The Side Project: Making a garden at a girls orphanage

In order to stay involved at the school and continue learning Spanish in a practical manner, my partner in crime from TEFL class, Cyd, asked that I come help her make a garden at a girls orphanage since she didn't know how to build one. This orphanage is different than what we might think of since it resembles more of a prison. High stone walls, the girls are locked in and not allowed to leave unless as an entire group, also being locked into the rooms at night with 4 in each room, and only have outside interaction from volunteers, sociologists, and state officials. All of the girls are under 16 and have been either abandoned or abused in some way. The orphanage can hold up to 20 girls and has 11 at this point in time. With their time the girls create jewelry to sell in the markets, learn English as well as other subjects and other practical life skills such as cooking. The girls were delighted to see Cyd, who was a volunteer there before she began our TEFL class, and that she brought a friend to help add to their garden. We first began by going over a few days before with some carrot, cucumber, onion, cauliflower, and broccoli seeds to start the germination process to help create a good crop.



Friday morning we were given the day off from TEFL class as we will be teaching on Monday instead and decided this would be a good time to go and plant seeds and make a compost pile. When we arrived the girls were in English class learning counting and the basic verbs of to have, to be, and to do(make). Cyd and I jumped into the kitchen to help cut vegetables for the day's meal, which was vegetable soup, until English class was over and there was time to involve all the girls in the planting process. After the class was done and we were finished cutting all the veggies I got caught playing jump rope with Ellen, a British volunteer.

After we grew tired of jumping rope we moved into the greenhouse and began tilling and planting seeds. Simply as that we helped plant new vegetables in their garden and concluded our morning, now afternoon, by a heart to heart with each of the girls about what they want to do when they leave this place. Cyd had given each of the girls a journal with their picture in it and questions about what they want from their future so they could at least have some thoughts of their own.