The People We Meet - The City of Children

Welcome! Read on...

Yep, still in La Paz. Somehow the place has a hold on us and after a very hectic 2014 I guess it just feels good to hang out and meet interesting new people and meet up with old friends. 

We often listen to the La Paz Cruiser's Net at 08:00 a.m., where other cruisers discuss the weather, advertise goods for swaps and trades, and make general announcements to the fleet. One day in January I heard an announcement that a woman, Nancy, was going to be teaching English classes at the local orphanage/children's home and she was looking for volunteers to help with one-on-one tutoring of the students. Hmmm...

Later that day Nancy was at our marina hoping to meet with potential volunteers, and several of us were recruited to help with her classes. It would be easy; all we had to do was show up one day a week and speak English. Nancy ended up with something like 15 volunteers total, 4-5 from our Marina Palmira and the rest from town and other marinas.

The following Monday a few of us from Marina Palmira made our way to Ciudad de los Ninos y Ninas, (City of Children, aka Boys and Girls Town), located at the Santuario de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, a big church in the center of La Paz.

The church as seen from the playground.

The catholic church has sponsored the orphanage since 1952 and currently houses approximately 80 children, boys and girls. The facility is bright and clean and is an extremely pleasant environment. 

The English classes are a voluntary extra-curricular activity for the students. Most of the kids were in Nancy's classes last year and they were all delighted to see her, crowding around her and giving big hugs. There were 5-7 students in each of two classes (M/W and T/TH classes) with at least one volunteer for each student. 

Nancy teaches every year.

This year Nancy's theme was growing plants, so she taught planting terminology as well as plant parts, flowers, fruits and vegetables. Obviously while the kids were learning English I was learning the Spanish counterparts. The first day of class we even got to plant some seeds in cups so we could watch them grow. Nancy also used flashcards, class participation drills and games, and special "tickets" for correct answers that could be exchanged for gifts and candy. I really enjoyed being in school again!

The students proudly display their seedlings.

I was reminded how hard it was for me to learn some of the Spanish fruits and vegetables when we were teaching the students difficult words like mushrooms, watermelons, and strawberries. It's really hard to get your mouth around some words when your language doesn't include those sounds!

In one week our seeds sprouted into little seedlings so off we went to the local organic gardens Raiz de Fondo (intended for educational purposes and local enhancement) for a field trip to learn more about plants and gardening skills. It was a great garden! I learned that several of the students are already volunteers at this garden, learning about planting, watering, composting and harvesting among other things.

The students get name tags and hats for their visit.

It was fun for the students to see what their tomato plants will look like if they take care of them.

Garden volunteer gives tutorial on transplanting seedlings.

Nancy had arranged for some of the volunteers to build planter boxes back at the orphanage, so after the garden tutorial the kids were able to transplant their own seedlings, water them, and watch them grow into plants.

Usually Nancy's classes extend into March, but this year she had to end them early due to other plans, so before we knew it our last class was upon us. To celebrate, the Padre bought us a bunch of pizzas from Dominos, some soft drinks, and a big cake. 

Student Jesus shares some cake with me. He's been living at the orphanage for about 7 years.

The pizzas came with big french fries called papotas, different types of spicy salsas, cheese sauce and a chimichurri sauce that was suspiciously like thousand island dressing. Very different condiments from the Parmesan and red chili flakes we are used to. 

In true teacher fashion, Nancy asked the students to identify the different ingredients on their pizzas to make sure they'd learned their lessons: mushrooms, peppers, pineapple, spinach, etc.

Jesus, Nancy and Sherry from the sailboat Sol Seeker

These girls loved volunteer Adam and his bicycle.

Nancy told me that the students get a lot out of the one-on-one class sessions, but I came away feeling like perhaps I had gotten even more out of the classes. It was a great experience and if I'm in La Paz next year at this time I'd like to do it again.

Ciudad de los Ninos y Ninas is sponsored by the Catholic church and exists on donations and volunteer help. It also supports itself by running a print shop which accounts for 50% of its annual budget. Some of the children are not actually orphans, but come from families that are unable to care for them. None of the children are up for adoption because, 1) some might be able to return to their families one day, and 2) the City of Children functions as one big family. The students may live there as long as they are in school, and a couple of university students still live there. They have an "open door policy", meaning the children are not forced to stay and may leave the orphanage any time they wish, but few elect to leave this safe and pleasant sanctuary.

Photo Album: Ciudad de los Ninos y Ninas