Preciosos Momentos

I think that I haven't written very much about the school yet. It is called Preciosos Momentos, and most of the teachers are Marta's daughters --Melissa, Nancy, and Zoila--and Marta is the director. There's a couple other teachers, but it is mostly run by this family.

Dulce is a girl who lives at the school with her two kids, Isaias and Andrea, and takes care of the other kids who live there. There are about 10 of them who sleep in one little bedroom. Marta cooks all their meals for them and brings the food over there--the school has no kitchen. During the days, 150 kids come and squeeze in there. Each classroom is very tiny and has about 25 kids in it. What I think would be perfect is if they could get a whole separate building for the school, and this building could be used just for the orphans. Marta dreams of running a whole orphanage, but she just doesn't have the space. She has had to turn down several kids because there is no room for them.

On Wednesday, she went to a little town a few hours away to see an orphanage there, and she came back so sad because it was so beautiful and had so much space, and she just wishes she could do something like that, but doesn't have the resources. That orphanage is run by Canadian missionaries.

I do not know how she keeps up with paying for this school as it is. Only about a fifth of the students actually pay tuition, because the others can't afford it. Out of that little bit, Marta pays rent on the building, pays the teachers' salaries, pays for the food for all her orphans, along with any other expenses that come with running a school.

But Marta has such a great heart and she has poured so much into this school. She definitely isn't trying to get money or sympathy out of anyone--she just loves helping kids who need it.