Villa Santa Maria

Yesterday I visited the Hogar (Home) where I will be volunteering for 4 weeks starting next Monday. It is called Villa Santa Maria, and it is located in Maipu, a comuna on the opposite side of Santiago from where we live. It's a home for girls who have been taken away from their parents, mostly for reasons of domestic violence and abuse, I think. It is literally on the edge of the Santiago metro area--the paved road stops a few blocks from its front door and on the other side of it are open fields. The "villa" model is that the girls are divided into distinct "casitas" (little houses), each with it's own "tia" or house mother (although literally it means aunt). Each casita has a kitchen, living room, dining room, and bedrooms, and there is a maximum of 9 girls per house. The idea is to make it as much like a home and a family and as least like an orphanage or other institution as possible. There are 10 casitas on the property, so there are a maximum of 90 girls on site at a time although usually there are less.

I had originally planned to start volunteering this week, but since Monday and Tuesday were holidays I didn't go for orientation until yesterday. I'm glad it worked out that I can postpone my official start date until next week, so I can get 4 full weeks in (both so I can have more time with the girls and because since I'm paying for this experience, I want my money's worth!). It was great to have a full orientation yesterday, and then have time to plan for when I start on Monday. I have tons of ideas! I tend to forget about all the things I have done in my past, especially when being asked about them in Spanish, so when Boris (the volunteer coordinator) and the Villa folk (Joanna, Monica, and the Padre) asked me about my past work with children, all I could think of was some volunteer tutoring I have done. I completely forgot about all my years as a camp counselor! But when I met the girls and they started climbing all over me, all my experiences came flooding back and I suddenly realized that I kind of did know what I was doing. Well, except for the fact that we can barely understand each other. But still, I can't wait to go back on Monday with some fun games in mind.

After meeting the professional staff and some of the girls, Boris and I stayed for the Wednesday afternoon Misa (Mass). I'm glad I learned that word in my first Spanish class! I'm also glad that I got to start on Wednesday, meet the Padre (who only comes to the Villa on Wednesdays), and go the Mass. The Padre introduced me to everyone, which was nice and will hopefully make things easier down the line. He told them to speak slowly for me, for what that's worth! The Mass was interesting, but I don't have much to compare it to having been to any church only a handful of times in my life and having been to a Catholic Mass exactly once, over 15 years ago. There was lots of singing, praying for loved ones who had died, and asking/commanding the girls to respect the Villa and be thankful for their lives there.

Since I only met the girls briefly yesterday, I'm sure I'll have lots more to say once I get to know them better. So I'll sign off for now...