Easy Money: Chapter 4, The Orphenage

Next morning Tom headed out to visit the orphanage, which is located in a small town called Chia, in the suburbs of Bogotá. Getting there required taking the Trans Milenio to the north terminal. The Trans Milenio can best be described as an over ground metro system, which uses normal buses (sometime double length) running on exclusive lanes on Bogotá’s main streets; it was built as a cheap alternative to a subway, which the municipality could not afford. Tom's first couple of times on the Trans Milenio were confusing, but then he got used to the system and found it quite easy, his only gripe with it was it was always too crowded, no matter what time of the day he traveled, they definitely need to run more frequent buses, he thought. Luckily he got on the Trans Milenio at the first station in the line, which means he could get a free seat. Midway to the terminal the bus was already too crowded, more resembling a sardine can of people. He took the Tran Milenio all the way to the bus terminal, where he boarded a small bus going to Chia. It took about 45 five minutes to get to Chia’s terminal, where he hopped in an even smaller bus, that took him to the orphanage; everything exactly according to Ian’s directions. The orphanage was located at the edge of the town, where the valley ended and the slopes of the mountains started. The area was very green, and on top of a ridge, partway up the slopes, stood the imposing figure of a church, as if guarding the orphanage and its neighborhood. It could be a nice walk up to the church, Tom thought, maybe I will do it someday.

He called Ian just before arriving, and Ian was waiting for him on the main road when he arrived. He accompanied him to the offices, where he introduced him to the director of the place, Maria, who took him for a tour of the place. The facility was composed of several one story buildings, one housing the offices, the others each housing a different group of children. After visiting the offices, the tour continued to the home of the youngest group, children between 1-8 years old. They found the children playing in the yard and as soon they entered a few of them surrounded the visitors, welcoming and hugging them; demanding some attention. “Some of the children don’t have family, while others were abused by their family, and they’re better off here.” Maria explained to Tom

The next house was where they teenage mothers stayed. Some of them were mothers to be; still pregnant, while others already had their child, and they were carrying them or watching them play. All looked too young for motherhood, "the culprit is usually somebody in the family, others were just sold for prostitution by their parents" Ian told him, “either way their family environment was not an appropriate place for them to remain” he added. Going back they passed through the yard again, there one little girl, maybe four years old approached Tom, raised her hand and said vuelta. At first Tom had no idea what she wanted, a hug maybe? She incessantly repeated the word vuleta, now pulling on Tom’s pants. Then he remembered that vuelta means a turn in Spanish, and he thought he knew what she wanted; same as what his nephew back home wants all the time. He grabbed her hand at the rests, leaned back, and then spun her around in the air. The girl started laughing, and asked him to do it faster, after a few spins he put her back, he was feeling a bit dizzy, she was feeling even more dizzy, but pretty happy never the less. Before he could even recover he was surrounded by five other children, asking him to do the same to them, jumping up and down, shouting “a mi, a mi, a mi”. He knew it was going to make him really dizzy, but he felt he could not turn them down. He gave each kid a few turns, taking just enough rest in between each kid, to recover from the dizziness. “Would you like to spend some more time with the kids” Maria asked him. Tom hesitated for a second, and then decided he would, “Yes I would” he replied. “I will wait for you back in the office then, hasta luego”. Ian was just as busy, he was surrounded by another group of children at the slider, playing a different game, the kids would climb up the stairs, and then Ian’s job would be to ‘fly’ them back to the ground. He seemed to have his hands full with at least ten kids forming a long line; waiting for their turn.

After about an hour of playing with them, the children turned their attention to some other things, and Tom and Ian took advantage of the opportunity to slip away. They went back to the office where they met Maria again. "The children love it when they have new visitors; it breaks their daily routine. We can take care of them, but they still need the affection and attention of grown ups.” Maria commented. “Shall we go on to see the rest of the facility?" she added. Their next stop was kids with mental problems, "The attitude towards such kids in Colombia is very backward, they usually get sent to a mental institute. We are trying to pioneer a new approach, a more modern approach; treat them like human beings", Maria explained. There were children in various ages there, the severity of their mental disorder seemed to vary considerably; some of them looked like normal kids, while others clearly did not behave normal.

After the tour they went back at the office. “What does this orphanage need the most at the moment?” Tom asked Maria. "Well, we could always use more money; the land lord hiked the rent, so were having some budget problems, and we may have to vacate one of the houses. We are trying to buy our own land, build our own facilities, and save on the rent, but that is a long term project. We also would like to help the kids more when they become 18 and have to leave the orphanage; they still need support to get education and jobs, specially the single mothers. We are also full at the moment and we can't take any more kids, the social services call us often asking if we have room to take another child, and we have to turn them down" Maria replied. "One of the things I am trying to help them with is the fund raising, their fund raising at the moment is the nickel and dime approach, muffin sales, bingos, donations from individuals, they need to go for the big money, UNICIF, Christian churches, etc. As soon as I go back to the US I am going to try to approach some of these organizations" Ian said. "The children could also use more attention, we need volunteers to come and just spend time with the kids, like you did today. Some of the kids get adopted, but others will stay with us until the edge of 18, and they need some grown up people in their lives to give them the attention they need” Maria added.

It was getting late and he and Ian decided to head back to Bogotá. He felt uneasy leaving the place without at least making a small donation, but he was just too strapped for cash; the money he had left would barely last him a few days more. But he was impressed by the orphanage; it was very well organized, and the kids were definitely in the hands of good people. It was a shame though they could not get the funds they needed to realize all their plans; it made him feel happy and sad at the same time.