Spotlight: Abandoned
By Reyna V., Green Team

The gates were crusting over with copper from lack of polishing. I wondered how they still opened. It seemed as though they would stick together like sap on a tree. As we got out of the brisk car, and stepped into the scorching heat, we were greeted by a nun.

“Hello and thank you for coming. Why don't we go inside?” asked the nun.

As we walked through the door, a horrid smell from lack of ventilation made its way through my nostrils. As we reached a lounge-type room, we sat on yellow couches and chairs. There were pieces of artwork and many photographs around us, which made me feel like I was in a gallery. I looked up at Mother Teresa, thinking about all the great things she had done. Other pictures had people that used to live at the orphanage. The pictures showed how they looked grown up. Many were with a husband or a wife.

“Where do you get the kids from?” questioned my mom.

“Many of them were abandoned and thrown into the trash by their parents,” replied the nun. “The police then deliver the children to resting homes where we collect them from and then we bring them here.”

I sat there with a quizzical look on my face, wondering how a parent could do such a thing to their child. Such questions raced through my mind— Why would this happen? What's the point in having children if you don't want them? Are these kids happy where they are? Are they treated well? What will happen to these kids when they grow up? Will they be able to be successful?

“And do you get girls and boys? Or just girls?” my mom curiously asked the nun.

“We have mostly girls, and just a few boys. The boys live in a different home, though.

I wanted to know why girls were considered so useless, unimportant, and of no value.

“Come, let me show you around,” said the nun.

As we walked through the hall, to the kitchen, I was appalled at how dirty it was. I didn't want to say anything, but I was glad that my house was clean and tidy. I looked at the lockers and thought of how different my lockers at school looked. I didn't know why the nuns didn't repaint the yellow walls. The peeling paint was not attractive. The walls at my school looked much cleaner.

“This is where the girls study and do their homework.”

I was shocked to see the area where the girls were supposed to work on their studies.

We started through the 30-foot hallway. I glanced into the rooms on either side of me. They looked plain. In one particular room, all there was to occupy the empty space was a cot that looked like it was of no comfort and a dresser. The next room I saw was a bathroom. It looked as though it had never been cleaned. There were stains on the wall and the toilet had black marks on it. A horrid stench came from the bathroom. How could people live like this? We finally arrived at the kitchen.

I guessed there were about twelve girls in the kitchen, each helping another with a task I had never been prone to do before.

“This is where the girls cook and clean up after themselves. Right now, they are cleaning up after their afternoon tea, and then they will go back to the study hall to finish schoolwork.”

After a moment of pictures, we went into a dining room where we sat down to have tea with the nun. As the tea was being poured, I thought about all the things I had seen that day. I realized how fortunate I was, to have enough food, water, education, and parents that loved me. I then thought about all the girls living here. This was their life, all because they were abandoned.