Santiago's children : what I learned about life at an orphanage in Chile / by Steve Reifenberg ; foreword by Paul Farmer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Reifenberg, Steve, 1959-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Orphanages--Chile--Santiago.

Orphanages.

Orphans--Chile--Santiago.

Orphans.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (251 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Unclear about his future career path, Steve Reifenberg found himself in the early 1980s working at a small orphanage in a poor neighborhood in Santiago, Chile, where a determined single woman was trying to create a stable home for a dozen or so children who had been abandoned or abused. With little more than good intentions and very limited Spanish, the 23-year-old Reifenberg plunged into the life of the Hogar Domingo Savio, becoming a foster father to kids who stretched his capacities for compassion and understanding in ways he never could have imagined back in the United States. In this beautifully written memoir, Reifenberg recalls his two years at the Hogar Domingo Savio. His vivid descriptions create indelible portraits of a dozen remarkable kids—mature-beyond-her-years Verónica; sullen, unresponsive Marcelo; and irrepressible toddler Andrés, among them. As Reifenberg learns more about the children's circumstances, he begins to see the bigger picture of life in Chile at a crucial moment in its history. The early 1980s were a time of economic crisis and political uprising against the brutal military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Reifenberg skillfully interweaves the story of the orphanage with the broader national and international forces that dramatically impact the lives of the kids. By the end of Santiago's Children, Reifenberg has told an engrossing story not only of his own coming-of-age, but also of the courage and resilience of the poorest and most vulnerable residents of Latin America.

Contents:

Visions of a family farm

The arrival

Spanish lessons

Olga and the Hogar

Not as imagined

Summer

More Spanish and other lessons about Chile

Politics

The Pacific coast

The end of summer

A new school year

Professional conversations

On being a teacher

Noisy and complicated

The farm revisited

Donors, demons, and dentists

Marcelo

An unexpected journey

A home on Tupungato Street

Catholics, Mormons, and evangelicals

Boys, babies, and biters

The University

Winter in a new neighborhood

Sebastián

Explaining a few things

You're going to do what?

Groping in the dark

God will see us through

The end of the road

The days of waiting

The visit of the gringos

Searching for something

Taking leave.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

0-292-79438-X

OCLC:

646761196