Entre Todas: Day 1

My housemate describes Entre Todas as both the most difficult and the most rewarding institution in the network of VE institutions. I’m sure she’ll be right about the work being rewarding, and I see right away how difficult it will be. We visited Entre Todas briefly last week with the veteran volunteer who works there and were able to get a sense of the place, but yesterday we spent our first full day there. It’s clear that the first major obstacle will be to get to know the girls and gain their trust. Besides going to school and eating meals at certain times, the girls’ days are utterly unstructured. They’re not required to participate in any activities we set up and since Entre Todas is their home, not a school or community center where participation is the point of going, if the girls want to sit and watch soap operas, they can and do.

Thanks to a recent VE repair day, the walls at Entre Todas are cheery bright yellows, greens and oranges. Apparently the girls used to write and draw on the walls, but the newly painted areas seem, for the most part, clear of such graffiti. The offices of the director and a social worker line the front hallway, which leads to the kitchen and the rest of the house. The kitchen is incredibly old fashioned and usually off-limits to us. Beyond the kitchen is an open area where a Christmas tree currently sits, and the comedor, or cafeteria, where the girls eat their meals, do homework, and where we do crafts and other activities between meals. The rest of the building wraps around a patio where the girls hang out a lot, dancing to their favorite reggaeton songs and checking each other for lice (they consider this a fun activity). Around the patio are their dormitories, each room housing four to six girls. In the very back of the building is the TV room and the computer lab, the latter being open only at specific times.

When we arrived (and when we left), we did a round of left-cheek-kisses, which will be the routine every day. Every girl, every tía (staff member), every day, twice a day. Some of the girls return the greeting sweetly, while others, especially those watching TV, don’t move their eyes or say anything at all. This is fairly representative of the girls’ attitudes—some show interest in Chris, the other new volunteer at Entre Todas, and me, while others act as though we’re the last people they’d want to associate with. Some of the girls display their anger readily, while others seem like average cheery teenage girls until they start cheerily punching each other at full strength. And finally, a few of the girls are so sweet, it’s hard to remember that they’re in the home for a reason.

The girls are between the ages of eleven and twenty with the exception of one six-year-old. They took her because they theoretically take girls ages six to eighteen, but it really makes no sense. She flits around the older girls, lets them smack her around, then lashes out by swearing, biting, and flailing her arms until she hits someone. She’s adorable, however, and always shows her sweet side first. She spends a lot of time with us, along with another girl who is eighteen and has been described to us as “Special Ed.” She’s an incredibly interesting person who clearly wants to learn but isn’t allowed, for some reason, to go to school. Yesterday the subject of the female president of Chile came up and she stated that she doesn’t like the president because she continues to keep abortion illegal. She then asked if abortion was legal in the States or in England (Chris is from Manchester). Sometimes what she says doesn’t make sense and then she hits you with something like this. Whoa.

During the “study” hour in the early evening, I sat with a seventeen-year-old as she made a heart-shaped love note for her boyfriend that said “Carlos, I love you with all my heart.” I showed her how to make bubble letters and hesitantly asked her about the boy. She told me they’ve been together for nine months, then brought out a notebook and let me read some poems she had written for him the day before. They were incredible. I was absolutely blown away and honored that she let me read them. I left the house feeling overwhelmed but great that already a girl had shared a little piece of herself with me.