Casa Nazaret

The following was written in July 2009, by Crystal Fox, who volunteered with Dove Missions for 2 weeks. It tells the account of her experiences at the Casa Nazaret orphanage.

On Mon. we had english class with the older boys. We had a great turn out and Jenny and Jensen did an amazing job at teaching the class.Everyone is just wants to learn so bad...some of the boys really struggle with writing but they try their hardest:) While class was in progress I went out and played with the little kds who were just hangind around.They are all so sweet, always wanting hugs and to hold your hand:)
When we left the class we went to Casa Nazaret, an orphanage for special needs children. The place was great. Very nice and clean with a really nice backyard and play equipment for the kids. The children range from being horribly sick to having very mild disorders. There is even one little girl there who is perfectly healthy but both of her parents are in prison. The place is run by a nun named Mercedes who is wonderful and all the women who work there seem very loving and kind.I think the worst part for me was to see several kids who needed so much more than these women could give. There are several kids whom they pretty much have to force feed and that was hard to watch as I`m pretty sure these kids should not be fed orally...The one little girl I was helping with was one of the worst. They would tip her head all the way back and spoon in pureed food. She couldn`t swallow and it kept coming back up...and when any did go down you could here that it was coming back up and see that it cause this little girl distress. Her lips were cracked and bleeding from them having to force the spoon in. It`s not really their fault, they are doing the best they can with the little bit of knowledge they have. One little guy is sooo sick. He looks about 1 year old, 2 at best but they told me he was 5. They were feeding him with 3 little medicine cups, just drops at a time. You could tell that it was not an easy process for him.When he was done the lady with him held him and once again you could hear the gurggling sounds where the tiny bit of liquid he had was coming back up...It was very hard to see but if these women wouldn`t have taken the kids in then they would surely be dead now.They are doing all they know how to do...There`s a 10 month old there who was brought in severly malnourished and near death. He is now a very happy , chubby little boy:) You would never have a clue of what he looked like before.