Around 80 orphans, three bedrooms per house, two bunk-beds per room, and living their young lives in the poorest of conditions, Aldea Infantil de San Miguel is the home away from home.
In the summer of 2005, Biddeford High School Spanish teacher, Kathy Foss traveled to San Miguel, El Salvador. Foss spent the week with three friends at the orphanage, where they did what they could to bring forth change.
“Everything is run down,” said Foss. “It just needs a little TLC.”
The buildings are concrete and tile. The windows have no screens. The weather is “so hot.” The dry season causes the wood inside the homes to curl and peel; the torrential rains sneak their way through the roof and windows and into the homes. The conditions expose the children to health problems, insects carrying disease, such as the deadly illness of malaria.
“The little kids came running over,” said Foss. “They didn't know who we were, they just thought 'new friends!'”
60 children in the orphanage are under the age of 15, and about 20 are 15 or older with the oldest being 19. They are living at the orphanage for a number of reasons, but it is the country's sunken economy that causes many them to seek refuge at the orphanage. Foss' family is from Ecuador, a country very much like El Salvador with a slightly different in accent in dialect. Like El Salvador, Ecuador is also struggling economically.
“Do you have a car?” Foss' cousin asks.
“Yes,” Foss says.
“And your sister has a car too?”
“Yes.”
“And your boyfriend has a car?”
“Yes.”
“Wow, you must be millionaires!”
Foss is one of 35 first cousins. Her family in Ecuador, like many families in the country, cannot afford to own a vehicle. The children at the orphanage ask similar questions about the United States. Their questions graze the surface of what they believe the country is like.
“Is it true it is so cold in the United States that your bones freeze?” One of the girls asks.
None of the children want to travel to the United States, they all fear of freezing. They don't understand that the country includes such differing climates.
“Is it true everyone has a car?” Another asks.
Foss describes their questions as “cute”, but at the same time it awakens a sense of sadness within her; she knows it is luxuries such as a car that these children don't have.
“We spent the week doing odd jobs,” Foss said.
Foss, her friends Annie, and Eli organize futbol and basketball competitions for the kids. Foss says the events are equally as competitive to those in the United States. The three of them also clean up after a food vendor, who serves El Salvador's national dish, pupusas(stuffed tortillas).
“They[the children] were like sponges,” said Foss. “They observed everything we taught them.”
The children do not have any means of learning about environmental issues, or the knowledge to take a stance against these issues. So, Foss, Annie, and Eli teach the children about the environment around them, and how they can help. The children that can go to school, do, and they don't come outside to play until all their homework is complete.
“The children were the best to acclimate us to the country,” Foss said.
El Salvador is a country that in 1980 to 1992 endured a long, deadly civil war. The lives of more than 70,000 people were taken, including high ranking religious figures. The United States provided aid to the country, but once the US stopped fostering the country, El Salvador's economy fell. The El Salvadoran government took whatever money the citizens had. Most of the orphans do not understand the history of violence, but their faces are the images of such negligence.
“I felt very foolish,” said Foss. “I know so much, and then I get there, and I see four pictures of priests that had been murdered.”
Foss attended St. Michael's College, her professor was from El Salvador. The fourth person they had with them in El Salvador during the week was her professor's brother, Boberto. He shares stories with the group of hiding in ditches from gun fire; friends going into hiding, and activists being slaughtered. Foss' professor was attending college in El Salvador for her doctoral in philosophy and Spanish, but was exiled from the country for studying a subject of 'free thought,' and in addition, women were not allowed to attend school.
“I learned not to take my job for granted,” said Foss. “I don't take anything for granted.”
Her professor began this program as a service trip for students at St. Michael's College, but Foss could not attend, because of her major. Foss spent a lot of her time studying El Salvador. Once she graduated, her professor set her up with the trip.
“When I finally leave this world, I would like to leave it better than I found it.” Foss said.
During one of the days in El Salvador, Foss and her friends bring 20 of the children, and the “mother superior,” who is the leader of the orphanage, to the movies. They spend $80 at the movies, essentially $3 per ticket. “It was very cheap.” The children treat it as a very big deal, so they dress up.
“They looked very nice,” said Foss. “They were showered, and put together.”
They go to see The Fantastic 4. On the way back to the orphanage, the children in a show of appreciation and thanks coin the name, 'Los Cuatros Fantasticos' for Foss, Annie, Eli and Boberto.
“What do you say to these people that have taken us to the movie?” Mother Superior asks.
No answer, Mother Superior gets upset.
“No one has done this for us, I guess we just don't know what to say,” one of the children murmurs.
Foss describes how she found the children's expression of thanks by the way they present themselves. She thinks to herself, “it is just a movie.” It shows her more clearly what people take for granted; $16 for Foss to spend at the movies in the United States, would be used by the children at the orphanage to buy food for three weeks.
“All I can do is share that experience as a Latin American, as an American, and as a teacher,” Foss said.
In addition to an opportunity of returning to El Salvador with her professor, Foss is going to send a 'care-package' to the orphans in May. Students at BHS have and continue to bring in clothing, and other odds and ends. The children are enduring the struggles of living in an orphanage of a poor country, but they share their smiles, and release their endless gratitude.
“They are just so simple, you appreciate the beauty.”
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