Sleepless in Ecuador

"All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother."
-Abraham Lincoln

It is a strange feeling to walk into a room with over 30 kids when the only words of wisdom given are “Buena Suerte” (Good Luck). Last night my friend Brigitta and I were scheduled for one of the first night shifts at the OSSO special needs orphanage. Usually there are 2 “night Tias” scheduled each night, but in order to cut costs, the organization has decided to periodically give some of these shifts to the volunteers. Basically, I was considered one of the “guinea pigs”. All week I had been looking forward to this shift. I had been told by the directors that it was the easiest shift and that I probably wouldn’t have to do much while I was there. Their reassurance was appreciated since the night shift is done in addition to the morning and afternoon shifts already expected of us. The day leading up to the night shift went a little like this:

I spent 7am-Noon in CUNAS, the baby and toddler section of the Catholic Orphanage. A virus has been going around the orphanage this past week so it has been incredibly hectic. There is one worker, Betty, who is incredibly hard on the volunteers even though there is no way they could afford to lose their partnership with OSSO. If you don’t speak Spanish she’ll wipe the floor with you, and if you do speak Spanish she’ll make you wipe the floor for her. I fall into the latter category and so I am constantly led in every direction doing her bidding. Her moodiness is often entertaining and I find amusement in the fact that I am confident enough in my Spanish abilities to send a little bit of sass back her way. Yesterday was amazing because I got to spend almost the entire shift with the newborns. To explain how big of an accomplishment this is, Betty doesn’t let anyone get near the baby room and keeps all that cuteness to herself. Your only hope is that eventually she finds even the slightest aspect of your existance pleasing to her. I had been laying the Spanish jokes on thick all week in hopes of hitting “Baby Status”, and it finally paid off! Aside from losing count changing 30+ diapers, I loved every second of my time with those little angels. The shift ended with over 10 thank-yous and multiple “mijas” from Betty. Overall, I am happy to say it was 5 hours well spent. :)

With a little pep in my step, I headed to CASAS (ages 2-10) for my afternoon shift following the 2-hour lunch break. CASAS is home of the Ecuadorian Circus, or at least it seems like it. If you can recall, this is the group of kids that supports the “little nudist” and the volunteers refer to them as the Ecuadorian Mafia. It is all in good fun since they welcome us with open arms as the “Gringitas”. From 2-6pm I spent all of my energy trying to keep them alive, entertained, and free of bite marks. They are always crazy but I love the opportunity I have to improve my Spanish with them and they do some of the goofiest things that never fail to make me smile. Even if they are exhausting, I love each and every one of those little ninos 
At 6pm all of the other volunteers were on their way back to the house on the OSSO bus for the much anticipated Sunday dinner. Brigitta and I, however, had just begun the first of the 13 ½ hours of our night shift. The special needs orphanage is owned and run by OSSO and there are over 30 children there varying in age and capabilities. The children are divided into “houses”; Milagros (miracles), Esperanza (hope), and Alegria (Joy). Milagros is the house I have spent the most time in and I have fallen in love with the kids there. It’s amazing how attached you can become to a child when they are completely reliant on you for everything. I ofcourse don’t know what it is like to be a mom but I can imagine that I have experienced a lot of the same feelings for these kids as a mom does for her own.
By the time Brigitta and I had played with the kids and put all of the children in Milagros and Esperanza to bed, it was about 8:30 pm and we had one more house to put to bed. Alegria is the home with the youngest children. The ages range from 4 weeks-6 years and the only 2 children in the orphanage who are not special needs live there. Nancy is 4 years old and I call her the “mamacita” of the house. She is always aware of the other children and does whatever she can to comfort and love the other kids. Her motherly nature translates into a lot of sass but I absolutely love her for it. A little girl after my own heart Marcelo is the other child there that functions normally. He was just brought to OSSO after his sister who is special needs was taken in. All of the kids in Alegria are so full of life and are doing so incredibly well considering all of the horrible things they have experienced in such a short period of time on this Earth. It took a while to get those little kiddos in bed and I definitely exhausted my knowledge of Spanish Lullabies while I tucked them in. Luckily, they eventually all fell asleep.

The night’s series of random occurances started at about 9:30 pm. After having not eaten since 12, one of the assistant directors surprised us with leftover Fettucine Alfredo and Salad. We were in heaven! While the sole “night Tia” was downstairs cleaning the other 2 houses, we stayed upstairs in Alegria and started a movie. However; the party as short-lived and within 45 minutes, the long day was taking a toll on me. By 10:30 my eyelids were heavy and I had no idea how I was going to stay up for the next 9 hours. We started folding the huge heaps of laundry for all 3 houses and sang along to “Tangled” in an attempt to wake ourselves up a little bit.
11:30 PM is when things started to spiral downhill and we discovered how wrong our preconcieved notions really were. The night shift is anything but “easy”. The following 3 hours proved to be most tiring hours I have had here. The two newborns in Alegria practically took turns crying all throughout the night. It occurred to us after an hour of holding and singing to them that, of course they were never going to sleep through the night. Deana is only 4 weeks old and was found in a trash can 2 weeks ago. She is one of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen. She cried on and off for over 3 hours. Two bottles and 2 bottles later, I was still consoling her in my arms in the rocking chair. It seemed like forever and my eyelids continued to weigh themselves down as we rocked back and forth. Despite the fact that I had been up for almost 24 hours at that point, I couldn’t imagine why Deana’s mother would want anything other than this sleepless night.

The last five hours of this shift consisted of 1 hour of sleep on the “preschool mats”, 3 loads of laundry, 2 feeding times, 4 lullabies, and another hour in a rocking chair. I am grateful for the amazing “night Tia” who maintained amazing patience as my Spanish went downhillin the wee hours of the morning. I will admit Brigitta and I had plenty of laughs once the delirium set in though!  For the first time I knew what it truly must be like to be a mom. I had children counting on me. I changed countless diapers, went through dozens of baby bottles, folded over 50 outfits, chased a monster from a closet, and layed in bed with a little girl as she cried herself to sleep. Throughout it all I wouldn’t sacrifice a single second of it and there was no sweeter moment than seeing all the kids wake up this morning.
While here, I’ve learned the title “Mom” is too freely given. The mothers who abandoned these kids by rivers, in dumpsters, or lost them due to abuse, do not deserve the beautiful little miracles they left behind. So thank you to my own mom. Thank you for being there for me. You earned the title through sleepless nights, lullabies sung, tears, laughter, and endless “I Love You”s.

Here’s to all the moms who stuck it out. Here’s to the unsung heroes.

NIGHTSHIFT ACOMPLISHED :)