Everyone smiles in the same language

Volunteers in Quito have live on the orphanage grounds with over 80 children. Across the street in the same community is a home for the elderly. A nun who worked for years with OSSO volunteers in the nursery was later assigned as Mother Superior  to watch over the home for the elderly. She once explained to an OSSO volunteer, that the people living in the home were very similar to the orphans across the street. They had very little material possessions, and many had no family to visit or care for them. She emphasized their need for love and attention. While OSSO volunteers, spend the majority of time in the orphanage, they occasionally get to visit the “ancianos”, a term in Spanish used for elderly people. 

Read on for more about Shaylee’s experience serving the ancianos.

“I was so grateful we had the opportunity to spend some time at Ancianos while I served in Quito. It added great variety to our schedule and who doesn’t love spending time with the cute elderly? It would always brighten my day to go color, dance, paint nails, and just be around them. Of course it was hard because I don’t speak a lot of Spanish so I couldn’t understand what they were saying when they would try to talk to me. I always wished I could’ve had a conversation with them but because of the language barrier I started to pay attention to their facial expressions a lot.

Soon I realized that I didn’t need to speak Spanish because everyone smiles in the same language and by seeing the huge grins on their faces, I could tell that they appreciated me being there spending time with them. They didn’t even have to say anything to me and I could feel their love. It was very inspiring for me to serve such wise, humble, people who have close to nothing. I developed a strong love for them and want them to always be happy and well. A smile can go a long way so I can only hope that the love, happiness, and smiles they receive from us can stay in their hearts forever<3″

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Your feet will take you to where your heart is

Megan left her heart in Ecuador when she was 18, and returned two more times to the country and children who captured her heart. Read on for more about her life-changing experiences.

“On a whim, as an 18-year-old, I went down to Cuenca to volunteer. I could never have guessed how much that decision would change my life. While there I became the Cunas’ leader (when you volunteer you are generally assigned to oversee one of the orphanage sites). Spending everyday in the cunas, surrounded by innocent, beautiful infants taught me so many valuable lessons. After coming home from Cuenca I thought about “my babies” every day and talked about them to anyone with ears.

Two years later I found myself going back to Cuenca. This time around I was the Casas’ leader–this meant I was with the same children as before, just they were now toddlers instead of infants. Being with those same children and seeing the incredible progress they had made helped me to appreciate the volunteers and orphanage workers SO much. I mean, how could the kids have learned what they had without the makeshift family that surrounded them everyday? Because they showed me love, I knew they had known love. Because they laughed, I knew they had felt happiness. Because they helped one another, I knew they had seen kindness.

I left Cuenca thinking I would never go back. I remember looking out the window of the airplane at the streets below, following the highway with my eyes to where the orphanages stand. My heart wanted to burst with the true sorrow I felt for leaving that beautiful city and all that it meant to me. I hoped and prayed that others would find their way to OSSO so that my kids would continue to be watched over.

Luckily for me my OSSO story didn’t end there. Five years later I happened to be walking through a career fair during my last semester of college while an OSSO presentation was going on. I stopped to chat with the representative and found out that OSSO was looking for an Assistant to the Project Directors in Cuenca. (!!!) I immediately interviewed for the position and six months later landed back in my beloved Cuenca.

Going back to OSSO, in this position, gave me a different perspective of the program and its magnitude for good. I was able to see first-hand what was donated to the children in need. I was able to meet and greet every volunteer that came through the program and see how the volunteers’ lives were changed through service. I was also able to see the impact each volunteer had on the children’s lives. I was able to see the hours and hours of hard work put in by the OSSO staff. I was able to see sacrifices and miracles.

Most of my days, as an Assistant, involved working with kids, helping the volunteers, running errands, and interacting with the staff of the orphanages. Basically, I ran around a lot. But in retrospect I realized that even though I was constantly busy, even though I was tired, I was never unhappy with where I was. Never. That’s because going back to Ecuador was going back to where my heart was.“

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To the volunteers returning home

Today’s guest blogger is Katie- who currently serves as Assistant to the Directors of the orphanage program in Cuenca, Ecuador. 

Title image found at yourfutureyourworld.wordpress.com

Home. The word often fills me with joy, longing, and yes, even dread. I think of home as I take volunteer after volunteer to the airport. I am envious they will be able to see their families, drink from the tap, and heck, flush the toilet paper down the loo. But at the same time, I dread the day when I will be getting on a plane once again and heading back to the United States, because although I am going back to all those blessings, in my heart I am also leaving home.

As many of you, I have experienced the dreaded and long-awaited trip home. I’ve sat in a foreign airport and bawled my eyes out waiting for a flight. I’ve lay in my bed at night, thinking and crying for my kids. My kids who live and ocean away, and speak a language I am still trying to master.

Every day in Ecuador is a blessing. I try to hold every second, capture the moments in my hands, play  back the days against my eyelids at night. I remember all the hugs, all the times little feet ran to me so little arms could wrap around my legs. Every smile warms my heart, while every cry softens it even more. In the mornings I lay in my bed, wool blankets piled over me, listening to the children next door and smile.  Even so, life in Ecuador is by no means easy. There are days when I flop into my bed exhausted. There are nights when I cry with frustration at my own weaknesses or plead to my Father to release a child from sickness or pain.

Like many of you I came to Ecuador to change lives, never imagining nor envisioning how much I would be changed. Perhaps that is why it is so hard for us to return home. We are changed. We come home different people. We learn to love in a way we couldn’t imagine possible. We can’t imagine leaving that love, that charity we feel, behind. But we don’t have to.

Returning home is not the end of service, it is the beginning of a new service. OSSO volunteers don’t just change the lives of children in Ecuador, they have the power to change the lives of all they come in contact with, especially after they are home. Sometimes, those who are currently in our lives are the ones who need our outstretching of love the most. And suddenly we are more capable to give that love.

So reach out! Share your love! Share your experiences, the compassion you have gained and the wisdom you have earned. And yes, while you may still yearn to return to Ecuador, you will find that the sharp pain of longing will turn gentler. The pangs of homesickness will never fade, but become easier to bear because you will know while you are separated physically, the spiritual connection with your children will never fade.

After all, they have your heart. 

Oh I would if I could...

Meet Kathy. A wife, a mother, a grandmother, a Registered Nurse, and an orphanage volunteer.

While many say

“I can’t because I have a career.“  

“I can’t, I’m a grandma”

“I can’t miss my family for the holidays.”  

We all have experiences when we say, “Oh, I would if I could…..”.

Kathy pushed past those obstacles and served for 3 months in orphanages in Cuenca, Ecuador. She is now looking forward to her second trip and cannot wait to see “her kids” again. 

Read on for more about Kathy’s experience…

“The only way to truly describe my experience in Cuenca is to say that it ranks right at the top of the list with marrying my high school sweetheart, welcoming each of my three children into this world and witnessing the births of each of my six grandchildren.

It is a life-changing adventure!

The children in the different orphanages where I served were to say the least, amazing. There is nothing like walking through the door and having five, ten or twenty faces smiling at you and dozens of little feet running to greet you. These children are no different than any other child I have had the privilege to be around….they just don’t happen to live in a typical family. The blessing of the opportunity to spend time with them is, we become like family. 

My most fond memories of my three months in Ecuador are the holidays. Though many of the traditions vary from what I have been used to in the United States, everyone loves to celebrate a special occasion. We dressed the kids in costumes and took them trick-or-treating from casa to casa on Halloween. Thanksgiving (which is a foreign holiday to anyone outside of the United States) was celebrated by making Indian headbands with feathers for everyone to wear and introducing the kids to pumpkin pie. Christmas time was probably the most special. Each day of December was spent making a Christmas craft or decoration with the kids and singing Felice Navidad, even if we couldn’t hold a tune! On Christmas Eve we surprised the kids by going Christmas caroling. We started in one casa and gathered the children to join us to the next casa, and the next, gathering children along the way. While we walked I carried one little guy on my shoulders and we sang and sang one carol after another, such sweet memories. When the caroling was over and all of our kids were tucked into bed we filled their stockings for Christmas morning. Thankfully there were many giving hearts who willingly donated small gifts and money so the children could celebrate a visit from Papa Noel. Though the children only received a few small things in their stockings Christmas morning was magical! The happy faces of those kids will forever remain a fond memory in my heart.

Over the past two years since volunteering with OSSO I find myself reminiscing almost daily about the experiences I had. I made many wonderful friends with the other volunteers. Many of whom I have stayed in contact with, even though every one of them could have been my own children OR grandchildren. We had opportunities to go to town and shop at the “Hidden Door” or “Hippie Market” (so named by previous volunteers), go sight-seeing, eat ice cream at Tutti Fredos and enjoy the culture of Ecuador. I learned so many new things about myself and others, an education of a lifetime in three short months.

I recently decided that it is time for me to go back. Though I have responsibilities with work, church and my family, all have been willing to allow me the reprieve to go serve “my kids” again. Yes, life can get in the way, but the lives of these children who don’t have the blessing of family have become so dear to my heart. A few weeks and an experience of a lifetime to make forever memories, is so very worth it!”