Alejandra Quintana spent three months volunteering with our family this year, in which time she, and her friend Fabiola Matute, became firm favourites with our kids as their Auntie Ally and Auntie Fab.Now back home in Mexico, their hearts at still with our family.
Looking at our website last week, Ally spotted a very early picture of Esther, which prompted her to write about experience.
"The other day I saw
a picture of baby Esther (pronounced as Esta there) just few days after
becoming a Happy House Kid.
It really shocked me, she looked so skinny, with
the eyes almost to big for her face, her arms so thin, she looked neglected and
sad, and it got me thinking of my time there.
I had the wonderful
opportunity to be a volunteer for three months at Happy House, they where the
most incredible three months of my life.
While I was there
one of my duties was to help in the baby banda giving physical therapy to the
younger members of the family, specially to Esther who was having problems learning
how to walk.
Fabiola, my friend
who was also volunteering with me, Aunty Flo, and whichever auntie was on baby duty, and I would
go to the baby banda everyday to do the exercises with them, some times the
babies enjoyed them them more than others, occasionally having a grizzle, but we kept doing them every
single day.
I decided that my
personal goal at the Happy House was getting Esther to walk before I went home.
It
would take us about 15 minutes to walk just from the baby banda to the big
banda, with Esther pushing the walker, and many times she cried. To distract her we sang her all the Happy
House songs, specially her favourite one, the love song, the one Aunty Rose
taught them (Love is something that if you give it away, it just comes back to
you…).
I remember her
proud little face when she was walking from banda to banda and one of her big
sisters would start cheering her, or passing through the blue banda (the one
next to the library) and noticing Mama and Uncle Billy were watching her, she
would start laughing and walking faster, like she was trying to show them how good she
was doing.
Uncle Billy would
go to the baby banda to say hello to the little ones, he would say to her
“Esthaaa, are you going to school soon Esthaa?”
I always felt he had a special love for her and after seeing the picture
of her I realized that even though he loves all the children he has a special
bond with this little girl who has come so far.
One day I was
walking holding her hands and we were singing, without her noticing I let go of her
hands and she kept walking all by herself!
I was so happy and proud of her, I
almost cried. The very next day Uncle Billy sent her to school, she was so happy
to be a big girl, to wear a uniform and to be part of Madam Sara's baby class.
I guess what I am
trying to say is that it is amazing what love can do, and what the love and
magic of the Happy House can achieve in just in one year.
The two year old
Esther, the laughing, singing, happy, smart beautiful Esther that I met has
nothing to do with the girl in the picture, the one that arrived at the Happy
House so small and weak, and it is all because of the loving work of the people who devote their
lives to making the lives of the children better."
* Video of Esther singing Auntie Rose's song taken by Auntie Ally.
*And video of Aunties Fab and Ally in an after-school sing song, when Esther gets a lift from Auntie Ally! Taken by Auntie Libby.
