Not Exactly "Little Orphan Annie"

Back packers are their own subculture and the bond between these types of travelers is so cool. The teachers before us mentioned that we should sign up for this website called couchsurfing.com. It is this awesome networking site that connects people from all over, traveling the world, and looking for places to stay and people to meet. This weekend we had our first official couch surfers…though the backpacking Brits were basically the same thing. Canadians, Ryan and Rebecca are a recently married couple traveling Central and South America for a year. We’ve shown them Santa Rosa a bit and they are just bunking up in one of our spare bedrooms. They’ve done a couple of cool things while in Santa Rosa, but I think today will definitely stick in their memories for a long time.

I have had several friends tell me what it was like to go to a third world country and work with children. They all said the same thing- the kids just want to hold your hand, give you hugs, play and cuddle with you. Today, I got my own taste of this. The Canadians, Abby, and I ventured to the local girls orphanage today to volunteer and play with the girls. The moment we walked in the girls flocked to us. As we were walking to the “head nun’s” office, I looked back and Ryan and Rebecca, both who don’t know any Spanish, had a train of girls all trying to hold their hands talking to them about who knows what. It was the sweetest image. Ah, my heart was about to break it was so precious.

While there, along with the little girls, we met Dani, a recent college grad from Kansas volunteering down here for a year. She lives at the orphanage and works for this organization that gets Americans to sponsor children all around the world…ala Sally Struthers commercials, where you get the picture of the child, etc etc, you know the drill. But this is an actual organization that actually does that! They aren’t scams! At least this one isn’t. She goes into these very rural areas to meet the children that have applied to be sponsored, take pictures of them, and make sure their situation is legitimate.

Side note: I really want to go on one of these trips with her to the rural areas. I am loving Santa Rosa, but as I wrote in my Michigan Independent article, I have everything I need here and a lot of what I see (especially at school) is the privileged class. I am so happy to live in a decent sized city, but it would be nice to see el campo and get an understanding for what the rest of Honduras is actually like.

Dani is really cool, and she was so excited to meet some other Americans. She has only been here 2 weeks and so far hasn’t gone out much. As she put it, “I can’t really ask the sisters if they want to go out for a beer.” I imagine so. She is also acting as somewhat of a psychologist for the girls. Apparently because she studied psychology, she’s a psychologist…or so say the Hondurans. But really she is someone that the girls can talk to about their problems, feelings, etc. Interestingly enough, a lot of these girls actually have families who either can’t take care of them or don’t want them. Some of their stories sound like they are pretty intense. But onto the girls…

They are amazing! Wow, I spent an afternoon with them and am already a bit attached. They just LOVE you. No matter what, they love you and everything you say, do, etc. They hug you, hold your hand and sit on your lap every chance they get. We sang, we danced, and most importantly- had some good ‘ol fun. There are about 40 girls who live there from ages 1-18 however most of the ones we were with were around 8, 9, or 10. The older girls have to warm up to you first, so they were a little standoffish. But the younger ones…wow…what bundles of joy. It is the perfect remedy to a bad day. I don’t think I stopped smiling the whole time. About half way through our visit we learned that the girls love High School Musical. Even the orphans love that stupid movie! (And by stupid I mean fabulous, clearly.) Of course, they know a dance to it, and of course they showed us. It was, in a word, adorable. They kept wanting me to sing with them (because, let’s be honest, I know all the words) and because all of the songs are in English, they know a lot of the lyrics but don’t necessarily understand the meanings. The cutest was this one little girl who kept singing “Is da star asompink neeew!” which means…“It’s the start, of something new” from the opening duet between wildcat basketball star, Troy, played by Zac Efron and new, cute, brainy girl, Gabriella played by Vanessa (Baby-V) Hudgens.

Don’t judge. Just love.

Actually, it’s good for my Spanish to go there because the girls are wonderful little teachers. We probably tried to leave 3 times and kept getting sucked back. Abby and I are going to try and go there every Sunday and volunteer. It’s going to be really heart breaking at times, but hopefully more than anything it’ll be really fun.

I am not sure if it is possible for me to go an entire post without mentioning High School Musical or Hannah Montana. For this, I apologize…sort of…not really. Not sure which is better, Hannah Montana or Celine Dion. Might have to get the Brent Movitz ruling on this one.

Muchos besos,
Sarah