美国国家公共电台 NPR An Orphanage In Honduras Puts Love At The Top Of Its Priority List

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Let's go now to the Honduran city of Tela, where it is a big day for Naomi Rodriguez (ph). The 15-year-old is competing in a pageant¹ at school. She's chosen two outfits² for the contest. But first, she's helping³ to make breakfast.

NAOMI: (Speaking Spanish).

(SOUNDBITE OF METAL SCRAPING)

GREENE: This could be the morning routine at many houses in this small Central American city, but this house is special. It's a home for orphans⁴, and as NPR's Jason Beaubien reports, it's part of an international network built around what matters most when it comes to raising kids.

JASON BEAUBIEN, BYLINE⁵: The day starts early at the SOS Children's Village in Tela, Honduras. It's 5:30 in the morning. At house No. 9, Naomi and her SOS mom, Sandra Hernandez, are chatting about Naomi's upcoming school day while the two of them make traditional Honduran tortillas called baleadas. Sandra's pounding the balls of dough⁶ into plate-sized patties. Four teenagers, including Naomi, live at the house. We're not using any of the minor⁷ children's real names because they're wards⁸ of the state. The youngest boy is sweeping⁹ the backyard. Naomi is helping to cook. Two of the older boys are still asleep.

SANDRA HERNANDEZ: (Speaking Spanish).

BEAUBIEN: Sandra, who's 45, lives in the house full-time¹⁰. When she takes her annual vacation, an SOS aunt comes to stay with the kids for a week or two. Sandra says the SOS model gives these children a home that's like a natural family.

HERNANDEZ: (Through interpreter) It helps them a lot because they're not isolated¹¹.

BEAUBIEN: SOS Children's Villages is a global nonprofit that runs nearly 600 residential¹² care facilities for kids in 135 countries. The structure of an SOS Children's Village is actually quite simple - kids who've been separated from their biological parents because of death or abuse or neglect are put in, quote, "family units with a single adult caregiver." Those houses are grouped together as an SOS Village. The houses in Tela are two-story, cinder¹³ block buildings. Each has a kitchen and a living room on the ground floor and four bedrooms upstairs. Naomi says her friends from school like coming over because she has such a nice house.

NAOMI: (Through interpreter) When we have group homework, they come over because they like coming here.

BEAUBIEN: For Sandra, being an SOS mom isn't just a job. This is her family. She was placed in an SOS Children's Village in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa at the age of 3, and she grew up there.

HERNANDEZ: (Through interpreter) I lived the same situation as them.

BEAUBIEN: She says one of the most valuable things she learned and that she tries to pass along to the kids in her care is the importance of having strong daily routines and strong moral values. Naomi grabs her bag with her outfits for the pageant, says goodbye to her mom and heads off to school.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

BEAUBIEN: On this day, Naomi's classes have been suspended as the school celebrates the 69th anniversary of its founding in Tela. Naomi is one of a dozen contestants¹⁴ in what's essentially¹⁵ a beauty pageant to see who will be crowned Senorita Aniversario - the queen of the school festival.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).

BEAUBIEN: As she walks out onto the stage, the announcer declares that Naomi's hobby is studying, and she hopes to become a doctor.

(CHEERING)

BEAUBIEN: Naomi was placed at the SOS Children's Village when she was 2 years old and has been with Sandra since she was 7. Her math teacher, Jennifer Gamez, says Naomi's one of the best students in the school.

JENNIFER GAMEZ: (Through interpreter) You explain something once and she gets it. If she has a question or a doubt, she asks me about it. And her behavior is excellent.

BEAUBIEN: Gamez says she's been impressed with many of the students from the SOS village. The organization will reunite them if possible with biological relatives. But the overall goal is to construct a new family for these kids and to make this SOS village their home. In recent years, the idea of raising kids in orphanages¹⁶ has been slipping out of favor. But Duke University professor Kathryn Whetten says her research shows that orphanages aren't inherently bad.

KATHRYN WHETTEN: We see the same continuum of bad and good care in the group homes as we see in the family settings.

BEAUBIEN: For the last 12 years, Whetten has been following 3,000 kids who were orphaned¹⁷ or separated from their biological parents in five low-and-middle-income countries. Half the kids are in institutions of some kind - government-run orphanages, private group homes. The other half have been placed with extended family members. Whetten has found that the orphans who do well tend to be in stable living conditions, where kids feel connected to other residents.

WHETTEN: So creating a family-like environment is what is really important. And that can happen in a family setting, in a small home, or it can happen in an orphanage/institution/group home like SOS.

BEAUBIEN: In the early afternoon, when Naomi gets home from the Senorita Aniversario pageant, Sandra is waiting anxiously for her on the porch.

NAOMI: (Speaking Spanish).

BEAUBIEN: Sandra wants to hear all of the details of the event.

NAOMI: (Speaking Spanish).

BEAUBIEN: Naomi tells her how everyone was yelling and cheering when she walked up onto the stage. She laughs as she describes how all her friends were sure she was going to win. She made it all the way to the final round and was one of just three finalists.

HERNANDEZ: (Through interpreter) But you'll still represent the school tonight in the festival. That's a big honor.

BEAUBIEN: Later that evening, after the boys get home from school, Sandra recruits kids from all 12 of the houses to help clean up an overgrown section of the SOS compound next to the soccer field. As the sun fades, the kids rake up piles of cut grass and leaves. They chase each other around. They sing pop songs. One of the teenage boys is keen to show that he can carry a bigger bag of leaves and dirt than anyone else. Eventually, the work party degenerates¹⁸ into a soccer game.

(CROSSTALK)

BEAUBIEN: Sandra has just scored her third goal of the game, but the kids are insisting she was offside. And what could be more fun than arguing about whether or not someone is cheating at backyard sports? It feels a lot like a big family picnic. Jason Beaubien, NPR News, Tela, Honduras.

(SOUNDBITE OF BALMORHEA'S "MASOLLAN")

1 pageant   

n.壮观的游行；露天历史剧

参考例句：

• Our pageant represented scenes from history.我们的露天历史剧上演一幕幕的历史事件。
• The inauguration ceremony of the new President was a splendid pageant.新主席的就职典礼的开始是极其壮观的。

2 outfits   

n.全套装备( outfit的名词复数 )；一套服装；集体；组织v.装备，配置设备，供给服装( outfit的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He jobbed out the contract to a number of small outfits. 他把承包工程分包给许多小单位。 来自辞典例句
• Some cyclists carry repair outfits because they may have a puncture. 有些骑自行车的人带修理工具，因为他们车胎可能小孔。 来自辞典例句

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

4 orphans   

孤儿( orphan的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The poor orphans were kept on short commons. 贫苦的孤儿们吃不饱饭。
• Their uncle was declared guardian to the orphans. 这些孤儿的叔父成为他们的监护人。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 dough   

n.生面团；钱，现款

参考例句：

• She formed the dough into squares.她把生面团捏成四方块。
• The baker is kneading dough.那位面包师在揉面。

7 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

8 wards   

区( ward的名词复数 )； 病房； 受监护的未成年者； 被人照顾或控制的状态

参考例句：

• This hospital has 20 medical [surgical] wards. 这所医院有 20 个内科[外科]病房。
• It was a big constituency divided into three wards. 这是一个大选区，下设三个分区。

9 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

10 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

11 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

12 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

13 cinder   

n.余烬，矿渣

参考例句：

• The new technology for the preparation of superfine ferric oxide from pyrite cinder is studied.研究了用硫铁矿烧渣为原料，制取超细氧化铁红的新工艺。
• The cinder contains useful iron,down from producing sulphuric acid by contact process.接触法制硫酸的矿渣中含有铁矿。

14 contestants   

n.竞争者，参赛者( contestant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The competition attracted over 500 contestants representing 8 different countries. 这次比赛吸引了代表8个不同国家的500多名参赛者。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency. 两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

16 orphanages   

孤儿院( orphanage的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• It is Rotarians running orphanages for children who have no homes. 扶轮社员们为没有家的孩子办孤儿院。
• Through the years, she built churches, hospitals and orphanages. 许多年来，她盖了一间间的教堂、医院、育幼院。

17 orphaned   

[计][修]孤立

参考例句：

• Orphaned children were consigned to institutions. 孤儿都打发到了福利院。
• He was orphaned at an early age. 他幼年时便成了孤儿。

18 degenerates   

衰退，堕落，退化( degenerate的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Liberty often degenerates into lawlessness. 自由常常变质为无法无天。
• Her health degenerates rapidly. 她的健康状况迅速恶化。