Visit to orphanage changes lives
BY SANDY QUADROS BOWLES
EDITOR@THELANDMARK.COM
"Amy Nichols will spend the next few months in Mexico. But she won't be hitting the beach or the bars.
Instead, Nichols will live and work at Casa de Esperanza, an orphanage of about 60 children in Tijuana.
She plans to spend the next six months or so caring for the youngsters, lending them her support and sharing her faith.
The children are living in an area rife with drugs and other social issues, Many of these youngsters "don't know what it's like to have unconditional
love,'' she said.
What they do know, all too often, is physical and sexual abuse, neglect and loneliness. Most are not true orphans, but have a parent who is in jail,
unfit or unable to afford to care for them.
"I hope to listen to them, not in a way that's intrusive, but just to be an emotional and loving support,'' she said.
Nichols has visited the orphanage during the holiday break all four years she attended Gordon College in Wenham. She learned more each year, she said,
and by her senior year, she led the trip.
She always wanted to spend a more significant amount of time at the orphanage, she said, so when she graduated this spring, she decided to spend a
six-month stint there.
She will live at the orphanage and spend the majority of her time there, both because there is significant work to be done and to ensure her personal
safety.
She speaks Spanish and hopes that by immersing herself in the experience, she will become fluent in the language. She majored in psychology and
minored in psychology at college.
Most importantly, she hopes to spend one-on-one time with the youngsters. She has learned from her previous visits that even something as simple as
spending a day working on a puzzle with a youngster can brighten the child's day.
She also wants to work with the girls' self-esteem. Many of them feel they need "a man for affirmation,'' she said. She hopes to mentor them and to
encourage them to focus on themselves.
"They don't trust people very easily,'' she said. "They have seen and been through so much.''
She also hopes to help the boys and girls focus on academics and to bolster their command of English. Gordon College offers a full scholarship to
students who are 80 percent proficient in English and are able to pass certain academic tests.
Local supporters also offer scholarships to community colleges around Tijuana.
She hopes that her support can help enrich their lives, educationally and emotionally.
"I'm very excited to get to know these kids,'' she said."
For more information about the orphanage, visit http://spiritofcasa.org
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
\"Alea iacta est.\"
—Julius Caesar
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