Hard Knock Life

I really enjoy my time at the orfanato. I know the kids must have it kinda rough because they are living in a place that is not a home with their biological mothers and fathers, but as I’ve been getting to know the “madres” that work at the Aldea and who take care of the kids in the “casitas”, I have come to learn some of the back stories of several of the kids and all I could think of “It’s a Hard Knock Life” for real for some of those kids.

This started when two kids kept running away and we were all SOOO worried about them. Where were the sleeping? What were they doing!? What more could they want than the safety of the Aldea? Aren’t they scared of the streets? Well to this one of the moms told me a story to explain the mentality of these kids.

She told me one day at dinner one of the boys told her that when he was little he watched his uncle stab his father, right in front of his young eyes. A wound that would prove to be fatal soon after. When you ask about his mother, he calls her all kinds of names, because his father only referred to her in a negative way. It’s all that he knows. He has seen many people in his family assult and injure other people in his family. All this before the age of ten. So how would you be if you’ve seen and experienced all this? She said he talks about it like he’s talking about the weather. Unaffected. Which of course is a defense, numbing yourself emotionally just to be able to carry on another day.

She told us the real change in him came when his mother came to visit him. We don’t know what happened of if just seeing her was too much, but he went from being well behaved to running away and being a real rebel. There is also age and adolescents to consider, but SO much for a young heart to handle!

I am happy to report we find the kids and they are back. I spent the majority of the day with them and I was soooooooooo happy and relieved I didn’t know what to do, but I didn’t want to show it as to not alienate them. I am grateful for the times I have with them and when they are able to lose themselves for a moment, to run around, paint, draw and learn new things; to just be kids. But I know those ghosts of the past come back to haunt them and they deal with it everyday.

That is just one story of one child and there are so many more at the Aldea and there are SO many more in the WORLD. To me the Aldea kids are the lucky ones. They have a community around them of people that Love them and take care of them, but just the same, when problems like these arise it’s a sobering reminder that it’s a still a Hard Knock Life for them too.