"My mother enrolled me in a good school the day I was welcomed to the village. The name of my school is Maria Auxiliadora and three of my sisters study there, too. Our uniform is blue, but the one I like most is the sports uniform [...] it is a beautiful sweater with white stripes and I love to wear it with comfortable white shoes."
"The mornings at home are rather hectic. Everyone runs here and there in a hurry. My mother gets up before everyone and, although she has tried to teach us to get up earlier, she always ends up getting ready first. My sister Leidy - she is the eldest child of the family - helps my mother waking up the small kids and helps them with taking a shower. In the meantime, the other ones are busy sorting out their clothes, making the beds, organizing their school backpacks, etc. Sometimes, we forget a notebook, or whatever, and there is our mother speaking out loud, reminding us not to forget anything."
To school with the wrong shoes
"Once, one of my brothers put on the wrong shoes and left another boy without his. My mother had to borrow some shoes from another house at the village... at home we didn't have his size. Fortunately, we can ask our aunts from the other houses at the village for "particular" favors. I don't think other families outside the village have this kind of relationship."
Hard to get up early
"After the smallest kids are ready, it is my turn for the shower. Having been awake for 20 minutes or so, I would still like to go back to bed. I ask myself why we can't get up a bit later. Five in the morning is too early ... it's been like that for almost ten years, and it's still the most difficult thing for me."
"I have to leave as early as possible together with my three sisters, because our school is rather distant from the village. We have to wait for the morning bus that takes us to school without a hurry and in time."
"We have a good breakfast [...] hot chocolate. I don't know what is in it, but it is the only thing that can keep me awake and give me the necessary strength to get to school with energy to study."
"At the village, I like everything. I think my mother does an excellent job, apart from the love she is giving us, which is very important for all of us. She wants us all to be fine and she always tells us that we should make the most out of the opportunity given to us by SOS Children's Villages ... a family, education, nourishment. The only thing I would like to change, though, if I could, is the time to get up. I definitely don't like to get up early."