Casa Hogar Del Norte Update

A post without pictures!  I wanted to share a little update on my favorite children's home, Casa Hogar Del Norte, since the summer ended.  After working there 3-4 days a week this summer I realized that one of the ways we can best care for these 42 abandoned kids is to take good care of their caregivers.  There are 6 caregivers and 1 cook at Del Norte who share shifts, so there are 4 caregivers during the day and 2 at night.  For 42 emotional, abandoned kids, ranging from 11 months to 13 years old.  Obviously these women are exhausted.  Combine the need for caregiver support, my work last year with the babies and toddlers, and my social work background with older kids and what do you get???  My new schedule!

I now go to Del Norte 2 or 3 mornings a week to do early intervention and developmental activities with the littlest ones.  This obviously really helps the little ones and frees up that caregiver to get "household" things done while all the older kids are gone at school.  On those days I arrive around 9:30, get the babies changed and take them to the play room until noon, feed them all lunch, and then settle them for naps.  Then for fun I hang around with the older kids for lunch just to spend time with them.  On Fridays I go in the afternoons around 2:30 to spend time with just the older kids while the little ones are asleep.  We are going to make "Who Am I" or "Quien Soy Yo" books this fall.  Each week we'll add a new page until the kids aren't into it anymore or we run out of pages.  I'm excited about the new projects, and it's keeping me very busy and speaking a lot of Spanish!