comfortable

I was nervous at first, but felt much better after orientation and meeting other volunteers. My placement at an orphanage teaching English was as Maximo said...chaotic. The children take a while to warm up to you (who can blame them?), but the first hug you get makes it worthwhile. I made a picture along with a young girl, and had the other volunteers "vote" on which one they liked better.Her grin when she won (and got a first place ribbon I made), was priceless. You can tell she felt special! The biggest difficulty I saw was the "competition" from their television and snacks during our time there in the afternoons. Luckily, we could usually get them outside at some point. Very sweet kids, but they have obviously been through a lot. One more suggestion would be to try and pair someone fluent in Spanish with the rest of us, at least in the beginning. The kids seem to listen better for awhile afterwards.