One of the biggest concerns that I have for the children who live in the Villa is the enclosure of the Villa itself. Surrounded on all sides by barbed wire fences, you get the feeling that you are trapped inside. Even after two weeks, I have experienced moments in which it seemed that I was in a prison rather than a loving orphanage. The fortified surroundings of the Villa are by no means intended to create such emotions. To the contrary, they keep the many young children safe from dangerous intruders and the numerous stray dogs that prowl the neighborhood. But on more than one occasion, I have talked to mamás who say the children in their house are bored of the routine of going to school and coming back to the Villa for the rest of the day. These children, they tell me, probably know fewer parts of Cochabamba than I do. They also attribute some of the children´s aggressive behavior to the fact that they are isolated most of the day. Whenever I leave the Villa to walk up the road and catch the bus, I have several children ask me if they can accompany me. When I tell them that I am only going a few blocks, they say that they don´t care, that they just want to tag along.
I worry that these children´s intellectual and cultural growth is being impeded by the enclosure of the Villa. When the children do not get the opportunity to go into the city and interact with others outside the Villa, it compounds their feelings of isolation that stem from being abandoned. During my first two days here, in which I partook in meetings between the mamás, tiás, and administration, I heard many plans to have more outings in the upcoming year. I hope that this will be the case, but as progress and change is notoriously slow in Bolivia, I would prefer not to wait and see if these ideas come to fruition. As part of my schedule, I want to start taking the older children out on Friday nights to see more of the city. Whether it be going to a movie, taking in a play, or watching a sporting event, I am convinced that these children need more social contact. There is no activities coordinator in the Villa, and so usually on weekend nights, children go to the gym and play until they are tired (which doesn´t happen before 11). I have started to encourage the mamás to have their children accompany them when they run simple errands, and I think that many of them are already doing so. Hopefully, short trips to places outside the neighborhood will become commonplace.