Band of Brothers

This post is dedicated to Jorge, Juan and Miguel. Its a pleasure to see that the kids with siblings manage to maintain their family bond amongst the dozens of other kids living at the orphanage. I admire how tough and resilient all the kids here are but what stands out to me about these three brothers is that they are so easily and openly caring and kind, which I think is uncommon for boys in general, let alone kids being raised in an orphanage. That and their personalities which are hard to describe but its something along the lines of crazy, innocent, loving and loyal.

Yesterday Abel, one of our special kids, pulled a Mike Tyson on little Jorge. Yup, Abel bit a little bit of Jorge´s ear off. Luckily Jorge is a trooper and doesn´t seem too bothered by the stitches or the bandage.
Jorge is very familiar with injuries but usually not this serious. Whenever I see him running around (barefoot), he always trips, landing face first on the ground but springs right back up again. In fact the only times I´ve seen him cry were during Tutoría; 2 hours of homework time in the afternoon. He struggles a lot with school work, especially writing, which isn´t helped by the fact that all of the kids are required to learn to write in cursive.

Juan, the middle child. Laughing hysterically because he had just scared me by blowing sharply in my face. His other front tooth has finally grown in, a little crooked but still good.  He is by far the most energetic (crazy) child at the orphanage. I think he might be responsible for introducing the monkey run that some of the little boys are now doing (running on all fours). Juan and Miguel both came over to me as soon as they saw me talking to Jorge; a testament to their care and loyalty to their little brother.

Miguel was being difficult when I tried to take this photo. He was begging me to take his photo but would cover or scrunch up his face when I tried to take it. He is the eldest of the three and has taken it upon himself to be the protector of the family. A role he takes very seriously. I've seen him sprint all the way across the orphanage to defend his brothers in a conflict. Its great that hes so eager to be there for them but hopefully he'll find a less violent way to display his care.

All in all, they are great boys. Even though they seem to be coping well with life in the orphanage, I still pray that they and the all other kids, won't need to be here much longer.