28-WNorth Shore News — Friday, December 3, 1999

Waking a difierence

in Tijuana,

Ox Sept. 28, 23-year-old West
Vancouver resident John Speck
travelled to Tijuana, Mexico, to
volunteer his time and energies
to work at the El Faro
Orphanage.
He joined Sonja Braig, a 24-
year-old Simon Fraser psycholo-
fy §Kraduate, who was already
at the facility.
The orphanage takes cave of 65
/ children. had
speck’s experience & pro--
found ¢ fe on him. Pr
. Below ts a. chronicle of bis time
at the ciphanage.

: John Speck
: Contributing Writer
PASSING through the chain link

- gate, the car is swarmed by Mexican
children.

. Litde tanned hands po! at me gently as I:
“step out of the car. Children climb and swing
“on me; like J-am a fixture in a playground.
‘They talk to me excitedly in Spanish, and_

ight to hold my. hand. I I notice how warm
and humid the air is.
children range in age from infants to
teenagers, Some are truly orphans and some «

ive parents who simply cannot afford to take

care of their children...
There is no social assistance available in
‘The rich are rich; the poor are very
; the middle class doesn’ 't exist. :
Some children’s parents work very hard at |
th orphanage to help pay the way for their.

fit day working is spent hunched over

hanage cannot afford to
hammer the old bent

Mexic

me while I work. They sit
really close to me, one on
either side. I can feel them
leaning into me, desperately
wanting to be close to some-
onc.

The boy on my right looks
down at my dry, sunburnt
foot. He reaches out and
touches my big toc. I look at
him. He smiles shyly and
touches my toe again. The
boys start trying to straighten
some nails with small pebbles.

The road is dry and sandy,
with lots of potholes, Pm a

little apprehensive; just walking through this
Mexican neighbourhood is for some reason
daunting. | hear singing coming from the
church, before I see the building.

‘The children are singing and clapping an
unfamiliar Mexican song. A sweaty, happy
inan is accompanying the songs with his clec-
tric guitar. He bobs up and down with his
guitar resting on his belly.

Guadalupe Casio, the executive director of
El Faro Orphanage, welcomes me to the
orphanage in her sermon. Church is a way of
life for the children and staff of El Faro, they
attend four times a week.

One infant, who has been infected with
chicken pox, becomes very. il.

Sonja, a teenager, who fives at El Faro, and

“board a bus to take the baby to the hospital.

T call it a bus, but really, i it’s a large van thet -
starts and stops at places wherever the driver
wafits. °°.

The buses play upbeat, happy, Mexican
music. F look at the dirt roads and shack-like
houses. The bus shakes from side to side as it
careers down a gravel road. A fast Mexican

- polka fills the bus. -

Sceing the doctor is iftcredibiy cheap. He

"doesn’t examine the child. He tells us to bring
the baby back to the hosp ital tomorrow to see

wesT Vancouver's John Speck wiih: some of his charges at the & Faro

Orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico.

a pediatrician. -

Orphanage life is chaotic. Things g et for-
gotten. The infant never goes back to the hos-
pit

They don’t have a cement mixer at the

‘orphanage, so we mix it on the ground with

shovels. Cement splatters on my feet and san-
dals as I carry the buckets to the fence that’s
being built.

1 oazes out of the bucket and splatters
into the ditch. I scoop the runny liquid | with
my shovel.

It reminds me too ‘much of. my diarrhea. I
felt lucky te only be a little sick. Diarrhea,
malnutrition, slin disorders, and lice plague :
most of the children here. ~.

The fence is not designed to keep » the chil-..
ing. It’s built to keep out bur-.

dren from
giars and to prevent the children from falling
off the steep embankment where the orphan

age is perched. . :
‘ Sonja had been at the Orhan for two
months before I arrived. .
She’s in charge of brushin;
teeth, most first aid, and tea
Coming to get a band-aid fen nie en tw
Canadians has become so much fun that some:
children’s injuries become suspect. So:
scratch off scabs from old cu eee
Others borrow a friend’s blood and iriven
an imaginary wound that rubs off easily.

"_ some cotton swabs and rubbing alcohol

What all the children seem to need
- Sonja calls to me as she changes a di

: The baby scowls at me. Four flies buzz

around his face, he doesn’t blink or swat th
away. He has given up. : oe