Despida dos. Hogar Infantil La Gloria y los niños.

I am one of the luckiest people in the world to be able to have the opportunity to experience the orphanage and I still can't believe that the first time I went there wasn't until November. The first thing I always feel when I walk into the orphanage is chaos; chaos because everyone is alwasy screaming your name and coming at you looking for love. In the beginning giving up a Saturday to head down there was one of the most difficult things, but once I arrived I felt extremely comfortable. I felt like it was something I should be doing, but I didn't exactly know what to do. Once the second half of the year rolled around there wasn't another thought in my ehad other than spending my Saturday off at the orphanage. The Teachers at school were always so amazed that my roommates and I spent our weekends there, but for us it wasn't amazing, it was just a part of us. It became a place that we all fell in loev with. Yes the long border lines do not seem fun at all, but the six of us have made them fun by seeing how much of the amazing Mexican food we could get while we waited for hours.

The kids there are the most beautiful children I have ever met, both inside and out. They have so much love to give and really make anybody feel comfortable the moment they're there. One of the hardest parts of not being in San Diego is definitely going to be not seeing them. I struggled at first because I didn't speak Spanish and didn't think i was communicating well what I wanted. I tried to learn Spanish but I didn't have as much energy or patience for that as I thought I would, although i have picked up a lot in the past few months. I saw on my last day there that I could communicate with the kids just fine because it was the love that I showed them that really mattered. The work that Dan and Jesse, the directors, do there is incredible and I only hope that beyond my volunteer year I can continue to serve in a small way that they do. I am also pround of Chris and Annie for all of the things that they did there, especially the classes and programs that they created to help the kids grow.

I really feel like there is way to much going on in my head to even be able to describe the orphanage in it's fullest. I am so happy that I had the chance to spend so much time there and I already miss the kids so much. Luckily for us though, Chris is spending the summer working there still and he continuously gives us updates on all the kids. I loved the orhphange and the ninos so much and I can't wait till I go back to visit San Diego next year and I get to see how much the kids have grown.

Like my other posts, I will just post pictures beacuse from there you're more able to see everything there and I'm able to describe better everything there! Unfortunately I only have pictures from when Allison was there, which is still a lot!


This is my first trip there, reading a book with the toddler Fausto. He is absolutely adoreable. One of my favorites and loves it everytime anybody walks in, especially Annie!


I talked about it before, but winning something big for the orphanage, charity of the year, was something really enjoyable that we were able to do. We loved being able to represent an amazing place.


the weekend after thanksgiving we were able to take the kids horseback riding! The kids loved it. This is one of my favorite pictures, me with Bere.


on the day of their Our Lady of Guadalupe festival (a big religious day in mexico), they later had santa come visit. Naturally, the six of us took a picture with him!


Annie and I went down one Sunday to help Dan run a dart booth at a festival at the kids school, we also chapperoned a dance for the 5th graders later in the evening. I was in charge of putting the balloons back after kids hit them. Our booth was obviously the most popular/crazy so I learned a sentence in spanish that day...Daniel es globo loco!


Allison was calling out animal names and us and the kids were being those animals after she said it...it was quite fun actually!


One Saturday Dan and Jesse had to go to a big fundraiser so the AV's were left in charge! There was a group there and they made masks with kids which turned into glitter and paint craziness! This is us with our best helper, Alan. He's the craziest kids but he loved cleaning!


relaxing with Yareli grande and Lupita grande one day on the couch, watching movies. A typical day at the orphanage!


sometimes we took random trips down the streets of Tijuana to get a raspado or to go to the convience store (don't tell my mom!) we love our mexican food though!


I liked the baby room a lot. Just playing with the kids and watching a variety of different disney movies. This is me and Vikki!


as you can see, there are always kids jumping all over you when you're there!


we had a little fun jumping and taking pictures!


something we always did was help in the kitchen before lunch. Sometimes it was actually helping make lunch while other times is was helping put it together at the end and bring it out for the kids. On the last day I actually pulled apart pork! Gross, yes, but apparently it tasted good!


Ali's idea was to make a pyramid on the last day with the kids. It actually worked out pretty well...


...until it fell at least! We had so much fun though!


katherine became one of my good friends there, actually, probably everybody's. She is 11, and totally awesome. She speaks english very well so I was able to communicate with her throughout the year and really form a relationship with her.


our final picture...the six of us with Dan and Jesse plus the 5th graders (Bryan, Katherine, Jacqui and Yareli grande) and Yareli chica decided to get in too! I love this picture a lot.

My last day at the orphanage was by far my favorite day over all. I spent a lot of great time with the kids and got to know them so much better. It was a sad goodbye but I know that I will never forget those kids and I will be back to visit hopefully sooner then later.