We continue to be so impressed with the TLC that he has received at the orphanage. They really take great care of the kids--physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. The orphanage has 1 caregiver, who they affectionately call "Tias" (or "Aunts"), for every 4 children...which is much better than most orphanages that we have read about. The tias work in 24-hour shifts, starting with getting the kids ready for school as early as 5am, feeding them, playing with them, doing their homework with them, and overall just teaching them good morals and values. The orphanage has such a great staff in general, including multiple psychologists for both the kids and tias. One in particular, Susanna, has been a huge help transitioning Jairo from his life in the orphanage to life with his new parents. She is bi-lingual, so one of the many hats she wears is translator between Jairo and us when we do not quite understand each other.
We got into a good routine with Jairo during the week, picking him up at school in the early afternoon, which usually included playing with him and his friends on the playground until the bus arrived; eating lunch cooked by the tias, which usually consisted of soup, salad, and beans & rice (we brought our own sandwiches); playing with the kids for an hour in their yard; working with Jairo on his homework; meeting with various staff members for an hour while Jairo took English lessons with a volunteer; and playing with the kids some more until bath time and dinner time...at which point we headed back to our hotel. Homework ("tarea") time has been a good experience to watch the tias work with the kids. I do not remember having homework as a first grader, but Jairo has about an hour per day...and the tias do such a good job with the kids, with their patience and teaching ability. It has been a great experience for us to witness this, since it will be "our turn" on Monday to take over his homework responsibilities.
Jairo has learned a few English words so far...numbers, colors, body parts, etc...one day after English class as I was carrying him around on my shoulders, he started singing "head, shoulders, knees and toes," a song we remembered from way back when, so we sang along with him. But the English words that will be etched into our hearts forever was the first time he called us father and mother with his cute little accent ("fa-there" and "mo-there"). We tear up every time we think about it.
And then there is the trampoline. In the very first scene of the video that we received of Jairo from the orphanage last year, we saw him jumping on a trampoline...so this will always have sentimental value to us because it was our first introduction to him. One of the first things we did with him after we met him on Monday was play with him and the other kids on the trampoline...but the memory we will have forever is Wednesday afternoon. It was the first time that we were actually alone with Jairo...the other kids were bathing or eating dinner, but they let us play with him a little more before we left for the evening. So it was just the three of us out on the trampoline...the sun setting...no other kids around...and the only sound we could hear was the pure joy of laughter coming from our little boy. It does not get any better than that.
No comments:
Post a Comment