Test Day 4, Saturday (1/29)

Saturday started at 8am instead of 6 which theoretically should have made the day easier, but there was no school so no official break for the encargadas.  I spent the day with chicas, first and second graders, who were perfectly adorable.  There are only 10 girls in this group instead of the usual 30 or so, so it was much easier to learn names.  The youngest groups, chicas/chicos and kinder eat most of their meals back in their section instead of the main cafeteria with the older kids so the day was an interesting mix of isolation and chaos.  We spent the morning playing in the backyard of the girls' dorm with me largely being bossed around from home to store to school to home again to the neighbor's...you get the idea.  After a few hours of playtime, we had a snack break of a frozen treat which I found nearly impossible to eat and had to work on for several hours much to the amusement of my playmates.  I also helped collect all the meals from the cafeteria and bring them back to our room.

The day took an unexpected turn when I was informed I was 15 minutes late for a meeting I hadn't been told about.  This meeting consisted of a bunch of encargados from all the different groups planning the activity periods for the kids over the weekend.  Apparently, this meeting usually happens on Friday and is used to fill in any gaps in the kids' schedule.  I was pretty tired and wasn't really following the discussion too closely, just going where they sent me and agreeing at the right times.  After the meeting, we returned to the chicas where I ate quickly.  The group then headed out to play time with the rest of the house where I had fun playing Twister for the first time in years.  Such a classic game!  After playtime, the girls showered and we got ready for mass at the beautiful chapel.  Mass was followed by brief plaza play time, dinner, shower time again, and some quiet time watching a pirated Spanish version of Tangled, the new Disney movie.  My movie was interrupted to head out with another encargada to set up our activity for the night.

I was still confused about what exactly was happening.  We set up a kind of obstacle course on the soccer field that was supposed to be a partner activity.  One partner was to be blindfolded while the other talked them through the course.  I soon learned that activity time theoretically consists of all sections rotating through a series of different stations set up for them by us.  It was a little frightening to be a part of.  What really happened was that the kids were let loose to interact with each other as they willed which, considering it was one of the few times both sexes were allowed to do so, resulted in...chaos.  With a film of control that no one really paid any attention to.  But I survived and was finally allowed to go to bed!  Longest day here so far.

Test Day 3, Friday (1/28)

Whew, it seems like forever since I updated!  Friday, Friday, Friday, what happened Friday?  Oh yeah, I was with medianas, which is third and fourth graders.  Once again, sweet group and they have a great encargada who really looks out for them.  Their schedule was a little different in that they didn't go to school until 8am.  And since it was Friday, the day was much longer.  All the kids spent time after dinner playing in the main plaza.  Entertainment consisted of about ten different variations of soccer, jump rope, volleyball, tag, and other fun versions of rough housing.  This went on until about 9:30pm at which point the kids headed back to their dorms.  Friday also happened to be Dan's birthday!  We left the house briefly to celebrate a little in town and then had a cake to share back at our sala as well.  All in all, a good day, but longer than previously experienced.

 Andrew bringing in the cake and Teresa bringing in the candle.   We really need to find some birthday candles already!

The birthday boy sitting in front of his delicious cake that we all enjoyed very much.

Test Day 2, Thursday (1/27)

I’m in trouble.  I love all the groups, ages, and girls!  What am I going to do?  Yesterday, the schedule was pretty much the same as my first day on the job except instead of chores, after homework we had activity time.  For this group of girls (grade 5) that meant a huge game of soccer on the front lawn.  This was especially entertaining as the field had about three huge puddles that were constantly a hindrance to the ball and a fun surprise to run through!  I even played barefoot.  (Sorry, Dad.)  After activity time was running time in which I participated.  After a long time of no exercise, I found the route tough.  We ran through the entire complex twice: up hills, stairs, fields, sidewalks, and back again.  Not all the girls ran, some walked, and I personally had to take a couple walking breaks to make it back.  Next time I’ll be better prepared!  But yes, once again I absolutely fell in love with the entire group.   Aaaaaahhhhh!!! And today is turning out to be no different.  I’ve also already spent some time with my group for tomorrow and I know I’m going to love all of them too.  What am I going to do?  I’ll just have to leave myself at Daniela’s mercy (our volunteer coordinator).

Quick Tour of Main Plaza

This is a very brief tour of the main plaza of the house.  Sorry it's not the best quality, but hopefully it will help give you an idea of what this place really looks like.  Gradually I'll put up more of the different sections and areas.

Skype Announcement!

My computer can use the Internet here!  Which translates into, I am now officially up and running again on Skype.  And I'd love to hear from you so chat me up!  I'll usually be available from about 8:30am to 10:00am, 11:00am to 1:30pm, and after 8:00pm.  At least for now.  And these are the times here which are an hour behind the East Coast.  I hope to talk to you soon!

Color-Coded

My uniform.  Each day has a different color collared shirt with the NPH logo on it.  I posted the schedule on the right.  This was yesterday's chic look.  Besides the shirt, we can pretty much wear what we want which will vary throughout the day depending on temperature, weather, and activity.

Test Day 1, Wednesday (1/26)

I slept okay.  I was pretty anxious about the day ahead and probably only really slept a few hours.  So far, the day has been...awkward?  I think that's probably the best word.  We met Agustin and Chelita (who are married and run the entire house) at 5:30am on the dot in the plaza.  From there we were individually dropped off in our sections for the day.  I was sent to Grandes A which houses the girls in our equivalent of sixth grade.  They were cleaning and getting dressed when I arrived.  I tried mainly to stay out of their way, quietly introducing myself to the chicas here and there.  In total, there were 30 girls in the room.  Their morning routine consists of showering, getting dressed, making their bed, and washing the floor.  This room is huge: think the size of a small gym.  Bunk beds are stacked in threes and lockers against the walls separate the bunk beds from each other.  Each girl has her own bunk and locker.  In addition, towards the front are several couches grouped together to make a small sala or sitting room.  Once the girls were ready, we headed to desayuno (first breakfast) where a couple of girls took pity on me and walked me through the routine.  After desayuno, we all headed back for them to grab their school stuff and I walked over to the school with them (which is a part of the compound as well).  One of the girls, Leslie, then gave me a brief tour before she headed to class.  I barely made it out of the school gates before they were closed and since I had received no further instructions, I headed back to the volunteer quarters to wait for the others.  It was a very anxious 30 minutes or so not knowing what or where I was suppose to be, but finally the others started trickling in and I cobbled together the fact that next I needed to be at almuerzo (second breakfast) to help serve which gave me about 2 hours of descanso (break time).  Suddenly overcome by fatigue, I took a nap.  Which was too short. :-P I reported for serving duty, spent a little more time with the girls, and then came back to volunteer central again to wait until the girls finished school for the day at which point I will be with them pretty constantly the rest of the afternoon. (written yesterday during my second break)

Okay, so the rest of yesterday went pretty well.  I met the girls at their room after school let out.  They changed and we all headed to comida or lunch which is by far the biggest and most important meal of the day.  Desayuno consists only of a large, thick dinner roll and cup of milk while almuerzo is a small portion of hot food and milk.  Almuerzo yesterday was rice, cactus, tomato, onion, tortillas, and water.  Back to the room to collect homework materials which was started in the room and continued in el comedor (the cafeteria).  I was able to get to know a few of the girls better during this time.  Chores followed homework.  The girls headed over to the school to rake and clean up the various natural areas surrounding the school buildings.  We had a little free time and then it was running time.  Running time is when all the girls go for a run around the complex and it is their main exercise each day.  The girls run in all kinds of different outfits that in the States we would not consider appropriate attire like flip flops and jeans. 

I did not participate in running time yesterday, but instead chose to attend Life Teen, the youth group here, which meets every Wednesday during running time.  That was an interesting experience too.  It's only open to the secundaria ages, the equivalent of our 7th through 9th grade and for the most part only girls come to skip running.  We started with a few songs with the help of a few male musicians who left after the singing was over.  After songs came introductions for the new volunteers (Monika and I were the ones who attended), a bible reading, and prayer.  Teresa has been running the group since she's been here and it's pretty loose format.  She's been keeping it light since most of the girls come only to skip exercising and we could tell that a lot of the girls don't take it too seriously.  Monika and I both decided we'd really like to help out. I honestly didn't think I'd be interested in getting involved with anything like this while I was here, but I think it will be a good departure from the day to day and help me to get to know other ages in the house as well as share some of my faith journey and experience with the girls.

After Life Teen, was cena or dinner, another small meal of beans and fried tortillas stuffed with meat and milk.  Then it was back to the room to shower and get ready for bed.  After showers, was reading time which was another good time to talk with a few of the girls and get to know them better.  They were very sweet about helping me with my Spanish and we talked about a lot of different things.  After reading, bed and I finally said good night.  It was only my first day, and already I was extremely attached to this group!  That seems to be a common consensus among the volunteers.  Our first groups might very well turn out to be our section for the year, but we still have five more days and five more sections to go through so all bets are off!

Here's my schedule from yesterday:
5:00am - up and dressed
5:30am - meet Agustin and Chelita, taken to section, girls showering and cleaning
6:30am - desayuno
7:00am - school, I took a nap
10:00am - help set up almuerzo
10:30am - almuerzo
11:00am - school/my break
1:30pm - meet girls back at section
2:00pm - comida
~2:30pm - tarea (homework)
~4:00pm - chores
5:30pm - running time/Life Teen
6:30pm - cena
7:00pm - reading time/get ready for bed
8:00pm - lights out

Pretty structured day, no?  But with so many kids and so few authority figures per child, it's necessary to keep the house running affectively.  Sorry for all text. Not too many photos right now.  I'll take more soon!

Orientation Week Part 2

Important note:  we are all currently in our trial period where each day for a week we will be spending it with a different age group.  This is to help us figure out where we think we will fit better and what age we think we should work with.  Then on Tuesday, we will each individually talk with Daniela and receive our assignments.  We are all very excited for the day when we know what we're doing instead of this awkward uncertainty and half-understood Spanish directions.  But the kids are sweet and full of hugs just looking for someone to plant them on.  My schedule for the next few days is as follows:

Wednesday: Grandes A (~6th grade)
Thursday: Grandes B (~5th grade)
Friday: Medianas (~3rd-4th grade)
Saturday: Chicas (~1st-2nd grade)
Sunday: Secundaria Tercera (~9th grade)
Monday: Secundaria Segunda (~8th grade)
Tuesday: Decision Day!

And while I have your attention, here's photos of our house.  My camera ran out of battery so I don't have too many exteriors, but this will help you visualize my living situation for the next year:

My room, starting in the above corner and turning clockwise.  My Carolina pride once more!  Also, note the photos around the mirror.

One of my lockers. It has three sections to help hold all my stuff.  And I get the window!

 My second locker with my schedule for the week and more photos.  Thanks again, Kristen!

My final corner with my desk. And that's my half of the room!  It will shrink at the sixth month mark with the addition of another volunteer, but for now I have more than enough space.  It's a little spoiling actually.  And it's such a relief to be moved in!

Our bano.  We currently don't have a shower curtain and there is no other partition between the shower space and the rest of the bathroom.  Our toilet also doesn't flush right now because of a water tank problem.  But its home!

Our sala and kitchen:

And that's home, sweet home!  I'll post some exteriors later.

Por fin, Miacatlan!!! (1/25)

Oh my gosh.  This place is gorgeous.  I knew in advance that the house was constructed out of what used to be a hacienda, the Spanish version of a plantation, but I had no idea that practically all of the buildings are using the original architecture.  It's huge and green and beautiful.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Tuesday we loaded up the van with all of our stuff (which my shoulders are very sore still today because of; if I pack it, I can carry it) and headed out.  I woke up pretty nervous for the first time, a sentiment which only grew the closer we came to house itself.  I didn't know what to expect, but it definitely wasn't this.

My first view of the house!  Awful picture, sorry.

Daniela, our volunteer coordinator, met us and we were shown our house and assigned rooms.  Martina and I have a room to ourselves while Monika, Wesleigh, and Teresa share and Dan, Ignacio, and Andrew have the last one.  Jeremy doesn't live with us because he is considered a professional volunteer since he is a certified physical therapist.  We met Teresa finally who is very energetic and fun and a great resource for our entrance into house life.  Dan and Jeremy met us as well and we all talked about various rules and policies for how things worked.  Mario, one of the directors from Cuernavaca who drove us over, then gave us a tour of the whole house with Teresa.  We had a meeting with the head honchos of the place (which was a little intimidating, but they were really nice) and then Rafael (the real head honcho of NPH) took us out to lunch in town.  After lunch, we spent time unpacking and getting settled, had private meetings with Daniela about our orientation schedule and other things, and prepared for bed.  Yes, I turned my lights out at 9pm, but we had to be up and ready to go by 5:30am and you all know how much I need my sleep! ;-)

My Last Days in Cuernavaca (1/22-24)

Saturday was pretty chill. We were up so late the night before that I slept in a little and spent most of the day organizing photos, doing laundry, watching a few shows (Castle), reading, being lazy, and generally enjoying a little quite time. 

Sunday went a little differently.  I headed into Mexico City with a few friends and we spent the morning and early afternoon exploring a couple of art museums in the city.  I headed back to Cuernavaca early with Wesleigh to collect my laundry from the roof and we ended the night late watching two movies: Megamind and Inception.  Both very good but for very different reasons!

Waiting for the rest of our group outside of El Museo de Las Bellas Artes in Mexico City.  From L to R: Monika, Monika (the fourth student during our week of classes), Sara, and me.  Wesleigh and Sai were still inside.

On our walk back to our house, Wesleigh and I stumbled across an impromptu dance taking place in el Zocalo or the central plaza of Cuernavaca.

My laundry drying above the city!  There are no dryers here so everyone hangs their clothes on the line.  Our laundry in Cuernavaca just happens to dry on the roof of the tallest building in the neighborhood with the best view of the city for miles.  A fun place to read and relax although I was secretly terrified my laundry was going to disappear on the wind and I'd never get it back!

Monday was another lazy day.  I slept late and spent a few hours trying to cram all of my stuff back into my bags.  No easy feat, let me tell you.  The rest of the day was spent eating, talking, napping, reading, etc.  We ended the night with Once, another good movie and also very different from the previous two.  I realize this all makes me out to look very lazy, which I can definitely be, but we were taking extreme advantage of the down time while we had it!

 Jacky (below) and Mojo (above): the two dogs who were our constant welcoming committee and playmates while we stayed in the Cuernavaca house.  Both very sweet.  Mojo's photo is a little awkward because he's chewing on something, but I wanted you to be able to see his eyes: one blue and one gold.

Finally, a Group Photo! (1/20)

This picture was taken last Thursday when we had a special dinner with the encargados at the high school.  It is all six of the new volunteers for Miacatlan and currently the only group photo we have.  We´ll be joining three other ''old'' volunteers once we move tomorrow.

From L to R: me, Ignacio, Andrew, Wesleigh, Martina, and Monika

Costco and Birthday Fun (1/20-21)

On Thursday, Monika, Wesleigh, and I were asked to stay after school for some extra tutoring since it was our last week of class.  Not cool.  But we cheered ourselves up with a trip to Costco!  One of the other volunteers here has a membership and she lent us her card.  It was like stepping back into the States.  The place looked exactly the same as back home and evoked a lot of memories for Wesleigh and me!

Well, in true Costco fashion there were no bags and since we were too cheap for a taxi, we braved the bus.  It was a little ridiculous, but we managed to make it home.  A lot of laughter throughout this adventure!

 Friday was both Andrew´s big 23rd birthday and our last day at school.  We surprised him with a cake that morning but forgot candles so a match was used instead.  Pretty priceless photo if I do say so myself.

 After a little bit of cake for breakfast, we all enjoyed one last day of school.  And then we were done!  As you can tell from Ignacio´s and my expressions we were pretty broken up about it.  In all seriousness, the teachers were all really interesting people who truly cared about our Spanish skills and our volunteer mission.  A nice leeway into the true work to come.

 A nap that afternoon and we geared up to celebrate the big b-day that night!  After a delicious dinner of pizza at a great restaraunt we hit the bars, enjoyed great music, and ended the night with a little dancing.

 L to R: Andrew, Ignacio, Wesleigh, and Monika

L to R: Monika, Sai, Wesleigh, and me

So, all in all, things are going great.  We are looking forward to living in a more permanent situation but also recognize the value of this down time before the serious stuff starts.  Which by the way has been pushed back to Tuesday so we now have another full day in Cuernavaca to take advantage of the city and prepare for our big move!  Oy.  Not looking forward to squeezing all that stuff back in my bags!

!Fotos!

My bed!  In the volunteer girls´ apartment.  The bed squeaks like crazy at the slightest movement.  It´s a really comfortable mattress though.

Our night out in Cuernavaca on Friday (1/14).  From left to right: Andrew, me, Wesleigh, Sai, Chris, Rene, Ignacio, Mariana, and Monika.  A lot extras in this photo who are friends outside of the program.

The church where it all began.  Here is the chapel in Cuernavaca where Father Wasson, the founder of NPH, found the first pequeno stealing from the poor box.  The rest is history!  It felt pretty special to visit (1/15).

Our attempt at climbing the mountain in Tepotzlan (1/16).  From left to right:  Sara (a friend from school), Monika, Wesleigh, and me.  Wesleigh forgot to smile and it´s just an awful angle of me, but there ya go.  They can´t all be winning photos!

Getting Settled and Catching Up (1/13-18)

Okay...so I arrived in Mexico late last Thursday.  I was met at the airport by Dan, a volunteer whose year overlaps mine, and Arturo, one of the NPH staffers.  After a crazy ride through Mexico City where we consistently missed other vehicles by inches, I arrived a little flustered to NPH´s Cuernavaca house.  Dan helped me carry my bags in and suddenly I was standing in a brightly lit room staring at (and being stared at by) the other new female volunteers. 

Wesleigh is from Washington state.  She hadn´t taken Spanish since freshman year of high school, but decided NPH was the place for her.  She´s taken a month of Spanish classes and is doing really well.  I know she´s still very self-concious about her language skills, but we are all very impressed with how far she´s come in such a short time and her bravery in taking on a second language so completely.  Monika is from Germany and one of the sweetest people I´ve ever met.  Spanish is her third langage after German and English.  She´s really self-concious about her English which is required in German schools and has some difficulty understanding our American accents especially since she was taught Bristish English.  She´s a lot better than she thinks and I was shocked to learn today that it had actually been five years since she´d used her English.  Martina, or Marty for short, is from Austria.  I´m not sure what number Spanish is for her.  She seems to know a lot about languages in general.  Marty is quite the world traveler.  She was a volunteer at the World Cup in South Africa and has been all around Europe.  Marty was so determined to make it to Latin America that she dedicated the past two years to studying Spanish.  She will be working as a librarian.  Monika will be an encargada like me as well as a teacher for the special education students and Wesleigh is an encargada too.  We have one other female volunteer who will be with us, but she is an old volunteer like Dan and has been at Miacatlan the whole time I´ve been in Cuernavaca so I´ll have to tell you more about her later.

The boys are pretty awesome as well.  Andrew is from the DC area and graduated from Notre Dame last May.  He was a Spanish major like me and studied abroad in Mexico one semester so the language part is more natural for him.  He´s also just a very easy guy to be around and makes you feel immediately comfortable.  Ignacio is from Holland and really funnz.  He´s about six foot five, really thin, and very fair.  Needless to say, he sticks out.  Ignacio, or Iggie as he is sometimes fondly called, is really popular with the ladies and very blunt in what he says.  Iggie does not hold back his thoughts which causes a lot of entertainment for the rest of us.  Andrew and Ignacio are the only new male volunteers.  Dan, who picked me up at the airport, is actually good friends with Andrew from their study abroad program and school.  I haven´t seen him much since he´s been mostly in Miacatlan, but he works in the clinic and hopes to apply to med school someday.  Jeremy is the last male volunteer.  A cerified physical therapist, he volunteered for six months with NPH, took six months back in the States, and plans on spending another six months here.  I´ve only briefly met him.

Things have been going pretty well.  We all laugh a lot which is a really good sign about the year to come and we´re all extremely excited about the work ahead.  The first few days for me were not very structured.  Since I arrived so late in the week, I skipped class on Friday to sleep in and get my head on a little straighter.  That afternoon I helped translate letters for the padrinos office and we all went out for a night on the town which was a lot of fun.  Saturday was spent exploring Cuernavaca in the day time and we watched She´s the Man on my computer that night.  Talk about making me feel right at home! ;-)  Sunday was mass at the cathedral, running some errands that involved a lot of walking, and heading over to Tepotzlan.  Tepotzlan is a smaller town located not very far from here where a Mayan temple is hidden at the top of a mountain.  Desafortunadamente, we were unable to actually see the temple.  The site had already exceeded it´s max of visitors for the day.  Instead we wandered the streets of town eating and shopping at the local market before heading back to Cuernavaca.

This week I´ve actually been attending Spanish class.  We have about a forty minute bus ride to the school, which all the new volunteers have to attend, so we leave our house about 8am and arrive in time for class to start about 9am.  Classes are very small.  I´m in a class of four with Monika, Wesleigh, and another Monika from Fiji and our class is the largest in the school.  First we have grammatica with one teacher, a twenty minute break, and a second class of conversation.  The day ends about 1pm and we head back to the house for lunch with the high schools students here at 2pm.  Lunch is served in a cafeteria located in the basement of one of the buildings.  Before you walk in, you grab a cup, spoon, and shallow bowl from a table outside.  These are your only utensils.  Inside immediately opposite the entrance is a counter which seperates the kitchen from the cafeteria and where the food is set up in a largely self-serve capacity.  Long, metal tables with benches provide seating.  After you eat, you have to wash you dishes at the sinks in the corner and return them to the table outside.  The system is great in theory, but not so effective when the water goes out which has happened the last couple of times I´ve eaten there.  Lunch is the biggest meal of the day and dinner not until 8pm. The afternoon is largely spent doing homework, reading, snacking, and generally hanging out.  Because of all the snacking, dinner isn´t an extremely popular option.  So far, I´ve only been once.

Well, this is my life here so far.  The NPH set up here is very interesting.  We´re living in the compound which houses the international director of NPH.  The cafeteria is located down the street in a much larger area which holds the dormitories for the high school students, the offices, and the housing for the volunteers located here as well as the NPH Mexico director.  What else?  I guess if you have questions, just ask. I feel like this entry is way too long as it is.  I only have two more days of class and then Monday we´ll actually move to the Miacatlan house.  Okay, signing off now.  More entries soon!  Love you all.

Mexico

!Estoy aquì!  I`m finally here!  No travel problems, everything went smoothly.  I`ll write more details later.  I`m currently typing on a German computer and it`s making things difficult.  Who knows!?  I might come home with three new languages!  Here`s hoping.  Love you all!

Lois Neal Schaller

September 25, 1918 - January 7, 2011

FYI

My grandma suddenly passed away early yesterday morning so now I will be leaving for Mexico next Thursday.  She was my dad's mom and my only remaining grandparent as well as the only grandparent I really knew.  I was blessed to have her in my life for almost 23 years and while I will miss her terribly I know she is happy to finally be reunited with Grandpa.  She was a strong, loving role model, one of my heroes, and I will be a strong woman indeed if I can amount to half the woman she was.  I love you Gramma!  Thank you so much for being such an important part of my life.

Timeline

Just to give a general idea of what the next few weeks will be like for me, I fly in on January 9th to Mexico City where I will be picked up at the airport along with a few other volunteers.  We will then be swept away to Cuernavaca where stage 2 of our journey will commence.

Stage 2: Toes
Instead of immediately tossing us into the melee, all non-native Spanish speakers are required to attend a two-week language course in Cuernavaca.  In addition to warming up our second-language pipes, we will be undergoing orientation and getting to know the area.  Everyone says this is the most relaxed we will be for the duration of our program so we'd better enjoy it.  Just getting our toes wet.

Stage 3: Feet
Our third week in we'll be moving to the house in Miacatlan and, at least for caregivers, getting to know the different age groups we might be working with.  This is the feet stage and we'll be involved at the house up to our ankles.  After this week, we'll consult with the head honchos and discuss where we feel called to work.  A decision will be reached together to better determine where we are both most useful and most comfortable for the duration of our time. 

Stage 4: Soaked
Cannon ball contest!  Week 4 will commence our full-immersion into the house's operation.  I better pack a life vest!

NPH

I'm just going to take this straight from my handbook:

On a summer day in 1954, an American priest in Cuernavaca took a street boy home with him.  The child, claiming he needed money to eat, had robbed the young priest's church poor box.  Instead of testifying against the boy, the Father asked for custody.

So began the life work of Father Bill Wassan, and it flourished,  By 1977, the Arizona native was adoptive father of more than 1,000 Mexican boys and girls.  In the 1980s, he opened homes for orphaned and abandoned children in Honduras and Haiti; in 1994 a home was established in Nicaragua; in 1996, in Guatemala; in 1999, in El Salvador; in 2003, in the Dominican Republic; in 2004, in Peru; and our newest home in Bolivia was opened in 2005.

Over the years, Father Wasson has taken in more than 15,000 children.  He calls them Pequenos Hermanos, "little brothers and sisters," in Spanish.

At present, Mexican Pequenos number more than 800.  The older ones are enrolled at university and high school in Monterrey, Cuernavaca, and occasionally in the United States.  NPH has houses in each of these places.  But most of the children live in NPH's main house: ex-hacienda San Salvador, in the pueblo of Miacatlan.  This rambling hacienda once was a massive sugar cane plantation encompassing 4,000 acres.  After the Mexican revolution from 1910-1917, the bulk of the land was turned over to the campesinos.  NPH acquired the property -- a bunch of crumbling stone buildings and 15 acres of tillable land -- in 1970.  After considerable renovations, the pequenos moved in years later.  Today over 700 boys and girls call the ex-hacienda home.

If you'd like even more details about NPH and how it works, just click on one of the links I've provided on the right and they'll take you straight to NPH's websites.