I have been meaning to post this for a while. We sent out a fundraising letter a few weeks ago and I wanted to share some excerpts/reflections on our work here at the home. If you have already received the letter, sorry for the duplication. Much love, Janelle and Matt
Dear friends and family,
As most of you know, Matt and I decided this year to take a leave of absence from the United States and the salaried working world, and have dedicated this year to volunteer in Chile with the Salessian Sisters. It has been an amazing journey so far... The children that live at the home are not orphans, but they have indeed all experienced great trauma in their lives, either in the form of abuse or neglect. The state has deemed their home environment no longer safe to live in and so they have come to live with the sisters, while the family works with staff towards reunification.
The sisters and the staff at the home do the best they can to provide for the needs of the children, to make sure that they get a good education, to create a family like environment, and to guide them and teach them right from wrong. This is definitely a formidable task given the limited resources and the challenges the children bring with them. Matt and I have had the opportunity to work with the 15 of the youngest girls these last 3 months (now it has been 5!). They range in age from four to nine years old. They are children dying for attention. They are children who are intensely angry, and who often do not like themselves. They are children trying to figure out who they are, who their family is, and where 'home' is. Like all children, they love to laugh, to play soccer, do head stands in the hall and jump on the bed. Many of them have learning disabilities and focusing on school work is hard for all of them as they have not had stability in their family lives.
...How do you provide for school, health, food, a clean home and the emotional needs of 15 children? One sister, two women and a novice. 15 children. I can't explain how overwhelming it was for me when I first started working at the Home. I wasn't the one in charge of meeting all the children's needs. I helped get them off to school, helped with meals and bedtime and some basic sweeping and mopping. Never mind enrolling them in school, the parent teacher conferences, the doctor/psychiatrist visits, the shopping, the cooking, the long talks about respect, the importance of not stealing, of grades, why your parents didn't show up this weekend/missed your birthday, or where you'll go when you leave the home at 18.
We have now been living and working at the home for 6 months. The rhythms and routines of the home have now become our rhythms. Matt's Spanish has improved as well as my child management skills so we can share more rich experiences with the children. ...The people of Chile have been so warm and generous, and the children have taught us so much.
Many of you have asked how you can help out and be a part of our mission. We’ve worked together with the sisters to set up a fund and we hope you can help us to keep it over flowing. Every little bit means so much to the girls, the sisters and the staff. ...
Sending all our love and blessings,
Janelle and Matt Costanti
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Parent Meetings, School Assemblies, and a Growing Garden
The sisters have started asking me to fill in for parent meetings and take the girls to Doctor appointments and what not. It has been a great opportunity for me to see more of the bigger picture, and understand why we do things the way we do at the home. Granted a few of the experiences at the doctor's office I could have done without. I got to take our little Drama queen to have blood drawn. To top it off, the nurse was far from helpful!
I have been blown away by the frustration the parents have of lack of parent involvement. It is so hard because some parents can barely pay the tuition money, and then don't have enough to stretch for school supplies, to buy toilet paper and paper towels for the classroom each month, much less to help with raffles and to pay $20 USD for an end of the year party. Here in Chile you get about 1/2 the parents coming to parent meetings and each class meets individually! In the states we would die for that level of involvement. On the positive side of the parent meetings, every group of parents has been so generous in supporting our girls when they find out that they live at an Hogar. Everone ends up pitching in.
Matt and I were also invited the end of September to speak at a school assembly in front of 380 high school kids at Colegio Maria Auxiliadora. It was a bit last minute, but it went great. It was part of their activities they had for the month of gratitude. We did a round table on different opportunities for volunteering. Matt was shy to talk in front of the group but in the end he did a great little speech about what a great impact even just 1 person (like Don Bosco) can have on the lives of so many. The kids loved him, and it was a great confidence boost for his Spanish.
The garden has been going fabulously and the kids have loved it. We had our first harvest, and while all the girls were so excited to try their first radish... they weren't too thrilled about the flavor. The peas are coming along just fine, and we even have a potato plant that popped up in the most bizzare location. The girls kept digging up the potatoes that Matt planted last June and moving them around the garden. My Yoga class is just about over, and we've transitioned into doing a power point for the girls to do a presentation on the benefits of yoga. They've been loving working on the computer and have learned a lot.
I have been blown away by the frustration the parents have of lack of parent involvement. It is so hard because some parents can barely pay the tuition money, and then don't have enough to stretch for school supplies, to buy toilet paper and paper towels for the classroom each month, much less to help with raffles and to pay $20 USD for an end of the year party. Here in Chile you get about 1/2 the parents coming to parent meetings and each class meets individually! In the states we would die for that level of involvement. On the positive side of the parent meetings, every group of parents has been so generous in supporting our girls when they find out that they live at an Hogar. Everone ends up pitching in.
Matt and I were also invited the end of September to speak at a school assembly in front of 380 high school kids at Colegio Maria Auxiliadora. It was a bit last minute, but it went great. It was part of their activities they had for the month of gratitude. We did a round table on different opportunities for volunteering. Matt was shy to talk in front of the group but in the end he did a great little speech about what a great impact even just 1 person (like Don Bosco) can have on the lives of so many. The kids loved him, and it was a great confidence boost for his Spanish.
The garden has been going fabulously and the kids have loved it. We had our first harvest, and while all the girls were so excited to try their first radish... they weren't too thrilled about the flavor. The peas are coming along just fine, and we even have a potato plant that popped up in the most bizzare location. The girls kept digging up the potatoes that Matt planted last June and moving them around the garden. My Yoga class is just about over, and we've transitioned into doing a power point for the girls to do a presentation on the benefits of yoga. They've been loving working on the computer and have learned a lot.
'Ommmm.'
Friday, October 16, 2009
A little bug...
So many days I am reminded that the kids at the home are just like any other kid, but there are other times when I am reminded of the uniqueness of the hogar, this space that we have been so blessed to share with everyone here. Sometimes these reminders are painful, or sad, other times they are wonderful and funny.
My favorite story revolves around a little bug we like to call the 'piojo.' In common English, better known as lice. The first stories that I heard about lice have to do with a little girl named Margarita. Sister Bernadet, in the evenings, would flip up her veil and Margarita would jump on her back and start looking for piojos. One day, Margarita came up to me in the hallway with this excited look on her face, she wanted to give me something she had found, she opened up her hand and gave me... a piojo. The girls used to have a carpet in the living room, but there were so many resident piojos that you could be entertained by watching the jumping contest.
Now one might ask, why can't they get rid of the lice?! The biggest obstacle we have is that about 1/3 of the girls go home on the weekends to spend with their families. There is lice in the homes, and they bring it back to the Hogar. The battle becomes insurmountable. We just do not have enough control over the kids' environments.
The part that seemed so surreal about the whole thing is that the kids talk about lice like they're talking about what they ate for breakfast. Sometimes it's borring, sometimes it's exciting. The other day I was picking out nits from Connie's hair. It's a great time to talk with the kids because it can take quite a while and the mini-head masssage is kind of relaxing. She started telling me stories about her neighborhood and how funny one of the neighbor kids is. She claims that she has a circus in her hair. She has named all the big trapeze artists, and they do backflips and swing from hair to hair. Kind of makes the whole story you heard as a kid of flea circuses make sense at a whole new level. When you hear the girls tell their stories, and just be kids, it doesn't seem like such a bad thing after all. And in all the funkiness of living with hundredes and hundreds of piojos, it's just another day at the hogar, loving these amazing kids.
My favorite story revolves around a little bug we like to call the 'piojo.' In common English, better known as lice. The first stories that I heard about lice have to do with a little girl named Margarita. Sister Bernadet, in the evenings, would flip up her veil and Margarita would jump on her back and start looking for piojos. One day, Margarita came up to me in the hallway with this excited look on her face, she wanted to give me something she had found, she opened up her hand and gave me... a piojo. The girls used to have a carpet in the living room, but there were so many resident piojos that you could be entertained by watching the jumping contest.
Now one might ask, why can't they get rid of the lice?! The biggest obstacle we have is that about 1/3 of the girls go home on the weekends to spend with their families. There is lice in the homes, and they bring it back to the Hogar. The battle becomes insurmountable. We just do not have enough control over the kids' environments.
The part that seemed so surreal about the whole thing is that the kids talk about lice like they're talking about what they ate for breakfast. Sometimes it's borring, sometimes it's exciting. The other day I was picking out nits from Connie's hair. It's a great time to talk with the kids because it can take quite a while and the mini-head masssage is kind of relaxing. She started telling me stories about her neighborhood and how funny one of the neighbor kids is. She claims that she has a circus in her hair. She has named all the big trapeze artists, and they do backflips and swing from hair to hair. Kind of makes the whole story you heard as a kid of flea circuses make sense at a whole new level. When you hear the girls tell their stories, and just be kids, it doesn't seem like such a bad thing after all. And in all the funkiness of living with hundredes and hundreds of piojos, it's just another day at the hogar, loving these amazing kids.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Pictures!
Hello everyone!
What a hiatus from blogging we have had! It has been a busy couple of months (more of that to come later.) I finally got some more great pictures of the kids up, along with commentary and all! Click on the tittle of this entry to check them out.
Much love as always,
Janelle and Matt
Much love as always,
Janelle and Matt
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