There are 3 "homes" on the property that house the children. Each home has a Tia (Aunt) that lives with them and basically serves as a foster mom for the kids. I did not get all the details but I am pretty sure that at least some of these woman have husbands that live there as well, but have other jobs during the day.
The girls were going to do some cleaning and laundry while Keith and I worked on picking up mango's and mowing the grass. I will have to get Kalina to do a post about her experience with her time at Hogar de Vida because I have no idea what she was doing inside while I was outside. Well we had only been working on the mango's for about 30 minutes when Tim (Hogar de Vida boss man) decided that he had something else he wanted us to do. He called us over to where he and his grounds keeper were looking at some sewer lines. To make a long story short, we needed to reroute some of the sewer lines because they were backing up the leech field. There was an existing tank that had been abandoned at some time in the past and now they wanted to use it again to alleviate the problem. Now I can probably guess what you are thinking.....Wow, you got promoted from lawn guy to sewer guy. Some might look at that as a demotion, and I was not sure at first, but I can't say I was disappointed. I don't even like mowing my own grass... It turns out that it was only grey water lines we would be working on so that was a plus. We spent a little time figuring out how everything would tie together and we realized that we needed some pipe fittings and glue. I was given the job of picking up the parts at the local hardware store since I needed to go into town anyway. John, Heather, Micheala, Jeremy, Sarah, Jonah, and Merilene had arrived that morning. They did not know how to get to the Orphanage so I needed to meet them in town so they could follow me.
So I made my list and headed into town to meet the other half of our group. I successfully located their vehicle at the park, it was so good to see that they had made it without any problems. They all looked very tired and probably felt like we did that first day after we arrived. They had not had much sleep for the last 24 hours but they were ready to get right to work, no rest for the weary. We headed from there to the hardware store, Vargas and Sons. I was kind of excited to see what a full fledged Costa Rican hardware store looked like. I had been in a very small one during the last trip but this one was much larger. I was impressed, the place had a very good selection. This was not anything like a Home Depot or Lowes but it was similar to a local hardware store you would find in the US. I was able to find the parts we needed and we headed back to the Orphanage.
When we arrived back at Hogar de Vida, all of the new arrivals were put to work. The girls went off to clean and Jeremy and John joined Keith and I as we dug ditches for the new sewer lines. We only had about an hour until lunch time at this point but we got quite a bit accomplished. From 12:00 until 2:00 is quiet time, so the kids can take naps so we left for lunch.
Between our group of 14 and Kathia's group of 5 we had a lot of people to fit into any of the local restaurants. The place we picked ended up having pretty good food but I think we overwhelmed their kitchen and staff. It took the full 2 hours and then some for everyone to eat, then we headed back to Hogar de Vida. The heat and lack of sleep was getting to our latest group of arrivals so they decided that they needed to rest so they would be ready to go the next day.
Keith and I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing up the sewer lines while the girls had the opportunity to spend some time with the kids once they were done cleaning. Logan and Olivia had a great time playing with all the children. I wish that I had a chance to spend some time with the kids as well, but we wanted to make sure we did not leave them with a half completed job.
The day we spent at Hogar de Vida was time well spent. For the children that lack parents to love them and take care of them, this place is a wonderful alternative. They have plenty of room to live and play outside, and they have some very loving people watching over them. In my estimation Hogar de Vida is a place that is deserving of any help that we can give them and Lord willing we can continue to help them in the future.
Dios les bendiga,
David
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