Service?

by Andrew Dorris

During our time in Santiago, I, along with multiple others have made attempts to get involved with service organizations in the community. We have learned that it is not as easy to jump into things here as it seems to be at home.

I have discovered a nonprofit near our university called La Fundación de Las Rosas, which is a home for old people who cannot care of themselves-- nor do they have the money to. This seemed like a great place to try and connect with so that between my classes I could go over there and help out. I had not been able to get in contact with them, so one day after class I decided to just go and knock on their door. They have two doors here; one that is solid wood with a doorbell and another that is glass with no doorbell about 20 feet further down the block. I tried the doorbell a few times, but without any success. So naturally, on I went to the glass door to see if I could get someone’s attention. Behind the door I found an elderly woman staring at me and trying to communicate through the glass. After a minute or two, it was clear that she could not let me in, but she started to scrape at the window.

Interested, I looked to see what she was doing, and she was tapping at the dirt on the outside of the window where she could not wipe. So, I then started to wipe the window wherever she was tapping. This made her smile and ease up. There I stood for about five minutes outside a door wiping dirt off of a window. Once she seemed content with the state of cleanliness of the window, she nodded at me and walked away.

So far I still have not made contact with La Fundación de Las Rosas, but this experience with it was still entertaining.