WASHINGTON – Written on walls within Casa Hogar Children’s Home in Oaxaca City, Mexico, is this biblical passage: “Y cualquiera que de a uno de estos pequenitos un vaso de aqua de cierto os digo que no perdera su recompensa . . .” (Matthew 10:42)
The translation is: “And whoever in the name of the disciple gives to one of these little ones a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you he shall not lose his reward.”
This speaks volumes about the program Simply Smiles, a nonprofit organization founded by Bryan Nurnberger, who serves as president of Simply Smiles and is a native of Connecticut.
Simply Smiles offers a home to more than 80 children, some disabled, while building new homes for less fortunate families living in the city dump, which Mr. Nurnberger refers to as “Hell on Earth”. The organization was established in 2003 with the motto “dedicated to building bright futures while improving the daily lives of impoverished peoples”.
And thus far, it is proving to be doing just that.
Casa Hogar is a home where orphaned children are cared for by Mr. Nurnberger, Kristen Graves and volunteers ready to lend a hand. Vicky and Hacinta, two women who were left in chairs by polio, have proved to be valuable assets to the home by serving as mothers, cooks, nurses and more. Currently, there is an effort to build a house for the two women so they no longer have to share a room with the kids.
Recently, a group of Spanish-speaking Shepaug Valley High School students flew to Casa Hogar, where they were able to communicate and play with the kids, and successfully built a house in the dump in just three days. It was the 18th house Simply Smiles has built.
After receiving $45,552 in donations in 2003, the organization grew to the point where total donations reached $308,705 in 2006, a significant step toward more smiles. With 98 percent of all sponsorship going directly to the children, donors are certain their money will be well spent. A third of donations are child sponsorships and the remainder general donations. Each of the Shepaug volunteers donated about 200 pesos, about $20, which paid for the kids’ new soccer uniforms.
The group, including Spanish teacher Michael Nolan, heard about the organization through Shepaug graduate Callie Larson’s senior project, entitled “More Smiles for Simply Smiles.”
Mr. Nurnberger gladly flew in from Oaxaca to speak with the group of students volunteering at Casa Hogar and plans were set. The students made arrangements to spend June 22 to 28 in Mexico, doing as much as they could in one week.
The first two days, students spent their time in the orphanage, getting to know individual children and acclimate themselves to the high altitude. Right away, the students gladly offered a helping hand by serving food at a welcome party, and making pancakes the following morning.
A wake-up call at 7 a.m. on their third day marked the first day at the dump. As the bus rolled into the dump, the students saw what looked like an oversized trash-ridden ant-hill, and next to it was a community of 33 families, living on other people’s garbage.
The group’s goal was to build a concrete block house in four days and paint three other homes. Local supervisors, including Marcelo, and his assistant, Alejandro, taught students to sift sand, chip cement blocks, and lay the blocks with mortar cement, which they also mixed.
Families raise children in makeshift homes surrounded by pungent odors, stray dogs and vultures. Below the ground level people walk on are layers of garbage covered with a blanket of dirt. New homes are built with cement floors and walls to hold the house stable in this earthquake area.
To make the houses more attractive, the students painted the outside with flowers and inscribed the greeting ‘bienvenidos”, meaning welcome, over the door frame. The inside walls are covered with stucco so that it wasn’t just a cement box. The families even showed enthusiasm about painting, as they picked out their own colors, and one girl even lent a hand, literally, as she finger-painted her own house.
The dump denizens were initially shy, but as the Shepaug students introduced themselves with firm handshakes, an alliance was made. After a morning filled with back-breaking labor, the students would sit down to enjoy Coca-Cola and sandwiches prepared by a woman who now runs a food shop out of her new home, built by Simply Smiles. All the students agreed that there must be something about the special Oaxacan cheese or toasted rolls that made their mouths water, or it could have just been the jalapeno peppers.
At the orphanage, some students found it more difficult to forge a connection with the kids, many of whom are disabled. “When we first got there, it was like there was a wall between us and them [the disabled children] that we were creating,” said Anna Carlson, who will be a senior at Shepaug. “They were completely open to us and we learned to embrace that.”
Ricardo is one of the more severe special needs cases at Casa Hogar. He is 29 and suffered from cerebral palsy, making him unable to move his legs or use his right hand. Before coming to live at Casa Hogar, he was tied in a wooden chair all day long. Anna saw past Ricardo’s disabilities and instead saw a friend.
Carley Davenport connected especially to one girl, Luz, meaning “light,” who was deaf. “I didn’t know what to say. She spoke a different language and she was deaf, but you figure it out, make up your own signs, and you get know each other. She was outgoing and personable, which made it not even matter that she was deaf.” Deafness is common among the children in Oaxaca because of the high altitude and lack of medical attention.
Looming over the shoulders of the volunteers was a constant fear of bed bugs, parasites in the tap water, altitude sickness and, of course, fungus. Fortunately, water jugs were found everywhere the volunteers went within the orphanage and local stores, so Montezuma never had his revenge.
Early in the trip one student was under the weather because of altitude sickness and was unable to keep her tacos dow, but quickly recovered and was eager to get back to the dump. Another student fell victim to a case of athlete’s foot. She performed a ‘mini-surgery” on herself that included a sterilized sewing needle and athlete’s foot spray – luckily, results were desirable.
Two unfortunate volunteers had tiny visitors crawl into their beds and luggage leaving bite marks and exploding into the “Bed Bug Epidemic.” This forced them to spend the last two days moving all the furniture outside to be disinfected, and questionable mattresses were burned. When asked about the situation, Mr. Nurnberger jokingly called it a “code rojo.”
After working at the dump one day, a few of the students were motivated to go for a hike. Daniel, 11, from the orphanage wanted to tag along and bring his best friend Nacho. Nacho is blind. Daniel guided Nacho all the way up the mountain by holding his arm, stepping with him in unison, and even describing the view. All the students helped direct him, even offering piggy-back-rides. It was a beautiful display of teamwork as they all acted together using Spanish and kinesthetic senses to help Nacho reach the very top.
Senor Nolan, the Spanish teacher and chaperone, said of the trip, “It was eye-opening to see how happy the children in Casa Hogar and the families living in the dump were. When you look at how little they have, you would expect them to have a different outlook on life. Coming back to the United States, it helps put our relatively minor everyday problems into perspective.”
The whole group reconsidered the priorities and values of life in Litchfield County. “I often find myself talking about the great job the Shepaug kids did, and the positive impression they left in Casa Hogar,” the teacher added. “I did not hear one complaint the entire trip. The students really stepped up to the challenge of working in the dump and making the most of their short time with the children of Casa Hogar.”
Senor Nolan plans to return to Casa Hogar with a group from Monroe in August, and the Shepaug students unanimously decided to make arrangements to return next year, possibly as part of Nathalie Fernandes’ senior project.
Following its arrival home, the group organized a dinner and a slideshow at Odd Fellows Hall in New Milford for family and friends, where they played at the orphanage, hiking, working at the dump, walking the Zapotec ruins and an evening out on the town in Oaxaca City.
Donations were collected and sent directly to Casa Hogar. The students are also in the process of editing footage for a screening upon returning to school in the fall, with the hopes of spreading awareness and encouraging other students to come next year – a way of spreading more smiles and maintaining a connection with a community outside of our own.
Claire Franjola, who will be a senior at Shepaug Valley High School in the fall, is an intern with The Litchfield County Times and Housatonic Publications.
