Our 2nd Orphanage

 A government run orphanage in Quito Ecuador is the second place that touched me the most.  It is actually where I personally feel I made the most impact on my trip. 


This orphanage which I cannot name for privacy reasons,  is for children mostly 5 years and younger.  These children are from the worst of worst domestic situations.  They have suffered many types of physical, verbal, and sexual abuse.  Not all children have experienced all of these though.  Some children are victims of fetal alcohol or drug syndrome.  Their stories are plentiful and we do not know the depth of their past nor their hurts.

What I noticed about the campus was how guarded it was.  A high wall, and gate at the front with a 24 hour guard.  It is a mini fortress with good reason.  The  government is serious about protecting these children. 

The first afternoon we arrived there was late afternoon.  We were able to play with the children for about an hour on the playground.  There was a child who struck me immediately when we arrived on the play ground.  For sake of privacy I'm going to call him "Marty".  He was an older child and he was off by himself near the big slide.  He had a little girl near him whom I learned later was his sister.  I had heard the story about Marty, that he was still living there, but really should not be there due to his age.  He was there because of his sister.  He was supposed to be moving on to another orphanage for older children.  He was out of place at this orphanage, and yet he wasn't.  If he left the orphanage he and his sister would be separated.  Could you imagine??  I don't know his background, but I was drawn to Marty, most likely because I have a 10 year old son myself.  If my son Joseph had been there, he would have made friends with Marty right away.  Joseph is just that kind of child.   Always making friends with children of any age when we go places.  Language barrier or not, I think Joseph would have really tried to be his friend.

More and more children came onto the playground.  We were surrounded with little hands and faces that were absolutely precious.  My favorite moment of all was a little girl who Mendy was holding in her arms who knew her from last time she was at Maria Campi in October.  "Do you remember me?" Mendy asked and the little girl nodded her head.  "Si."  It was touching to share in this moment.

We pushed the kids in the swings.  One little girl with Fetal Alcohol syndrome stuck with me for a good while.  She was probably 5 but looked as if she was no older than 3.  All she wanted to do was swing on her tummy like Superman.  She was so sweet and her smiles were so big when she would spin herself around in the swing.

Everyone was having a good time.  The kids especially.  I will not forget Tim with a child on his shoulders I think and other children attacking his t shirt.  The guys would toss the kids in the air and catch them.  They loved that.  Tim thought words like "Run, Jump, and How High" were good words to know we all didn't know.  The kids were saying all of these things and it was hard to understand.  I really wished I knew more Spanish.  I so wanted to communicate with them and French wanted to come out of my mouth so badly!!  If only I could talk to them like I wanted to..... Smiles had to suffice at times.  

Some of us were asked to serve the children during mealtime.  So I volunteered to stay.  That was interesting!!  A group of about 14 children at two tables pushed together to make one long table.  They had soup first, then rice, meat and a vegetable.  They ate on some type of metal plates and drank out of metal  looking cups with handles.  They all were using utensils pretty well at ages you wouldn't think they would.  It was loud, and a bit chaotic and some kids didn't want to eat their meals no matter how much we coaxed them to eat.  Some were hungry and ate everything almost on their plate.  They said their prayers before their meal and I noticed "Marty" was a leader in the group with prayer.  One of the mommies got the kids to settle down with a song.  It worked like a charm.  Hey that's what we'd do in a classroom in the States.  We just didn't know of course the songs in Spanish that she was singing or we would have loved to have jumped in with the song.

When the meal was pretty much finished, we left.  We knew we'd be coming back tomorrow.  What we didn't know is that the plans would change in mid stream and what we had planned to do the next day at here would all change and we would be doing things we never thought we would.  Fluid and flexible.  Yep, that is what we were all week.  Actually because the plan changed, God blessed us more than we imagined.  

Day 2 to be continued.....

Our Final Day at COVI

Our team went back to COVI ( Centro opcion de vida) on Thursday, July 21 to spend some more time with the teens and whomever else might be there.  There were actually a lot more children at the center this day than on Monday.  We got out our crafts divided the boys and girls and sat down on the grass at the park together.  The children were precious.  I do not know their stories.  I just know they were at the COVI center.  They may or may not be children from the streets. I should have asked, regardless, we spent time with them and they thoroughly enjoyed us being there.  Several of the COVI boys participated in the crafts too.

The girls made crowns and the boys made a paddle ball game.

 

And I cannot ever forget the boy that climbed the tree..... The first day we were there on the 18th he climbed the tree in the park and I mean waaaay up high a good 15+ ft up.  Higher than I've seen anyone climb a tree before.  On Thursday, our last day at COVI he came up to me and he pointed to the tree and told me in Spanish it was he who climbed the tree and pointed at himself and then the tree. He had a huge smile and he made me smile too.  He was very friendly.  Then he proceeded to climb the tree for all of us again. Of course he wanted us to take his photo. So I did.  I'll leave you with this photo.  

May the Lord bless the COVI boys, Tamarita and any of those children on the streets that visit COVI now and will come through Tamarita's doors in the future.

Soccer Match with the COVI Boys

"  So you think you can play 'football' eh? "

The boys from COVI kind of wondered on Monday July 18, what kind of soccer three of our team members could play.  We were blessed with 3 teens that could play soccer very well. 

After we had seen the new COVI 2 house, we gave the 7 boys a ride in our bus down to COVI at the park and half of our team played soccer with them.  Half of us cheered, watched and took photographs.  Guess which one I was?  Yep.... I played photographer.  I am terrible at soccer.  Some of us were cautious about exerting ourselves with the altitude.

These boys are really really good players.  I was most impressed though with the girls that played against them.  They kept up with them very well and I think they really impressed them.  What I was so impressed with was how gentle the boys were with the girls.  They truly were aggressive players, but not towards any of our group.  Two of our male team members played too and did a great job and looked like they had a blast.

Can you serve God by playing soccer with these boys?  Yes, most definitely. To come all this way to just share in their day.  They laughed, we laughed, and I know God was present with us that day as we spent time getting to know them off the park soccer field that day.  I think they touched us more than we touched them though.  I 'll never forget them, nor their stories of complete abandonment and desperation living on the streets for years some surrounded by gangs and drugs.  They went from this to love, protection, and hope.  ALL of these boys have hope of a future now, thanks be to God!

Singer Song writer Brandon Heath says it so well.....  "All I ever needed was your love."  All kids need to be loved.  That's what they received when they met Tamarita at COVI and she was able to show them the ultimate love in Jesus Christ.  See her story here:  Tamarita's Story and How COVI was started.
Listen to the song here: 
"Your Love" by Brandon Heath

Playing in bare feet and he was an excellent player.

 

 

Mad skills!

More mad skills!

After our soccer fun, some of the team went shopping for the boys.  We asked them what kind of games they would really like.  They told us some things they'd like and a few of us went to the store and bought them some puzzles, board games, card games and a workout weight bench and some weights.  Look at the smiles of Boris as he was trying out the new weights.  I kept telling him he was going to get really strong if he kept that up and he kept asking me to feel his arm muscles.  Ha ha ha! 

 

 Yay!! 

I would ask anyone reading this, to please pray for the teens of COVI and the children who may still be on the streets that visit COVI and Tamarita daily in Quito Ecuador.  I ask with all my heart for you to pray for their protection, their provision, their spiritual walk with God, and for God to take what the enemy meant for destruction and turn to good.  These kids have no one but each other.  This program is working and I know it is because Tamarita is following God's call to serve these children.  Two of our translators, Carla and Carol,  already have a huge heart for COVI  please pray them that God might show them how to best serve the children of COVI right there in their city of Quito.  Most of all pray for Tamarita.  For her direction in caring for these boys, that God would continue to grow her ministry and give her His Strength, mercy, and grace.  She is a beautiful soul.

Oswaldo our guide and the boys

COVI- Tamarita's Story and the Street Children

 Probably the place that touched me the most with its story while we were in Quito was COVI.  "Centro Opcion de Vida".  It is the shelter for the street children. We were able to see the new addition to this street ministry at COVI 2 on Monday July 18 while we were there.  It is a beautiful new house where 7 teenage boys live currently.  It will hold up to 10 teen boys.  Everything was new.  Mendy had brought sheet sets for the boys too for their rooms.  The last team from Visiting Orphans had helped at COVI 2 and had requested we bring down sheet sets if we could.  When we walked into COVI it was so clean and new.  Fresh paint on the wall, floors redone it looked like.  A new kitchen.  Everything new.  The government has given this house to Tamarita to lease for 2 years for her ministry.  Every two years it comes up for evaluation.  She is praying that her church will be able to buy it from the government and she will be able to continue her ministry without government intervention every two years.  She of course is thrilled the government even gave her this house in the first place.  That in itself is an answer to prayer.  They are seeing what she is doing works in helping get kids off the street and giving them a temporary home.  The boys were playing Twister in what was like a sun room type area, laughing so loud and in one big tangled mess.  Three other boys were playing an UNO card game at a table in the same room.  Tamarita gave us a tour of the house and then shared her story.....  I'll try to do my best to tell it as I remember it.

 Tamarita's Story
First and foremost I must say that Tamarita loves the Lord.  She views the COVI houses as God's house and these children who have come off the street as God's children.  This is God's work and nothing that she does with this ministry is for anything other than for the Lord and the good of the children.  She views herself as the vessel God is using to do His work in the lives of these boys.  These boys have literally been rescued from the streets of Quito. Tamarita says they have been rescued by God.  I believe she is completely right.

What was so touching about this place is how it all started.  Tamarita began this ministry over 10 years ago.  It all started with Tamarita going to the street with food and feeding the hungry in one area of Quito.  She'd drive her little Volkswagon down there often times with her two daughters and just serve meals to whomever was there.  She began by meeting a physical need, just as the Lord asks us to do.  And who are living on the streets in this area of town?  Gangs, gang leaders, criminals, and the homeless.  Homeless children, homeless teens and I'm sure adults too.  Her heart was for the children there.

This continued for some time, just she and her daughters, until a small group from a church started getting involved.  Who was in that group about 7 years ago?  Our guide Oswaldo and two of our translators, Carla and Carol.  Every week they started going down to the streets with Tamarita to feed the homeless and street children.  Oswaldo told us there were about 10 of them that went diligently.

Eventually Tamarita was told by the government that they did not like what she was doing on the street.  She needed a "place" for these people to be fed.  People were committing crimes and then coming to eat.  They wanted the folks she was feeding off the street.  So COVI started.  If I'm not mistaken, someone please correct me if I'm wrong, the government gave Tamarita a place where she could feed the street children.  This grew.  Eventually it became a hang out for kids after school who lived on the streets, and then it became a place where teen boys could actually live and call "home".  It took Tamarita 10 years to build this ministry from just serving a bowl of soup to the hungry.

One of the most incredible parts of this story is that a gang leader decided he wanted to leave the streets because of what Tamarita was doing.  She was able to get him into a drug rehab program for about a year and a half Oswaldo told us.  When he got clean from drugs, he went back to the streets to try to convince others to leave and try a better way of life.  The gang murdered him.  And the new COVI house, COVI 2 is named after him.  "Daniel" is his first name.  I saw a newspaper article on the wall in COVI 1 with Tamarita, Daniel and the President of Ecuador.  Wow!

Leaving the street is difficult for these boys.  Many have run away from home, even from other countries in South America at young ages because of abuse from their fathers.  Many were on drugs but are no more.  There is always a temptation to go back to the streets because there you can live however you want.  Tamarita has rules they must abide by or they cannot live there.  Overall it is a trying situation at times when you have so many personalities that are hurt by life and used to the way of the streets.  What we saw were well adjusted teens of 17, with many smiles on their faces.  Most of the 7 we spent time with had been living at COVI for over a year, some for 3 years.

We sat around the dining room table as Tamarita told us her story about COVI.  Then about 4 of the boys got up in front of us and told their stories of where they came from and how thankful they were for COVI and Tamarita.  There was hardly a dry eye in the room.  To share their testimony of how Tamarita's ministry  and even the Lord had changed their life in front of a bunch of American strangers was just incredible.  I was so humbled.  Of course when one of them said how thankful he was to Tamarita, she was pointing her finger up at the ceiling showing us all it was not her but God who needed to get the credit for it all.


Tamarita inspires me.  She truly does.  I'm so blessed to have met her.  I was able to give her a gift from our team.  A Spanish devotional, a bracelet a lady at the church hand made for her and one of the pens my dad made.  When I told her my dad had dementia.  She said her father passed away from Alzheimers at 87.  Small world.  My prayer is that her work continues and that when she is no longer able to continue the work that God will provide someone who will carry it on in His name.  It is a beautiful ministry.

Tamarita, Jason doing his "pose" and I

I will write about the soccer match our team had with the boys in the park that Monday, soon.

July 18 San Vicente de Paul

Monday we went to our first orphanage:  San Vicente de Paul.  It was an orphanage sponsored by the Catholic Church and run daily by the Sisters. I'm thinking they might be part of the Vincentians, but I'm not really sure. I have not researched that.   It was a large orphanage with much space and was pretty nice I was told compared to other orphanages others had seen.  This was my first experience of any orphanage of any kind.

The first thing I saw when we walked into the gates was this statue of Saint Vincent de Paul with the little children.

What I learned about Saint Vincent de Paul is that he was French.  He was born in 1581 in Pouy France to peasant farmers.  He became a priest around 1600.  In 1625 he founded a ministry called the Congregation of the Mission, a society of missioning priests commonly known as the Vincentians.  He also founded the Daughters of Charity in 1633 with some help.  He is reknown for his compassion, generosity and humility.

As we stood near the entrance to the office of the orphanage a small group of about 10 children probably no older than 3 came walking past us.  Some were walking hand in hand with care givers. We turned to look at them and of course everyone smiled and waved.  One little girl kept turning around and saying, "Ciao!  Ciao!"  She would walk a little further with the caregiver and then turn around again to make sure we were there and say, "Ciao!" again.  It was so funny.  Wow, what a first impression.  Precious children.  Yep, I was fighting back the tears a bit at this point as I was smiling so big. 

This facility takes children from abusive situations and children who are abandoned. 

We were allowed to play with the children on the playground which was not usually allowed.  Most children were ages 6 and under I'd say.  That morning we were able to jump rope with them, push them in the swings, color with side walk chalk and just play with them.  It was great.  Since these children are there under protection I'm being cautious about posting pictures of their faces.  You may see side shots or shots from a far, but those pics I love that are of me with the children I will not post here.  I'll have to show them to you in person.

 

One of the most touching things I saw after we got on the play ground was a little girl no older than 2 or 3 that literally jumped into Sean Baxter's arms right after he smiled and waved at her with his fingers.  I had heard of how children will just "pick someone" and sit with them and want to be held for a long time.  After she jumped into Sean's arms, she was his for the morning pretty much.  Here he is with her in the swing.  

When I look back, I think, about how this visit was so quick. The children were great.  I wish we could have spent some more time with them.  We did not go back to this orphanage while in Quito.  This was more of an exploratory visit to see if it was a place where we could help them in the future and to find out more about the children and their needs.  There are great needs at San Vicente de Paul.  The Sister told us about them.  

We did see many caregiver volunteers there too.  Interns, some Americans who were there for the summer or had been there for a couple of months.  We also saw some Ecuadorian volunteers.  I do not know if we will go back here, but it was definitely a place I think we could go back to if Visiting Orphans wanted to begin to build a relationship there.  I guess I have to look at this as we got to "visit" them and peek inside their world for just a moment and enjoyed them and they enjoyed us.  It was a "living in the moment" type of experience.