Jamie and I have been to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico twice in the past years for vacation. The first time was about six years ago for a work trip. We completely fell in love with the city, culture and the people. During our trip we spend many days laying around the pool as cocktails were served morning, noon and night. We watched shows, sang karaoke, ate great food, met new friends and had an absolute blast! However the highlight of our trip was visiting the local towns and a local orphanage, Casa Hogar. We loved going sort of behind the scenes and seeing the "real" Mexico, not the tourist version. Talking with the locals and learning about their lives was amazing and such an eye opener. Casa Hogar however, was the most amazing experience for me. This is an orphanage located in Puerto Vallarta with 40-50 of the most darling, awesome, sweetest kids you will ever meet. We spent the day visiting the children, playing games and getting to know the ladies that keep the place running. (This is where it came in reallllyy handy to have a husband proficient in the language lol!) As I held a 3 day old baby, Marianna, that the mother had just relinquished to the orphanage, I lost it. Completely overcome with emotion, I knew we would be back. After returning home, I realized I left a huge piece of my heart there with those kids as sappy as it sounds!
Over the next few years we often discussed planning another trip and were finally able to make it happen for our 10 year anniversary last year. During this trip, we planned to do less laying by the pool and more exploring of the people of PV. We took several day trips into town enjoying seeing the town the way the locals did. We ate at literally hole-in-the wall (or roof!) restaurants and talked to anyone we could. We went to the local church, saw the local schools and talked to kids selling wares on the street. We hired a cab driver for the week (who became our amigo!) and he took us to the most remote and destitute part of the city. Where houses consisted of literally tarps and crates and dirt floors. Where children roamed the streets with stray dogs. This was Mexico. Puerto Vallarta has a very pretty face if you will, to show the tourists including Walmart, Dominos, Taco Bell and Starbucks of course. I'm going to go ahead and guess that this is the Mexico most tourists don't get a chance to see. Eye-opening doesn't begin to describe our feelings.
Of course we went back to Casa Hogar during this trip as well. I couldn't stinking wait to get back there and see those kids! By the way the kids that live here, live here until they are 18. The state does not allow children from this orphanage to be adopted, in hopes that their original families will someday claim them again (which does happen...but very, very, very rarely) So these children know that this will most definitely be their home until they are a legal adult. This IS their family. The orphanage is not government funded, therefore they rely on private donors and volunteers to keep afloat. Before we left for our trip, we found what supplies were most needed at the orphanage and decided to contribute what we could. Our family doctor was so super generous and donated infant formula and medicines....almost a whole suitcase full!! We hit up Goodwill and bought shoes, socks, underwear, onsies etc to take with us also. When we got there, they were grateful for the donations and were excited once we explained we had visited previously. We spent the day giving baths to 17 infants and toddlers. Jamie played with the ones waiting their turn and I helped the lady who worked there give baths in the bathroom sink...no bathtub. Afterwards we helped feed lunch to this same group of little ones.
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| Jamie playing with the kiddos. I am a lucky girl to have this guy :) |
We had such a good time, but the best part was re-connecting with the children we remembered from the previous trip 4 years earlier. This little girl was playing with my hair, (the fact that I had red hair was crazy to her!) and we were having a very basic conversation:
Me: "How old are you?"
Girl: "4"
Me: "Do you go to school?"
Girl: "No"
Me: "Do you want to play dolls?"
Girl: Shakes head yes
Me: "What is your name?"
Girl: "Marianna"
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| Marianna & I |
Hold the bus! This was the same little girl I held at three days old! After a discussion with the care taker about this little girl's history we confirmed that it was her! It was such an experience to explain to her that we had met before when she was a new baby and here we are now playing dolls! Talk about leaving a piece of my heart here on our first trip!
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Kimberly and I, another girl we previously met. During our last visit, she was 4 years old and such an attention-hungry little girl! Now, she has grown into such a nice, sweet young lady.
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During this entire visit, my brain was in overdrive trying to figure out how to get back here and help in a bigger way. We wanted to come back and bring our kids with us. We so badly want our kids to have these experiences we have had, to see these kids and know that you are making a difference by just spending time with them. This, Casa Hogar, is really something special. These kids are amazing, and resilient, and strong!
So an idea began brewing. For about six months, I have been looking into details on how our family can come back to PV on a vacation....a service vacation. I have connected with Mike Parker who currently lives in PV and for years has been heading up a project called "Children of the Dump." His mission is to provide adequate housing to destitute families literally living and working at the local dump. Similar to our Habitat for Humanity, he raises funds and finds volunteers to help complete his mission. It is a slow process as they are just completing their first house. He is also connected in the community in various ways with many volunteer options such as teaching English to the school children for example. He has also worked with Casa Hogar and feels the same as we do about them, which is just awesome.
See more about his mission here:
Ideally, we will take a family service vacation and be able to serve with Children of the Dump as well as at Casa Hogar. Mike Parker is willing to work on our behalf helping us to find discounted hotels etc but it is still a very expensive adventure. If you have any experience in service/mission trip fundraising, I would love to have your input! We are just beginning the process of looking into the possibility of taking this trip. Taking a trip like this is a safety concern for us, given Reece's health issues so there would be a lot of details to work out.
So thanks for hanging in and reading this looong post. I have tons of other pictures posted on my facebook page from the orphanage.
