exams et al. These were things Voluntarios was giving to them before because "they didn't have it". Now, suddenly they do..... because they are trying to prove in the lawsuit that they are providing.
The other issue is they have been accepting boys who are mentally disabled or come from the streets at young ages. They can't go to the regular school down the road because the country school doesn't have the resources. (the nearby town is a poor village) and/or the boys have no documents like birth certificates. So, as you look at my pictures, you will see photos of some boys who have some obvious disabilities.
My friend who lives here is trying to find a private home, start a private separate orphanage and get the original parents to work there, and try and get the boys back together. But, this will take time and paperwork and a lot of money. My friend Lisa who visited fell in love with these boys. So, we even rearranged plans while here so we could go out twice. These boys are so good and so sweet and typical MS and HS boys... at times just a riot to be around.
So, in two week it will probably be one of my last times out to the farm. The classes were more about love, and a change in the routine, and having some fun while learning English. Lisa and I bought diving masks for them as you will see in the pictures to make fishing easier. We bring treats, and donations and english vocab for them. We are greated with huge smiles and big hugs and called Tia (aunt). They only leave the farm to walk 20 minutes to the little school in the afternoons....otherwise they are there 7 days a week living with boys ranging from 5 to 18 and a couple of older boys who stayed on as they have jobs with the orphanage or are mentally functioning to work and stay as they would have no where else to go. My heart is broken about what is happening. The good thing is they have our telephone numbers and they have access to cell phones (although there is no reception out there and there is no hardline, nor car) and I am hopeful our school will maintain the teen outreach program with them as that is probably going to be how i can keep involved with the remaining boys.
Well, that all being said, it does seem silly to post pics of scuba diving from last weekend. It really puts everything in perspective how fortunate we are. When you are involved it makes a meaningful impression versus writing a check or getting a silent auction bottle of wine. But, thankfully i am neighbors and friends with 2 people who are very close with the boys and so I believe after summer break there will be opportunities for me to once again be involved with the boys.
When you look at the fishing pictures, you will see they "fish" with a rubbarized/metal harpoon. The river is about 2 feet deep, muddy and swampy and runs through villages and domestic animal fields. So, let your imagination go on THAT water. They can harpoon crayfish and all kinds of fish. We watched them harpoon at least 4 varieties of fish. Even small ones are kept and put into the freezer as they will all go into fish soup someday. They were amazing fisherman. It was a fun day and they loved impressing us with their skills. :)
