Abandonment. 

Scarred.  

Assault. 

Victims. 

Words that may come to mind when you think of orphans. 

Now. 

Imagine a complex of six little houses with painted murals on the walls, a courtyard area, and a cafeteria. All behind a locked gate. From the gate, a pathway leading to a bigger house; the retreat house. This is where the volunteers reside. Every morning at 7AM, we walk to the gate and are greeted by a mob of children at the gates reaching their arms out to us. 

“Tia! Buenos Dias!” 

I unlock the gate.

They surround me and shower me with hugs and kisses. Even though I saw them just twelve hours before, they greet me like it’s been ages. 

“Buenos Dias! Como estas?” I respond. 

They answer with animated gestures and excited voices, asking if I want to play dodgeball, questioning the schedule for that day.

It’s pure chaos with all the children running around, but it also feels like pure bliss. The joy on their faces as they chase after each other, the high pitched giggles as they play rock paper scissors with me, the constant acts of love and giving that I’ve noticed as a trend throughout all of the children.

When you see these children with their innocent faces and carefree attitudes, it’s difficult to tell what they’ve actually been through. As I started to put more names to faces and got closer to individual children, I became more curious about their upbringing. How did they end up here? What was their story?

When my questions were answered, I was shocked. 

“Ah, Maelin. She was going to get adopted but her potential parents thought her nose was too flat.” 

“Juan is Martha’s son. Her father raped her.”

Cases of rape, hope then dispair, abuse, abandonment, poverty, death of parents. The scenarios were endless. 

It was heart wrenching for me. They didn’t deserve this. Why did they, at such a young age, have to suffer from these issues? Although they might seem carefree, they all had scars. They had all been vulnerable at some point in time. 

Many people look at orphans and feel pity for them. But that is not what I felt in these moments. I might have started my volunteer experience with some predisposed ideas of what working with orphans would be like. However, my experiences with these children were nowhere near what I had expected. They all come from different family backgrounds and have experienced shocking moments in their lives, but they did not expect special treatment. They did not want to be pitied. I noticed that this doesn’t apply to just these children but to people in general. I’ve learned to dispose of stereotypes as much as possible when approaching new situations and new people and I believe it has changed my view on the world significantly.