The Hogar, once again

It'll never end, so I hope you like it:) I know I do.

So I made this slide show the other week in preparation for the HELP International reunion last Saturday. Because of the AWFUL luck I have, I wasn't able to show the slide-show. LAME. But I said I'd post it online. Who knows who'll actually look at the slide show who actually went to the reunion, but oh well. I'll post it anyway.

NOTE: slide show making is not my forte. This is not fancy so please don't mind all of the technical problems it may have, ignore that not every picture has sweet movement, etc. I take pictures, I don't make slide shows (but yes, I will attempt to improve!)

Hogar on Vimeo.

Music: "I Can Only Imagine" -Mercyme

This is just a compilation of some of my favorite photos of the kids that were taken over the summer. This will always be my favorite project, I think. Love these kids. And listen to the words of the song. They fit with the subject matter:) If you're like me, you'll get all choked up.

Our last days at the Hogar...

ooooo! GROWL! Who is that good lookin' boy? He should model for a living (and make us LOTS of money!)

Swinging on the swings. Haha:) He is cute, huh? And okay...I HATE the blue hue to his white t-shirt. Anyone have similar issues and/or solutions to this problem? It drives me nuts.

A bit of "daily life" at the Hogar since I hadn't taken any shots asi (like that--that's a translation for you Lariss!) This is Juan getting his haircut. The entire time that I was taking pictures of him, he was saying "Oh, I must look handsome. She's taking pictures of me. My hair is going to be so handsome when I'm done. I'm going to look 'bien bonito'." He is such a character, I love him. I think he has autism, and he speaks a mile a minute and sings SUPER loud and off key. Cute kid!



Andrew with the boys on our last day:( They love him!

Getting a picture of Jesus Jose. Getting this guy to smile requires a lot of talent in the humor section. Luckily I have that, and got him to smile (but only once in about a 10 minute period...ha!).



Finally, on our last day, they decided to set up a pool in the middle of the grassy area (we're talking a big swimming pool) and they also set up little mini plastic pools on the cement for the kids who couldn't swim/were in wheelchairs. We were GOING to swim with them once the big pool was full, but that never happened. I was SO excited to swim! It was dang hot those last few days we were there.

Well, that is all for pictures at the Hogar (until next year). It was AN AMAZING TIME! I looovveddd the Hogar so so so so so much. I love those kids and I can't wait to go back and see them again! It was an experience of a lifetime and thank goodness I didn't miss it. I am so grateful to those kids for being cute and loveable and LOVING, for giving me the opportunity to take their pictures, and to Rachel for starting the program and keeping it alive!! Loved, loved, loved, LOVED it!

Aqui estoy yo!

After a crazy week full of eventful (some really awesome, some really sucky) happenings, I decided to edit some pictures. Unfortunately, I made the mistake (again) of leaving my camera on a very high ISO, thus the graininess of the pictures. Sorry! I swear, I always forget to change that dag-on setting. Ohh well, I'll remember to change it next time.

This is a picture I took awhile ago, but this is Chusita. She is a sweetheart!! She is so positive and is so loving. She is just a doll, and I love her.

cut off face pictures. Geovanny and Steven were being so cute together...too bad I couldn't get all of their faces. And the picture to the right is of Steven smiling SO CUTE, but of course I had to be making faces at him to get him to smile big, and so I wasn't actually looking through the viewfinder when I snapped. Oh well.


Got it! Who cares if it's blurry? It's cute!

Maritza and Antonia. These girls are seriously the best of buds. They are more-or-less sisters (without blood relation, but have the same mother figure and have lived under the same roof their entire lives) and they act like it. They pick on each other, gossip together, support each other, and LOVE each other. I love seeing these two together because their relationship is so strong, and at this time in their lives (at ages 13 and 11 respectively) they need someone to rely on and have near.

Let's not forget Carlos and Ivan (Ivan is not in the pictures, but Carlos is). These four kids are ALWAYS together. They are inseparable and they have a ton of fun together, if you can't tell.

I'll post more later!

Why I love them...

(I really ought to proofread what I write. I miss essential connector words, verbs, and nouns frequently. I misspell things and write in the wrong tenses...or I just repeat. Why? Because I don't proofread what I write. I'm too lazy:). My goal is to proofread!! It's annoying to read a blog that has misspellings/missing words/etc. I'll work on it. I apologize.)

So, bored of the portraits yet? I LOVE THEM!! I know that I shouldn't say that I love my own work, but seriously. I love these pictures with all of my tough, pumping heart. Not just because I think I am THE BOMB (which I really don't...don't get a bad impression of me), but also because these pictures aren't just images. They are memories and stories and amazing people. I love these kids here. I mean, LOVE them. I am really sad I'm only here for 3 months. I would love to stay longer to become a bigger part of these kids lives. I know that when I leave they'll forget my name (they already have a hard time remembering my name right now! They call me "Ava", a past volunteers name, all of the time!!haha:) Love it), but I won't soon forget these kids. Three months is NOT a long time when you think that most people live for an approximate 936 months. Yet three months can be life-changing.

I hope these pictures truly capture who they are and that you viewers can see that. If not, go back through and really look at these kids faces and try to really see who they are. Try to see that Ana Maria loves to scold the high school volunteers who pass secret notes to each other, that Geovanny shakes out of sheer joy and excitement for a small birthday bash in the casita with the American volunteers, and that Roberto, with his big, loving heart, sobs when a friend's pet fish dies. These kids are happy and are loved. Honestly, how could they not be? They give love with ALL of their hearts rather than with just a portion.

Anyway, I'm not sure how to share how much fun these kids are, how much I've grown to love them, or how happy they make me. Ask me sometime, and I will tell you every tender memory (or funnymemory...I have lots of those too) that I have with these kids. LOVE THEM!! I wouldn't respend these three months any other way. THANK YOU to everyone who helped Andrew and I come here! I have no way to express just how grateful we are for the donations that were given to help us to El Salvador...hopefully I can just pay the goodness forward to these kids:)

I won't bore you with my emotional post much longer, but I just want to share one more thing. Today I was talking to an important Hogar administrator and he was complimenting the photos I have taken. He said, "You are capturing their spirits, who they truly are, in these photos. I hope you know that what you are doing is a great work of God." I would have to agree with him 100%. I am not nearly as artistically talented without help from God. It may seem cliche to give public recognition to God for the opportunities I've had to take pictures of these kids, but I know what I'm capable of as far as photography goes, and this has been my best work since I've started photography. Coincidence? No, definitely not. I've been blessed and I owe it to having faith in God, and having a Heavenly Father who loves all of his children equally, no matter how they come wrapped. Yes, it is a great work of God that I am here and that I've been able to take these photos of these beautiful, wonderful people.

To end, why not a few portraits?


My favorite picture of Walter. He is HILARIOUS and this is what I got when I told him to smile with his teeth:) haha!! Love this kid. Actually, Walter is the kid who loves to call me Ava because he knows my name is Molly, but likes to get a reaction out of me:). Beside Walter is Aida. She is in a wheel chair and has a slight case of cerebral paulsy and a mental delay. She LOVES to sing (and learns song so quickly) and loves English. She'll constantly tells Andrew and I, "Hablo Ingles!"("I speak English") and then she'll whip out "haylo" (aka, hello) and "bye bye". Haha:) Gotta love it.

Victor is a blind guy at the Hogar. He is also mentally disabled, but I'm not sure what exact disability he has. He is AWESOME though. If you give him your hand, he'll "memorize" it by feeling it and saying "quien, quien?" over and over. Then you tell him your name and he'll remember your hand along with your name. He is always able to figure out who I am when I give him my hand, even before I say anything outloud. He is the man. He calls me "Mawbidy". Haha:) Love it. Beside him is Antonia. Antonia is an 11 year old girl who has dyslexia and water on the brain. She is actually incredibly smart, and you'd never know she has any mental disability. She walks, runs, and goes to school with the other school kids (Carlos, Ivan and Martiza). She doesn't like to study, though, but she is very smart and has a knack for English. She will randomly say English phrases to me.

Roberto here might look familiar to those Hogar blog followers out there. He is the famous singer in two of the videos we've posted on that blog. Roberto has the biggest heart of any 18 year old I know (but obviously this 18 year old is a lot more special than any others that I've known). One time he found out that Maritza's pet fish died and he sobbed over it's death all evening. He was distraught and I had to give him a lonnng, snot filled hug before he agreed to sit down and play a game of cards with me (which didn't last long because a Nun came in and brought up the subject of the dead fish, which brought more sobs). Roberto also LOVES playing cops and robbers. Andrew and I have been his prisoners more than once. And, of course, Roberto LOVES to sing and perform. Andrew and I love Roberto SO much! We shouldn't choose favorites, but Roberto is on our favorite's list. We love this kid. Beside Roberto is Alonso. He is a 14-15 year old boy with cerebral paulsy. He constantly has this sweet little smile on his face, and is always asking me to paint with him. He lovvves to paint, loves to look at books and point out the trees and houses. He is the happiest boy with the skinniest arms. Haha:) I know that's random fact, but he is darling.

These pictures get me in the heart. Geovanny LOVES Andrew so much. You can totally tell in these pictures too. The picture to the left is Geovanny's incredibly happy, body-shaking excited face. When he's excited/REALLY happy, he normally laughs/screams a little, shakes with excitement, then his eyes literally light up and get all shiny. Usually at that point, he opens his arms up for a BIG hug. While he's hugging you, he makes this face. I love it...Geovanny's excitement is something to see, and it'll make you happy all day. Oh and the picture on the right is when he's done sharing his excitement with you, and he looks up at you with those puppy dog, precious eyes to "tell" you how happy he is. I think Geovanny was happy in this picture because he and Andrew were talking about his upcoming birthday (his birthday was yesterday. He turned 27).


THAT IS ALL! Longest blog entry in the history of photography. Whew. Lo siento

Sonia

She is a beautiful baby here at the orphanage. I rarely get to see her because she's kept in the doctor's office because she's a fragile little girl. Today, however, was an activity day, so she was brought out for a little while with her twin brother, Daniel. These babies are so cute and they're 2.5 years old. They're so tiny, you'd never believe they were that old. Anyway, here is just a few pictures for now. Sonia is a beautiful little doll.


Sonia with Hermana Guadalupe

Daniel is Sonia's twin brother. Also lives in clinic because he is a fragile baby and also sick.

Okay and I have to throw this one in because I just love it. This is Anna Maria. She is going to be 50 this year (I think) but for the last 35 years she's been turing 15:) Haha...forever young, I suppose.

Mas que nada

More fotos. I won't be writing up long "get-to-know-you"s this time though. I'm tired and have to wake up MUY TEMPRANO tomorrow. I'll just let you see the pictures, and maybe I'll make a few small comments:)

Ivan (THE MAN! He doesn't have a mental disability and attends a local school. He's in a wheelchair and so incredibly respectful and helpful. Love this kid) and this cute little boy who is in the lactantes area (lactantes is the area for kids who are on just a liquid diet)

Maria Umbelina (this beautiful little thing is blind. You'd never know it, but she is) and Anita. Anita has a HUGE personality. She always has a HUMUNGO smile on her face like this:)

Fatima has the biggest, most gorgeous eyes! She's not as melancholy as she appears...just bored:)

I love this picture...even though Andrew is unshaven and is in HARDCORE need of a hair cut...it's precious how big this little boy's smile is!

My girl, Wilma. LOVE HER. She pulls random things out of her bra, it is hilarious:) And Rosa. She is constantly pacing back and forth and hates an interruption, but once she's ready for your company, she gives you this smile:) Preciosa

Juan and Carmencita...Juan is great. Sings LOUD and vvveerrryyy off key. He talks a ton, and always has this smile on his face when he's saying hello. Carmencita is just a cute teenager. She pretends to talk to her girlfriends on her broken cell phone.

Romero. He was born to be a soccer player. He kicks the ball around ALL OF THE TIME, and would do it for hours if I could do it for hours. I can't, unfortunately for him.

ProYecto

I almost had it. It´s proyecto...with a ¨y¨. See, I really do know more Spanish than you think!!

I have taken more pictures...I don´t know if it´s the computer I´m using or what, but the pictures don´t look as good to me on here as they do on my laptop. Oh well! It´s okay! It´s been fun taking pictures. I have a couple more to share:


I feel bad not know this girls name, but she is one of the girls who likes to walk up to me and say ¨hola¨and nothing else. She doesn´t speak a whole lot, but I bet she can if she wants to (those ¨hola¨s are very clear. And she says ¨mami¨ clearly too). Anyway, she is funny because, for whatever reason, she LOVES back pockets and bums. If I´m wearing jeans with accessible pockets, she´ll stick her hand RIGHT in. Talk about a strange sensation when you´re not expecting it and when Andrew is in view (as in, not behind me). Haha! She likes to pinch bums as well, which is pretty funny unless it´s your bum that is getting pinched! She is really sweet though and loves hugs. She has really pretty eyes too.

Meet Janet. I think that´s how they spell her name, but it could be Yanet (since the Y makes more of a ¨j¨ sound in Spanish). This girl is DARLING! I think she has the mentality of about a 3-4 year old girl. Her behaviors and mannerisms remind me SO much of my little 3 year old neice. She loves pretty things and always has her hair in pigtails with pretty hair things. She loves her little dulces and is just the sweetest thing! She always runs up to me and HAS to give me nice, slobbery besos on my cheek:) Haha! Oh, so cute. I think my favorite part about her is the way she ¨reads¨. She can´t read the words necessarily, but she sure can read the story! She´ll sit down, open the book and start jabbering away. She doesn´t speak very clearly and will often say random words like ¨casa¨and fill the rest in with babbling. For example ¨Y la casita, de de de de el perro de de de de¨(and she really does say ¨de de de¨...it sounds more like ¨duh duh duh¨. I´ll have to catch it on tape sometime) with ALL sorts of really cute inflextion thrown in. I bet her stories are very adventure and drama filled. I wish I knew what was going on inside her head to find out! She is cute:) (PS- her eyes are gorgeous, huh? And the second picture of her...LOVE IT! So stinkin´cute. I told her to hold up the heart she colored for a picture, and she totally held it up upside down. It was priceless...so cute..and I know the picture is blurry, but I like the added effect it gives)

This is Estiven. I think that´s how they spell it...that´s how they say it. I just know it´s not spelled like the English Steven is spelled. Anyway, he is a three old with a mild case of Down Syndrome. He is a definite favorite around the Hogar, and I´m sure you can see why. He is adorable and he has an orange kool-aid mustache! Haha:) This little boy is super cute and he is always running around. He is 100% a little 3 year old boy. He loves playing soccer, even though he gets trampled. He usually just jumps up and keeps going. I haven´t spent as much time with him because he´s always with the niñeras (who are all very nice, but also intimidating because I don´t speak Spanish like a pro, and I don´t want to make myself look stupid in front of them!). But he is still absolutely darling!!

I believe this guys name is Daniel. I could be wrong...but he is a character. Daniel (the first picture) is definitely not nearly as menacing as this picture shows. He´s just funny because he always has this expression on and he ALWAYS wants to take pictures with my camera. At first I thought he wanted me to show him the pictures I took...but he keep putting his eye right up to the screen and then I later heard him say he wanted to TAKE a picture. Haha! I thought he was just being cute and trynig to ¨see¨the picture on the screen, but NOPE! He just wanted to take a picture. I´ll make sure to take him on some type of picture hunt with me and I´ll let you see the finish product:)
The second picture is of Raul. I saw him on Wednesday for the first time and haven´t seen him since. I´m pretty sure he has cerebral paulsy because he was in a wheelchair, couldn´t speak, but he was very coherent and was answering my questions with nods of the head. He was also a very happy guy when I was talking to him, hence that huge grin. I´m dying to see him again and talk to him! I think I´d like to get to know him better. But he had a ton of rings on his hands. About 5 or more. He looked pretty hard core, so that was definitely not somethign you see everyday at the Hogar. He was cool...I´ll update if I end up seeing him more often or not.

These pictures of are Tomassa and Mercedes. Tomassa has a severe mental delay, but she is absolutely so sweet. The first day that I went down to the Rancho, she yelled out ¨hola¨to me and grabbed my hand, put it to her neck and said ¨caliente!¨. Haha! But she says that word in a REALLY CUTE way. haha! I´ll also have to get a video of her. She is so sweet though. She can´t hold conversations, but she can say words and likes to repeat the words she says. A few of her common words are ¨hola¨¨pelo¨¨niña¨(never niño! despite how I´ve tried) ¨caliente¨¨adios¨and sometimes when she has a boo boo, she´ll say ¨me calló¨and ¨duele¨. My favorite thing she does is giggle when I pull out the camera to take a picture. She straight up GIGGLES and it kills me! I love it! But it does make it hard to get a picture of her...I can´t tell you HOW many times I´ve tried to get a typical Tomassa face, but she likes to move around so much that I can´t get the focus right. This time I had a little bit of success. She is a doll.
Mercedes is older and I´m not sure what diability she has. She speaks VERY slowly and slurred, but she speaks well. She often demands chicle from me if she sees me chewing some, but other than that we´ve had some decent converations. She is very hard to understand though...but we´ve talked about how many kids Andrew and I are going to have, how long we´ll be here and when we´re going to do some stuff with her. Haha:)

The first picture is of Nahum. He is THE MAN! I love this guy. When I first met him, he TOTALLY laid one on me when Andrew had his back turned. Hahah! On the cheek, that is. It was sooo funny though and he totally started blushing. But he always has the radio nearby jamming out to his music or he´s playing some type of sport like soccer, or he´ll play tag with us. He´s very sporty.
I forget this girl´s name, but she is also very cute (and sorry I´m calling everyone really cute, but you would too if you were here!! It can´t be helped). I think she might have some sort of growth defect, like a midget type defect, but not quite. I don´t really know though. But she is very small and has short legs and a somewhat normal body size. She is funny and loves carrying around her doll who has permanent blue marker eyebrows. It looks really funny, like it should be from the hood, but she LOVES that thing. It´s cute:) Anyway, I love this picture. I think it´s my favorite one thus far. I like her face and the angle, I think. I just like it:) Haha!

Maybe I´ll have some more for next week! Sorry this post was forever long!