I'd heard that being a tia was hard work...

Below is an excerpt from a blog post written by NPH Guatemala volunteer, Jessica Heintz. Jessica shares about how rewarding her experience being a "tia" last December was for her! 

I was pretty nervous leading up to December. I’d heard that being a tía was hard work, and it certainly was. The hours could drag on, the kids wouldn’t listen, etc. At the same time though, it was an experience I really enjoyed. My position as clinic assistant doesn’t provide a lot of direct contact with the kids. Thus, the intense time I spent with so many pequeños in December was great! Also, because I had a new group of boys for the most part, I got to know a lot more kids within the home.

One of my favorite parts of the tía experience was doing “vela”, or night duty. I would drag my blankets down from my house to the section, rocking sweat pants and glasses. My partner would leave and I would put on some lovely Latin bachata music until my boys fell asleep. Then, when everything was quiet, I too could snuggle up on the tía bed until the morning, when I was in charge of waking everyone up for another day. While I missed my own bed a bit on these nights, it overwhelmingly felt like such a position of honor to be able to have the privilege of keeping watch over the kids while they slept.

Read her full post and see more pictures here!