By Robin Andrews
VE Volunteer from North Carolina, USA
The big question: So, how was Chile?
As I’m getting ready to leave Chile in just a few days, I keep coming back to one thought. How am I ever going to be able to explain this journey over the past 8 months to any one back at home? For the next month or so people will ask…. How was Chile? Where do I even begin? Of course, I will eventually come up with a quick few worded answer, but for those who really want the whole story here is where I would start….
Chile was amazing. I traveled to a country that I really did not know much about only to fall in love with it. I worked in Hogar San Francisco with 27 amazing girls. We jumped on trampolines, played barbies, made cookies and cakes, made animal noses and macaroni wreathes, read books in silly voices, talked about boys, talked about their first crushes at school and danced for hours to Disney songs. On top of that, I met amazing new friends from all over the world and traveled all over South America seeing some of the most beautiful places in the world.
Chile was hard. It was the first time I was away from home for this long and the first time I lived in a non-English speaking country. I had to learn how to get around a new (and huge) city and how to think in Spanish. I worked in an hogar in the broken system of Chile’s abandoned and abused children. We had problems tossed at us on a daily basis that often were over my head, but we had to deal with things quickly and try to find a solution. I had to try to manage these 27 crazy girls and help them to get their homework done, go to doctors offices or something as simple as eat lunch, while half of the time they refused to listen to me, called me names, kicked me, hit me, or just plain ignored me.
Chile was emotional. I walked in to the hogar not knowing one person there and came out with my heart overflowing with love for each and every girl. While there were days where I couldn’t wait to leave at 6:00pm, they were then followed by days where I thought I could never imagine ever leaving this place and this family. I realized one day my purse was suddenly full of glitter, crayons, dirty Kleenex, a few toys, pop-up books and candy. I constantly was showing photos of “my girls” to all of my friends and family everyday. I began to feel like a mother to them and would notice how I missed them when I was away and felt so protective over each and every one of them. When they smiled I was happy, when they cried all I thought was how I could take away their sadness and change their situation in life.
Chile was life-changing. My life will be forever changed because of the past 8 months I have lived in Santiago. These amazing girls have changed my heart forever. I can hear their laughs and see their smiling faces, each one of them so different. I think about what their lives will be like one day and what journeys they will have of their own. They have taught me patience, unconditional love, and above all the importance of laughter and a simple hug. They have changed the way I look at the world and what I value. I’m sure there’s about a million more things that I have learned or ways that I have changed because of this experience that I won’t even be able to see for quite some time.
In the end it’s been a journey too large to even try and wrap my head around or to try to explain it all to someone. In time, some of the memories may fade, but I know I will be forever changed by the adventures, the tears, the laughter, the friendships and the love that I experienced during these crazy 8 months in Chile.